how hard can it be to not run over large objects?

[dnmun]

it's like you just don't get it.

there is nothing wrong with the ride height on the tesla, there is nothing wrong with the battery pack being underneath on the tesla, there is no major fire or hazard risk because of the supposed 'low clearance' of the tesla and safety is not improved by raising the ride height to the same height as the fat cars.

there is nothing wrong with it, it is the american automobile manufacturing bulldozer acting through ntsa to harass elon for leaving them in the lurch with no respectable vehicle as an alternative to the person who wants what elon is selling. they don't want what washington and detroit is selling. they want the tesla they liked, not the SUV tesla.

 

[Punx0r]

Dauntless, you clearly have much more experience with high performance driving than me

From your description it sound like you're slightly unsettling the rear of the car in a controlled manner to your advantage. My limited tuition on the road and track focused on (understandably) maximum stability through the corner. So braking and gearchange done before the turn in and "drive through" the corner. My experience of late braking into a corner is that it upsets the car in an uncontrolled manner and leads to scariness and new underpants. As I said, I'm not exactly a pro

 

[friendly1uk]

Balance before the apex, and don't apply till your taking the lock off. Looks like fwd to me. Dogman could apply much earlier. Even before the apex. His application of power won't lead directly to less grip at one end. It can help him hold his line. I drive rwd, and will use a little power earlier to keep the rear planted as my front end is well behaved.

Many things effect this, from camber to vehicle specifics. You don't really know till your there.

 

[Dauntless]

this thread started when i expressed disbelief that the feds would be using the low clearance to harass elon because they are biased towards the fat high clearance 4 wheel drive SUV type cars already, because of the US market preferences for fat cars.

Oh, go right on disbelieving that. These other vehicles that don't have to do this to don't burst into flames, that's the issue. Give the Tesla a battery that doesn't burn and so much for intrusion plates. (My racing influence continues to show.)

The Corvair 'Controversy' prompted VW to add an antisway bar. The Corvair had one added during the design phase then removed before it went into production, but it was always available as an oem accessory even if nobody realized it. It was concluded that the Corvair DID NOT have extrordinary issues even before the sway bar was added to the '64 version. Promotion of the idea there was a problem was traced to Ford and Chrysler. Including a film that 'Showed' a Falcon getting through corners without a problem on a test track while a following Corvair would spin in the same way in the same place every single time, including the drivers' bizarre arm movements which were confirmed as the real reason the car was spinning. The background imagery of the test track was identified as being at Ford's test track rather than the location originally claimed.

But you see I grew up in a 'Car' family, my father was the Scoring Marshall for racing in Southern California, such as the California 500, Long Beach Grand Prix, Riverside, etc. (He was there when James Dean won in a Porsche Speedster.) I got to work the races in grade school, which was a good thing because my father died before I was finished with school and I wouldn't have gotten to be with him otherwise.

But as Mario Andretti said, if you feel you're fully in control you're not trying hard enough. In 1972 he joined the Vel's Parnelli 'Superteam' that had the last three Indycar Champions at the last three Indy 500 winners, himself having won both in 1969. He liked what people might call the 'Balanced handling.' I think he His teammate Joe Leonard successfully defended his Championship for his second straight, he liked the oversteering car, so either the car was set up to oversteer and he didn't trail brake, or it was set up like Andretti's and he madly trail braked. The other teammate Al Unser started the year coming off back to back Indy wins and a 1970 championship, he preferred understeer, so either he didn't trail brake and let it understeer or he liked the understeer so he COULD trail brake. You feel like you learn so much, but in fact it makes you think of what you DON'T know.

 

[meanunclebob]

Last fall I saw two men on mobility scooters/electric wheelchairs almost get run over by two different pickumup trucks on two separate occaisions within two weeks. They were both good sized guys and in one case the truck was making a left turn so was looking right at the guy while they both waited to cross the street. If people can't see a three hundred pound guy on a rather large mobility scooter until the last moment I guess it's not all that surprising they are running over chunks of crap on the road.