REVIEW: Tesla Motors’ all-electric Model S is fast—but is it a good car? “But the thing that I most wanted to experience is how the car feels to drive, at speed, on the open road. Well, I’ll tell you: it feels awesome. . . . The motor can immediately deliver 443 lb-ft of torque (600 Newton-meters) to the drive wheels, and it can do so without the interruption of a down-shift and the noise and delay of an engine revving up into its power band. It can punch you back into your seat from a dead stop, or it can punch you back into your seat at 80 miles per hour. And the only sound the car makes as it yanks your eyeballs back into your head is a faint electric whine. . . . Subjectively, the car feels extremely flat when hurled through corners. No small amount of this stability is provided by the fact that a significant amount of the car’s mass—its battery pack—is only inches above the road surface.”