Tesla Roadster Launch Behind the Scenes: Cutaway Car, Battery and Thrusters Up Close

Image: Tesla

Two YouTube channels that attended the Tesla Roadster launch have posted behind-the-scenes video from the night, including a close look at a cutaway car, the battery and motor, and the thruster hardware. That’s according to Out of Spec Reviews and DragTimes, whose hosts filmed a hands-on video and a walkthrough at SpaceX’s rocket test site near McGregor, Texas. Everything below is what the hosts say and show, not an official spec sheet from Tesla.

The Out of Spec Reviews hosts started filming before the show, and they say the whole event ran on Megapacks parked on trailers, which they count as about three megawatt-hours in total. They also point to the original Roadster, a Semi and a SpaceX booster on site, plus a display of giant carbon tanks they first guessed was a thruster refueler. They later say they never got a straight answer on that, noting that “someone told us this is the refueler, but then they said in the presentation, you don’t need to refuel.”

After the demo, the hosts reached a display with the battery pack cut open. They describe cooling loops snaking between the cells, a pack split into four bricks and a large “penthouse” section on the back. Next to it was the rear drive unit, with display text saying total system power is over 1 megawatt, and one host says “we’re in the mega car category.” He also spots an extra high-voltage port and wonders about a front motor, though Tesla’s Lars Moravy says the car is rear-wheel drive only, as we covered in our interview story.

The hosts also checked out a cutaway car, and they say the interior “feels very early prototypy.” The steering wheel is steer-by-wire with buttons for DRS, turn signals and boost, and the touchscreen offers active, balance, sport and custom modes. Track mode opens settings for acceleration, wing, downforce and suspension, and the screen shows a “booster ready” readout with thrust at 5,500 PSI. We covered the same screens in our touchscreen story.

Their overall take is mixed. They call the on-stage demo “the craziest car demo I’ve ever seen,” but say that unlike past Tesla events, the engineers weren’t talking. In their words, “No one wanted to talk tonight,” and they felt a little short changed on information.

The DragTimes host got there early for front-row seats and says guests were handed earplugs, which turned out to be for a Raptor engine static fire before the show. He walks past the Cybercab, the Semi and an original Roadster, then shows a big ramp and animated screens of the Roadster flipped upside down. During the demo, one presenter says the suction fan system can pull up to 2 G, and that “we borrowed some technology from SpaceX to do the rest.”

The same presenter says the team wanted to “break the laws of physics” with traction beyond what tires alone can give. The car has a high-downforce mode and a low-drag mode, and the fan system has two modes as well. At low speed it sucks the car down, and at high speed it opens up the front and rear of the suction system to move more air underneath. The host’s wrap-up puts 0 to 60 mph at about eight-tenths of a second, close to the 0.81-second run in our reveal story.

Up close, he shows the rear wing and its actuators, the four exhaust pipes for the thrusters and a light bar across the back. Underneath, he counts four large fans exhausting air from the suction skirt. He says the tank holds 10,000 PSI and can refill itself, which doesn’t match Moravy’s account in that interview of a 6 to 7 hour fill today, so treat that part as the host’s summary. He also says people texting him didn’t believe his footage: “They didn’t think it was real.”

The event itself slipped from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15 after Tesla delayed it over severe weather. Tesla’s stated targets are 0 to 60 mph in under 1.6 seconds for the Performance version, under 0.9 for Thrust and under 0.59 for the single-seat Rocket, with a range of more than 300 miles. Those remain targets, and reservations take a $50,000 deposit.

If you could ask Tesla’s engineers one question about the Roadster, what would it be?