Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative, Green
Orange you glad Jason Calacanis let us drive his Tesla Roadster?
by John Neff on Nov 24th 2008 at 3:31PM 
Click above for high-res image gallery of Jason's Tesla Roadster
For those who don't know Jason Calacanis, he is an original co-founder of Weblogs, Inc. As such, he is also an original founder of Autoblog and AutoblogGreen, and though his tastes lie more towards the tech side of things, he always took in interest in cars. It's no surprise then that after moving on from Weblogs, Inc. and AOL to his newest project, the human-powered search engine called Mahalo, Jason put in one of the very first orders for a Tesla Roadster. That was many, many months ago, and about a week and a half ago, his car was finally delivered.
AutoblogGreen graciously accepted Jason's invitation to swing by Mahalo's offices in Santa Monica to catch up on old times and take the Tesla out for a spin. Jason's is one of the first Roadsters with the new v1.5 drivetrain installed, and as ABG points out, he was much more willing than most owners of a six-figure car to let us drive it. A week later we had our own Drew Phillips meet up with Jason and his Roadster to do a proper SoCal photoshoot of the car. We absolutely love this car's paint job, which is a premium option called Very Orange with matching interior accents. Check out the full photoshoot in our high-res gallery below and ABG's video of the reunion with our founder by clicking here.
Gallery: Jason Calacanis' Tesla Roadster
[Source: AutoblogGreen]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
masarak 3:45PM (11/24/2008)
The photographer deserves a nice Christmas bonus.
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happy_penguin 4:02PM (11/24/2008)
Yes. While I've never been a fan of "competition orange", the photographer's artistic sense really captures the beauty of the color. Beautiful car, lovely pics!
Lotus Elise Blog 9:01AM (11/25/2008)
I think the Tesla Roadster is going to be in the same boat as the Lotus Elise in that it can really pull off bright colors. I think the "Very Orange" looks just as good on this as it does on my friend's "Chrome Orange" Lotus Elise.
http://www.lotuseliseblog.com/2006/10/touring-brown-county-indiana-in-lotus.html
Nicholas 4:10PM (11/24/2008)
Why does a Tesla have brakes?
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happy_penguin 4:22PM (11/24/2008)
Ummmm.... the same reason any car has brakes?
Kardax 4:22PM (11/24/2008)
It needs brakes so it doesn't drain the batteries while stopped on a hill.
happy_penguin 4:25PM (11/24/2008)
It needs brakes to bring it to a halt. Regenerative braking isn't going to do that.
Nicholas 4:28PM (11/24/2008)
Okay, so then why not just simply have a single disc on the motor shaft?
happy_penguin 4:38PM (11/24/2008)
Braking forces are not equal at each end. And with anti lock braking, braking forces differ at each wheel. It's a safety and performance issue. A single brake would not be safe and would not perform well.
Chris Riccio 4:41PM (11/24/2008)
"Okay, so then why not just simply have a single disc on the motor shaft?"
For the same reason no cars do... Horrible braking ability? This is still a normal car btw, just with a different type of motor, the rest is all the same. I don't understand what you are getting at.
happy_penguin 4:45PM (11/24/2008)
His point? I believe that Nicolas believes that regenerative braking eliminates the need for standard brakes. It does not.
Nicholas 4:55PM (11/24/2008)
Okay, I understand the reason for not having no brakes whatsoever, but why require two on the rear axle? I assume it is because the differential will make the braking performance dangerously undistributed? Why are they out board on the Tesla? The 300 SLR had in board brakes to reduce unsprung weight?
happy_penguin 5:06PM (11/24/2008)
If you only have one brake in the back, that brake has to do twice the work. Why not inboard? I don't know other than to say that's a very uncommon practice. Mount them in or mount them out, you still need a brake for each wheel for ABS.
Judy Zik 4:20PM (11/24/2008)
Where has that Photographer been hiding all this time? Please use him more often. Especially for the coverage at your next autoshow.
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Metar 4:41PM (11/24/2008)
An option by the name of "Very Orange"? That is just epic.
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Dylan 4:43PM (11/24/2008)
I am guessing Ken just got fired. If you don't like obsessive coverage of cool cars don't waist your time autoblog
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Zach 4:47PM (11/24/2008)
Tell us how you really feel. Sounds like some personal issues with you two.
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Stanton 5:01PM (11/24/2008)
Holy panel gaps, Batman!
Or do they just look exaggerated because of the colour?
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Travis 5:07PM (11/24/2008)
is the "One on the floor" *really* necessary?
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fnc 5:34PM (11/24/2008)
The pics of the orange car with the iconic SoCal sunset are incredibly nice. Major props to the photographer.
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