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Pat Hackett knows it's not the most practical vehicle on the road, but he thinks his sports car is "pretty neat-looking" all the same. One part Batmobile -- with a sizeable smattering of Lotus -- Pat's toy has about as light a carbon footprint as a unicycle. It's not your average gas-guzzling coupe: it's a Tesla Roadster. And it's 100 percent electric.
Pat, a venture capitalist and self-described "gadget geek," has lived in Wilton for 16 years with his wife Janienne and their three children, who range in age from 17 to 20. He's always loved all things tech and has owned "every evolution of personal technology" available to him since the invention of the Stone Age-vintage (circa 1982) Sony Walkman. It was in keeping with his all-tech, all-the-time personality that he set his gadget-centric sites on the Tesla about three years ago, soon after reading about it.
The name Tesla was derived from the eccentric Serbian-born electrical engineer and scientist Nikola Tesla who, during electricity's infancy, went bulb-to-bulb with Thomas Edison.
When Pat bought his (with a price tag of $90,000), the Tesla's body was manufactured by Lotus in England and then flown to Silicone Valley where its guts -- the 900-pound battery and 100-pound motor -- were installed. "When I ordered it there was a waiting list and I was Number 340 in line for delivery," he said. The car was delivered about 18 months later.
"It's an absolutely tiny two-seater," he says, "And really not terribly practical because there aren't even seats in the back. There isn't even a spare tire." There is, he adds, room for golf clubs. (No such luck, however, for the person you might be teeing off with.)
The fun happens after you turn over the ignition. "It's a rocket," says Pat. Capable of reaching 60 miles per hour in only 3.7 seconds, the Tesla is scorchingly fast. And it barely makes a sound. "At low speeds all you hear is the radio," he says. Most importantly, he's quick to add, it burns no fossil fuels. "I believe that global warming exists, and that we need our cars to go electric," he says. "The technology works and we need to prove to automobile manufacturers that we want to -- and need to -- drive electric cars."
But broader philosophical issues about climate change notwithstanding, the Tesla Roadster is just plain fun. And Pat Hackett is enjoying each of the 200 battery-charged miles he drives on every charge.
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