New Tesla Roadster: SpaceX Thrusters, 0.6sec 0-60mph & 330mph! | 4K

Okay. Where? You're not going to be throwing me down some stairs.

No, we'll stop you right here.

Okay.

Okay. Thanks for wearing that. Whenever

you're ready.

Okay. I'm going to take the blindfold off.

Oh, okay. Already I see different lines.

Yeah.

Come on. Show me.

Should we do it?

Pull it. Yeah. Pull it. Here we go.

Oh my word.

Oh my word. That's completely different totally we've already seen.

Yes.

So this it's almost got a ultra futuristic look to it.

Kind of the idea. [laughter]

4.

This is the Tesla Roadster. The actual

Tesla Roadster production car. And it

might be one of the most intense vehicles ever conceived, even if the pregnancy has been interminable. But

yes, intense. Or at least some of the optional extras are. So stick with me because today we'll be all about the genius brains behind it.

Thrust from zero 260 in under a second.

Cold air thrusters and ground effect.

And no one thought you could ever make a flying car and the OG Roadster for a little bit of context.

Side note, we came to see the Roadster before it was revealed to the world and it was shrouded in secrecy to the point that I was blindfolded even getting to

the vehicle. Okay, let's just start at

the vehicle. Okay, let's just start at the beginning cuz I'm still actually just taking it in. This is a completely different thing to what I was expecting.

What What's happened here?

Nine years. [laughter] Yeah, nearly a decade. There's the original Roadster,

decade. There's the original Roadster, the middle roadster 9 years ago, and then this, the new Roadster, and this one we're going to build.

You've kind of successfully managed to deflect all of the attention because this is a genuine surprise.

So, it's kind of what are the basic stats of this car?

We started looking at where we wanted Roadster to go, right?

Yeah.

And we it obviously in nine years had to progress from the performance metrics, etc. And we also started looking at this

idea of flight and how that would change the shape of the car.

Okay. And you look at you look at Cybertruck, what we've just done, Cyber Cab, the language that we're progressing is, you know, distilling down, getting

more simple, clean, and Roadster needed to follow that suit. It felt already like yesterday's Teslas when we were adhering to the the nine year ago

design. So we wanted to progress it.

design. So we wanted to progress it.

So it was the future of 9 years ago.

Yeah.

This has got to be the future of 2026 and all.

Exactly.

And from the engineering side, a lot of what we put in that car, we actually ended up putting in the Model S Plaid.

Like actually the first Plaid that ever existed, we ripped the motors out of that car and put it into a Plaid, a Model S that became the Plaid. And so like the tri

motor system, the carbon overlaid, you know, rotors, the carbon ceramic brakes, like even the, you know, track mode and things we had talked about developing went into Plaid and it's like, well, now you kind of got to be a lot better than

that. So

that. So where did it, where did it go then?

Because this, if you've had nine years of development throughout your processing, I can see Tesla in that.

It's still got a Tesla vibe, but there were pretty high bars for what you were hoping to achieve for Roadster even back there.

Yeah.

So, this is going definitely in production like this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's going to look like this.

Yeah.

The whole deal.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's a proper production car and you're going to build it where? In

in Texas.

In Texas from 2027, right?

And 28 28 28. So, it's a little bit later, but this is the production car. Yeah.

So, what have we got under here? Is it a completely new chassis or is it based on something else?

Yeah, it's completely new and bespoke just for this. You know, as our company has moved on and we've you know, we were in Austin. I don't know where you flew

in Austin. I don't know where you flew in. Cyber cabs are everywhere. The

in. Cyber cabs are everywhere. The

future of autonomous driving is is here.

Yeah.

Like, and it is on the knee of going up.

You know, really the task here was to make the last best driver's car. That's

kind of a mantra I've been holding for a while and sort of stuck with the team.

It's quite punchy though, isn't it? I

mean, they're truly the best on all the metrics.

Like defy physics best.

Yeah.

So, I mean, a couple of things to start out. The first thing that you can't see

out. The first thing that you can't see from looking at this, but you might tell from the proportions is it's actually a rear wheel drive only car.

Really?

Yeah.

So, is it dual motor?

It's dual motor at the rear axle.

Cuz all of the internet has said it's tri motor, it's quad motor.

But isn't it more fun? There's something

like amazing and visceral about the power coming out of the rear end and just shooting it, you know, for this.

When you think of like a driver's car, which we wanted this to be like, so is it more about excitement than pure performance?

Does that mean you've turned into performance?

It gives you the ability to have both.

What's it made of?

So, I mean, there's a lot of different materials in here. Right now, this is like our alpha. We always build these out of carbon fiber, but that it's like a hybrid structure. We're using the material where we need it. So, you know, we have aluminum in the fronts and like

obviously the suspension bits, carbon ceramic brakes, the carbon areas of the tub, you have the glass, you have plastics where you need it. You know,

still working out some of the body panels, but it's everything that because we we try to make it super lightweight.

Yeah.

Because for me, like performance is power to weight, right? And so, we're trying to get it,

right? And so, we're trying to get it, you know, team will kill me for saying this, but under 1,700 kilos, I want it to start 16 because it's got to be the same weight as all the other performance cars out there. supercars like you can't if

there. supercars like you can't if you're going to make it truly better, you can't go around with a 2200 kilo electric vehicle and call it a fun car to drive. That's not going to be true.

to drive. That's not going to be true.

So, if it's if it's looking at being 1700 kilos, how much power is it going to make? Are there different versions or

to make? Are there different versions or is there any one?

Yes. So, the the base I've got so many questions. [laughter]

I'll do the powertrain real quick. Um,

so you know, a couple of things. So,

it's two two motors at the rear. Yeah.

like that the performance vehicles and up will have super power dense uh motors that are going to run on high voltage 800 to 1,000 volts in that range and we'll use cobalt steel and in the lamination and stuff to really get a

power power dense and that means that this car will have over you know 1,000 kilowatts of power 1500 horsepower which is more than the plaid had in three motors but only in two and the two

motors sit at the rear axle they're buttoned up against each other they each have their own separate inverter with a planetary reduction to go out to each wheel independently So, how are you controlling all that horsepower and torque if it's only rear wheel drive?

So, I mean [clears throat] the braking system is a brake by wire system.

Okay.

We've first implemented our brake by wire on cyber cab just like you were talking about with design language.

So, it's breaking it by retardation.

And so, we we obviously have torque vectoring at the rear which can help with yaw control. But then if we need to do like some more stability control, we have the brake brake power at the front.

But there's some other cool stuff for stability that we'll get into in a bit.

which sounds intriguing, but are there different versions that we need to know about? Is there a base?

about? Is there a base?

There's a roadster.

Yeah.

There's a performance Roadster.

Okay.

There's a thrust version. We'll get into the details on that. And there's a rocket version.

So, four different variants, right? And they build from each other.

right? And they build from each other.

They're going to build up.

And is it just in horsepower or hardware or both?

Yes, both.

Yeah.

Well, the results end up scaling down as you add the augments.

So, I'm assuming they're popup headlights pop down headlights.

Okay.

Are they full headlights?

Yeah, this is the full headlight. So,

you know, on the Cybert truck, we had one of the slimmest headlights on the market. It was about 20 mm tall. It sat

market. It was about 20 mm tall. It sat

down in the in the fascia. Um these are a little bit less than that. And you

have the full um you know, low beam and high beam up there. And then you know the the joint effort between Fronz and I to and the teams that worked on it to get the light to project out of this like

and being that low as well being seemingly conc.

Yeah, but you've kept that front graphic really super super clean.

That was the idea. The whole car we tried to keep incredibly clean and you'll see as we discuss the car transforms into its alter ego,

but keeping the cleanliness and all the insane engineering development that's underneath the skin was, you know, part of the that back and forth challenge that we were This feels like an edit,

if you get what I mean. How do you like this could have had loads of bits and things to bobs, but we but we didn't feel like that was

a a true Tesla in the cleanliness of the design language that we've been progressing as a company.

All the cars we've ever made have, despite their ridiculous performance, have never looked like, you know, giant rearwing race car type things when

they're in their form. like they are.

And I think there's a magic in just a really pure clean elegance and then underneath that is insane performance.

But you're calling it a roadster. It's

not a roadster.

Well, what is happening in this bit?

What size wheels are they?

These are uh well, they're split fitment front and rear. We got 29530s at the front, three 33 3530s at the rear, and then a split tire uh or wheel diameter 2021 just to get the right balance. You

know, even with a low mass, you need grip. Um we'll see with some features we

grip. Um we'll see with some features we show in a minute.

You're trying to sidestep grip.

Yeah, that's weird. It's weird how very very

that's weird. It's weird how very very mid-engineed graphic it's got from the side. like it's almost lotusy in you

side. like it's almost lotusy in you know like if you got a white spree there's a movement through there that's like just so happens [laughter] that was part of the inspiration and we

can show you a little bit of that inspiration right outside the door here because modern supercars have this kind of tight [clears throat] that energy in that front arch if if you recall

um we had the submarine version the lotus in our studio but I thought that was drawing inspiration from that.

I thought that was a bit of propaganda to try and I can see it now, but I thought you were lying.

No, [laughter] that's not back to your Roadster point.

It's not a roadster.

The roof's come out.

These come out.

So, it's a T-top.

T-top, but you get the open air feel.

Conventional doors.

Should we open?

Yeah.

Oh, so not conventional doors.

So, you may recall on the Cyber Cab, we kind of went with this uh, you know, sort of butterfly type door.

Yeah.

And we open it here. Um to really kind of fly into that sort of feeling that Fran was talking about where even the You got a butt pad to slide in.

Exactly.

You sit right here.

It's a little saddle to get your ass in.

Yeah. Then you twist. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I never thought about that being a solution.

I think I sat on that thing like 30 times in the studio and I was like, I need a pad. I need a pad.

But if you recall from the Roadster we showed previously. Yeah. The middle. Same

previously. Yeah. The middle. Same

concept.

Yeah.

Just evolved.

So it would be a 2 plus two. Let's not

look at the interior cuz I want to talk about that later. So no heavy electric.

So which bit lifts out? Is it this section?

Yeah, that section there from the from the you know from the they can't rail forward. Yeah.

I still don't think that means it's a roadster, but the basic hardware is where it all starts.

We have the battery in the floor. Um,

it's a high higher voltage, you know, in the 800 to,000 volt range that we run our Cybert truck and semis at. Yeah. To

really get it to to have a lot of throughput in terms of current and power.

Yeah.

Um, with over a megawatt at the rear axle, we want to get it out and we want to get it out the whole time. So, um,

we've evolved our batteries since then.

We've built our in-house program. And

one of the cool things about making your own batteries is you can make the cell exactly what you want it to be.

And what chemistry are they? And so it's still a lithium ion nickel based material. Yeah.

material. Yeah.

But like it's a bespoke chemistry for high power throughput.

So it's your new the new the new the new new the new new like just for this program new.

Oh okay.

Um because we think about high volume cars they don't have the same power requirements. They have longevity

requirements. They have longevity requirements but they you know you don't need to be pulling out a kilowatt and then shoving a kilowatt. Sorry a

megawatt. Keep saying megatt. [laughter]

Yeah I was going to say it's quite quite low at all the time. But we want to have to be a true driver's car. It's got to last. It's got to drive for, you know, a

last. It's got to drive for, you know, a full transaction, sustain that power.

And so we needed to change the cell to do that.

And then we needed to change the whole battery architecture.

Are you ending up with more like a capacitor then? Something

capacitor then? Something not really. I mean, it's still a lithium

not really. I mean, it's still a lithium ion cell, but it, you know, we changed the architecture of it. So like to to have more, you know, u current throughput as I mentioned, but also to manage the

thermals better. So the battery pack

thermals better. So the battery pack itself has, you know, cooling on both sides of the battery has an aluminum top and bottom.

No, left and right.

Okay.

Um, you know, our cylindrical cells usually have one cooling tube down the middle and then to cool the other side of the cell, you have to kind of go across it.

Yeah.

That's not very efficient if you want to keep the cooler cells. So we put cooling tubes on both sides.

If you were to drive it normally, what kind of range would it have?

It's about like 310 320 mi in that which I think is absolutely absolutely reasonable and usable in a sports car. like you know the original

sports car. like you know the original pitch for it being 1,000 km 620 mi. It

was kind of like you don't need that for the weight you've got to carry cuz no one's going to use it though.

And so what we really did this is also our fastest charging battery. So like in order to get all that power out to the motor and add that thermal capacity you get an added bonus which is I can charge

much faster. We're hoping to do you know

much faster. We're hoping to do you know 1585 in 10 minutes.

So could you get a semi-charger and plug that into it?

Well that's an MCS. Uh

yeah, but if you got like the pluggy thing that goes on the end, but but yeah, the Well, no. Uh but like the megawatt charging megawatt charging is this on semi primarily because we can distribute it

across the massive pack. But on this one, we're going to you know, using 800 volts with our Gen 4 superchargers, you know, we're able to pull, you know, over uh almost a megawatt over over 500 kW

into the car.

But the car feel that that feels like a much more realistic. The weird thing I'm feeling already is this is a much more realistic real usable.

It looks like a spaceship. It feels like a spaceship. Where's the spaceshippy

a spaceship. Where's the spaceshippy bit? Because you're talking to me about

bit? Because you're talking to me about it being these are all rational things. Over 300

miles of range, rear wheel drive, feels good to drive, lighter weight.

Yeah. You know, with all that power and like all that torque, like we also have to break the laws of physics. Um because

if because if you if you live in the world of of grip that currently exists in sports car like land, you're limited by the tire.

Tires always always the tire. The best tires in the world maybe can do 2Gs. Mold of some are 1.6, 1.8, something like that. We wanted

to like take it one step beyond that.

And so this car uh much in line with what you were talking about with the the um submarine car has some has some fans in the back,

right? So what do the fans do?

right? So what do the fans do?

And how do you make a set of fans not look rubbish?

Yeah. Well, you can So you two have to have this do you two have this fight all the time?

It's not a fight. It's like a camaraderie. Like we want like I love

camaraderie. Like we want like I love cars. I always want like when Fron wants

cars. I always want like when Fron wants to make them look cool, I'm right there with him like, "Yep, that's better. We

should do that."

Hang on a minute. Does the entire back of the car move?

Well, lot lots of parts.

We'll get to that. Yeah,

pretty much every panel moves.

The car transforms. Like I was saying before, the car transforms. Keep saying bits. So we have this really clean kind of beautiful clean design and then when you really

need the extra performance you get it down force etc. Well let's let's have a look at the back. I by the way I really like that

back. I by the way I really like that kind of almost long tail feel.

Yeah like an extension towards the rear. If

you look at that profile it looks like it should end there but you've almost pulled that profile longer. Yeah, it's got a pretty long

longer. Yeah, it's got a pretty long wheelbase.

It's bigger than I thought.

What's that wheelbase?

2825 2.8 m.

So, it's actually fairly roomy from the back of the front seats.

Yeah.

To the center line of the rear wheels.

Yeah.

Well, it's got to have a a trunk, you know.

So, to recap, in that wheelbase is a generous battery, which Tesla won't confirm at this point, with between 310 and 320 mi of range across the models.

two motors, both on the rear axle to give torque vectoring. The lightest, the basic Roadster, will likely be under 1,700 kg, and that's not bad. And they

all get 500 kW charging for less than 15 minutes, 15 to 80%. But it gets wilder from here on in.

Okay, so what do the fans actually do?

Let's look at them first.

Yeah, we'll show you where they are.

And then Okay, so these are not exhausts. I'm guessing

exhausts. I'm guessing they're not exhaust.

Where are the fans? Oh, there are the fans. But they're not just Hang on a

fans. But they're not just Hang on a minute.

So there's fans, but nozzles.

Yeah.

So what is what is just what is it?

All right. So fans create are part of a suction system.

So ground effect ground effect pulling the car down.

So to really break the laws of physics, I say you have to define you have to live with the physics that exist here.

So we have to break friction.

And there's only a couple ways to do that. one invent a rubber that has

that. one invent a rubber that has higher you know mu coefficients than one which seems really implausible or just pull the car down with air. So

what the fans do is we have side skirts front and rear skirt roughly under the whole battery pack sucks the car down and it can pull the car down.

Are they deployable or are they Yeah, they're deployable.

Oh, okay. So they're not a static skirt set.

I mean the Chapperel did a good job with the static skirts kind of went up and down. I mean come on. Good, good stuff.

down. I mean come on. Good, good stuff.

Merchy Spaling style vibes.

Definitely style, but like we went bigger um to get more downforce and to keep it more and then the you know we have the movable skirt to deal with road humps and things like that. But then we

actually said you know that kind of fills in the void of arrow before you know you start moving and the speed comes and then you can get down force from like wings and and and barge boards

and whatever. But so we fill in that

and whatever. But so we fill in that void with the fan, but then when you're up at the speed, we also wanted to use the fans. So then we lift up the front

the fans. So then we lift up the front and rear skirts and we get like a high flow underneath the car, a proper ventur.

Yeah. Sucking the air through it. So,

you know, I joke a little bit, you get a little thrust, you know, out the back from the fans at that point.

It's almost like a ram air effect though right?

And that that's like kind of the dual mode system we put in because whenever we put something in, we want to get all of the use out of it. Like everything

out of So you've got side skirts and front and rear skirts. And then at speed those front and rear skirts lift up so you get a proper ventur effect on the underside of the car. So you're speeding the air up correct underneath the car

and then pulling it out through these here. Why have you got nozzles though?

here. Why have you got nozzles though?

Because you don't they're not nozzles.

I think that's which these ones or those ones?

Is this you being aesthetic?

Yes. [laughter]

Yes.

So does it need those?

No.

But we didn't want I didn't want them to end in a cone or Yeah. Just to be a bit blank.

Yeah. Just to be a bit blank.

Yeah.

But then, so have you got you've got active fans pulling the car down, but what if what if you do hit a big bump?

They they can Yeah, they move up and down because they're deployable. They have sort of

they're deployable. They have sort of compliance, right? So they've got some suspension in

right? So they've got some suspension in there to do it. So then what's that?

So these are because that's part of the augments that get us to a thrust version of the car.

Okay.

So there's thrust and rocket at the top, right?

So rocket is at the top, right? And then there's a thrust version

right? And then there's a thrust version of the car which has four nozzles and a big COPB sitting in the back of the car.

Explain to me what a COPV is.

Carbon over wrap pressure vessel.

So this would be what? A two-seater.

Two-seater.

But then what's with a trunk?

So the talk to me about the But when you get the thrust version, we fill the trunk.

Crikey. Is this Ghostbusters? [laughter]

Well, you may have heard of the SpaceX package. We've been talking about it for

package. We've been talking about it for a little bit. This is the, you know, COPV that Fron mentioned. This is a 200 liter COPV that can go up to about 10,000 PSI.

So that would be like something in Falcon Heavy.

Yeah. I mean, it's actually in it's based off that. Correct.

But, you know, on Earth we live by different rules. There's like gravity

different rules. There's like gravity and wind resistance and air. And so, uh, we had to like upscale it a little bit.

You know, in space you just need a little nudge and you get going. But here

we needed, you know, seemed appropriate to have like since it's so much about flight to have roughly the same thrust as a fighter jet.

Okay. So this is a big tank full of compressed air essentially compressed air.

Have you got is this inertial damping to stop that rotating when it thrusts?

These are the valves that open to allow the air.

Oh, they're the manifolds.

Yeah, exactly. So, so you can see on the end of the the COPV there's a outlet that goes into the first cylinder here that is a a valve and then you have with

a kingpin off that this nice tiny little actuator which we borrowed from another project we're working on called Optimus.

Optimus. Yeah, it says it on even I [laughter] can work that out.

And that opens and closes the valve um and shoots it down these equal length uh pipes to those thrusters you see in the back. And can you operate those

back. And can you operate those thrusters? Hello. Individually?

thrusters? Hello. Individually?

Yes. And that why would we do that, Tom?

Uh, I'm assuming to help turn the car or not turn the car if you don't want to turn. But it's exactly right. Like with

turn. But it's exactly right. Like with

two sets of thrusters, we can slightly adjust as we see yaw so that we keep you straight. Yeah.

straight. Yeah.

Or if you need some turn, we can put some yaw in there.

So, how fast can you how do you fill it?

And how fast can you fill it? And how

long does it last? And how many PSI is it?

Okay. And are there only thrusters on the back?

So, how do you fill it? There's a nozzle to fill it. You fill it with a high pressure nitrogen system. We thought

that was kind of online because, you know, SpaceX does know a lot about uh, you know, kind of cold gas systems and we didn't want to put like a actual after burner on the car and burn fuel.

That's not Tesla.

Yeah.

So, 200 uh liters here, you fill it like with a, you know, traditional like uh gas filling system. We're working on a new system. Um it's not fully developed

new system. Um it's not fully developed yet, but current fill times are like two to six hours. We're hoping to get down to under a half hour.

Okay.

Um and that system gives you one charge and that charge can deploy then, you know, in a/4 mile run. It'll last, you know, the first third two-thirds of that about fiveish seconds. Yeah.

And gets you that thrust from zero to 60 in under a second.

Under a second sub one sub one second 0 to 60.

The thruster system here will do about 085.88 seconds. So, how many times can you use

seconds. So, how many times can you use that before it's depleted?

It's one time.

Once.

It's once.

Yeah.

This is so beautifully pointless. No

offense. So,

but you know, like we talk about it, we've nine years ago we were in a different space. We were scaling the EV

different space. We were scaling the EV industry and Elon has always called this the cherry on top, right?

Like it's okay to have fun, but you got to do the hard work first.

But you don't need to make this car.

We want Tesla doesn't need to. Well, Tesla

doesn't need to make this. So, why are you making it? And actually, can I do one thing before that?

In terms of design, that's a really hard thing.

Yeah.

To deal with in that shape.

When you think of the packaging of the car and then we're putting a big bottle in it, it defines some of the packaging.

It's sitting on top of the twin motors, the batteries, suspension, everything else. It's a It's a challenge. So, you

else. It's a It's a challenge. So, you

you alluded to a longer wheelbase and a longer tail. Now, you see why

longer tail. Now, you see why Yeah.

we needed to actually design the car.

So, what's here if that's if you don't have this?

So, if you don't have this on the like standard Roadster version, it's just open space for luggage.

What about the legality of a Thruster?

Well, you know, I mean, I think that you obviously some versions of this will that the, you know, the rocket version offroad use only.

Yeah, off-road use only, but this like, you know, we are intending to, you know, fully certify it for crash and everything and make it a mulligan.

Yeah. So, it's a full production unit.

You'll be able to drive with this on the road, but you can't use the system on a road cuz if you pick up a piece of gravel, you're putting it through someone's eye. It's

windshield or just, you know, 80 kons of cold gas into the [clears throat] But Tesla doesn't need to build this car.

No. But if you if you look at the history of the Roadster, the road, the original Roadster was, you know, the proof of concept that EVs were

uh fun to drive, could go the distance, and really prove the technology was viable. And then as we gener as we went

viable. And then as we gener as we went through kind of the eras and we created a whole portfolio of vehicles that more

than capable of of proving that um roadster has always been like what's the extreme that we could take how far can you take an EV far can you take

performance where is where where is that border of limit of physics and vehicle and that's that was our brief and that's why how do we use first principle

and limit of physics to get to the kind of ultimate last true driver car.

And that's why you sort of break the dynamics of physics. You add the you add the skirts and the fan system to give you an advantage that most cars can't deal with. And then, you know, cuz we've

deal with. And then, you know, cuz we've got some friendly partners here at SpaceX. We said, let's also use some of

SpaceX. We said, let's also use some of their tech to do something no one else in the world can do. And then we bring all that tech to this to say like this is really like the pinnacle of performance.

Are you happy with the result? I mean, I love this.

So, top speed is what?

It's uh 214 miles per hour for now, but we're working on a version because the boss threw down the gauntlet there that you'll have a 330 mph version of this car.

It's just gearing.

It's just gearing. So, the Arrow can handle that. Yeah.

handle that. Yeah.

Yes.

So, what's the Rocket got that the thrust version hasn't? Well, just to go through it, the standard Roadster will have 1 megawatt of power, which equates to 1,340

brake horsepower with roughly 960 lb feet of torque. The performance version adds more torque, the fans for ground effect, adaptive suspension, and some other tweaks. The thrust version gets a

other tweaks. The thrust version gets a 200 L cold air thruster system with four nozzles and will hit 60 mph from standstill in.85 of a second. And then

standstill in.85 of a second. And then

there's the limited production rocket.

Six more thruster nozzles for front and sides, one seat and a 600 L tank and hover. And even Tesla isn't really sure

hover. And even Tesla isn't really sure how fast it can be.

What's better than 200 L of cold gas?

Well, propane 600 L of cold gas. So in the in the rocket version, it's actually very much like a airplane. You only get one seat

fighter jet and the second seat is a 400 L cold gas tank.

Oh god. And then there are six more thrusters, one in each corner to push up and two at the front for a little bit of yaw control.

So you can you are aiding the car in turning, but then you're pointing them at the floor what's what's it going to do if you do that? Are you saying it can hover?

that? Are you saying it can hover?

You're saying it's flying car.

Yeah.

You'll see tomorrow. What do they I call I'll call your how high enough to be answered at a later date.

Again, it's totally pointless. But if it actually flies, well, you know, like at Tesla, we like to prove people wrong. Um, a lot of people thought electric vehicles wouldn't work. A lot of people thought

wouldn't work. A lot of people thought autonomous vehicles wouldn't work. A lot

of people thought electric semis would never exist. And no one thought you

never exist. And no one thought you could ever make a flying car. So, this

is a car that can help itself change direction by firing cold air thrusters and fly. Consider the boundaries pushed.

and fly. Consider the boundaries pushed.

So, there's some serious arrow going on here, but it all kind of hides away when not needed. We talked about the arrow

not needed. We talked about the arrow underneath the car, but like I said before, the design of the car transforms into passive arrow package that looks like this.

Oh my goodness.

So the trick in working with fronds is everything is everybody's job.

It's like a fab egg, you know, when you twist it and it goes everything pulls out.

So we start from the very front where in the mouth actually down here behind the chin spoiler we have wings that open.

Oh, got you.

And these wings go up to 80° so we can actually dam it when we need low drag.

Should I do that?

You can sign it over here if you can see them like way back in here.

Oh yeah, there you go. See them moving.

Yeah. Yeah. And then is it is that actual and could you use that as an air of flatness?

That doesn't actually for being able to see forward but air comes through there and then you challenge with the front to get down forces. You always need to let the air

forces. You always need to let the air go out so that air can come out over the roof. Exactly.

And this also adds to the thermal cooling system because it comes through the radiator fan. The rad's down there flat and I can see the fan and then this is this pinching out the pulls the air out of the front wheelch

the front wheel.

A lot of times the engineer wins on this and you put it in the door and you you see the air flow through the door. But

to keep with Fronza's clean line theme, you know, this is where we work together our team. We didn't want to punch big

our team. We didn't want to punch big holes on the top of the or have like a barge board or or have an extra big or like a cutout in the door that just has a So we open that up and you get the air flow out the top

and out the sides.

So is this like a 60 mph change or is it Yeah. I mean, you know, Aeros doesn't

Yeah. I mean, you know, Aeros doesn't really start working till 40, 50, 60 m hour. So we use the suction system

hour. So we use the suction system before that to get everything we want.

And then these come out when the speed starts to make sense about 60, let's say 50. And then we can use this for

50. And then we can use this for multiple modes. Either the high

multiple modes. Either the high downforce mode or the low drag mode.

Right now we actually have the wing low drag. Low drag.

drag. Low drag.

So that's more of a longtail aspect to extend that aerodynamic profile.

Correct.

But we can move it and we can get to high down.

Is it moving the It does.

It moves in that plane.

So that's high downforce.

Yep.

That's actually quite a big surface area.

Yeah.

It's huge.

That's very You notice that we have a you know a biplane effect underneath.

So you're actually allowing the channel Yeah. to to flow through and that gives

Yeah. to to flow through and that gives us air flow.

It's like a gurnie flap.

Yeah. It's like a gurnie flap underneath the wing.

Very very air very aerospace forward, you know, but that way we get flow under and over. We push the vehicle down.

and over. We push the vehicle down.

Will it move automatically?

Yes, of course.

Is it an air bra as well?

Yes.

Yes.

So you hit the brakes, you get and um again back here working with our sisters like it's all about simplicity.

Hell of a look. So, it's like one wing, four bar link on either side, and two actuators borrowed again from the Optimus team because it turns out to hold all that down force when you need it, you got to have an actuator that's really powerful.

So, is that like Optimus' thigh muscles or something?

It's the ankle muscles.

It's ankles.

Ankle.

Yeah.

Cuz this this so this is a really non-standard architecture that could be super bloody busy, but that all looks quite neat, right? Even I personally think even when

right? Even I personally think even when it's deployed like this, it has like an elegance.

There's still a cleanliness and an elegance. The overall design.

elegance. The overall design.

Isn't it wild that because the it makes the car look super super wide because you've used part of the wheel arch and pull that out.

This light bar that just extrudes all the way across and the corner of the car is incredibly wide. just wanted this really clean horizontal graphic that he and obviously you can write swear words under here.

Exactly. [laughter]

Exactly.

You're essentially flipping people off with your wing.

But then when you get to the, you know, the cars and coffee, you just let it all come back in and you feel like you when you go to the shops, you don't feel like an right? You close

it all up.

It's a nice clean car. Yeah.

car. Yeah.

And in the beauty of all of this, we I was able to hide the charge port.

Oh, you love this.

And where's the charge port?

It's here.

Oh, but how do you get to the charge port?

You open the wing to charge, but it means one less opening, one less line on the car.

Yes.

And you see so many examples where that's done so poorly.

So, we said before like almost every panel moves. So you have the lift gate

panel moves. So you have the lift gate that comes up and you get that, but the kind of rear quarter stays. The doors

open, they split the roof, those come the barge doors come out, the front hood vent comes out. So

really, there's like the rear quarters, the front fenders, and the front part of the roof that don't move or the the hood that don't move, but it doesn't change the essential apart from the wing. It doesn't change the essential nature of the front end or the side.

Like if you're viewing it from back here, I've not got like a big sticky out bit. It's still got that essential profile. That's metal.

And when you put it back when you put it back down, that comes Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Now it just looks like a longtail.

So, it's just a longtail speed version.

It's like the speed form to the car.

And then when you go all in, you get back to that, you know, fully and the car also will drop it its suspension.

So, it's got an active suspension system.

Yeah.

But what about the inside? Time to see what the Roadster has in store for the driver.

This is quite roomy.

Yeah. Like we've got we can actually not touch.

Yeah.

And actually quite high in here. I

thought this would be quite squat. Why

is it?

We were trying to get the car as you know the the seating position as low as possible. Get your butt right on the

possible. Get your butt right on the battery.

Unlike most electric sports cars, right? And you know, I think trying to

right? And you know, I think trying to really disguise the height of the battery pack and the size of it. I mean,

it's not a small.

Is it split? Have we got an H point that's lower than the battery is fully underneath?

Single stack. And how tall are you?

So I'm 6'3. The boss is 6'3.

So Elon's Elon's 63. So he's taller than I thought.

We want to make sure we all because this is really comfy, but it feels wider. Is that because this tub

feels wider. Is that because this tub feels Well, the car is wider.

Yeah, it's 2 m wide.

Okay. So fairly fairly big, but the seat is the structure and is really low cuz Fron's really, as you mentioned, wanted to push that seat down. And so the seat structure, in

down. And so the seat structure, in order to do that, we actually got rid of all the power because that's just added mass. For a driver's car, one person's

mass. For a driver's car, one person's usually driving. Put your seat in that

usually driving. Put your seat in that position once and then it stays. So we

actually have the recline button here.

It operates like the pneumatics on like a U.

If you Oh, okay.

pull that up and lean forward, you can adjust your seat back to your position if you want to be more upright or reclined.

But we figured that's lower mass and it only needs to happen once. And then the uh for for the leg distance, the pedals move. Got

move. Got cheaper and lighter to move the pedals than it is like a race car.

Yes.

And then obviously we've got a yoke.

So the yolk is really tailored to the the steer by wire and we're exposing the column. Basically exposing the system.

column. Basically exposing the system.

There's no connection.

This is the steering column structure.

There's not like Oh, I see.

There's not like a secondary system holding it up. And then you know that this is the sliding you know position.

So when you have variable input, you can we can tailor it so you can always leave your hands on the wheels. So there's not variable rack.

Is it break by wire?

It is break by wire.

Does it feel Does this car feel real or does this feel like a video game? If

you've got brake by wire and steer by wire and a megawatt and a megawatt of power and 2G's of downforce and thrusters and things and stuff.

Yeah, it feels unreal. But what does it feel like a real car or does it feel like you're piloting a jet?

I think both. I mean, I think when you drive it as a car without all of those things, our intention is always to make it a super enjoyable like touring grand touring type feel.

Yeah. You know, you got the good response, linear response on the steering, linear response on the brakes, linear response on the accelerator, but then when you're in like fullon like

brake law, the laws of physics mode, it feels a little unreal because we're not used to it. you're not used to, you know, over two Gs of cornering or six G's of thrust, you know,

but if you've got the base car as a as a good natural fit, a good naturally dynamic car, then that all builds from there.

It builds. It's they're there augments that stack on top of each other. So, you

keep adding the components.

Does the base car feel naturalistic?

You have to have the base car feel good.

Otherwise, building all that stuff on top of it doesn't matter.

Exactly.

Which do you think is the best balance?

Would it be thrust or do you just like the stupidity of what?

It depends on your mission.

See, I'm always tempted by I really want to try the basic one, right?

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Because it feels like it might We've not The world hasn't done a really good battery electric natural feeling sports car. Weirdly, I

did drive an OG Tesla Roadster. Nobody's

repeated it, right?

Effectively.

Yeah. Until now.

So then when you're in this and you're So there's a boost button here.

What's that? DRS.

There's a DRS paddle.

Yeah. So we can you can adjust the um the arrow balance.

The arrow balance manually or have it automatic.

And how would I engage like thrust then?

It's a special setting on here.

Correct. Like sim similar to like a cheetah mode launch. Yeah. You would set you have to d it in.

Yeah.

Okay. And then if this was a rocket, you wouldn't exist.

I would I would be a big 400 liter COPV sitting next to you.

There wouldn't be a seat there. You

know, it's amazing how far the Scuttle reaches as well. And you've then down there

as well. And you've then down there you've got the Yeah, it's important when you're driving to like have the heads up display speed, you know, some G's. So right now we're just showing like a random speed display

and a and a lap time, but the intent is to have whatever the you know pertinent information is.

So you can you can select your different things, balance, sport, custom track mode, and then how much of this stuff is deployable yourself?

So all of it's deployable. You can go into like show mode or but but we want, you know, to make sure that you can be Superman while you're driving and we take care of it for you.

Okay. I mean, the graphics are pretty cool. Oh my god. Yeah. Cool.

cool. Oh my god. Yeah. Cool.

So, you can see the challenge of the system and all the stuff in gold makes it go cool.

It looks like a plumber's nightmare.

Yeah, that is cracking.

Oh, so wish all the elements we've talked about are are there are all here and the suspension I guess you it's a double wishbone up front with a you know

a rocker arm horizontal uh adaptive suspension with you know spool valve and adjustable ride height.

I love spool valves.

The weird thing is this doesn't feel like you've gone too insane. We've even got quarter

too insane. We've even got quarter lights which means that you've got relatively good forward vision. Yeah, we

spend a lot of time getting that pillar small so like when you're driving you actually have good vision left and right.

And you address the wheel in a quite a racy way.

Yeah. And you know it's only plus minus 170 degrees like the Cyber Truck. So you

never really have to go hand over You never go hand over hand.

What about when you're drifting and you lose it and you have to grab it?

Well, it because it's steer by wire, we can kind of damp the the wheel on the way back.

Oh, wow. So, we get all of the information for each mode.

Yes.

But it's not like we've not got anything. This doesn't feel too scary. I

anything. This doesn't feel too scary. I

don't feel like this is a kind of spaceship for spaceshippy sake. I think

this is all recognizable to a Tesla owner. Well, if you if you look at like

owner. Well, if you if you look at like the range of what we're trying to accomplish, you know, a really pure true driver's car all the way to an extreme, never been done before

flying car.

Flying car.

We wanted to make a cockpit that that made you feel like a pilot. This is

like a pilot's car. Pilot in the terms of the original meaning of pilot as a driver. Yeah.

driver. Yeah.

And then also pilot as flight pilot.

Yeah. Top gun. So, when I sit in this and make it fly, I can press a button, press boost, and hover or whatever.

It's that's got to be something that There's no other car that has ever done that really, is there? Apart from

hovercraft right?

The Jetson's car did it in the cartoons.

You know, that wasn't real. You're not

supposed to [laughter] try and make it happen. This is like Back to the Future,

happen. This is like Back to the Future, but it's real.

Yeah.

Jesus. Anything

else you want to show me on the inside?

I mean, this is it. You can you have the amenities of, you know, putting your phone, wireless charging. Has it got CarPlay?

wireless charging. Has it got CarPlay?

Um, no CarPlay.

It hasn't got a better system than CarPlay.

Yeah, but you know, [laughter] has it got heated seats?

Uh, yeah.

Wow. So, it's it's actually more of a GT as well. It's not like a

as well. It's not like a It's out sports car with nothing in it, but you know, we we kept a lot of it manual. Keep the the motor weight down.

manual. Keep the the motor weight down.

Keep Yeah. Like, you know,

Yeah. Like, you know, keep it like kilos in a seat without all the manual or without all the motors and power and stuff.

This is a completely new product.

Nothing to do with previous iterations of Roadster. And it's blown away

of Roadster. And it's blown away expectations in most areas. But the

original pitch for the Roadster set a high bar. 0 to 60 in 1.9 seconds before

high bar. 0 to 60 in 1.9 seconds before any upgrades. 620 miles of range, that's

any upgrades. 620 miles of range, that's a thousand kilometers, a top speed above 250 miles an hour, and production in 2020. Yeah, that timeline has been a bit

2020. Yeah, that timeline has been a bit bendy. Tesla first introduced the idea

bendy. Tesla first introduced the idea of a second generation Roadster back in 2014. A two-seater built entirely by

2014. A two-seater built entirely by Tesla since the first version wore a Lotus Elise chassis and it was called the Tesla Model R. In 2017, the Roadster

name was used and an actual car appeared by driving it out of the back of a Tesla semi-tra. That car was supposed to

semi-tra. That car was supposed to appear in 2020.

2018 saw the infamous pitch for cold air thrusters, and there's been rumor and stop start knowledge about Roadster unveilings from then on, especially from a couple of years ago to now. So, we've

had lots of baiting of breath to the point at which quite a few people who put deposits down 9 years ago have probably passed out. but they've just gasped and they're all first in the queue for the new one. But before we

wrap this up, I just wanted to offer a little bit of context. Say hello to grandpa. Throwback. Yeah. And then some.

grandpa. Throwback. Yeah. And then some.

Because this is the OG Tesla Roadster.

And while people are talking about missed deadlines and difficult births, this is Tesla's very first production

car. This is where it all began.

car. This is where it all began.

The year is 2008. I was 32 and still had hair. And Tesla came out with a battery

hair. And Tesla came out with a battery electric sports car when everything else powered by just batteries was essentially a milk float. Based around a modified Lotus Elise chassis with carbon

fiber panels, it made all sorts of sense. The Elise was already designed to

sense. The Elise was already designed to be light and batteries were heavy. And

the original Roadster weighed just over 1,300 kg. That's light even now. And you

1,300 kg. That's light even now. And you

can definitely see the Lotus Elise in the proportions and even little bits of the related Vauxhall VX220 which came a bit later. So the headlights are in the

bit later. So the headlights are in the same place. It's got the same venting in

same place. It's got the same venting in the bonnet. Even though these panels are

the bonnet. Even though these panels are all carbon fiber, it's got a Lotus Elise windscreen, the same sort of roll hoop.

And yes, there is some cold air inlet here because batteries still need a little bit of cooling. It's got a 2-in longer wheelbase than the Elise, which you can sort of see. And then the big

giveaway is round the back because not only does it have six kind of funky lights and a big Tesla badge, but under here is where all the magic happens because

this is a 53 kWh lithium ion battery pack when everything else at the time was lead acid. That gives you 248 brake horsepower and 200 lb feet of torque

driving the rear wheels through a Borg Warner single-speed transmission. And

the cool thing about this is the battery is this bit here. And that's actually an L shape that goes down there and under here. This is actually all the control

here. This is actually all the control modules for it. And it still gets a bit of a boot. Now, the most expensive roadsters are actually ones with the R80 battery upgrade or the signature series,

but you can find these cars from between about £40,000 to about 80 depending on condition. Once you get in it, it does

condition. Once you get in it, it does feel a bit more like a Lotus Lee. It's

hard to get into with the roof on it, so I've left the roof at home. And once

you're in, it's actually quite comfortable. Starting with the dash sort

comfortable. Starting with the dash sort of layout. There's a massive chunky knob

of layout. There's a massive chunky knob for the headlights, which looks like something off a kettle. And then in front of me, I've got a little Tesla steering wheel. No power assistance.

steering wheel. No power assistance.

I'll have you know. And then the two dials are for your speedo. And then

this, instead of a rev counter, is the amount of power that you're using. So on

the motorway, you can see what you're doing. There's a doubled in Alpine head

doing. There's a doubled in Alpine head unit, which I remember because behind it is the CD player. That's 15y old tech

for you. That just there is an iPod

for you. That just there is an iPod dock. Do you remember them? And then

dock. Do you remember them? And then

there's some HVAC bits and bobs. The

real interesting thing though is the Tesla screen, which in this case isn't a big 15in TV plastered to the dash. It's

this little square down here, and you can check things like charging. You can

look at the amount of range you've got.

You can check your service intervals.

Basically everything you can do on a modern car, but in a thing that big.

Changing gear is easy. It's park,

reverse, neutral, and drive from push buttons. You just have to have your foot

buttons. You just have to have your foot on the brake. And then there's a traction control switch down here and heated seats as well as a manual handbrake. It's actually quite

handbrake. It's actually quite comfortable.

naugh to 60 in under four seconds, 125 mph top speed, and about 244 miles of range, which became a lot more in the later versions. This thing would beat

later versions. This thing would beat most contemporary petrol-powered cars away from the lights, mainly because that instant torque from the electric

motor was a bit of a revelation. But

back in the day, this was seen as a curiosity, a bit of a sideshow. But

actually, it was playing 4D chess where everyone else was fingerpainting.

And like modern Teslas, this thing evolved during its lifetime. Later

versions had way more range and way more power.

It's weird because some of the inputs are just like an Elise because there's no power assisted steering. At slow

speed, it's very heavy. But where you turn into a corner and unleas and it flick like a housely, this kind of leans over because it weighs a bit more. Three

or 400 kilos more in fact. But it still feels like a sports car. And we're still struggling with that in 2026.

But this thing made history. It was the first series production fully electric car to use lithium ion cells. It was the first car to have more than 200 mi of

realworld range. All those Model 3s,

realworld range. All those Model 3s, Model S's, Y's, Model X's, they all owe a debt of gratitude to this car. Even

all the raft of new EVs hitting our streets, they all began here. And yes,

it's taken us about 15 years to realize just how visionary Tesla was. And the

new one looks like complete science fiction. But what we going to think

fiction. But what we going to think about that one in a decade and a half?

So, the Tesla Roadster is finally here.

The myth has become reality. The fiction

has become fact. For me, this feels like a Bugatti Veyron moment where the top brass set absolutely impossible ideals and then the engineers and the designers

had to stand there and go, "Hold my beer." They have built a flying car that

beer." They have built a flying car that looks like that. And I think it might be a gamecher. So, tell me what you think.

a gamecher. So, tell me what you think.