Mysterious Clay Model?

WhiteKnight said:

On a lark I watched the recruitment video on Tesla's career page and at 1:23 in the video they showed a clay model which at first glance looks like Model S but upon closer examination may be BlueStar since it looks to be a shorter wheelbase with shorter overhangs.

What do you think?

[video=vimeo;15411923]http://vimeo.com/15411923[/video]

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I need to take another look at this.

The clay model is of the Model S...just look at the body line.

When I first saw that video I assumed it was Model S (mostly due to the turbine wheels). I noticed it was shorter but thought maybe it wasn't a scale model. The front end has definitely been chopped off though.

WhiteKnight said:

On a lark I watched the recruitment video on Tesla's career page and at 1:23 in the video they showed a clay model which at first glance looks like Model S but upon closer examination may be BlueStar since it looks to be a shorter wheelbase with shorter overhangs.

What do you think?

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Looks like a two door coupe.

Nice find !! I can only hope that is what it appears !! Love it so far

Hmm... does have a coupe/two-door look to it.



Hard to say, though. It might just be the aspect ratio of the video. Also there's no B-pillar in the model to give a sense of how the doors open. But assuming the wheels are the same size, it certainly isn't a Model S.

doug said:

Hmm... does have a coupe/two-door look to it.

Hard to say, though. It might just be the aspect ratio of the video. Also there's no B-pillar in the model to give a sense of how the doors open. But assuming the wheels are the same size, it certainly isn't a Model S.

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I assume you mean video image (not digital) compression or squeeze. Aspect ratio is just the height to width ratio of the frame. If the image was distorted the round wheels would clearly show any deformation

An clay photo overlay with the S would reveal some info. 2 versions. One lining up the wheels and another trying to match the general shape with the S to see where the wheels fall.

I also think the clay has a two door boxy look.

Not the best overlay (only took 30 seconds in MS paint), but it at least gives some idea the differences between the clay model and the model S.

Amazing looking so far.

vfx said:

I assume you mean video image (not digital) compression or squeeze. Aspect ratio is just the height to width ratio of the frame. If the image was distorted the round wheels would clearly show any deformation

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Yeah, that's what I meant. I was specifically looking at the wheels which do look basically round, though the tires look a lot thicker on the inside than on the outside.

Anyhow, looks good and a logical direction to go, though I'm sure we're a ways off from learning much more. Looks like a shorter wheel base so maybe a smaller battery pack. Perhaps 12 or 14 modules instead of the 16 in the Model S.

In looking at the overlays I would say it is more likely a Model S coupe than a Bluestar. Just too big. Maybe more like a BMW 6 than a 3.

Model S younger sibling. :tongue:

Kevin Harney said:

In looking at the overlays I would say it is more likely a Model S coupe than a Bluestar. Just too big. Maybe more like a BMW 6 than a 3.

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You don't know that the scale is the same.

dpeilow said:

You don't know that the scale is the same.

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Exactly I wouldn't expect those wheels to be 21" behemoths.

Maybe looking at the bolt circles is a good measure of scale.

When I overlayed the two pictures, I used the wheels as the scale item (made them both the same size) If the clay model's wheels are smaller than 21's, the scale will be off (this was a 30 second hack job)

Kevin Harney said:

In looking at the overlays I would say it is more likely a Model S coupe than a Bluestar. Just too big. Maybe more like a BMW 6 than a 3.

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A better guess. Tesla has hinted that there will be one more car on the S platform before the Bluestar platform is made.

This might be it.

Wheels are only 9 spokes, compared to 10 on the Model S. They look smaller, too, based on the bolt spacing from the hub.

It seem very unlikely that Tesla would be this careless with leaking photos or info... we've only seen one teaser of the model x and they've been very clear about their confidentiality policy with their workers. Bluestar is probably still close to a paper napkin drawing right now since it's to debut in about 2015. even if it is a coupe, that is probably 2 or 3 years away. this video is also over a year old... something to think about...

Robert.Boston said:

Wheels are only 9 spokes, compared to 10 on the Model S. They look smaller, too, based on the bolt spacing from the hub.

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The Alpha/Beta Model S seem to have 10 spoke wheels, but the original concept cars had 9 spoke versions like on that clay model...