347.2 Miles! Tesla Takes New Production Car Distance Record

Many of us will have broken in the New Year celebrating with friends, sinking a few drinks, watching a firework display and generally being merry.

For some though, the celebrations will have come later that day. Between the afternoon of December 31, 2010 and the end of January 1, 2011, Team VIN 1000 with drivers Cassey and Teagen and a supporting crew managed to cover 347.2 GPS-recorded miles on one charge in a Tesla Roadster. In the process, they've taken a new production electric car distance record.

The last production car record was also set by a team in a Tesla - Simon Hackett and Emilis Prelgauskas managed 313 miles back in October 2009 in a record-breaking run through Australia. Although the electric car distance record has fallen a couple of times since the Australian run, the Tesla Roadster records are the only official production car runs, with the 375-mile Audi A2 and 623-mile Daihatsu Mira both being purpose-built specials.

Of course, 347 miles isn't really representative of what owners can expect to achieve on their daily commute. As with previous distance records, average speeds were relatively low (the GPS logs on their website point to average speeds below 25mph) and the new record was achieved on a closed course on sleepy back-roads in the Imperial Valley of California.

Nevertheless, it's still an impressive achievement, and of course lower speeds are still relevant to inner-city driving. If you're unlucky enough own a Tesla Roadster and never have the space to exploit the amazing performance, you will at least achieve some impressive mileage figures! The official range of the Tesla Roadster is 244 miles.

And the team name? VIN 1000 is equally as self-explanatory as you'd hope it is - the car is the thousandth made by Tesla Motors, and we have to say it looks resplendant in its pearl white color scheme.

Tesla's Roadster certainly seems to be the production car to beat as far as distance records go, and we look forward to seeing who will be next to step up to the breach. It'll certainly be reason to celebrate.

[TylerVault.com]