How fast could the Tesla Roadster accelerate?

Crazy fast; by using thrusters that create a ground effect vacuum between the car and road.

The 0 to 60 acceleration of a modern sports car depends on its ability to keep traction with the surface. Fancy tires mated with a prepped road surface, the cheetah stance, rear spoilers, they all contribute to the traction of the car, enabling it to accelerate faster. But these improvements are reaching a limit; for example using a prepped road surface decreased the Model S plaid 0 to 60 time from 2.07 seconds to 1.98 seconds. (As an aside, if the peak acceleration of the Model S plaid is at 30mph because of the added downforce traction, then it could be quicker into a stiff headwind)

So how fast can the Roadster accelerate from 0 to 60?

Elon Musk has said that a version of the Roadster will be using gas thrusters from SpaceX. My imagination immediately went to rockets mounted on the rear of the Roadster, launching it forward like a Falcon 9. But what if that’s not how these gas thrusters are being used? What if they are being used to increase the traction of the car?

Maybe the gas thrusters will be used to create a relative vacuum underneath the car sucking the car down and improving traction. This type of ground effect vacuum is used in Indy racing and was used in the Lotus 1979 Formula One car. (Before it was banned according to Wikipedia ground effect [cars]). As the original Tesla Roadster was based on a Lotus Elise, a version 2 Roadster with ground effect suction would be quite a nice homage to the original Lotus designs.

How does ground effect work? By creating a vacuum between the underside of the car and the road. Many people are familiar with the Bernoulli principle where high speed air creates a low pressure zone. For example, the faster speed over the top of an airplane wing creates lift. Or how one can create a vacuum by blasting air through a nozzle in a Venturi. One cool trick to show this is if you have a very light plastic trash bag, you can inflate it in one breath by blowing a stream of air and letting that high speed air entrain more air, enough that it can actually fill up a kitchen garbage bag.

If Tesla put Venturi nozzles on the underside of a roadster, it would only take about a one psi difference across a 40 square foot area to double the traction of the car. With double the traction, the car could accelerate twice as fast! (Assuming the batteries and motors could handle the increased load).

Additionally smaller Venturis near the tires could improve handling around corners by creating vacuums as needed. The structural battery pack would be a great load bearing surface to draw down.

What about the thruster hidden behind the license plate? Perhaps it is only an exhaust port for the Venturis. Like vacuum cleaner heads spread out along the underside, the inlets would connect to the Venturis and exhaust at the license plate port. Reverse the vacuums by blocking the exhaust and the Roadster could float like a hovercraft or bounce to the beat.

In order to make ground effect work, Tesla will need to make as beautiful an aerodynamic design under the car as on top! I can’t wait to see it!

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