Everything ordered.....thought you would enjoy this car bit

[jchrestman]

Duane,
This guy is a character. Much could be said of him.....good and bad depending on your political/finance/economic disposition. This is about cars (mostly). It's a fun read.

http://www.caseyresearch.com/displayCwc.php?id=14

Enjoy.

Regards,
John

[drcollie]

Oh man, he's into Corvettes! I've had three of those (long time ago) and three Porsche 911's. I'll take the Porsches.....in fact, I really would like another one (2006 or newer, C2S Cabrio if you see one for cheap), or a GT3 RS in black. Yowwzahhh!

[jchrestman]

The founder of Tesla, the all electric car, was on. Made his nut founding Paypal with 2 other buddies while in college or shortly after. Sold out to I believe Ebay in '02 and started Tesla. He has also started a space company (SpaceX, like the name?). The orbital kind. They have already put rockets up in orbit (not the sub-orbital stuff like the 'Virgin' dude is promoting). In fact I think the company just received about half a billion from the government to continue work on a vehicle to service the international space station starting in 3 or 4 years. The guy is a trip. Oh, by the way, the Tesla smokes the Porche 0-60. You pretty much need to go way up in price to beat it in that 0-60 stat. They're ONLY just over a hundred grand. They have a sedan coming out in a couple of years that will be in the fifty grand range and have partnered up with Daimler to help develop an all electric car for Daimler. Body of the roadster is made by Lotus in Britain and then the engine, battery pack, and drive system are installed in California.....Silicon Valley I think. Check out their site....the car looks pretty bitchin'.

http://www.teslamotors.com/

This is the link to the Charlie Rose interview with Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX guy:

http://www.charlierose.com/view/content/10550

Regards,
John

[drcollie]

Hey John,

There was a Telsa available for test drives at the track (Virginia International Raceway) couple of months ago. I was going to go down and instruct for the driver's school there, but couldn't get away for the weekend. Couple of my buddies got to drive it for some hot laps and just couldn't get over how quiet it was. It just whirrsssss........

At $ 100K + its in novelty territory. I could buy an Ariel Atom and a Lotus Elise for the price of one Telsa. Plus, the other cars make good vroommm-vrooom noises.

[jchrestman]

Duane,
Neat dune buggy . Pretty slick but admittedly coming from SoCal been seeing 'cruder' versions for over 45 years....they actually handle Baja and the dunes . Lotus for msrp of 43G.....can't be too much vroooom vrooooom . Then again I am not a car guy and I respect and appreciate your background, knowledge, and experience.
Regards,
John

[drcollie]

My problem is I can't fit in a Lotus. I mean, I can get in there, but I'd have to be winched out after a track session and then get an intravenous drip of Advil for the next hour. Ahhhh....but they drive so sweet. While the engine power is not that much, they don't weight much, either. Its all power to weight for go-fast thrills.

A few years back I was instructing for Mercedes Benz as part of their "AMG Driving Experience" which is a school they put on for their best AMG customers. They brought two dozen new AMG model Mercedes to the track for us to use, and I loved being able to drive the wheee out of those cars in total comfort. One could actually disembark from them without having to crawl over the door sill. Made my Porsche Carrera 4S that I owned back then seen crude by comparison.

Guess I'm getting old.....

[jchrestman]

Duane,
I'm sure you figured real quick I don't know squat about cars, but I have become fascinated by your ability to create a successful business, have a family that actually appears to have a big piece of your heart and time, ride motor cycles in your spare time, instruct drivers in high performance autos, to probably have competed at some level in some form of racing, own numerous Porches with numbers/names that mean diddly-squat to me and Corvettes and I don't know what else, and answer all the meaningful and meaningless (like this one) emails/messages in a timely and thoughtful and knowledgeable manner, oh yeah, and survive stage IV Cancer. Gettin' older and not fittin' is for someone else to worry about.

Congratulations, Buddy!

Regards,
John