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Tesla next-gen Roadster test driver: ‘Elon’s specs are conservative, it’s going to be a proper weapon’

Emile Bouret is amongst a rare group of people who had the chance to drive the Tesla next-generation Roadster.

Today, he tentatively shared a few details about his experience with the vehicle.

Bouret has been a pro-driver, test driver, car show presenter, and a car designer.

He did many driving events for Audi as the main driving instructor of the Audi Sports Car Experience, but he has also worked as a test driver to give his input on many development vehicles, including some of Tesla’s vehicles – a gig he got through his friendship with Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen.

Most recently, he had a chance to test Tesla’s next-generation Roadster and give the test rides to Tesla owners at the launch event last November.

In an interview with the YouTube channel VINWiki, Bouret briefly commented about his experience working with Tesla and especially working on the new Roadster:

The driver said that he couldn’t give any detail about the vehicle since he already got in trouble for posting an Instagram video of the car in testing, but he did confirm that the insane specs announced at the event were not estimates but actual numbers that they hit during tests.

He said:

I know there is some skepticism about the figures that were quoted that day, 0 to 60 mph, quarter-mile, etc., and I think I can say without getting in trouble that those are actual figures. Those are not theoretical. Those are not calculations. We have done those numbers. I probably shouldn’t say but those numbers are actually conservatives. It’s going to be a proper weapon.

When unveiling the car, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the new Roadster is equipped with a 200 kWh battery pack. The energy capacity is enough to travel over 620 miles on a single charge, according to Tesla.

He added that the battery pack powers three electric motors unleashing enough power to achieve a 0 to 60 mph time of 1.9 seconds – the quickest of any production car ever.

It also translates to a 0 to 100 mph time of 4.2 seconds, a quarter-mile in just 8.9 seconds, and a record-breaking 250+ mph top speed.

As Bouret mentioned, there’s some skepticism around those specs since it would basically crush any supercar out there today.

As we reported yesterday, Lamborghini thinks Tesla is bluffing with the Roadster specs as it doesn’t see current battery tech enabling supercar performance.

But Musk wants to push the vehicle even further.

Following the launch, the CEO said that the production version might feature even better specs and recently, he even announced a SpaceX package that will add cold air thrusters to the Roadster in order to increase performance.

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Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

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