Road & Track Livestreams A Test Drive Of The P5. And The Fender Falls Off... :(

[pistonboy]

Road and Track guys are not B team drivers, nor to they have to remember how to drive a stick shift. Come on guys, they're car testing pros. Each car varies a bit, and it takes a few starts to get down what that particular car wants, but basically -- about a 1 minute learning curve.

In 1969 I once got to drive a fully race-prepped but (theoretically) roadable car -- a monster Chevy from back int he day -- I could barely operate the clutch, it was so stiff, and you REALLY had to give it some gas -- so of course it grabbed (it was supposed to) -- frankly, it scared the crap out of me -- but once launched, it was a bullet! About as non-Elio a car as one can imagine, and way too much work to be fun on the road.

Good point. Race cars are not fun on the road.

 

[outsydthebox]

Road and Track guys are not B team drivers, nor to they have to remember how to drive a stick shift....
.

Yes, they are "pro's" but when was the last time they drove anything with only 55 hp?

 

[Elio Amazed]

Road and Track guys are not B team drivers, nor to they have to remember how to drive a stick shift. Come on guys, they're car testing pros. Each car varies a bit, and it takes a few starts to get down what that particular car wants, but basically -- about a 1 minute learning curve.

In 1969 I once got to drive a fully race-prepped but (theoretically) roadable car -- a monster Chevy from back int he day -- I could barely operate the clutch, it was so stiff, and you REALLY had to give it some gas -- so of course it grabbed (it was supposed to) -- frankly, it scared the crap out of me -- but once launched, it was a bullet! About as non-Elio a car as one can imagine, and way too much work to be fun on the road.

I stopped for directions @ a rural house in '72. The guy that answered the door asked if I'd be interested in trading the nicely modded out 350 Honda Scrambler I was riding. We went into the back yard and he started up a dingy '65 Ford Fairlane coupe. I immediately recognized the sound of a full race cam. He drove it outbound. I could not pull my head out of the headrest or get my hand more than a couple of inches away from the seat through all four gears. This thing laid rubber going into fourth. Didn't chirp. Laid. Couldn't make out much of the road either because everything was shaking.

I drove it back to the house and babied it up to 110mph with the guy urging me to get on it the whole way.
I didn't have any issue with the clutch, though like you, the thing scared the crap out of me.
When we got back the guy asked me about the trade and I respectfully declined.
To this day I still think he was kidding.

 

[Ekh]

Boy does that sound familiar!

 

[Trusting]

I just stumbled on the Road & Track video. After hearing what happened, I couldn't bring myself to watch it !

 

[Ty]

I just stumbled on the Road & Track video. After hearing what happened, I couldn't bring myself to watch it !

It wasn't all THAT bad. It's a prototype. These things happen. The driver was pretty quick to stop recording once the fender came off. You can actually see it get bounced right off in the video.

 

[CompTrex]

Coulda been worse...
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2016/08/16/video-captures-tesla-fire-in-france/

 

[pistonboy]

In the R&T video they said there are no side windows on either side of the driver.

In this picture of the E series, the white vehicle looks like it has a window in the driver's right side ("passenger" side).

The exhaust bulge looks like its corners are more square and less round.

 

[AriLea]

The exhaust bulge looks like its corners are more square and less round.

I just realized, I don't like the gas door hung above the tail-pipe exit hole. Someday, I'll likely remove the 'bulge', dress it up somehow and replace with a shorter stainless or chrome exhaust pipe.

If that's too expensive, I'll shorten the bulge 12-18in, re-glass it, chop the same out of the pipe clamp the end back on, or maybe get an off-the-shelf chrome tail-pipe extension.

 

[Coss]

In the R&T video they said there are no side windows on either side of the driver.

In this picture of the E series, the white vehicle looks like it has a window in the driver's right side ("passenger" side).

The exhaust bulge looks like its corners are more square and less round.

When he said no glass on either side he was talking about the door glass.
There is no functional roll up door glass on either side of the P5 so he had both "windows" down during the whole test drive.