Legit or nonsense: Jason Fenske grades Tesla's Roadster stunts
Two of the reveal's wildest tricks survive his napkin math, but a claim about the plain base car does not.
Engineering Explained
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Why this story? One of the most watched videos since yesterday, with 1,138,184 views.
I Fact-Checked Every Stunt in the Tesla Roadster Reveal
Things we can learn from the video
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- 0:34The three stunts under review: a suction-fan wall climb, a thruster-powered flight and a 0-60 mph run in 0.81 seconds.
- 1:34The wall climb works: underbody suction can hold the car upside down, though the fans and seals wear out.
- 6:25Nitrogen cold-gas thrusters could hover the car for about 6.75 seconds, enough for the four-second flight.
- 11:12A fanless base car reaching 60 mph in just over a second is ruled physically impossible.
- 13:54With fans and thrusters at peak output, the Thrust and Rocket versions' sub-second claims add up, at about 3.37 g.
- 16:32Tesla's record of changed specs and cancelled options leads to a warning: wait until cars actually ship.
Engineering Explained usually draws a little under 200,000 views a day across its entire library. Jason Fenske's look at the Tesla Roadster reveal took in more than a million on its own in about fourteen hours. That already puts it past his recent videos on tires and on his highlighter-orange Mach-E, which have each had weeks to collect views.
The premise is a game he calls "Legit or Nonsense." Tesla's launch came with three stunts: the car climbing a wall and hanging upside down, a thruster-powered leap over other cars, and a 0-60 mph run in 0.81 seconds. Fenske is a mechanical engineer who has owned two Teslas himself. He takes the stunts one at a time with what he calls napkin math.
The wall climb, he explains, "is all about manipulating air pressure." Fans pull air from under the car, and the difference in pressure can hold it against a surface. He compares it with the McMurtry Spéirling, the British fan car, and rules it legit, with a note that fans and seals are parts that wear out. The flight passes too. By his numbers, the nitrogen cold-gas thrusters carry enough propellant for nearly seven seconds of hovering, more than the four seconds shown.
Acceleration is where he gets particular, separating the Base, Performance, Thrust and Rocket versions. Designer Franz von Holzhausen's claim that a fanless base car reaches 60 in just over a second gets the stamp: "Nonsense." With fans and thrusters at full output, though, the sub-second figures for the top versions add up, at roughly 3.37 g.
The last stretch is about Tesla's track record more than physics. Fenske runs through specs and options he says Tesla changed or cancelled, the Cybertruck's range extender among them, and settles on: "You really don't know with this company until the product actually ships."
The comments return to the same theme: the Roadster was first unveiled in 2017. Some viewers point back to Fenske's own Roadster calculations from six years ago, and plenty are simply quoting his rocket sound effects.
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Where next?
What viewers say
See you in 9 years for the next Roadster demo
@thomasbihnSee it on YouTubethis is gonna be the only analysis worth watching
@andrewmorris176See it on YouTubeI might have made it through engineering school if my teachers had your communication skills.
@Lew114See it on YouTube
6 more comments
"...and psshhhooo, you know, rocket stuff." That part I understood.
@MotoDude1967See it on YouTubeJim Hall's Chaparral 2J was a "vacuum race car created in 1970. It worked, but it sprayed all of the other race cars with dirt, sand and pebbles. It was banned from racing.
@teddymartinii1979See it on YouTubeThe reveal was like when your food is an hour late and your server starts doing magic tricks.
@Milkmans_SonSee it on YouTubeKudos to Jason! His SIX year old video on the physics of the Roadster (“How the Tesla Roadster Rockets Work”) holds up remarkably well. Check it out.
@scottogata1See it on YouTubeA ruptured huge 10k psi nitrogen tank in an accident would be epic 😂
@LMNO-b2hSee it on YouTubeI don't know if I was just in some kind of mood but that bit you did with your "clones" all saying "nine hundred" made me laugh way too hard lmfao
@ShifuJinSee it on YouTube
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The numbers
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💡 Test your knowledge
Which British sports car provided the basis for the original Tesla Roadster?
The first Tesla Roadster, built from 2008, used a chassis derived from the Lotus Elise and was assembled with Lotus's help.