LEAD, FOLLOW, OR GET OUT OF THE WAY
The Tesla Roadster features a 65 kWh lithium-ion battery pack capable of 244 miles of range, a 248 hp 3-phase 4-pole AC induction motor, and a single speed BorgWarner fixed gear transmission. 273 lb-ft of torque, 125 mph top speed, and 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds. The Roadster Sport boasts 15 percent more peak power and 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds.
total Roadsters produced by December 2011, after which the Roadster was discontinued, the step up to mass production this year will be a tall order. DRIVEN One cannot dwell on Tesla Motors for too long without considering its serialentrepreneur, visionary co-founder Elon Musk. The 40-year-old’s rapidly paced life story reads like one of the comic books he nerded out to growing up in South Africa. In fact, this real-life super genius/business tycoon supposedly served as inspiration for the version of Tony Stark played by Robert
Downey Jr. in the Iron Man movies. Profoundly precocious as a child, Musk outpaced his computer programming instructors and sold his first video game at the age of 12, all the while dreaming of extricating himself from his home before having to serve in the military that backed the institutionalized racism of Apartheid, which he and his brothers ardently opposed. By 17, the wunderkind made his way to Canada and eventually landed at Stanford University. As a student, Musk generally skipped classes, read the text books, and showed up to ace the exams, but he preoccupied his real
mental faculties with the future. Musk determined for himself in college that three areas of technology would most affect the human race: the Internet, transitioning to sustainable energy and transportation, and space exploration, including off-planet human colonization. Wasting no time, Musk founded Zip2 during the infancy of the Internet with his brother Kimbal. While the online publishing software for news media may seem primitive now, it sold to AltaVista in 1999 for more than $300 million. Taking nary a rest, Musk then boot-
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