Will the new Tesla Roadster actually fly?
Combine our craving for flying cars with Elon Musk’s love of boasting, and you get another automotive story that demands attention. Yes, Musk has already sent a Tesla Roadster 2.0 into space atop a rocket launched by Spacex (one of his other companies). But he may not stop with that one-off publicity event.
Responding to a Twitter user’s post of an animated clip of the “Back to the Future” Delorean hovering on rocket blasts above the ground, Musk said that Tesla’s “new Roadster will actually do something like this.” When tech writer Marques Brownlee wrote “The thing is, I feel like you’re not joking,” Musk responded: “I’m not.”
Tesla’s former CEO went on to elaborate, explaining the Roadster “[w]ill use Spacex cold gas thruster system with ultra high pressure air in a composite over-wrapped pressure vessel in place of the 2 rear seats.”
Is he kidding? Has he taken Ambien with red wine again? It must be kept in mind there’s a reason why the audacious Musk is now the former CEO of Tesla, having been removed from that position by the board for making outrageous public statements, and fined millions by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission for very publicly announcing on social media that he was taking Tesla stock private.
Then again, last year he said that there would be a Spacex option package that would “dramatically improve acceleration, top speed, braking and cornering” and possibly even “allow a Tesla to fly.”
It might sound insane, but this is the automaker that already offers software upgrades to boost its Model S P90D’S “Insane” acceleration setting to a new level it calls “Ludicrous.” Also keep in mind that, while not available yet, the all-electric Roadster 2.0 has already been clocked at sub-two-second zero to 60 times, which would make it the fastest production car ever. With a top speed of 250 mph and a quarter-mile time of 8.8 seconds, it outruns the 840-hp Challenger Demon, which Dodge created specifically for drag racing.
The Roadster 2.0 has been scheduled as a 2020 model, with a $200,000 price. first Roadste rm made 2008-2012 and based on the frame of a British-made Lotus sports car.
— Mark Hempstead