Unveiling on X

The Tesla Roadster unveiling on October 15, 2026, at SpaceX's test site in McGregor, Texas, lit up X. This page collects the best posts: Tesla's own announcements, what Elon Musk said, what the car magazines said, how people reacted, and the jokes. Every line links to the original post. Figures are Tesla's claims from its posts, not independent tests. Dates are US Central time.

Photos from Tesla

Official photos and video stills from Tesla's own posts on X. Tap a photo to see it larger, with a link to the original post. All © Tesla, Inc.

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  Head-on at night, doors up
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  Design inspired by the SR-71 and F-35
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  Road Mode
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  Door raised
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  Rear wing and taillight
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  Rear thruster nozzles
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  Compressed-gas tank (COPV)
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  Light, thin-spoke wheel
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  Flush body surfaces
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  At the event track
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  At the foot of the ramp

From Tesla

• Event day. Tesla posted its livestream link hours before the show.
• Design. Tesla says its design language has evolved "from S3XY to Cybertruck, Cybercab & Optimus", and that the Roadster is inspired by the SR-71 and F-35 jets.
• A pilot's car. "Roadster is a true pilot's car: active aerodynamics, a multi-mode suction system & cold-gas thrusters", with concealed headlights, a full-length taillight and flush surfaces.
• Three versions. Performance (road ready, two seats, active aerodynamics and the suction system) and Thrust (race ready, two seats, the suction system plus rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters for 0–60 in under one second).
• Thrusters from SpaceX. Tesla says SpaceX has used thrusters to position spacecraft for decades; making them work in a car "instead of a vacuum took all-new hardware & controls", and every usable space in the car holds carbon-fiber pressure tanks (COPVs) for compressed gas.
• More than tire grip. "Roadster's thruster system generates 4–5x the force the tires can… physics does the rest."
• Track Mode. The car transforms in Track Mode; Tesla calls it "the best passive downforce package of any road car (approaching F1 levels!)", with the wing moved by its Optimus robot actuators.
• The jump. "Real life, baby", with video of the ramp stunt. Later: "Do a kickflip!"
• 0–60 mph in 0.81 seconds, and 0.67 seconds with rollout subtracted, according to Tesla.

From Elon Musk

• The night before: "The new Tesla Roadster is a candidate for greatest product demo of all time."
• Event morning: "New Roadster is beyond movies, beyond imagination, beyond human, yet still made by humans on Earth."
• After the show: "Turns out the future does have flying cars."

What the car magazines said

• Edmunds, at the event: "The Tesla Roadster is real and it can fly and it looks incredible in person."
• Motor1: "Well, it's finally here—this is the new Tesla Roadster", listing 0–60 mph in under one second, a fan generating 2 g of grip, thrusters from SpaceX, "and it can fly (allegedly)".
• Car and Driver: "Revealed! New Tesla Roadster Takes Flight and Does Barrel Rolls with the Help of SpaceX Thrusters."
• Hagerty called it "the car that broke the internet overnight". In its video series The Driver's Seat, Henry Catchpole goes behind the scenes with Tesla's vice president of vehicle engineering, Lars Moravy.
• Top Gear was there and wrote "Wow: the new Tesla Roadster can actually fly" and "The Tesla Roadster has finally landed: thrusters, 0-60mph in 0.59s… and *flight*".
• MotorTrend followed the event live with updates.

Reactions

• Sam Altman, head of OpenAI and a longtime Musk rival: "Wow the new roadster looks quite amazing, good job @elonmusk."
• Sawyer Merritt, Tesla investor, at the event: "OMG the Tesla Roadster just flew in the air!" He also posted close-ups:
  • the thrusters, which use compressed gas;
  • the rear wing, which "deploys for traction, stows for speed";
  • the battery and drive unit, which he says are one-third more powerful than the Model S Plaid's at half the mass;
  • the cockpit and its on-screen controls, "like nothing else Tesla has designed".
• Teslarati: "Still processing this ... the most unreal thing I've seen."

The first 36 hours

More posts from the night of the show and the day after. Figures are claims from the posts, not independent tests.

Live, during the show

• Polymarket: "BREAKING: Tesla's Roadster goes airborne, soaring over a row of Tesla vehicles in a live stunt at its unveiling event."
• Sawyer Merritt: "This is the all-new Tesla Roadster, which will start production in 2028."
• Nick Sortor quoted Musk on stage: "This going to be a car that people can OWN! It's gonna be pretty wild that you can have a rocket car!" Minutes later he posted: "Elon Musk's new Tesla Roadster just did 0-60 in 0.81 SECONDS. And it was LIVE in front of MILLIONS of people."
• Teslaconomics: "Elon and the @Tesla team absolutely nailed the design of the next-gen Tesla Roadster… Tesla showed us something that goes way beyond a faster sports car."

The day after

• Elon Musk, late that night: "My OG Roadster is still orbiting Mars and Earth." That's the original 2008 Roadster that SpaceX launched into space in 2018.
• Elon Musk: "Even without rocket thrusters, Roadster will crush the best Formula 1 track times, because we are using suction and active control surfaces, both of which are banned by F1."
• Reservations open. The Tesla Newswire reported the reservation page: Performance is $5,000 due today (refundable) and $45,000 within 10 days. Thrust is limited, with $5,000 today and $245,000 within 10 days. Rocket is by invitation. Ming added that Thrust is capped at one order per customer. Reservations opened in India too, with deposits of ₹50 lakh for Performance and ₹2.5 crore for Thrust.
• Sawyer Merritt summed up new details from interviews: a battery cell made just for the Roadster, which he says is Tesla's fastest charging (15–80% in 10 minutes), and a goal of refilling the thruster tank in under 30 minutes.
• Trung Phan on Hagerty's interview with Lars Moravy: a 200-liter carbon-wrapped tank behind the seat holds nitrogen at 10,000 psi to help make 0–60 mph possible in 0.55 seconds. He called it "truly insane".
• Marques Brownlee (MKBHD), the top tech reviewer on YouTube, posted his video "The NEW Tesla Roadster Event: My Honest Reaction".

Fun reactions

Within minutes the internet turned the stunts into jokes. Some people compared the flips to the video game Rocket League, and others pictured taking the car to work. Picture posts are linked; tap through to see them on X.

• Teslaconomics: "OMG… the Tesla Roadster just went upside down on a half pipe and landed!"
• "I'm done with traffic. Y'all be safe down there. 😂🚀" A reply to Musk, with a made-up picture of the Roadster flying over cars in a tunnel.
• "Me on my way to work tmr": a picture of a car flying over the highway signs.
• "Car insurance underwriters like", over a picture of a very tired man.
• "I'll never tell anyone I won the lottery, but there will be signs", over Tesla's photo of the Roadster flipping over the Tesla lineup.
• "Just remember which button is which": a video of the Roadster stuck in New York taxi traffic.
• Daniel Miessler: "This fake AI video that's going around about the flying Tesla roadster is, um… not a fake AI video. It's an actual video wtf."
• Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia: "So the Tesla Roadster can fly. Next tell me why it can fly, @ElonMusk."
• Austen Allred: "The conspiracy theories that the Roadster demo was faked are my favorite thing on X right now. Don't miss them."
• Sawyer Merritt, leaving the event: "The hype going into this event was sky-high, yet Tesla somehow managed to exceed expectations… That was the most insane product demo I've ever seen."

See also

• News
• Flight and the SpaceX package
• Specifications