The new Tesla Roadster remains very much a work in progress and won’t be on sale before 2028. Tesla is taking $50,000 deposits for reservations, however, and has listed three versions of the car.
The two-seat base Performance has a 1,500+ hp rear wheel drive system and a fan-driven underbody suction system for grip, along with adjustable aerodynamics that can switch from low-drag to high downforce modes.
A Thrust model adds a 200-liter compressed air tank and four nozzles sticking out the back of the car that can be used for acceleration and drops its 0-60 mph time from about 1.6 seconds to .85 seconds, Tesla’s top engineer Lars Moravy told Top Gear.
The burst lasts for up to five seconds, so it can be used for quarter-mile sprints, but it takes a long time to refill the tank. That’s accomplished on prototypes by hooking them up to an external high pressure nitrogen pump, but Tesla is working on a pump that will be built into the vehicle. Moravay said it currently takes two to six hours to fill the tank, which is installed behind the cabin like a mid-engine motor, but that they’re working to get that down to under a half-hour.
Then there’s the top-of-the line Rocket model, which is the one that can “fly” short distances. It adds six nozzles to the car – four for lift and two for attitude adjustment – but deletes one seat.
That’s not because it moves the driver/pilot to the center, but because it installs another 400-liter tank next to them for a combined 600 liters and 250 kg of capacity, which is required to pull of the sort of airborne acrobatics that were displayed at the Roadster’s launch event.
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Those cars did not have anyone on board, however, and were autonomously/remotely controlled. It’s also not clear if they were equipped with a full interior and battery pack that simulated the target production weight.
In any event, don’t expect to use the Roadster Rocket to avoid traffic on the highway. Its total fight time will be measured in seconds, even with the extra tank, and Tesla says it is “not approved for public road use.” It will likely also require an FAA certification and at least a Sport Pilot Certificate to operate it, even on private property.
