Overkill

Your average car in the United States does 0-60mph in about 8 seconds. My car is very fast and does it in 4.4 seconds. A Ferrari 458 will do it in about 3 seconds. A top of the line Tesla Model S will make the sprint in a face tearing 2.3 seconds.

The upcoming Tesla Roadster is supposed to do it in a record breaking 1.9 seconds. The thing about that number is that it’s pretty much at the physical limit for the grip of the tires on a street car. Even if you had more power and torque and a smarter launch control system, you wouldn’t be able to exceed that acceleration because physics would get in the way.

...Or at least that was true until Elon Musk announced that the Roadster will be available with an optional “SpaceX package” that replaces the rear seats with a composite overwrapped pressure vessel (COPV) which will store highly pressurized air that can be routed to cold gas thrusters on the front, back, and sides of the car to dramatically increase braking, acceleration, and cornering. This might theoretically bring the 0-60 time down to close to 1 second.

Is putting rocket maneuvering thrusters on a car overkill? Yes... absolutely. Do I want to know what it feels like to pull more than 2g’s accelerating in a road car? Also, yes, absolutely.

Tesla Roadster