Search results for: tesla
2011 Winding Road Involvement Index Awards
Involvement matters. That’s the heart of the sermon we’ve been preaching for the last six years now. To drive fast is fun, to go around a corner neatly is admirable, to be luxurious is lovely; but to do all of those things and more in a way that enhances the driver/machine relationship is special indeed. When we first started Winding Road, we made it clear that we wanted to have a conversation with readers about the vehicles that we found to be exciting, not because they measured well, but because they inveigled many of our senses most of the time we were driving.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX To Launch World’s Most Powerful Rocket
Elon Musk isn’t just about building sporty electric cars; his company SpaceX, of which Musk is CEO and chief rocket designer, has announced a launch date (more of a range of dates, from what we gather from the press release) for the world’s most powerful rocket, called Falcon Heavy.
Driven: 2012 Fisker Karma
Soon after this hotly anticipated first drive of the 2012 Fisker Karma at the infield handling circuit of California Speedway, we met up with Fisker Automotive principals Henrik Fisker and Bernhard Koehler on the floor at the recent Geneva Motor Show. They had various overseas publications opened to articles of their car strewn across a couple of back office coffee tables at their stand.
Elon Musk’s Other Car Really Flies: SpaceX Launch Successful
This week, Elon Musk’s SpaceX company became the very first commercial company to send a spacecraft into low-Earth orbit, and have it successfully re-enter the atmosphere. After NASA’s Space Shuttle retires from service in 2011, SpaceX hopes to have a launch program in place with which to service the international space station.
Driven: 2010 Year In Review(s)
It’s getting to be that time of year again—the holiday season is upon us, snowy weather is well and truly on its way, and another calendar is due to be replaced. A time to take stock of the year that’s passed, and look forward to the new one at hand, and all that.
Driven: 2011 Nissan Leaf
Thanks to being the first mass market, fully electric vehicle, the Nissan Leaf is a fascinating car. Fascinating because it gives us one glimpse of the future, a look at the look, the feel and the intent of the cars many people will be buying in the second half of this decade. The Leaf also raises the question, “Might you want to jump on this train to the future now, or hold off as long as you can?”
Blog: Three Stories With The Chevy Volt
Chevrolet is touring the country with the Volt, inviting journalists to drive the car in an autocross environment (something about it “not being good for prototypes to be seen on real roads”). Naturally, when the tour came to Austin, I went over to a local mall to pilot the Volt and ponder its future.
Driven: 2011 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive
Globally and for every year since its inception, Smart has been a major bust in every business-case sense apart from spot markets like Italy, some southern German cities, London, and some Japanese cities. 2008 was a boom year for the brand in North America and the US was suddenly a top market with over 24,000 customer sales. Then 2009 hit and smashed the Smart sales charts to bits at just roughly 14,500 sales.
Driven: 2011 Honda CR-Z
For about a year now, we’ve been trying our best to rationalize the intersection of cars that are both environmentally responsible (insofar as they consume fewer resources over their life spans) and genuinely fun to drive. We call this intersection Greenformance, and you’ve probably read at least one or two of Tom Martin’s columns on the concept’s finer points here in the pages of Winding Road, too. With the auto industry just now starting to produce some of the vehicles that were first conceived of in the sweaty-palmed days of $145-per-barrel oil and $4-plus gasoline, there are more chances than ever before for cars that can hit the Greenformance sweet spot.
Smart Fortwo Electric Drive Gets Greenlight For North America
Smart has announced that its all-electric Fortwo will be available in North America this Fall. It has been on sale in Europe since November of 2009. The 30 kilowatt electric motor provides 88.5 pound-feet of torque. The Fortwo can be charged at any standard socket, which should make recharging a fairly straightforward affair.
Three Telsa Employees Dead In Small Plane Crash
We at Winding Road would like to extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those onboard, as well as to Tesla employees.
Winding Road Issue 54 Is Now Available!
As we reflect on the past year, it’s hard not to think about the best cars we tested over the last twelve months. We feature our Top 12 Cars of 2009 in Issue 54 of Winding Road, which is now available to read online, or you can buy and download a PDF.
New Electric Smart ForTwo Begins Deliveries In Berlin
The first new Smart ForTwo EV was delivered to a customer in Germany. It will also become available to Italy, Spain, England, France, Switzerland, U.S., and Canada.
Driven: 2009 Mini E
Back in early November, we drove the all-new BMW 550i Gran Turismo around the hilly, tree-lined roads of northern New Jersey and southern New York. While we were out on the United States’ eastern seaboard, the good people of BMW brought along a slew of other cars for us to test, including the all-electric Mini E. We’ve driven (and loved) the full range of gasoline and diesel-powered Minis, but would our affection stand true to the battery-powered E?
First Look: 2011 Nissan Leaf EV
Nissan unveiled its all-new electric vehicle called the Leaf yesterday, which is to be launched in Japan, Europe, and the U.S. in late 2010.
Blog: Chevrolet Volt—Enthusiast Driver’s Car?
Reading the comments on our Tesla drive, and about the Volt’s roughly $32,500 pricing (after subtracting the $7500 federal incentive), got me to thinking that we may misunderstand the Volt and other battery-powered cars. I haven’t driven the Volt, so only time will tell, but here’s the logic.
Blog: Getting Environmental Policy Right
’ve said that the domestic automakers will emerge from their recent financial difficulties in better shape than in recent memory. My point in that blog was that the so-called bailout of the Detroit Three is the news, but it isn’t the key issue. The Detroit Three will restructure and emerge in decent shape.
I’ve also said we should care about what happens after that point. That’s because if there’s one lesson from the problems of the automakers it should be that apparently simple decisions often have lasting negative consequences. What we are deciding now are the policies for 7-20 years from now regarding fuel usage.
Winding Road’s Top Twelve Cars Of 2009
Over the past twelve months we’ve driven or reviewed (and often both) something on the order of 250 vehicles. Be it on some far-flung and usually stunning road served up by an automaker for a new car launch, or on the slightly more humble highways and byways that surround our Michigan and Texas offices, we’ve had a fair taste of what was on offer in the automotive universe during 2009. We figure the very least we can do is to tell you which ones we liked best.
