Random Roadster Sightings

[Mycroft]

Yesterday in Seattle, saw a nice blue one. I think the plates were RCKTSHP or some variation of that. Pretty cool!

Unfortunately we were getting on the freeway and no chance to use my cell cam.

[TEG]

Not exactly random, but:
Tesla Facebook

Fresh from his record-setting ascent of Pike's Peak, Nobuhiro Tajima stopped by Tesla yesterday. Here, he poses with the first production Roadster, "P1". After his test drive he said, "the responsiveness and power from the Roadster is what we have always strived for, but never achieved, in my 1000hp race car!"

[TEG]

Incompatible Browser | Facebook

[benji4]

The Electric Blue Roadster above is one of the first 2 demo cars in Tokyo and the first Roadster I got a chance to drive about a year ago when Tesla showed up in Tokyo. Since then it's been upgraded with a 2.5 front bumper and wheels, and it's now for sale! They want 9.5 million yen for it which comes out to about $114,000 at current exchange rates. It's a Roadster 2.0 Sport with no options, but note that they did stick a CF front diffuser on it for some reason...

[sprediletto]

I met a guy outside of a Palo Alto restaurant over 2 years ago. At that time, he had a Thunder Grey 1.5 with vanity plate 185KW. I think VIN 0069. It was the first Roadster I had seen and he was very gracious with his time; answering all of my questions. This encounter started my love affair with Tesla Motors and two years later, I bought one for myself.

[TEG]

[sprediletto]

TEG, You are amazing. Find his name and I'll buy you dinner.

[TEG]

By the way, 185KW was one of the plate ideas I posted a long time ago:
Tesla Roadster vanity license plates
And Thunder Gray would have been my 'color' of choice... Sadly that isn't my car.

[Doug_G]

By random chance I met an engineer from Transport Canada last night. He's one of four engineers authorized to drive the government's Tesla Roadster. (They strictly limit who can drive it -- only those four engineers are allowed.)

TC has a program helping in the development of ANSI standards for electric vehicle mileage. Apparently they are testing a variety of EVs including Leaf, iMiev, motorbikes, etc. He said he personally really liked the iMiev, which he also said would be available in Canada soon.

The Tesla has only been driven on a track and on a dyno, but has about 20,000 km on it (mostly on the dyno). He said he expects they'll sell it in a couple of years. Crown Assets is currently selling one of their vehicles, a Vectrix electric motorbike.

Here (again) is the car in question; it spent the winter in storage mode on display at a local museum:

[smorgasbord]

This is from a couple week's ago:



At least one of the cars there has a double-digit VIN, and one was literally only one day old.