On a hot summer day back in 2006, with the top down I was driving solo in my black BMW Z4 two seater convertible rag top’sports car. On a local freeway, as in Vancouver Canada I thought that perhaps I had spotted of all things, a mule.* A very unique and exciting mule. Surely it can’t be I thought, what are the odds? And here in Canada not even in its country of origin the United States.
Driving in the fast lane I had glanced in my passenger side wing mirror prior to changing to the inside lane when I caught sight in the lane and slightly behind me, of an unusual auto that to me screamed mule and not just any common or garden variety mule.
Heavily camouflaged the mule featured a spectacular streamlined body design not unlike that of my Z4 and like it, a two seater convertible sports car. If the mule/pre-production car was what I thought it just might be, a fully electric powered car, it would most likely be first to the embryonic volume E-car production market. It too had the top down albeit a removable hard top not a folding canvas rag top.
A friend of mine had read this forthcoming electric vehicle’s targeted performance specifications a few weeks earlier and waxed lyrical about them to me. He was planning on buying one once they were in production if and when they were imported into Canada. Convinced my sighting was probably correct and excited at the prospect, there being no traffic immediately behind me I stayed in the fast lane slowing some so the mule would catch up alongside and thus afford me a better look at it.
Seriously heavy camouflage notwithstanding, as it came level with me there was no mistake to my mind that this was a pre-production mule fitting my friend’s glowing description. A unique, state of the art bleeding edge example of an all electric powered sports car. No hybrid this. It was indeed as I had suspected a first generation Tesla Roadster mule that I was looking at.
Continuing to travel close alongside each other or ‘side by each’ if you will, the next thing that caught my attention was the driver. Yes I figured it was ‘him’ the man himself test driving an early prototype in Canada, presumably to keep it away from the prying eyes of the then developing US electric powered car market’s growing would be competitors and also from the US auto media scrummage. Elon Musk is well known to not suffer fools gladly. To my surprise he gave me a thumbs-up! Likely he approved of my immaculate, more or less mint 2003 Z4. I of course acknowledged his thumbs up by returning the sentiment.
It occurred to me at that point that the man at the wheel could in reality be an Elon Musk look alike. Stranger things have happened. I will never know. Regardless, he seemed content to drive in formation as it were, giving me a great opportunity to admire the smooth flowing lines of the spectacular car’s body paneling or the skin, as the auto industry typically refers to it. The skin I had read, was integrated with the British Lotus company’s chassis technology Lotus being a class act in itself. As relatively high volume high performance car chassis go, they don’t get much better.
After a minute or two and with a farewell wave of the hand to me our man hit the throttle. I thought he might achieve low earth orbit. Little could I have imagined that as a publicity stunt, one of the Tesla Roadsters many years later was in fact to do so complete with mannequin driver! (They are now in a ** heliocentric orbit around the sun for what it’s worth.) As he accelerated strongly away, only then did I turn my attention to his passenger albeit she was of course on the other side of the Roadster from me and not very visible. It was however easy to see her beautiful long, silken and tousled platinum blond hair shining in the sunlight because much of it was also flying behind in the slip stream. Why not I thought just for the hell of it, take a closer look at her?
Never one to pass on an opportunity to enjoy beauty of most any stripe, beauty truly being in the eye of the beholder, I figured my rear view of the passenger’s spectacular if wind blown plumage alone was worth flooring my nimble Z4 with a view to pulling alongside for a more sustained and detailed overall view. Within if barely, the confines of speed legality, I opened up my smooth running, gasoline burning 3.5 litre in-line six under the hood and chased after the Roadster.
Since after his initial robust acceleration Elon or whomever had settled for the speed limit, it did not take me long to catch up to him. He had switched to the outside lane so I switched to the inside lane giving me perfect positioning to view his well groomed passenger’s gorgeous and for sure expertly tousled coiffure. (‘hair do’ is so passé.) Was she his wife? his daughter?, his girl friend? His muse? His sister? Or a famous fashion model perhaps?
Very carefully I pulled alongside and matched his (still legal) speed precisely. Keeping an eye on the road ahead whilst targeting the now close up view available of arguably perhaps the platinum blond aficionado’s platinum blond, I was staggered at what I saw. (or gobsmacked if you will if you are a Brit. Or even if you are not, it is a cool word.)
Far from any of the above guesstimates of the passenger’s station in life, pick one, I was looking instead at the flowing locks of the Afghan hound aficionado’s Afghan hound! No I did not make this up. This is a true story. Undeterred, I none the less felt that I had been in the right place at the right time. Try and keep me away from sports cars and/or dogs.*** All’s well that ends well.
Post Script:
* A development mule (test mule, or simply mule) in the automotive industry is a testbed vehicle equipped with prototype components requiring evaluation. They are often camouflaged to deceive competitors and thwart a curious automotive press. (Courtesy Wikipedia)
** A heliocentric orbit is an orbit around the barycentre of the Solar System, which is usually located within or very near the surface of the Sun. All planets, comets, and asteroids in the Solar System, and the Sun itself are in such orbits, as are many artificial probes and pieces of debris. In astronomy, the barycenter (or barycentre; from the Ancient Greek βαρύς heavy κέντρον center) is the center of mass of two or more bodies that orbit one another and is the point about which the bodies orbit. … It is an important concept in fields such as astronomy and astrophysics. (Courtesy Wikipedia)
*** See on this blog my short story Westie. (as in West Highland White Terrier.)
Not familiar with Afghan hounds? (I was and am). For the American Kennel Club’s take on them just go to https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/afghan-hound/ Afghans are sighthounds (they hunt with sight and speed rather than by scent and endurance.) As pets they are sweet and gentle creatures of great beauty. Distinguished by their thick, long and fine silky coat and a tail with a ring curl at the end. Originating in the mountains of Afghanistan, they were used to hunt wolves, foxes and gazelles.
For fantastic videos of Afghan Hounds click below. (one is 20 superb minutes. The other 41 seconds.)
1. 20 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ_v4Jd7Nh8
2. 41 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgK7eN6ieq4
And just for the record:
Here is a very early electric vehicle built in 1884 by an English inventor.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
For multiple photos of the original Tesla Roadster go to:
https://www.topspeed.com/cars/tesla/2020-tesla-roadster-ar152181/pictures.html#top
And for a brief history of electric cars see:
And courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, for the first electric vehicle to be displayed to the public Gustave Trouvé’s electric tricycle go to:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52267675
He installed this engine on an English tricycle: he had just invented the first electric vehicle in history. On April 19, 1881, in the rue de Valois (Paris), the tricycle of Trouvé moved successfully.
