No School like the Old School Vol II

Nürburgring "Youngtimers-Trophy" 2007

Rare Vintage

Ralph Lauren is a mega successful fashion industry icon but he is also one of the world's major car collectors, his taste in mechanical art as impeccable as his Purple Label suits. The man owns a Bugatti Atlantique and a brace of Mclaren F1s including an LM...and that's not even getting into the Ferraris, need one say more?

So set up your DVR's to record this new show on Discovery tomorrow at 8PM. Looks pornographically good.

To complete the Car/Fashion connection, I was alerted to this show by my very patient wife. She owns a fantastic vintage clothing boutique called RARE VINTAGE and if any of you track rats need to be seriously forgiven by your better half, I suggest you take a good look at her awesome collection. She will have to say yes!

Electric Boogaloo, the Axis views the Tesla up close.

Adil writes:
It is an Electric Lotus Elise weighing 2500 lbs, with 240 ft/lbs of Torque available from 0 RPM. The car is built by Lotus although the Tesla marketers claim that it only shares 15% of the Elise's parts.

It looks good, and very familiar to any Elise owners looking at the pictures. It is also completely silent as evidenced by the movie. At the tail end of the short clip you can see the tach briefly 1/3 of the way up. The woman revved the engine but no one could here it above the conversation.

Given the instantaneous torque, it is supposed to go 0-60 in 4 seconds. 35 People who have put down deposits on the car test drove it in New York's West Village last Friday, at an event hosted by The Classic Car Club. The Club is going to buy one for its members. The cost of running it is 1 cent per mile. The car costs 90k and should be available in the fall of 2007.

AC adds:
I'm not automatically against alternate fuel cars but a sports car has to be FUN TO DRIVE, and while I certainly had tons of fun in my life with slot cars I think SOUND IS a fundamental component of enjoyment. The Tesla's main sound components when driving will be tire and wind noise...not really what you want to hear. Maybe they should come up with an automotive version of putting cards against bicycle spokes.
Another issue from our twisted hyper enthusiast prospective: I'm skeptical their published specs would hold up when using the car as we usually do at the track and if their power consumption is linear. Worse, consider 200 miles with a 3.5 hours stop to charge means a trip from say NYC to Watkins Glen would take some 8 to 9 hours?