Dan Neil drives the Tesla Roadster

You've probably heard of the Tesla Roadster, the all-electric brand-new sports car being built by a brand-new car company in Silicon Valley. It's very hot - George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio were some of the first people to order one. Dan Neil, car critic for the LA Times, drove one. He loves it.

He toasted a Porsche Carrera C4 on Sunset. Ooooh, that must feel good. Remembrances of my adolescent past surge through my brain. Neil is at best his writing about the extremes of the automotive experience, the best or the worst of shaped steel sitting on chunks of round rubber.

The Tesla Roadster is apparently one of the best.

Zero-to-60 mph acceleration is less than 4 seconds, which is Ferrari quick. Around a tight, technical racetrack, the Telsa will beat the pants off your garden-variety supercar.

I'm unclear on the concept of a "garden-variety supercar," (is that like your average, everyday superhero?) but that is clearly high praise.

One of Neil's better qualities as a writer is his ability to come up with perfect analogies that no one else would have thot of. This one would never have occured to me:

And it's tough, too. I only had the car for 24 hours but I caned it like the Taliban caned Gillette salesmen and it never even blinked.

The car is not perfect, apparently it isn't quite as explosive above 100 mph as your average supercar. But for $109,000, I guess you can't have everything.

But damn does it sound you like can have environmentally correct fun.