From 0 to 100 km/h in less than a second – Tesla presents a flying sports car

First the sports car stands in front of a steep ramp. Then he accelerates. He goes higher and higher - and is still able to stay on the track. Finally, the car takes off and flies upside down, then twists around its own longitudinal axis in the air.

Nozzles fire, smoke rises - and the vehicle lands safely again with all four tires on the ground.

With this stunt, Elon Musk presented the Roadster, which had been announced for years, at a SpaceX test site in Waco, Texas, and spoke of a new era of mobility. “Flying cars are real,” the “Financial Times” quoted the Tesla boss from the presentation.

“You won’t believe what you see with your own eyes,” CNN also quotes Musk from the show. Therefore, there is a need for an audience who can testify that the performance is not an AI animation. The entrepreneur described the technology as “the result of a collaboration between the best car manufacturer and the best rocket company in the world.” During the presentation, the Roadster completed further flight maneuvers. In another clip, he flew over several parked vehicles.

According to Musk, the sports car should be able to accelerate from a standstill to 60 miles per hour (around 97 km/h) in 0.81 seconds thanks to cold gas engines. The production model will be even faster, Musk announced.

There should be these three variants of the roadster

According to Musk, the car will go into production in 2028. Tesla left it open how many vehicles of the versions with cold gas engines would actually be produced. However, all roadsters should have a suction system that is intended to improve road grip.

Tesla plans three model variants for the Roadster. While the “Performance” version should do without additional engines, the “Thrust” version will have cold gas nozzles at the rear, reports the “Golem” platform, among others, in detail.

The exclusive “Rocket” version will also be equipped with additional engines for upward movements and turning maneuvers. However, according to the company, the flight functions of this variant are not approved for public traffic. In addition, this version should only be accessible by invitation from the company. The top speed of the car is said to be more than 370 km/h.

However, Tesla did not provide a sales price for the sports car. However, if you want to secure a place on the waiting list, you have to deposit large amounts of money in advance: reservation payments totaling 50,000 euros are required for the performance version without nozzles alone, and even 250,000 euros for the more powerful thrust version.

Musk had already presented a prototype of the Roadster in 2017 and announced production would start in 2020. However, this date was postponed several times. The entrepreneur now explained that the Roadster should be the last Tesla vehicle that is still driven by people. In the future, Tesla will focus primarily on autonomous driving and humanoid robots.