TIME TUNNELTHE POSTSBUY
// rewinding to 2008 ...

FIRSTER

First Roadster · $FIRSTER

The original Tesla Roadster. Where Elon's vision became reality and a new era began.

Back to where it all started.

Buy $FIRSTER 𝕏 @firstroadster Dex chart
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The original red Tesla Roadster by the water
2008
// the first trip

Before the empire

> MEMORY FILE · 2003–2012

Everyone talks about the empire. Almost nobody remembers the car that paid for its first brick.

In July 2003 two engineers, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, incorporated a company called Tesla Motors.1 A few months later a payments millionaire wrote the biggest cheque of the first round: $6.5 million of $7.5 million.1

The plan was written down in public in August 2006 and it was only three lines long. Line one: build a sports car.2 That sports car started from a Lotus Elise, and by the end only about 7% of the Elise was left in it.3

About 2,450 were sold, in more than 30 countries, before production stopped in January 2012.3 Then the world moved on to sedans and the first one went quiet. Until one of them left the planet.

// the time tunnel

2003 → 2026

From a forgotten sports car to the car that flies. Every stop is a dated event with a source. Tap one to see what was written in the margins.

JUL 2003Tesla Motors is incorporatedMartin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning file the papers in San Carlos, California.1
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Five people were later allowed to call themselves co-founders, after a 2009 settlement.1
FEB 2004The chequeElon Musk puts in $6.5M of the $7.5M Series A and becomes chairman.1
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Without this round there is no Roadster, and without the Roadster there is no plan.
19 JUL 2006The revealThe Roadster is shown at Barker Hangar, Santa Monica, to about 350 invited guests.45
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Tesla called it the "Signature One Hundred" event. Guests got rides on the tarmac and many signed up as first buyers.4
2 AUG 2006The secret master plan"Build sports car. Use that money to build an affordable car. Use that money to build an even more affordable car."2
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The whole empire starts as step one: this exact car.
FEB 2008Delivery No. 1The first production Roadster goes to an early investor and chairman: Elon Musk.3
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The first one. The one the coin is named after.
17 MAR 2008Production startsSeries production of Tesla's first vehicle begins.312
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Jon Erlichman marked the anniversary on X: "On this day in 2008: production starts for Tesla's first vehicle, the Roadster."12
27 OCT 2009501 km on one chargeA Roadster sets a production-EV distance record in Australia.3
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Driven by Simon Hackett and Emilis Prelgauskas during the Global Green Challenge.3
JAN 2012Last one off the lineProduction ends. About 2,450 sold worldwide.3
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The trip goes quiet. The company moves on to the Model S.
16 NOV 2017A new Roadster is promised0–60 in 1.9 s, about 620 miles, over 250 mph.6
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Musk called it "a hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars."6
6 FEB 2018The first one leaves EarthMusk's own Roadster rides the first Falcon Heavy into a solar orbit that crosses Mars's. Starman at the wheel, "Space Oddity" on loop, "DON'T PANIC!" on the dash.7
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The circuit board reads "Made on Earth by humans." Next predicted close approach to Earth: 2047.7
JUN 2018"SpaceX option package"Musk reveals cold-gas thrusters for the new Roadster.6
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Production slipped again and again: 2020 → 2022 → 2023 → 2024 → 2025 → 2027–28.6
15 OCT 2026It fliesAt SpaceX's McGregor, Texas site, the new Roadster runs a curled ramp upside down, launches off the end, rolls 180° in mid-air and lands on its wheels.89
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Tesla says the flying version is not approved for public roads; production is planned for 2028.810
// voices in the tunnel

Where the lines came from

Every famous line in this story has an origin. Traced and linked.

Build sports car. Use that money to build an affordable car.

Elon Musk, "The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan", Aug 2, 20062

More spacecraft than sports car.

Autoguide, reviewing the original Roadster3

DON'T PANIC!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, on the Roadster's dash in orbit, 20187

Made on Earth by humans.

Circuit board of the car launched on Falcon Heavy7

A hardcore smackdown to gasoline cars.

Elon Musk on the next Roadster, 20176

Flying cars are real.

Elon Musk at the Roadster unveil, Oct 15, 20269

Back to where it all started.

The community, $FIRSTER, 2026

// two posts, one car

18 years in one scroll

The day the first Roadster went into production, remembered on X. And the day after the new one left the ground, from the man who took delivery of Roadster No. 1 in 2008.

2008
2026
THEN · 20083.9 s0–60, 244 mi range, ≈2,450 built3
THE BRIDGE · 2018SPACEthe first one is launched past Mars's orbit7
NOW · 2026< 1 sclaimed 0–60, cold-gas thrusters, it leaves the ground89
// take the trip

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The empire, the sedans, the rockets, the flying car: all of it traces back to one red two-seater from 2008.

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// receipts

Sources

  1. History of Tesla, Inc. — Wikipedia (founding July 1, 2003; Series A Feb 2004; co-founder settlement)
  2. "The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan (just between you and me)" — Elon Musk, Tesla, Aug 2, 2006
  3. Tesla Roadster (first generation) — Wikipedia (specs, deliveries, production, records, Autoguide quote)
  4. Tesla Roadster unveiled in Santa Monica — Autoblog, Jul 20, 2006
  5. Tesla Roadster debut, 10 years ago — Electrek, Jul 19, 2016
  6. Tesla Roadster (second generation) — Wikipedia (2017 promises, SpaceX package, delays, 2026 unveil)
  7. Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster — Wikipedia (Falcon Heavy, Starman, "DON'T PANIC!", orbit)
  8. Tesla's new Roadster takes flight during dramatic unveiling at SpaceX facility — Fox Business
  9. With Tesla Roadster debut, Elon Musk shows "flying cars are real" — CBS News
  10. Are Tesla's claims for its new 'flying' Roadster real? — Electrek, Oct 15, 2026
  11. The post — @elonmusk on X
  12. "On this day in 2008: production starts…" — @JonErlichman on X, Mar 17, 2026
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