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I'll have whatever Brian H is having. What are those, 'shrooms?

I'm pretty sure, in fact, that Elon said the opposite. That they would focus on delivering the first customer orders on time, and so wouldn't produce a bunch of vehicles early for the purpose of reviews etc.

I actually looked at the paint samples for the S at the Menlo store a few weekends ago. Took them outside to see in the sun, and settled on pearl white or blue (ie. I did not settle on either and am still undecided).

Not for reviewers, for purchaser/potential purchaser test drives. I think Elon/TM want to present the reviewers with a fait accompli, pretty much. After all, they have no need of positive reviews to get the first 10,000 cars out the door and onto the roads; that's already a given!

I was at Santana Row today. Michael, the Tesla rep said that the mileage ranges in the specs are for the 19" wheels. The 21" wil be about 5% less because of the wider tread- more road contact.

jackhub - I don't understand. It seems to me that the total contact patch must be the same for any tires since the supported weight is the same and presumedly the sidewalls support negligable weight.

This thread reminds me of something I wanted to pass on to the community: I was at the DC store last weekend to see the Model S powertrain display. Very cool. So neat to be able to walk right up and spin a tire.

The sales rep told me a few interesting things:

1) the air suspension will be able to raise the car to 8" clearance, and lower the car to 4" clearance. The 8" is news to me. Will that be enough to clear your driveway, Timo? :)

2) a pearl white Model S beta will be in the DC store from this Sunday through next Sunday (3/4-3/11). I'll be there probably Saturday, the 10th, as soon as they open (10am, I think).

Tire contact varies with the width of the tire. Consider a bicycle tire instead of the 21"!!
The whole point of the wider tire is more contact and better grip.

8-inches, maximum height... that's not bad.

A Toyota 4Runner only has 9-inches!
http://www.toyota.com/4runner/specs.html#tab=dimensions

That means the Model S should have plenty of Ground Clearance!!!

I'd like to see the official word on this 8-inch maximum clearance for Air Suspension.

Tom A,
4 inches is pretty low. That would look really cool on the freeway.. I read 5.2" would be as low as it would go though.

@sofler... The tan interior is a very light tan on the sample at the factory event. On the club forum a large number have been advocating a "saddle" color leather option.

@William13: Thx, that's what I was afraid of. I'm one of those who have been in favor of saddle. We'll see if TM responds, but it doesn't look good.

I've given up hope on factory-installed saddle leather for my P1635. One useful thing I've learned from you all is that there are good after-market alternatives to customize the interior. I'll probably live with the tan ("Mojave") for a year or so and then decide whether to rip it out and put in something darker. (That will also let my finances rebound from the purchase cost!)

@R.B: That's going to be my strategy as well. I'll probably configure black leather, and after a year or two (or sooner if it's unbearably hot in summer), I'll rip it out and install saddle. If however, TM makes the serious mistake of not providing a center console (CC) or a CC option (I'm cautiously hopeful on that), I'll have one fabricated to my design within a month of buying the car.

@sofl: Lacking a factory CC option, I think there will be many of us looking for creative designs to fill that void. I'll rely on people like you and will happily pay the person with the best design for my needs.

Re: Air suspension maximum height... There has been a letter by Tesla's Walter Franck (Ownership Experience Advocate) dated Nov 2011 quoted at TMC:
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/7338-Responses-to-NAIAS-qu...

There it says:

Dynamics on how the active air suspense will handle when corning is to be announced, but I can expand upon the height levels. Manual Adjustments are as follows:

• Normal height = 6”
• High Level 1 = 0.90” taller; When the vehicle accelerates above 19 mph, the clearance adjusts back to Normal height.
• High level 2 = 1.3” above Standard and can be used for ascending a steep driveway or fording deep snow. Clearance reverts to High Level 1 above 10 mph.
• Low Level = 0.79” under Standard; Active Air Suspension will automatically lower the vehicle for highway driving to improve aerodynamics. Low Level is also accessible from the touchscreen for loading/unloading of passengers. When the vehicle begins driving the clearance adjusts back to Normal height.
• The suspension will also self-level the car. For example if you load a lot of weight in the trunk the vehicle will remain level.

This totals a maximum clearance of 7.3". Given the accuracy of the numbers quoted, I give them more credibility than the purported 8" number -- but that's close enough, probably not a huge difference in practice.

@Volker.Berlin
We got a lot of mileage out of Mr. Franck's responses that day.

Maybe I should start assembling another list to bide the time as we get anxious about July.

My question is how much is lowering the car by .79" predicted to affect range?

p2576

After that release with the specific heights, it does seem strange that they would just change it, over such a short period of time, to 4" and 8" clearances. I just passed along what the rep at the DC store said, just to see if anyone had come across the same information.

Didn't Elon mention something like a "water card" in an investors meeting when asked how he would deal with the model x stealing some of the model s reservations? It might have that effect on me anyway. I prefer the clearance and awd option the x has but do not want to wait 2 years. Maybe 8 inches would help me rationalize going through with the s reservation instead of deciding to wait for the X. FYI the mud and ruts are beginning to get deep on VT dirt roads.

mvbf, the "river card" was mentioned wrt to upgraded battery tech for Model S/X. Like, when there will be batteries for GenIII that cost half as much as the Model S' battery costs today, can't we have a Model S battery with twice the range at the same price? That was pretty much the question from an analyst, which Elon evaded with the Texas Hold 'em comment.

Can't see that such batteries would hurt TM much to "patch" into the S/X replacement streams. After all, it's their cost which would have dropped enough to sell equivalent capacity for ½ the old price in the GenIII. Depends how much, if any, substantive re-engineering would be required within the "skateboard" form factor. Or how flexible the PEM firmware options are. Or ...

IAC, with the upgrades coming down the battery research pipelines, TM has a tiger by the tail, and can't/mustn't let go. It may be, tho', they're hoping the cap/price improvements stay at a nice, sedate 8%/annum for some time. If they stay, instead, at the 17%/annum of the last two years, or even accelerate, that "river card" will have to be exploited as best they can.

@Tom A: I'm sure you were told 4" to 8" variation from the air suspension, but I'm going to go with the more limited range provided in writing from Tesla. In part, it's not credible that the vehicle can sink 2" -- there simply isn't enough clearance in the wheel wells.

Picked this up from the Tesla Motors Club forum:

IT'S MODEL S WEEKEND AT TESLA SANTANA ROW

Join us March 17th & 18th as we bring together all four Model S Signature colors for the very first time. To celebrate, Tesla Santana Row will unveil our new Model S Design Studio, so bring a friend to help design your Model S.

Not only is this a historic moment for Tesla Santana Row, but it's a HUGE milestone for the Tesla Factory. The Signature paint lines are up and running! Our robots are hard at work painting more Betas and perfecting the process before production starts.

Deliveries are just around the corner and we can't wait to share the excitement with you. Stop by anytime. You won't want to miss this event - and there might even be a few extra surprises!

Where:

Tesla Santana Row
333 Santana Row, Suite 1035
San Jose, CA 95128

When:

Saturday, March 17th 10am - 9pm
Sunday, March 18th 11am - 7pm

Tesla Motors

So will they have 4 Sigs there, all different colors? Or one car painted in stripes? Or chips?
;)

I stopped by SR on Saturday to get as much info as I could.

There are 4 production ready S's that will be shown...they are trying to set them in front of the showroom but some may end up out back by charging station. These cars will have various interior packages and exterior finishes (paints, wheels, roofing(?), etc.).

At the same time, the showroom will be revamped to include full Design Studio update, interior and exterior finishing samples, etc.

I also got the very strong response that production was still "very much on schedule"! Apparently, all of the secrecy and such has been Elon's way of building excitement!

Not sure how many of us will be there this weekend but I, for one, certainly will be and will post photos ASAP. If there are specific aspects of the vehicle you want to see. Please post request to this thread.

cheers,

jd3
sig 692

@jd3tm: As others have requested, puleeze take pics and post 'em. Particularly interiors. Thx!

I'll be there!

Please take videos and post them on either YOUTUBE or VIMEO. Thank you in advance.

Regarding staying on schedule: According to my source in the Bellevue store, the founders list have already been contacted for their final configurations, and the signature list should be contacted "soon, if they haven't already."