DON'T WORRY about the future of transportation not being fun; It's Tesla-rrific!

Byline: MARK VAUGHN

The Tesla roadster proves the sound brilliance of the Lotus Elise chassis by showing that even with 990 extra pounds of batteries stuffed into it, the car is still fun to drive.

Granted, there are a few more modifications beyond the 990 pounds of batteries to make a Lotus into a Tesla, but it still tracks true and grips hard in the corners, if only somewhat less nimbly. The Tesla uses a lengthened, stiffened version of the Elise's bonded, extruded-aluminum frame. The suspension in this version is set a little softer for ride comfort.

We drove it under particularly nasty conditions, on a cold, wet, miserable day along Skyline Boulevard through the coastal range west of Tesla's San Carlos, California, headquarters. Big fronds of redwood plopped before us on the wet pavement as intermittent rain and residual water from the forest canopy splattered down on us most of the day. We wore all the Gore-Tex we owned.

While we did drive the electric two-seater more gingerly than we would have on a dry day and without a Tesla vice president in the passenger's seat, we felt we were getting it close enough to its limits in the slop to get a feel for how it might drive on a better day. And it drove well. We weren't likely to get a better road than this, as those who live in that area know.

The car was tight; the slight roll of its 2690-pound curb weight was controlled, the oversteer electronically eliminated without being intrusive. The only minor shortcoming we felt was slightly increased understeer entering corners, which felt more like the result of sheer mass than any handling deficiency.

There was no toe dialed into the setup, meaning the wheels and tires were all pointing straight forward to reduce as much rolling resistance as possible. This felt a little strange at first, but the feeling disappeared within a few miles, and the Lotus rack-and-pinion steering felt perfectly fine the rest of the day; it just wandered a little more than usual from on-center.