All posts in “jay lenos garage”

Watch Jay Leno scream in a next-generation Tesla Roadster

Jay Leno drives a lot of cool, interesting and exclusive cars. Often enough, he’s behind the wheel of something green — like this car made of hemp, for instance. Most recently, though, he got into a trio of Teslas in order to suss out the company’s past, present and future. Representing those eras, Leno drove the original Tesla Roadster, the Model 3 and, finally, took a ride in the next-gen Roadster, which Elon Musk snuck into the end of his Tesla Semi reveal.

In this episode of “Jay Leno’s Garage,” he meets up with Tesla design boss Franz von Holzhausen. Together, they talk about technology, performance and the styling of these EVs before hopping into a Model 3 for a drive.

Then, about 3½ minutes into the video, they hop into the new Roadster.

They go over the specs — and we should keep in mind that when von Holzhausen mentions “10,000 [Newton] meters of torque,” he qualifies that with “at the wheels.” We don’t yet know what the torque figures for the electric motors are in the terms we usually use to describe a car’s performance. Suffice it to say it’s enough to propel the Roadster to over 250 miles per hour with enough force that “it hurts the fluid in your eyeballs.”

It’s enough to make Leno scream in the passenger seat and proclaim, “I’ll buy it! I’ll take it!”

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Jay Leno chats with Ken Okuyama about the Kode 0 supercar

Back in August, car designer Ken Okuyama, the man responsible for various custom supercars and the Ferrari Enzo, revealed his latest creation, the Kode 0. It was a crisp wedge of a car that took inspiration from classic supercars. Now, a few months later, it has appeared in the latest episode of “Jay Leno’s Garage,” and Okuyama was able to share some fascinating details about the design, as well as the process for creating his cars.

As Okuyama explains, each car he designs is commissioned by a customer, and it’s not a speedy process. He says the design phase takes about two years, and so he half-jokingly says that he and the customer need to get along. It’s definitely a joint process with back-and-forth. Okuyama highlights the nose of the car where the owner initially wanted something more, but Okuyama pushed for the extra simple design, specifically because he felt the simple fascia was more reminiscent of the ’70s and ’80s supercars that inspired the car.

The episode also gives us a peek at the next project from Okuyama. He shows Leno his sketchbook as an example of the drawings he does for customers. The sketches are of a project that Okuyama says might be revealed next year. It looks like a front-engine sporty grand tourer of some sort. For more insight into the design of the Kode 0, check out the full video above.

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