Today we have one of the first Teslas ever made.
This is number 136 and it's called a Tesla Roadster.
She's 15 years old right now and I've owned her for the past 6 years.
With 24 ,000 miles on the odometer she's still running
like a champ, although Elon wasn't too keen on her in the beginning.
[Elon]- Frankly, this car, although it technically passed all the
regulatory requirements for a street legal car, was
completely unsafe and broke down all the time.
Yeah, it didn't work really and it was stuck in second gear.
[Zack]- I have my own thoughts on the first Tesla the world ever saw,
and the first Tesla the world ever saw leave the planet.
I've had a lot of good memories with her over the past 6 years.
She was even the getaway car for my wedding.
Let's hear it start, Zach!
But the purpose of this video is that the time has come for us to part ways.
It's not you, it's me.
And I'll explain.
Let's get started.
While I think this car is the most interesting vehicle on the
planet, you don't have to take my word for it.
This Tesla Roadster made appearances in the first Iron
Man when he was testing out his suit for the first time.
Elon loaned them a Tesla Roadster just for the filming of the Iron Man movie.
Also, believe it or not, the Roadster makes an appearance in Batman...kind of.
Listen closely to the sound that the Roadster makes while accelerating.
That exact noise was used for the Batcycle in The Dark Knight
that was released back in 2008,
as well as again in The Dark Knight Rises that was released in 2012,
which coincidentally are the same years that the
Roadster began production and ended production.
If it's good enough for Iron Man and Batman, it's good enough for me.
It's pretty crazy that Tesla has over 4 .5 million vehicles
on the road right now and out of all of those vehicles,
this one right here is number 136.
Elon gave Tesla a 10 % chance of succeeding and now Tesla's
the most valuable automotive brand on the planet...and off
the planet, which brings us to space.
Stacked inside the fairing is Elon's cherry red Tesla
Roadster, and inside of it, a passenger.
His name is Starman, but don't worry, he's not human.
There's currently a Tesla headed to Mars.
Elon being Elon, he successfully launched his own
personal cherry red Roadster, VIN number 686, into space on
February 2018 with a Falcon Heavy rocket.
Tesla didn't make all that many Roadsters to begin with, only about 2 ,500,
which means that the originals are extremely rare and him
launching one to Mars made them all that much more exclusive.
Now that we have a bit of the history out of the way, let's
take a look at how the original Tesla was made.
Can't tell.
The Tesla Roadster is an extremely tiny car.
From the outside, obviously we have four wheels, two doors, a
very nice carbon fiber top.
There is no front trunk.
I'll open this up in a second.
And a very small back hatch also we'll open up in a second.
It's extremely low to the ground.
We have the charging port right here which is not compatible
with the most recent, you know, supercharging network that Tesla has.
And another little interesting tidbit is that we have one giant windshield wiper.
So when you see the Cybertruck with its windshield wiper, just
know that it all started here with the Roadster.
Opening up the rear.
Elon says it's just big enough for one bag of golf clubs.
I don't golf so I've never tested that out.
We have the battery management system here, the battery there,
and the electric motor which I'll show you in a second by the rear tires.
Also back here we have emergency flat repair that is
probably expired, as well as this is the coolant that is being pumped through the battery.
I'm not sure if it's being pumped through the motor,
but for sure the battery.
Making our way around to the front.
This opens up the opposite direction.
There's no front this time around, just some fans that
handle the cooling of the AC inside the cab as well as the cooling of the battery.
Pretty sweet.
As we get down inside the car, things get pretty unique.
Like with any car built in 2008, we have our normal power
windows, we have our air conditioner control, we even
have seat heaters, along with our reverse neutral drive traction control button.
But there are some really quirky things about the car.
Kind of hard to get a good look at it, but right back here,
this is where the lumbar support is.
It's just a little squeezy stress ball thing.
As well as the cup holder,
we have a stereo, manual AC vents, not really any glove
compartment to speak of.
The speedometer goes up to 150.
Elon says the top speed is 125.
We'll check that in a second.
We have a redundant RPM gauge as well as a digital screen over here.
Right off the lot, the original Roadster had a range of about 244 miles.
Now after 15 years, we're getting a little closer to 200.
But 200 is plenty because I'm definitely not taking any road trips in this car.
It's really interesting to see how everything was put together.
The first hundred or so of these vehicles were called a
version 1 .0 and shipped with a dual speed transmission.
However, the electric motor was so powerful that it was
shredding gearboxes within the first thousand miles of ownership.
So Tesla switched out that dual speed gearbox for a single
speed gearbox and updated the motor design and called the next version a 1 .5.
My VIN number 136 is one of those version 1 .5s that
already ship with the upgrades in place.
The electric motor is a three phase induction motor with 248
horsepower and 200 pound feet of torque.
During assembly it got lowered into the trunk of the Roadster
to get bolted to the top of the frame.
Then the battery, which weighs 992 pounds and has 6 ,831
individual lithium ion cells inside, got raised up from
underneath the car and sits just behind the driver and passenger seat.
It holds 53 kilowatt hours worth of power.
Quite a bit different than the skateboard design electric
vehicles we have today with all the batteries under the floor.
But how does this 15 year old electric vehicle drive?
When it comes to driving though, this thing handles like a
roller coaster without rails, mostly because of how small it
is and how low to the ground it is.
At 2 ,600 pounds it is super heavy and there's also no power
steering, but it just makes it feel...makes the driving feel more real.
Elon shipped the bodies and frames over from the UK from
the Lotus Elise factory.
But even with that starting point, everything had to be
modified extensively to fit the new drivetrain and hardware,
plus all the additional weight from that battery pack.
The body was lengthened about 6 inches, widened, and all the
body panels had to be changed.
Tesla only left about 7 % of the original Lotus pieces
unmodified, like the airbags and windshield.
Like I mentioned earlier, Elon says the top speed of this bad
boy is 125 miles an hour, which, you know I have to put that to the test.
I'm not nervous.
You're nervous.
There was a Cars for Kids charity race near my house
where I took my red Roadster and Dan, from What's Inside,
took his blue Roadster to max him out.
Entry fees and speeding tickets all going to charity.
And while that race was extremely fun, I was only able
to hit a top speed of 120 miles an hour.
Oh no, it's stuck at 120!
Dang it!
Not quite the advertised 125.
Dan's slightly newer blue Roadster was able to hit a
faster 122 miles an hour.
But even with that advantage, I was able to complete the course
a full 3 seconds faster than Dan.
- We're going to go again?
- Sense says, we all know, the driver is just as important as the car.
My Roadster is 15 years old though, so I don't blame it for
losing a few miles per hour off its top speed.
Back in the day, the original Tesla Roadsters were selling for $99,000.
However, with the success of Tesla and the second gen
Roadster coming out soon, these originals have turned into collector's items.
However, I am not a collector.
Recently, VIN number 13 just sold for $250 ,000.
Now, it was an earlier VIN with a lot less miles, so I don't
think mine's going to fetch the exact same price.
The reason I'm selling it is to buy some new manufacturing
equipment for my wheelchair business.
We need a multi -stack 11 -axis CNC bender that costs $450 ,000,
and I'm hoping that selling this classic piece of history
will get me a good chunk of the way there.
So if yourself or someone you know is a really cool person
who wants a cool car and wants the money to go to a cool place,
maybe share this video with them.
Or tag them on social media so they know that one of the first
Teslas ever made could be theirs.
I'll have this car listed in the video description on privateauto .com.
Huge thanks to Private Auto for supporting the listing and this video.
Private Auto is like the Venmo for private car sales, meaning
there's no need to carry around cash or cashier's checks.
Buyers and sellers of cars, trucks, and motorcycles can
instantly receive and send funds.
Plus, sellers like myself can verify funds and verify buyers
before going on a test drive.
And Private Auto simplifies the process by giving us the
ability to e -sign the bill of sale right in the app.
It's the safest way to buy and sell vehicles privately.
So if you have a car of your own to sell and want the
easiest way to close the deal, Private Auto is the way to go.
The ideal situation would be that the sale of this car
covers at least half of the bender, but I am open to offers.
And if Elon is tuning in, I know your other Red Roadster is
kind of hard to get to right now, so this might make a good backup.
Or, you know, launch it into space.
I'm cool either way.
Subscribing to my YouTube channel is always going to be free.
However, if you do have an extra $5, we have monthly
behind the scenes access to everything that's happening
around here from a manufacturing perspective.
100 % of all of those membership costs go straight
towards helping get wheelchairs to people who need them because
I don't make any money off of this project and I can't do it without you.
I am sad to see this car go, but I am very happy that I got
to own this piece of history for as long as I did.
This is the vehicle right here that sparked the modern EV era.
Thanks a ton for watching, and I'll see you around.