Tesla!

About a month ago an email went out from the office of a Lincoln "green friendly" senator, inquiring about the level of interest senators and staff would have in test driving a Tesla. A friend of his owns a couple and had graciously offered to let people take them for a spin in order to familiarize them with electric cars.

My "Yes please" was the second email they received in reply. :)

Me behind the wheel! 

I like cars. Not like, the nuts and bolts. Nor do I change my own oil. But I like knowing about cars and looking at pretty ones. I love watching Top Gear because (among other shenanigans) it showcases gorgeous cars that I will never be able to afford. My favorite classic muscle car is the 1969 Chevy Impala...yes, because of Supernatural (but details, lol). One of these days I'm going to come up with legitimate reason to ask my old boss if I can borrow one of his corvette. But until then, when I was presented with an opportunity to drive a Tesla Roadster (both pretty AND something I will never be able to afford), I jumped at the opportunity. :)

Last Friday I was contacted to finalize the details. They decided to have people buddy up, since they thought it would be more fun to have someone with you in the car while you were driving...which was when I realized they were originally just going to hand me the keys to the car and just say "have fun! Be back in a half an hour!" (omg!) I first paired up with a friend across the hall, but when he had to cancel last minute, I recruited Sam (hi Sam!) to drive with me. We had the choice of a sedan or the roadster sport...and I picked the roadster. :D

My test drive buddy, Sam!

It was a really cool experience. I don't know that I'd ever buy an electric car (even if they were affordable), but I'm glad I got to drive one. The mechanics are different from a regular car. It only had two gears...Drive and Reverse. There is no stick to change gears...there are just buttons you push for Park, Reverse, Neutral and Drive. When you're driving, it stays in one gear, so speeding up is somewhat smoother. It goes from 0-60 in 3.7 seconds...which Sam may or may not have tested when we were merging from the on-ramp onto I-80. :D

When we got back we were given a fact sheet about Teslas (including the Roadster Sport), with information about it...including the price tag. I'm glad I didn't know I was driving a $109,000 car before I got into it...it might have freaked me out a bit! I guess it's not worth $109,000 anymore, since it's a 2010 (with only 10,000 miles on it)...but still!

I do enjoy the random perks of my job! :D


~ Katie

Song of the day - while a lot of Maroon 5 has been popping up on my Pandora station today, Passenger's Let Her Go has been stuck in my head. Though Animals comes in close seconds. I do find the lyric video rather funny...in a "really?" kind of way. :)