2015 Annual Meet - Report and Pictures

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by Architex_mA8tey

This is one of my favourite P85D reaction videos from YouTube -
http://youtu.be/LpaLgF1uLB8

I found that same clip earlier myself. Brilliant!

[tintin]

Originally Posted by moltuae

In fact, on the strength of my experience and description alone, one of my customers (the owner of a couple of large garden centres) drove to the Knutsford Tesla dealership this afternoon to experience it for himself, where he met the lady who demonstrated to us this weekend (and he mentioned the A8/S8 meet). He actually got to drive the P85D and it's now looking likely that the garden centre will be buying at least 2 of them (possibly even 4 or more) as director's vehicles. They're also looking to install charging points, for public use, at both garden centres.

Excellent - well done Mark, a great example of spreading the word . If he get's impatient waiting for his to arrive (as it'll be October or more probably later…), then let him know he can come a have a go in mine, when it arrives in August. Possibly on the condition that he has charging points installed (only kidding… )

[ScottD3]

What a great weekend.
Thank you all that organised and attended.

We made it home on Sunday with half a tank of fuel (filled up saturday morning for the) and enough time to pick the dogs up from kennels.
That was my first really long trip in the A8 and its as you'd expect and heard. Hopefully next year we will get to do our road trip holiday in it.
Shocked about the amount of fuel it used as well. For the whole weekend, I think I used three quarters of a tank.
TDI FTW!!!

I'll try and sort my images out this week and I'm handing my dash cam footage over to a friend and see what he can make out of them.
Hopefully something better than I can do.

Thanks again and bring on next year meet.
Hopefully around the Cornwall/Devon moors.

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by tintin

Excellent - well done Mark, a great example of spreading the word . If he get's impatient waiting for his to arrive (as it'll be October or more probably later…), then let him know he can come a have a go in mine, when it arrives in August. Possibly on the condition that he has charging points installed (only kidding… )

lol, thanks Stephen, I'll let him know.

I'm sure he will get impatient; he's like a kid waiting for Xmas already. He phoned me immediately he got back into his car after the test drive and spent the entire drive back (about an hour) telling me all about it and how totally blown away he was.

Subject to the various subsidies, grants and tax incentives (which he's already got their accountant looking into) and consent from the other directors (who are his parents and brothers), it's looking like it will almost certainly go ahead. Apart from the money saving incentives, they're seeing it as a great PR opportunity to make the local headlines (eg "Local Garden Centres go Green"). And it would seem that there are very few charging points in this area presently, so they see that as an opportunity to boost their restaurant and shop sales. They are already constructing a large biomass generator on one of the sites, to generate their own electricity, so the EVs fit in perfectly with their present plans.

[Adrian E]

Ask tesla if they want to install one of their superchargers on site - they're rolling out very slowly and they give you an 80% charge in about 20 mins I believe!

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by Adrian E

Ask tesla if they want to install one of their superchargers on site - they're rolling out very slowly and they give you an 80% charge in about 20 mins I believe!

I think they're looking into that, but it may not be practical. A single supercharger requires an enormous amount of power (something like 300+ amps at over 400 volts I believe), which may be more than their sites can deliver right now. They will be making enquiries though and there's talk of a site visit from Tesla in the near future.

From the point of view of their business though, a supercharger won't necessarily bring them more custom. A slower charge time could actually mean that EV visitors spend more time in the garden centre shop and restaurant.


@Stephen: I told him you've offered to let him have a go in your Tesla while he waits for his to arrive. He says thanks very much, and that you're welcome to have a drive of his P85D, if you haven't had a chance to drive the 'insane' model yet.

[Conquistador]

Thanks from me to everyone who helped organise the weekend. And thanks to Craig for the key cutting, Audi for bringing down 5 of the finest models they currently produce, and Tesla for the incredible experience of the P85D and two very knowledgable representatives of the brand.

Unfortunately on the drive home the car developed brake wobble which got progressively worse until it was almost undriveable. Feels exactly like warped discs and I had new discs and pads fitted by Formula 1 about a month ago so I've taken it straight back there to get them to replace the brakes with another set under warranty as I suspect they may not have been fitted perfectly.

We had a great time though and hope to see everyone at future events.

[briang9]

I had a similar problem on the way down, just needed the wheels balanced which I had done. My wheels however appear to also be out of shape so although the wheels balance up fine I am still getting a vibration at certain speeds. Looking into getting them repaired if I can. Hope it goes well for you

[Architex_mA8tey]

Originally Posted by Conquistador

Unfortunately on the drive home the car developed brake wobble which got progressively worse until it was almost undriveable. Feels exactly like warped discs and I had new discs and pads fitted by Formula 1 about a month ago so I've taken it straight back there to get them to replace the brakes with another set under warranty as I suspect they may not have been fitted perfectly.

Originally Posted by briang9

I had a similar problem on the way down, just needed the wheels balanced which I had done. My wheels however appear to also be out of shape so although the wheels balance up fine I am still getting a vibration at certain speeds. Looking into getting them repaired if I can. Hope it goes well for you

Wow I know that CtL almost had a wheel come loose whilst we were out on the scenic drive too . . . . so in this case these things did come in threes

[Conquistador]

Originally Posted by briang9

I had a similar problem on the way down, just needed the wheels balanced which I had done. My wheels however appear to also be out of shape so although the wheels balance up fine I am still getting a vibration at certain speeds. Looking into getting them repaired if I can. Hope it goes well for you

Hmm, well I had 4 new tyres fitted a couple of months ago too and when the guy was balancing the o/s/f wheel he called me over to the balancing machine and showed me that that wheel is ever so slightly out of shape which you could see when it was spinning round. He assured me that it probably won't be felt when driving but if it does get worse over time then just swap the front and back wheels round and that will diminish any wobble being felt. Hope it goes well for you too!