I think it would be really fun to have a sports car. A startup company called Tesla has just invented my dream car: The Tesla Roadster.

It’s very pretty, as any performance sports car should be…

And it accelerates from 0-60 in under 4 seconds. That’s even faster than the acceleration of the Bentley Continental that I rode in last November. Reportedly, the Tesla accelerates so quickly that if you floor it, it becomes impossible for the person in the passenger seat to lean forward enough to adjust the radio. (This could be very handy for some negatron couples who disagree about music choices.)

But wouldn’t it be awfully expensive to fuel this thing? I mean, the Bentley gets about 5-8 miles per gallon. That gas tank on the side is daunting…

Oh, wait. No. Because this car is electric. That’s right. What looks like a gas tank is where you plug in the charger. The car gets the equivalent of 135 miles per gallon. Costs about $0.01 per mile to drive. Goes 250 miles on a charge. Recharges overnight in just a few hours. Can go over 130 miles per hour — almost silently. The company is even going to sell optional (but, as far as I’m concerned, mandatory for coolness alone) solar panels for your home, allowing you to charge the thing entirely on solar power.

The car is American designed, financed by the guys from Google, PayPal, and eBay, and built at the Lotus plant in England. It’s made of carbon fiber. The engine maxes out at 13,500 rpm, allowing it to reach 70 mph in first gear. It has computerized traction control to prevent you from simply spinning out the tires when you floor it.

The lack of loud exhaust is a little sad. I mean, hearing a Lamborghini accelerate is part of the fun. To that, the founder of Tesla says, “Some people are going to miss the sound of a roaring engine — just like people used to miss the sound of horse hooves clippity-clopping down the street.”

Wow, I want one. A high-performance sports car that looks sweet and doesn’t use any gasoline or oil.
Feel free to contribute to my fund to help me purchase one. I accept PayPal.