Tesla Death Watch 3: Matt Damon Test Drives a Tesla
Steve Levy, over at Autofiends.com, has encountered the Tesla in person in Los Angeles. The lithium-ion -powered sports car was driven by none other than your sister's favorite actor, Matt Damon (who does a killer Matthew McConaughey impression). Levy spoke with Damon, who claimed the car was still a prototype. Damon said the off-the-line acceleration sucks, but the 30 – 60 acceleration is like light speed. Range? Unknown. Recharge time? Unknown? Is Damon going to buy one? Well, of course. But is it even on sale yet? That's hard to say. But if even Damon gets an unfinished prototype to tool around in, it's not sounding good for Tesla. So was the end of the Tesla Birthwatch premature? It seems like it might have been. Then again, this is a functional (mostly) prototype. You know what the take away lesson here is? Even Matt Damon, with all his money, has questionable taste in cars.
Immensely bored law student. I've also got 3 dogs.
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Nice color - baby shit blue.
David Dennis, You got that all mixed up. The car that Matt Damon was driving is VP16 (Validation Prototype #16). It is being used at the LA store for test drives. P4 (silver with black and red seats) was shown in Monaco sans battery pack. The car that's been used for test drives in Europe is VP12 (black with brown seats). P2 aka VIN#3 (red with black and brown seats) was originally a VP (and was built after P1), but was re-designated a production car and delivered to a customer (rumored to be guy from eBay). This car was also used for test drives at the LA store open house. Martin's car is VIN#2 aka P3, hence this controversy. The car has a custom paint job. Martin says he thinks it's possible he'll get his car "in the next week or so." You can see pics of most of the Validation Prototypes here, and the Production models here.
WorldPress seems to have eaten my last comment. Maybe it had too many links??
I stand corrected, and thanks for setting the record straight. I'm definitely looking forward to hearing about Martin's new car. It is, to say the least, way overdue. I'm afraid Martin will always be Tesla for me ... I'd like to like his successor, if nothing else because he did put in the big bucks to get this dream going, but alas, I don't :-(. D