Are Tesla’s claims for its new ‘flying’ Roadster real, or is it just full of cold gas? — SkimNews
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- Tesla re-unveiled its next-generation Roadster nearly nine years after the original 2017 debut, with CEO Elon Musk claiming sub-one-second 0-60 mph acceleration, the ability to fly, and driving upside down during the demo.
- The Roadster comes in three announced trims — Performance (1.6s 0-60), Thrust (0.85s), and Rocket (0.55s) — with only Rocket "air ready" via cold gas thrusters stored in 200L or 600L tanks (the larger tank sacrificing the rear seat).
- Tesla's "multi-mode suction system" uses four onboard fans drawing roughly 20kW each to glue the car to surfaces, an evolution of the McMurtry Speirling's fan-car design with patent-described adjustable skirts that lift at high speed.
- The demo's displayed downforce of 4,700kg on a sub-1,700kg car sits well above the McMurtry Speirling's ~2,000kg downforce on a ~1,000kg chassis — a ratio the author flags as potentially inflated.
- The Roadster's rear thrusters produce 80 kilo-Newtons of force to push past tire-traction limits, and side thrusters can aid cornering — but upward-firing "flying" thrusters add mass without aiding lap times, and Tesla caps cornering claims at over 2G versus McMurtry's 3G.
- Tesla enters an electric supercar segment already populated by the Rimac Nevera R, Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, Lotus Evija X, a McMurtry-derived car that already drives upside down, and a BYD with active-suspension jumping — diminishing the path-finding role Musk first pitched in 2017.
Why it matters: Tesla is roughly a decade late to the electric supercar segment where Rimac, Xiaomi, Lotus, and a McMurtry-derived track car already hold performance benchmarks and have already demonstrated upside-down driving. Even granting the cold-gas thrust and fan-car claims, the upward thrusters added for the flying demo increase mass without helping lap times, meaning the spectacle is selling the car more than the engineering is moving the segment forward.
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