This early Tesla Roadster is highly collectible. It is not only the last 1.5 Roadster built, a one-of color, and a one owner car.
This Roadster, like many, has a unique back story.
Originally Tesla promised the customer VIN 500 the last car when he put in the deposit and asked for a late VIN. (He wanted them to get the bugs out!)
They came back a year later saying I could have 498 since they were not going to make a VIN 500 and 499 was already promised. He convinced them to reinstate the cool number that had been originally promised making this VIN 500 the last 1.5 made.
The unique color was painted at the Lotus factory in England in an Infiniti shade called: Autumn Copper, The gorgeous paint has just been professionally detailed at an Agoura Hills CA exotic car specialty shop. Note: pictures showing the car on grass with new carbon fiber hood piece are most current. The original hood part in copper is included in sale.
The sale includes the lighter weight aftermarket Taylor Mesh tops (there were two styles) were made originally made for the Lotus and Tesla communities for summer drives when you want the wind but not the burn. Of course it has the original soft top with a repair.
This car has a salvage title. The owner was driving down a freeway in California, where this car has spent the last 12 years, and a pipe fell off a truck in front of him. He ended up running over it, and it punctured the underside chassis with a hole about the size of a softball. The insurance company wanted to replace not only the tub, but entire underside chassis which would include the vehicle frame as well. Insurance companies sometimes handle claims in strange ways, and this approach ended up being overkill, and cost prohibitive, so they totaled the car. The owner wisely bought the car back from the insurance company, and had the punctured underside tub repaired by a reputable body shop, and kept this Roadster on the road.
This Roadster has another rare and sought after limited feature – Fondmetal 7400 5 Spoke grey cast wheels. Tesla legend has it that Elon decided that these early one color charcoal grey wheels did not have enough pop, so going forward this wheel style would now include a polished metallic spoke face. The wheels on this Roadster are the pre-modification, and very few were sold with Roadsters and these look amazing with the copper paint. The car comes with one spare wheel with repairable damage.
The Roadster includes a Martin Eberhard Charge cable which was built before the J1772 standard even existed! It has a Roadster plug on one end approximately 15 feet a cable and a junction box at the other end. The box has a power light and charge light. It sports a female California connector and there is a collection of five pigtails with a male California connector on one end and different plugs on the other. 1450, 1430, 120 Edison plug and two other obscure plugs. (photos) Martin does free repairs.
Tech details. As seen in the screen shot showing a matrix of all 0s, the battery is perfectly balanced. A former LA Tesla repair shop manager has given the car a clean and good working order signoff. Car charges to 200 miles in RANGE mode and 160 miles in STANDARD mode. A low milage car with only 65000 traveled but even better, a new battery pack was installed at 24000 miles. Brake discs are recently replaced as well.
INCLUDED EXTRAS:
Roaster specific car cover that has mesh at charge venting areas and flap for charging
Original Roadster mobile charge cable
Lightweight Taylor Mesh top
Martin Eberhard five pigtail charge adaptor kit
Damaged wheel
Original mounted fire extinguisher (rare)
Three keys (one original T fob)
Updated with HID headlight bulbs (originals included)
Parts box of original OVMS 1.0
Original Towkit
Lock wheel nuts
Steve Casner stainless front license plate frame (never installed)
Tesla T valve stem caps (never installed)
Original CA clean air sticker (never applied to car)
Misc. box of Roadster related bits
Owner has the following accessories for sale:
3 tires -25% off current list prices
The robust Taylor Mesh Top made by inserting mesh into a standard top for full window seal ($1200)
CAN Jr Roadster to J1772 plug adaptor – $1,200
CAN Sr Roadster to Tesla plug adaptor – $1,200
Original Tesla wall charger with original included fire alarm – $1,200
This listing is courtesy of Gruber Motor Company—the largest commercial independent Tesla service organization in the USA!
If you haven’t heard of them, they’re the ones doing all the work to save original Tesla Roadsters, and they’re awesome!
Gruber represents private sellers who own various Tesla Roadsters, so if you’re interested in this Roaster—get in touch with them via the contact form on this listing!