Revealed! New Tesla Roadster Takes Flight with SpaceX Thrusters

UPDATE 10/15/26, 9:30 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with photos and info from tonight’s reveal event at SpaceX’s testing facility in McGregor, Texas.

Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have finally revealed the long-awaited follow-up to the brand’s first production car, the Roadster. It’s been a long time coming—nine years, in fact—since we saw the ambitious concept for the second-generation electric sports car, but during tonight’s event, which was attended by a select group of fans, media, and investors as well as livestreamed on Musk’s social media platform, X, the new Tesla Roadster was unveiled in spectacular fashion, with a prototype driving upside down and actually taking flight.

It’s now obvious why the event needed to be held outdoors, as its debut featured an arching Hot Wheels-like structure that a Roadster prototype was able to drive up thanks to a fan system underneath the car that Tesla claims provides 2 g’s of suction, allowing it to stick to the road. After driving up the towering structure, the prototype’s thrusters, which were supplied by SpaceX and said to produce over 80 kilonewtons of force, allowed it to fly forward and do a barrel roll before they slowly helped it land safely on the ground in a cloud of white smoke.

“It can basically fly like a rocket,” Musk told the crowd. “It can do, like, crazy gymnastics. Whatever you want.” He also added, jokingly, “This is not necessarily a safety-optimized car, but it takes the fun meter to 11 out of 10.”

Musk went on to say that the Roadster will be an actual car that’s on the roads. Though it’s also worth noting that he said, “I’m not sure it’s necessarily legal in all jurisdictions, but there will be such a car that someone can own.” While the CEO didn’t provide many specs or say how much the production car will cost, he did say that they will start building it in 2028, adding “actually” with a laugh.

During the event, the Roadster prototype was also shown doing multiple acceleration tests, with the help of its four rear-mounted thrusters. The first run to 60 mph was done in a claimed one second. When Musk was reminded that he had promised the car would hit the mile-per-minute mark in less than one second, the Roadster’s second run was done in a claimed 0.8 second. Musk then said that they anticipate they’ll be able to do even better than that. And if you’re wondering whether this thing will need jet fuel to power its thrusters, fret not, as they’re actually fed by ultra-high-pressure air tanks, which the car can recharge itself.

What about top speed? Well, Musk claims the new Roadster will do “over 230 mph,” but he said they want to crack half the speed of sound (383 mph). Among Musk’s other big claims during the event, he said, “It’s going to crush every track record that has ever existed.” He also said that, long term, the Roadster will be the only manually driven car that Tesla makes—implying that the rest of the company’s fleet will eventually be autonomous.

There were also few details about the Roadster’s interior, though we did get a short glimpse during the livestream, which showed the coupe’s butterfly doors opening to reveal a two-seat cabin with a yoke-style steering wheel to the left of a large horizontally oriented screen.

Tesla says the Roadster’s design was inspired by aircraft such as the SR-71 Blackbird and F-35, and the wedge-shaped super EV also has a striking resemblance to the white Lotus Esprit S1 that James Bond drove in The Spy Who Loved Me. While that famous movie car was able to turn into a submarine, it didn’t have a large active rear wing like the Roadster prototype.

Now that we’ve seen it in person, we can tell that the deployed version was used in the reveal’s teaser image, only it was upside down. Tesla says this trick rear wing has two modes—high drag and high downforce—and it can automatically adjust its pitch. The Roadster’s fan system also has two modes: one that can suction the car to the ground at low speeds for increased traction, and another for high-speed performance that opens up the front and rear sections of the suction system to create even more flow underneath the car.

We should also point out that the prototype doing the stunts was different than the one that was driven on stage. The big giveaway is the wheels, with the flying car featuring hubcaps similar to those seen on the Tesla Cybercab and Cybertruck; the on-stage car featured a set of more intricately styled wheels (pictured above).

However, Tesla has since revealed that the Roadster will be available in three configurations: Performance, Thrust, and Rocket. The Performance will seat two passengers and feature both the active rear wing and fan system. The Thrust will have the same layout and hardware but add rear-mounted cold-gas thrusters. Finally, the Rocket will have the active aero, fan system, and rear thrusters, but it will only have a driver’s seat and add perimeter-mounted thrusters, which Tesla claims will allow it to move forward, upward, and perform lateral rotations (a.k.a. fly).

To see the spectacle that was the new Tesla Roadster reveal for yourself, you can watch the recorded livestream at the link below.

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Eric Stafford’s automobile addiction began before he could walk, and it has fueled his passion to write news, reviews, and more for Car and Driver since 2016. His aspiration growing up was to become a millionaire with a Jay Leno–like car collection. Apparently, getting rich is harder than social-media influencers make it seem, so he avoided financial success entirely to become an automotive journalist and drive new cars for a living. After earning a journalism degree at Central Michigan University and working at a daily newspaper, the years of basically burning money on failed project cars and lemon-flavored jalopies finally paid off when Car and Driver hired him. His garage currently includes a 2010 Acura RDX, a manual ’97 Chevy Camaro Z/28, and a ’90 Honda CRX Si.