Forgot about the simple fun, FSD, The Fastest

Last night after eating dinner I took my mTen3 out and drove over to the school for another evening ride, something I did last week on the Msuper.  The Mten3 is my most fun EUC because of it’s small size, powerful motor and incredible agility.  It is the easiest wheel I have to ride backwards, by far.  I just rolled around, first at the middle school where I saw two baseball games were winding up.  I then jumped into the Waterways development to explore before finally heading up the road a bit to the high school.

As I pulled into the lot I noticed the lights were on for their baseball field as well.  I headed back there to find another game, this time still in progress.  I decided to sit down and watch a few innings.  I can’t tell you the last time I watched a high school baseball game.  The visiting team had a big lead but their pitcher, who threw quite hard also evidently was pretty wild.  Through a combination of walks and wild pitches Palmetto Ridge scored 5 runs in the bottom of the sixth to get the score close, which is when I headed out.

As I sat there I of course thought back to my time playing baseball.  I remember the satisfying feeling I got when I struck batters out by simply throwing harder than they could swing their bat.  I remember hitting that home run that went into the creek and throwing a guy out at home from center field. Baseball provided me with so many memories, both good and bad that I will carry with me always.  It’s too bad my career path to the major leagues I dreamed about when I was 14-17 years old never came to fruition. So as I rode back to the truck without a video camera in sight I realized how fun the random exploration part of riding PEVs can be.  I really enjoyed myself last night and I hope to repeat the experience on a more regular basis.

Yesterday Katie became the proud new owner of the 2007 Prius.  Despite having over 226,000 miles on the odometer she was almost new car happy.  Not only does the Prius get more the 4x the mileage of her Ram truck, it will be a much more sensible vehicle to drive once the baby arrives next month.  Katie came to my office to do the title work which only took a few minutes.  After putting her new plate on the car I asked her if she wanted to drive the Prius home and I could take her truck after work.  She excitedly accepted my offer.

The drive home in her Ram was certainly different than the Prius.  It is a huge truck that sits even higher than my Tacoma.  It rattles, squeaks, and vibrates as you would expect a 14 year old Dodge to.  By the time I got home Cindy had already cleaned out the Prius for Katie, I had a bag of various items she collected from the car.  Some were still needed but many were not.

Yesterday I saw a video that Tesla posted recently of the full self driving experience.  This was not a CGI render of the process, this was an actual demo that was sped up for brevity.  At this point I have watched it three or four times.  THIS is what I paid the extra 5K for and I have absolutely no regrets in doing so.

Speaking of the Tesla, I realized yesterday  my new “base” Model 3 will actually be the fastest car I ever owned in my life.  I have owned cars I thought were fast dating back to my 71 Chevelle and 69 Firebird.  However when you compare that old muscle to present day it was actually quite slow.  Both of those cars would do 0-60 in maybe 6.5-7.5 seconds.  The Buick Skylark convertible I had was even slower with a 0-60 in the 8’s.  I also had my 1990 Probe GT which was turbocharged however even that “fast” car did 0-60 in 7.5 seconds and the salvage 88 Corvette I owned for six months was probably in the mid 6’s as well.

So I figured ok well I am sure my 2005 SSR with the Corvette LS2 motor is faster than the Model 3.  When I saw the SSR 0-60 was 5.6 seconds I was amazed, the Model 3 is still faster.  It’s 5.3 0-60 time will crush most of it’s gas powered siblings and a 140mph top speed is nothing to sneeze at, not that I would ever dare approach that.  When I decided to buy a Tesla it was all about tech and abandoning fossil fuel to power my commute.  The fact that it has neck snapping acceleration when needed is just an added bonus.

Today I will be meeting an electrician to have the NEMA 15-40 plug installed to charge the Tesla.  The company was referred to me by my buddy Matt who is friends with the owner and whom also just bought a Model 3 for himself.  I know Matt from my years with the running club and from working with him closely in the past on his big Thanksgiving run he organizes every year.  Well not only did he refer me to his friend for the install, he also made arrangements to pay for my install.  When he told me this I immediately rejected the extremely kind but unnecessary gesture but he told me it was already done.  I will need to come up with a way to repay his kindness in an equally stealth manner.