Here’s Exactly How Tesla Made Its New 230-Mph Car ‘Fly’

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Here’s Exactly How Tesla Made Its New 230-Mph Car ‘Fly’

昨晚，特斯拉首席执行官埃隆·马斯克在宣布该车九年后，以相当高调的方式自豪地发布了 Roadster 2，并让它“飞”了起来。虽然不可否认令人印象深刻，但你也可以将这场奇观描述为特斯拉让其迟迟未出的豪华车“做了一个大跳跃”，然后，正如巴斯光年所说，是在“有风格地坠落”。

During the reveal in McGregor, Texas, at SpaceX’s rocket development and testing facility, the two-seater Roadster 2 launched itself over the automaker’s entire lineup, shot from 0 to 60 mph in less than a second, and then drove upside down off a high ramp to then flip over midair and land back down on the ground, cushioning its rapid descent using onboard thrusters.

在德克萨斯州麦格雷戈的 SpaceX 火箭开发和测试设施举行的发布会上，这款双座 Roadster 2 飞跃了该汽车制造商的全系车型，在不到一秒的时间内从 0 加速到 60 英里/小时，然后倒挂着驶下高坡，在半空中翻转并落回地面，利用机载推进器缓冲了其快速下降的过程。

All this was pure gold for social clips (though at the time of publication, Tesla’s stock price was down after the event), but how did Tesla make its new EV prototype perform these tricks? Tesla vehicle engineering head Lars Moravy went into detail with auto lifestyle and insurance brand Hagerty before yesterday’s event, explaining how the Roadster 2 works.

所有这些对于社交媒体短片来说都是绝佳素材（尽管在本文发表时，特斯拉的股价在活动后有所下跌），但特斯拉是如何让其新的电动汽车原型车表演这些特技的呢？特斯拉车辆工程主管拉尔斯·莫拉维在昨天的活动前向汽车生活方式和保险品牌 Hagerty 详细介绍了 Roadster 2 的工作原理。

The Roadster 2’s gravity-defying demonstration in Texas used a combination of suction and rocket thrust. Courtesy of REUTERS. Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s chief designer since 2008, designed the angular exterior. He also helmed the aesthetic of the Cybertruck, Models S, X, 3, and Y, as well as the Semi. Blacked-out windows obscured any view inside the EV, which carried no human driver anyway because, as Musk said, Tesla wanted “to make sure we don’t kill anyone” during the gravity-defying demonstration.

Roadster 2 在德克萨斯州的抗重力演示结合了吸力和火箭推力。（图片来源：路透社）自 2008 年以来担任特斯拉首席设计师的弗朗茨·冯·霍尔茨豪森设计了其棱角分明的外观。他还负责了 Cybertruck、Model S、X、3、Y 以及 Semi 的美学设计。黑色的车窗遮挡了电动汽车内部的视线，无论如何，车内并没有人类驾驶员，因为正如马斯克所说，特斯拉希望“确保在抗重力演示期间不会伤害任何人”。

Powertrain and Battery

动力总成与电池

The Roadster 2 will be rear-wheel-drive only, a departure from Tesla’s track record of all-wheel-drive EVs. Two motors will deliver over a megawatt of power (1,341 horsepower) and over 1,400 newton-meters (Nm) of torque, meaning this car will have more torque and power than a three-motor Plaid. But all of that power goes through just the rear wheels.

Roadster 2 将仅采用后轮驱动，这与特斯拉以往的全轮驱动电动汽车记录有所不同。两台电机将提供超过一兆瓦的功率（1,341 马力）和超过 1,400 牛米（Nm）的扭矩，这意味着这款车的扭矩和功率将超过三电机的 Plaid。但所有这些动力都仅通过后轮输出。

The car will be light, at “just under 1,700 kilos” (under 2 tons), according to Moravy, not significantly heavier than the original 1,300-kg (1.4-ton) Roadster, despite a larger size.

据莫拉维称，这款车将很轻，重量“不到 1,700 公斤”（不到 2 吨），尽管尺寸更大，但并不比最初 1,300 公斤（1.4 吨）的 Roadster 重多少。

Tesla claims a range of over 300 miles for the Roadster and hopes to mitigate this distinctly average range by also giving the EV the fastest-charging battery the automaker has ever produced, supposedly capable of zipping from 15 to 80 percent in 10 minutes.

特斯拉声称 Roadster 的续航里程超过 300 英里，并希望通过为其配备该汽车制造商有史以来生产的最快充电电池来缓解这一平庸的续航表现，据称该电池能够在 10 分钟内从 15% 充至 80%。

Sucking Fans

吸力风扇

At a 2013 auction, Elon Musk bought the iconic “Wet Nellie” Lotus Esprit S1 submarine car from the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me for just shy of $1 million. Musk is so taken with his Bond memorabilia that it apparently inspired one of the Roadster 2’s key abilities.

在 2013 年的一次拍卖会上，埃隆·马斯克以略低于 100 万美元的价格买下了 1977 年詹姆斯·邦德电影《海底城》中标志性的“Wet Nellie”路特斯 Esprit S1 潜水车。马斯克对他的邦德纪念品非常着迷，这显然激发了 Roadster 2 的一项关键能力。

That submarine Bond car has four propellers at its rear, so Tesla decided to ape this with four 20-kilowatt fans on the Roadster 2. Moravy says these fans break the laws of tire physics and dramatically increase the EV’s traction by becoming what Tesla calls the car’s “sucker system.” Four independent replaceable skirts drop down on the sides of the car, allowing the Roadster 2 to stick (or suck) to the road at lower speeds where its aerodynamic wings aren’t yet contributing to downforce. Moravy claims the system can produce over 2 g’s in a corner when accelerating, even below 50 mph.

那辆邦德潜水车后部有四个螺旋桨，因此特斯拉决定在 Roadster 2 上效仿这一点，安装了四个 20 千瓦的风扇。莫拉维表示，这些风扇打破了轮胎物理定律，通过成为特斯拉所谓的“吸力系统”，极大地增加了电动汽车的牵引力。四个独立的、可更换的侧裙会降下，使 Roadster 2 在空气动力学机翼尚未产生下压力的低速状态下也能紧贴（或吸附）在路面上。莫拉维声称，该系统在加速过弯时，即使在低于 50 英里/小时的速度下也能产生超过 2g 的重力加速度。

This type of aerodynamic manipulation also appears on the McMurtry Spéirling Pure, which uses two high-speed electric fans spinning at up to 23,000 revolutions per minute to actively suck air from underneath the chassis, generating up to 2,000 kg (around 4,400 pounds) of downforce.

这种空气动力学操纵方式也出现在 McMurtry Spéirling Pure 上，它使用两个以高达每分钟 23,000 转旋转的高速电动风扇，主动从底盘下方吸气，产生高达 2,000 公斤（约 4,400 磅）的下压力。

This extreme suction lets the Roadster 2 drive up the vertical ramp at the Texas demonstration and hold onto the surface even when upside down.

这种极端的吸力让 Roadster 2 能够在德克萨斯州的演示中驶上垂直坡道，即使在倒挂时也能吸附在表面上。

Rocket-Powered Thrust

火箭动力推进

So how does the Roadster 2 hover, correct itself, and dampen its fall? That’s thanks to what Tesla calls the car’s “SpaceX system,” referring to Musk’s aerospace company, which helped with this part of the car’s development.

那么 Roadster 2 是如何悬停、自我修正并缓冲坠落的呢？这要归功于特斯拉所谓的“SpaceX 系统”，指的是马斯克的航空航天公司，该公司协助了汽车这一部分的开发。

Originally, the Roadster was meant to have a 2+2 cabin. Now it’s a two-seater because behind the seats sits a 200-liter carbon-overwrapped pressure vessel (COPV) that holds up to 10,000 PSI to supply the car’s cold gas thrusters, which use expansion of pressurized nitrogen gas to generate thrust, a tech predominantly used for spacecraft stabilization. Cold gas thrusters are the simplest manifestation of a rocket engine.

最初，Roadster 计划采用 2+2 座舱。现在它变成了双座，因为座椅后面放置了一个 200 升的碳纤维缠绕压力容器（COPV），可容纳高达 10,000 PSI 的压力，为汽车的冷气推进器供气。这些推进器利用加压氮气的膨胀来产生推力，这是一种主要用于航天器稳定的技术。冷气推进器是火箭发动机最简单的表现形式。

This combination of suction system and thrusters helps the car hit 0 to 60 mph in supposedly under a second. In this launch mode, Moravy says the rear thrusters produce more than 80 kilonewtons of thrust, which, staggeringly, matches the Dassault Falcon 10X jet. Tesla has seemingly cracked the sub-second race, while the aforementioned McMurtry Spéirling Pure can only manage this feat in a bowel-clenching 1.3 seconds. During this astonishing acceleration, the driver will endure up to 5 g’s.

吸力系统和推进器的这种组合帮助该车在不到一秒的时间内从 0 加速到 60 英里/小时。在这种发射模式下，莫拉维表示后部推进器产生的推力超过 80 千牛顿，令人震惊的是，这与达索猎鹰 10X 喷气式飞机相当。特斯拉似乎已经攻克了“秒内加速”的竞赛，而上述的 McMurtry Spéirling Pure 只能在令人心惊胆战的 1.3 秒内完成这一壮举。在这种惊人的加速过程中，驾驶员将承受高达 5g 的重力加速度。

The Roadster 2’s Performance model will feature the sucker system and no thrusters, so 0 to 60 will take a touch longer at 1.6 seconds and a top speed of 210 mph. The Thrust model gets the whole package and a top speed of 230 mph.

Roadster 2 的性能版将配备吸力系统，但没有推进器，因此 0 到 60 英里/小时的加速时间会稍长，为 1.6 秒，最高时速为 210 英里/小时。推力版则拥有全套配置，最高时速可达 230 英里/小时。

Moravy says the “flight system,” as he calls it in Hagerty’s walk-through, requires yet another 400-liter cold gas COPV, occupying the space where the passenger seat is, making the car a single-seater and bringing total thrust fuel up to 600 liters. This “flight system” also requires six extra thrusters: one in each corner, plus two at the front to yaw.

莫拉维表示，他在 Hagerty 的演示中所称的“飞行系统”还需要另一个 400 升的冷气 COPV，占据了乘客座椅的位置，使该车成为单座车，并将总推力燃料增加到 600 升。这个“飞行系统”还需要六个额外的推进器：每个角落一个，外加前部的两个用于偏航控制。

Bursting the Balloon

气球破裂

Unlike in space, where cold gas thrusters provide consistent levels of thrust until the last drop of fuel is used, on Earth the “flight system” will lose thrust as the compressed gas depletes. Moravy likens it to blowing up a balloon then letting the air out: “When I open the end of a balloon, all the gas comes out, and at a certain point, it starts tapering off. That same thing will happen here.”

与在太空中冷气推进器能提供持续的推力直到最后一滴燃料用尽不同，在地球上，随着压缩气体的耗尽，“飞行系统”的推力会减弱。莫拉维将其比作吹气球然后放气：“当我打开气球末端时，所有的气体都会出来，在某个点，它开始逐渐减少。同样的事情也会在这里发生。”