Crave

(Credit: Brabus)

Sure, whipping around the Hollywood Hills in your Tesla Roadster is going to be awesome when the supercar finally ships, but you want to stand out. That's why you hire a group like Brabus to pimp out your all-electric ride.

Its new Tesla package, rolled out at the Essen auto show in Germany, includes ground lights, new wheels and tires, a front-lip spoiler, and--our favorite part--sound effects. The Roadster, being all electric, is fairly quiet. The Bottrop, Germany-based Brabus seems to think we won't like that, so the package includes everything from a mimic of a race car engine to futuristic Star Trek-like settings referred to as "beam" and "warp."

The coolest high-tech car in the world just got that much cooler. No word on when Brabus will offer a commercial version of the package as an after-market treatment, but it can't be denied that the inclusion of audible as well as visual enhancements just raised the bar in the world of ride-pimpin'.

(Via Motor Authority)

Tesla Motors is an innovator in electric cars--and it's got a lot of lawsuits, too.

Earth2Tech has dug up a lawsuit filed by Magna on February 22, 2008 that alleges that the car company failed to pay Magna for transmission work it accomplished. The suit, filed in the Superior Court of San Mateo County, seeks $5.6 million in damages.

The Tesla Courtster

(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET Networks)

This should be an interesting one to watch. Magna no doubt will try to bring a lot of details to light behind the delays that Tesla faced in bringing its Tesla Roadster to market. Tesla, for its part, will also likely highlight the problems it had with Magna's transmissions. Transmission problems were at the heart of the lawsuit.

Ultimately, Tesla swapped transmission suppliers and is working on one of its own. The company also replaced its CEO.

News of the suit follows on the heels of a suit filed by Tesla against Fisker Automotive. Tesla claims that Hendrik Fisker, founder of the eponymous auto company, unlawfully took trade secrets and other intellectual property while performing some design work for Tesla.

The engineers at Tesla Motors have designed a new single-speed transmission for its sports car that will let it hit the promised zero to 60 mph in four seconds.

The transmission won't come out on the first Tesla Roadsters coming off the line, the company said in a press release. Those early production cars will have a two-speed transmission that will only let the car get to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds. Problems with the transmission were part of the reason the company delayed the cars from the middle of last year until now. Some modifications to the engine will be necessary to accommodate the transmission.

So when will the first Tesla Roadsters hit the street? Soon. Chairman Elon Musk gets his next week, said the company. Production of the Tesla Roadster is set to begin March 17, it added. However, the company didn't give exact delivery dates. Considering that the company sells the car directly, there may not be a huge delay.

(Credit: Triketec)

If you can't get your hands on an "Armchair Cruiser" (or don't have the guts), there's an alternative to pursue your Wild Hogs fantasy without excessive risk of bodily harm.

The "V2 Roadster" by Triketec is a tricycle on mega-steroids, turbocharged by a three-cylinder engine that can reach 92 horsepower with independent rear suspension. That may seem like a lot for a trike, but be aware that the V2 weighs 1,227 pounds, so it's not exactly something that can be hauled around on a bike rack.

Adding to its inconvenience is the price, which Autopia puts at just shy of $40,000. Still, if you're a wealthy retiree, imagine how much fun you can have terrorizing the golf course.

Tesla Motors CEO Martin Eberhard was in Los Angeles today to give members of the Motor Press Guild the story behind the making of its cars. For the past couple of years, the Bay Area-based company has gotten oodles of press coverage, much of it on the merits of its technology. But until this afternoon I wasn't entirely convinced. First, some background:

A year ago, I stood on Peter Hay hill at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach with a rather prominent car designer. Not too far in the distance, hordes of spectators gathered around a pair of sleek, sporty little roadsters.

As a gearhead, tech enthusiast, and former Silicon Valley resident, I'd already heard the buzz about the $100k electric sports car built on a Lotus Elise chassis. But it was the first time I'd seen the car in person, and I wasn't the only one who was staring. Those cars, parked in the lush grass near the Lodge, were stealing the show from much more powerful automotive heavyweights. Sure, the cars looked good. But could the company last? I'd seen too many dot-com sob stories in the 1990s to believe in fairy tales.

I asked the aforementioned designer what he thought of it all. He shrugged his shoulders and said he was sure some people would buy the roadster, but at the end of the day, electric cars were not practical, long-term solutions. Besides, he added, all those batteries would go into a landfill at some point, trading one environmental problem for another.

In the months that followed, I kept an eye on the media circus surrounding the small automotive startup, but remained skeptical about Tesla's ability to change the world.

Boy, was I wrong.

Here are some things I learned about the Tesla Roadster today:

• The car, while based on the Lotus Elise, was almost entirely redesigned for Tesla. Only the front end of the Elise chassis was kept in the retooling. So my racing buddies and I apologize for snickering when the car won the Gold International Design Excellence Award. Although, to be fair, the designer is Barney Hatt, principal designer for the Lotus Design Studio, so Lotus should still share some credit.
• The door sill in the Tesla Roadster was lowered considerably from that of the Elise, to make the car easier to get in and out of. To compensate for the height difference, the side rails had to be made much stiffer and stronger. Even though Tesla's version has lost that sitting-in-the-bathtub feeling, it's still fun to watch tall, middle-aged men struggle to extract themselves, one leg at a time, from the tiny cockpit. (Here's a hint, guys: Swing both of your legs over the sill at the same time, then push yourself out. I gave someone a demonstration in the parking lot after the meeting.)
• The Tesla has custom headlights. They're really expensive.
• The lithium ion battery pack used in the roadster is estimated to have a lifespan of about 100,000 miles. Not only that, Tesla has partnered with a recycling company that will shred and re-appropriate those battery components when they've given up the ghost. Eberhard also explained that a liquid cooling pack in the car keeps the batteries at room temperature for maximum performance (unlike the average laptop battery that only lasts a couple of years, thanks to its proximity to a scorching hot processor).
• The Tesla Roadster redlines at 13,500 RPM. Dyno testing took the engine up to 18,000 RPM. That's almost on par with Formula One cars. Bernie Ecclestone, are you paying attention?

So, I realize this stuff is hardly breaking news. With Tesla securing $45 million in Series D funding back in May, it's obvious that the Important People already had faith in this fledgling venture. I was just late to the party. I was quite pleased to discover that Tesla really is doing its best to make a positive contribution within the automotive industry.

One major problem still exists, however: How I'm going to afford one.

California dreaming in the 2007 Saturn Sky Red Line.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

While much of the county is suffering blizzards and ice storms, we counted our sunny stars today and hit the dry, open road for a first look at the 2007 Saturn Sky Red Line. Like the Pontiac Solstice, with which it shares its platform, the Sky soft-top roadster exudes bold body styling. Sleek lines, a bulging hood, and aggressively arched front fenders all give the Sky a mini-Batmobile character, an impression underlined by the fact that our tester came in onyx black (that's black to you and me).

Blue Sky thinking: the view of San Francisco with the top down

(Credit: CNET Networks)

As its name suggests, the Sky Red Line is a performance-tuned version of the regular Sky: in place of the 2.4-liter naturally aspirated engine on the garden-variety model, the Red Line gets a 2-liter turbo charged plant conjuring up a sensational 260 horsepower--enough to send us sideways a couple of times in spirited cornering. To complement the upgraded engine, the Sky Red Line comes with a couple of natty styling cues (hood vents and mesh grille inserts), as well as a list of standard performance features including: Bilstein monotube shocks, four-wheel disc brakes, four-wheel independent suspension, and Stabilitrak with competitive mode.

Our Sky Red Line tester also came with automatic transmission, a rather hefty $895 option. In general, we prefer our roadsters with manual shifters; however, we read that the Sky Red Line is actually quicker to 60mph with the automatic, and after our disappointing experience with the agricultural gearbox in the Solstice, we probably ended up with the best option. Cabin tech on the Sky is in short supply, although we did get the upgraded Monsoon Audio System, which gave us MP3 playback ability and a separate subwoofer. In the course of a one-hour drive around the streets of San Francisco, no fewer than four people complimented us on our car. When stopped in traffic at a stoplight, one guy asked us: "What do you do for work?" We told him: "This."

It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.