Watch Jay Leno take the new Tesla Roadster for a spin
Jay Leno waits for nothing, not even official production.
Jay Leno is one lucky son of a gun. He gets access to some of the rarest and most interesting cars the industry has ever produced. But he also gets to dip his toes into vehicles that aren't quite ready for production yet -- like the Tesla Roadster.
Jay Leno recently took a spin in the Tesla Roadster for his television show Jay Leno's Garage, and as you might expect, he loved it. The segment starts with Leno rolling in the original Roadster before meeting up with Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla's design chief. The pair check out the Model 3 first, but the segment culminates with Leno's passenger-seat ride in a new Roadster.
I won't spoil the entire segment for you, but it's clear that Leno is plenty impressed. Heck, at the end, he throws up his hands and shouts, "I'll buy it! I'll take it!" Considering a down payment for one of these bad boys is $50,000, that shouldn't be too hard for the former king of late-night television. And given how many impressive vehicles Leno has driven over the years, such a comment is definitely high praise.
Tesla's Roadster promises some very impressive specs. It should complete a sprint from 0 to 60 mph in about 1.9 seconds, which is serious racing-car territory. Three electric motors provide motive force, and its 200-kWh battery should produce a range figure north of 600 miles. Of course, these numbers are subject to change as the car moves closer to production, but it should be pretty gnarly nevertheless. Tesla estimates that the new Roadster will make it to production in 2020.
