Elon Musk’s Flying Car: Is the Viral Video Real?

OVERVIEW

Nearly a decade after it was announced, the new Tesla Roadster is finally here and it’s without question the fastest-accelerating production car ever made, capable of 0-60mph in less than one second. Oh, and it can fly. We’re not kidding.

The electric hypercar can defy gravity thanks to rocket technology borrowed from SpaceX, which is also owned by Elon Musk. “You’re going to see some crazy stuff tonight,” he told the crowd at the unveiling of the new Roadster. “What you see with your eyes, you will not believe!”

Its cold-gas thrusters fire out highly pressured air at faster than the speed of sound. ‘Thrust’ models feature four across the rear of the car that, supposedly, create over 80 kilonewtons of thrust – about the same amount as the engines in some fighter jets and commercial aeroplanes.

Meanwhile, the ultimate ‘Rocket’ version adds several more positioned around the Roadster that allow it to get airborne, leap over lorries and even do ‘kickflips’ in mid-air; something Tesla showed off a few times during the car’s unveiling. The thruster’s electric actuators deliver precise thrust control and micro-adjustments within a fraction of a second, to help with stabilisation in flight.

However, as mind-boggling as that is, it’s worth noting that these rocket thruster systems almost certainly aren’t street-legal; even Musk had to acknowledge that the car probably won’t be allowed on the road in some markets. Although Auto Express understands there is going to be a more grounded ‘Performance’ version that does without the performance-enhancing propulsion.

Tesla Roadster: 0-60mph in 0.81 seconds

For context, the Tesla can cover the 0-60mph sprint in less than half the time it takes traditional hypercars such as the Aston Martin Valkyrie or Bugatti Chiron to do the same sprint. To prove that's not all talk, during the live unveiling for the new Roadster, Tesla ran the car on a test pad and recorded an astonishing 0-60mph time of just 0.81 seconds.

Musk suggested the car would go even quicker though, telling the crowd that “we’ll ride the limit of ‘don’t detach the retina of the human in the car’”. Meanwhile, top speed will be more than 230mph, but again, Tesla’s CEO expressed his goal was to reach halfway to the speed of sound, which would be roughly 380mph and massively faster than any other road car to date.

The new Roadster is reportedly rear-wheel drive, which is very surprising for a hypercar, with its two dense e-motors supposedly producing one megawatt of power, which is about 1,340bhp. That’s more than the Tesla Model S Plaid supersaloon had, and that featured three motors. We don’t know the size of the battery yet, but Tesla has yet told us the range will be more than 300 miles.

Fans create nearly five tonnes of downforce

Every version of the new Roadster will feature a series of impellers that pull air out from beneath the car, sucking it into the tarmac and generating ludicrous amounts of downforce even when stationary.

The fan set-up apparently generates nearly five tonnes worth of downforce; so much, in fact, the car can drive upside down, which Tesla demonstrated during the reveal event that took place at SpaceX’s gigantic rocket development and test facility in McGregor, Texas.

The more practical benefit of the ‘Multi-Mode Suction System’ as Tesla calls it is the ludicrous amounts of downforce it produces while cornering makes it “look like you’re breaking physics because the car sticks to the ground so hard”, Musk said excitedly. Cornering forces supposedly exceed 2 G, which is about the same as a Formula One driver experiences.

There will be high-downforce and low-drag modes that can be used on the track, with the car lowering when in Track mode. Meanwhile, Tesla claims the new Roadster’s steer-by-wire system delivers incredible levels of feedback in various road conditions.

Why does it look like a Lamborghini or a Lotus?

The second-generation Roadster looks absolutely nothing like the prototype we saw nearly a decade ago when the project was first announced, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as the finished car you see here is far more striking and unique.

The wedge-shaped silhouette makes it look more like a Lamborghini or Lotus from the seventies than a Tesla. That’s not a coincidence; Tesla even admits the design was inspired in part by the iconic Lotus Esprit S1 that featured in the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me.

The electric hypercar is supposed to be “minimalist yet highly technical”, with hidden 'pop-down' headlights, a full-width light bar at the back and lots of active aerodynamics, including a gigantic rear wing that extends out of the tail and would make a Ferrari F80 jealous.

The new Roadster also took inspiration from jets and other awe-inspiring aerospace machines, with the ‘gold glazed’ tinted windows meant to mimic the copper coating that gives spacesuit visors their unique radiance. Even the Ano White paint was designed to provide UV and cryogenic protection when exposed to the harshness of space.

The interior, on the other hand, is exactly what we’d expect from Tesla. The incredibly minimalist cabin features very little, aside from a steering yoke that uses steer-by-wire technology, deep heavily bolstered racing seats, lots of microsuede upholstery and a central touchscreen that’s meant to be supported by two smaller displays which provide critical driving info, although we can see where they are based on the images released so far.

Originally, the new Roadster was going to be a four-seater. However, the final version offers seating for two in Performance and Thrust guise, while the ridiculous invite-only Rocket model only has one seat, and the seats are fixed to try and save weight. The car’s structure utilises magnesium, titanium and carbon fibre.

The new Tesla Roadster will go into production in 2028, Musk claims, nine years after this car was supposed to launch. Pricing is another one of the many technical details about this unfathomably-fast machine not confirmed at the time of writing. We do know that it’s going to be available exclusively in left-hand drive, however that doesn't mean the company won't sell the new Roadster in the UK. In fact, you can now reserve a Roadster, if you're willing to handover a £5,000 deposit.

With all the engineering that will have gone into the new Tesla Roadster over its nearly decade-long development – especially the rocket thrusters – it's sure to cost a lot more than the 200,000 to 250,000 dollars originally promised. For context, a Rimac Nevera costs close to £2 million.