Base vs Founders

[JoJoV111]

I just put in a reservation for the base model roadster about a week ago and I was wondering if anyone has any educated guesses on a few of my questions. I know there is no official info out yet but it's always nice to hear opinions!

I'm not too focused on getting the best acceleration or speed, but one thing I definitely want is the beautiful red paint that they used on the prototype model. I've seen some people say the founders edition will likely come with custom paint. How likely is it that that red is only available for the founders series?

Since the founders series are said to be "maxed out" in all configurations, would I be able to "max out" a base model just without the special founders series emblems?

Based on the S/X, how long does it take to go from production of the founders series to base models?

Thanks!

 

[ryanjm]

Congrats on your reservation! Unfortunately we just don’t know the answers to any of these (good) questions yet. I tried asking Elon, point blank, “What’s in the Founder’s Series for the extra fifty grand?” during my interview with him last year, but he wouldn’t answer.

For THAT much extra money, my personal hope/guess is that every Founder’s Roadster has the SpaceX Package included; it would also make sense given that Elon and Tesla know that the first batch of these things are going to get a TON of enthusiast media and social media attention, so they’d want to have them be maxed-out, performance-wise.

Production-wise, I don’t think there are any analogues to be drawn from Signature S and X. Roadster is likely to be largely hand-built, and production will be slowest in the beginning, as with any car. Will they start with 50 per week? 100? One hundred Founder’s cars per week would mean roughly 10 weeks to build all 1000 Founder’s editions before moving to general production. But they could easily go slower than that or faster. It’ll be interesting to see.

 

[JoJoV111]

Congrats on your reservation! Unfortunately we just don’t know the answers to any of these (good) questions yet. I tried asking Elon, point blank, “What’s in the Founder’s Series for the extra fifty grand?” during my interview with him last year, but he wouldn’t answer.

For THAT much extra money, my personal hope/guess is that every Founder’s Roadster has the SpaceX Package included; it would also make sense given that Elon and Tesla know that the first batch of these things are going to get a TON of enthusiast media and social media attention, so they’d want to have them be maxed-out, performance-wise.

Production-wise, I don’t think there are any analogues to be drawn from Signature S and X. Roadster is likely to be largely hand-built, and production will be slowest in the beginning, as with any car. Will they start with 50 per week? 100? One hundred Founder’s cars per week would mean roughly 10 weeks to build all 1000 Founder’s editions before moving to general production. But they could easily go slower than that or faster. It’ll be interesting to see.

Very interesting. I'm surprised he didn't answer! I know they want to keep it a secret but I assume there are more people than just me who are choosing the base model since we don't know enough about the founders. Hopefully they tell us some more info on September 22!

 

[Pinot.Noir]

Bear in mind that you can always get the car wrapped in pretty much any color you want, and it's way cheaper than $50k.

 

[JoJoV111]

Bear in mind that you can always get the car wrapped in pretty much any color you want, and it's way cheaper than $50k.

Of course but I'd rather not!

 

[Pinot.Noir]

Of course but I'd rather not!

Why not? My S and 3 are both mostly wrapped in clear Xpel Ultimate to avoid rock chips and potential light scratches. A wrap is a great way to get the color you want and I protect the finish.

 

[JoJoV111]

Why not? My S and 3 are both mostly wrapped in clear Xpel Ultimate to avoid rock chips and potential light scratches. A wrap is a great way to get the color you want and I protect the finish.

I would be fine with a clear wrap but I probably wouldn't do a color. I was really close to doing a chrome delete on my X but I knew seeing the chrome on the screen and phone would set my OCD off!

 

[strider]

Production-wise, I don’t think there are any analogues to be drawn from Signature S and X. Roadster is likely to be largely hand-built, and production will be slowest in the beginning, as with any car. Will they start with 50 per week? 100? One hundred Founder’s cars per week would mean roughly 10 weeks to build all 1000 Founder’s editions before moving to general production. But they could easily go slower than that or faster. It’ll be interesting to see.

Actually, the analogues to MS are pretty exact. As someone who purchased MS #1459, I can tell you that the first few thousand were hand built (because they were still building and debugging the line) and Elon talked about how he was personally inspecting every one. So yeah, it was slow. I agree that they probably won't set up a proper line for the Roadster as they just won't be selling that many of them.

Given that we are 3 years away from Roadster production, Elon has little idea about what the difference will be between Founders and regular. He is not really a planner you know.

I would only expect badging and possibly an exclusive color. If you want to option a Standard up to Founders level Elon will happily take your money. At least it has been this way with the early Roadsters as well as the Signature versions of the newer models.

 

[RickBfounders]

Of course but I'd rather not!

Both my roadsters will be wrapped. Even if clear. Why subject them to errant stone/chemical damage?

 

[ICUDoc]

we are 3 years away from Roadster production

Stop making me sad, strider...

 

[JoJoV111]

Stop making me sad, strider...

Agreed! D:

 

[TSMR M3P]

The thing I've been wondering is if the first roadsters will have the SpaceX package available as an option.

 

[JoJoV111]

The thing I've been wondering is if the first roadsters will have the SpaceX package available as an option.

Elon has said that the founders series will have the SpaceX package option by default, and since founders are first 1000 then I assume it would be available. But maybe they will give the founders series owners a choice between first 1000 or "free" SpaceX.

 

[TSMR M3P]

Almost tempting to get the founders to get the SpaceX lmao

 

[JoJoV111]

Almost tempting to get the founders to get the SpaceX lmao

I bet you will be able to add on the spaceX package to the base model. Why wouldn't they take your money!?

 

[strider]

I bet you will be able to add on the spaceX package to the base model. Why wouldn't they take your money!?

Yep. Tesla has never restricted access to features or options between Founders/Signature and regular models. It's only colors and badging.

 

[doug]

Historically, Founders/Signature versions of the cars have primarily been a way for Tesla to capitalize on folks willing to pay to jump in line. Practically, though, given how production ramps it's not that much more of a wait and the first cars tend to have issues.

 

[Prowler]

I would be fine with a clear wrap but I probably wouldn't do a color. I was really close to doing a chrome delete on my X but I knew seeing the chrome on the screen and phone would set my OCD off!

Should go with a chrome wrap, not a chrome delete.

 

[Brentt]

Elon has said that the founders series will have the SpaceX package option by default, and since founders are first 1000 then I assume it would be available. But maybe they will give the founders series owners a choice between first 1000 or "free" SpaceX.

Can you please provide where Elon said this?

 

[JoJoV111]

Can you please provide where Elon said this?

I'm quite sure that Elon has mentioned on twitter that the Founders Series Roadsters will come with the SpaceX package but I wasn't able to find the tweet. I was able to find the thread where he talks about the package in general, however.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1005577738332172289?s=20