As kids, we would often fantasize about taking a ride in a flying car, be it inspired from Luc Besson’s classic sci-fi movie ‘The Fifth Element’ or Hanna-Barbera’s space-age animated sitcom ‘The Jetsons’. Just last week, Tesla’s CEO and Product Architect Elon Musk hinted that a ‘special upgrade’ of its new Roadster supercar might be capable of doing precisely that.
Revealing first units of the supercar in an event in California, Musk said that the new Roadster, set to arrive in the year 2020 after years of hinting at a release, was capable of flying in short skips across distances. Ready to break all speed records of production cars with a top speed of over 250 mph and an acceleration of 0 to 60 in a spectacular 1.9 seconds, the new Roadster is, unlike other gas guzzling supercars, an electric vehicle capable of travelling an impressive 620 miles on a single charge of its 200 kWh battery. To quote Musk himself, it is a ‘smackdown’ to all the other fossil fuel dependent machines who have been a major cause of environmental concern in our time.
The new Roadster, with its tremendous engine power, also has claimed the distinction of being the first production supercar to break the 2 second barrier. Priced at a not so insignificant $200,000, the Roadster supercar is practically a ‘super steal’ for the performance it is believed to deliver, although the first thousand units, part of the limited edition Founder’s series, shall be tagged at slightly more expensive price of $250,000. The new Roadster is breathtakingly stylish and being a 2+2, manages to fit in four people inside it comfortably. Similar to previous supercars launched by Tesla, the new Roadster has an all-wheel drive, with three engines powering its wheels, one under the hood and two in the rear.
Initially skeptical about the concept of flying cars, stating that they would make for very noisy contraptions given the tremendous wind-force that would be generated, Musk very quickly developed a penchant for the technology. The Roadster was one of the first production cars of Tesla, designed during its incentive period and taking the automotive market by storm during the period from 2008 to 2012, before Elon Musk turned his attention to other superior models. The launch of the new Roadster must have surely brought back some sweet remembrances from the past for the Green Technology crusader.
Leaving gasoline sports cars behind in the dirt, the new Roadster is part of the new electrical revolution in the automotive industry. If there is another movie in the Fast and the Furious franchise and you see the new Roadster pulling up to the starting line, you surely know which car to bet on. Well, I guess that is what you get when put a space rocket enthusiast in charge of the production of a supercar.
