Roadster VIN list

[AtAge19]

That information is unable to be shared, but perhaps it will be in the near future.

@DeedWest,

Please outline any obstacles preventing from accomplishing the above.

T.I.A.,

- P.

 

[Dr No]

@TEG : do you know which vin was the first Roadster in Fusion Red?

 

[TEG]

@TEG : do you know which vin was the first Roadster in Fusion Red?

I think that would be Sig100#5 (SFZRE11B681000005)

 

[DeedWest]

@TEG : do you know which vin was the first Roadster in Fusion Red?

@TEG - that would actually be Validation Prototype 26, which sold recently from the U.S. and made its way to Austria. Sig 005 was produced very shortly afterward.

 

[TEG]

OK, I wasn't sure which was first... I didn't have month of manufacture for them.

 

[AEdennis]

You can have Pete Gruber look up the manufacture for #5...

He was the one that bought that one. @Carl W was looking at it and on the fence in 2015 when it was available for sale and when he contacted the widow of the original owner, she just sold it to Pete

 

[TEG]

You can have Pete Gruber look up the manufacture for #5...
He was the one that bought that one. @Carl W was looking at it and on the fence in 2015 when it was available for sale and when he contacted the widow of the original owner, she just sold it to Pete

Yeah, I know some of the history of Sig#5 (original owner, etc.)
As I recall, he wasn't even planning to buy a Roadster and he took over someone else's cancelled order.
Then Pete had it when the big fire happened, I think it was spared because he happened to be driving it when his warehouse burned down.

Is Dr No. the owner of VP26, and wanting to confirm it was the very first Fusion Red? Somehow DeedWest seems to know.

 

[DeedWest]

Yeah, I know some of the history of Sig#5 (original owner, etc.)
As I recall, he wasn't even planning to buy a Roadster and he took over someone else's cancelled order.
Then Pete had it when the big fire happened, I think it was spared because he happened to be driving it when his warehouse burned down.

Is Dr No. the owner of VP26, and wanting to confirm it was the very first Fusion Red? Somehow DeedWest seems to know.

Upon further research, I stand corrected.

Signature 5 should be early September 2008, and VP26 is oddly around December. This would coincide with the stories I’ve heard of some of the late VPs being utilized for upgrade testing and less of the endurance testing the 2007 VPs were utilized for.

However, my VP24’s date is September 23, 2008. Similarly, the Signature 100 I garage is November 12, 2008. These things are all over the place in sequence...as expected.

 

[AEdennis]

#5's widow was at NDEW in Long Beach with the Tesla Owners Club of Orange County

Upon further research, I stand corrected.

Signature 5 should be early September 2008, and VP26 is oddly around December. This would coincide with the stories I’ve heard of some of the late VPs being utilized for upgrade testing and less of the endurance testing the 2007 VPs were utilized for.

However, my VP24’s date is September 23, 2008. Similarly, the Signature 100 I garage is November 12, 2008. These things are all over the place in sequence...as expected.

WHAT?!?! Chaos from Tesla...

Say it isn't so!

 

[TEG]

The purpose for VPs changed over time.
At first they really were "validation prototypes" so Tesla could see new features and make sure things worked before ordering those things on real customers cars (although many VPs eventually ended up being sold to customers anyways.)
But later VPs were more like "marketing cars". They wanted to have Roadsters to loan to press, use for photo-ops, etc. So more VPs were ordered in a scattered fashion for whatever reason (store test drive cars, etc.)

For those not familiar with the original Roadster, Tesla was basically having Lotus do contract manufacturing of the "gliders", and most of Tesla engineering was in USA far from the Lotus UK factory. So the EPs and VPs were important for Tesla engineering (and QA & Marketing) to see "what they got" when they asked Lotus to change something on the production line. It could even be little things like to see what new seat materials looked like, or check new clear coat carbon fiber bodywork options.

 

[S-2000 Roadster]

Also, the Roadster VIN sequence is relatively straightforward, so I built a script to generate the VINs (of what I figured were) all possible Roadsters, and did automated web searches on those VINs to find any mention online.
I suppose that means my list is more complete than it would be for someone who doesn't know how to automate things like that.
Also, my list is much more complete in North America because of web sites that let you look up the VIN based on license plate number. So, all those web photos including a license plate ended up in my VIN list.

Special thanks to Carfax for showing how many records they have on file for a VIN. Even if I don't pay to look up the details, I can validate that the VIN is for a real car that got registered by someone in the USA.

Somehow it makes me feel a lot better that your very informative collection of data wasn't totally gathered by hand.

 

[TEG]

Somehow it makes me feel a lot better that your very informative collection of data wasn't totally gathered by hand.

Still a tremendous amount of manual searching in past years. The scripts were a good place to start to help figure out likely VINs, but I spent many a day just typing VINs into Google to see what would come up.

I did try to automate searching through Google, but they don't like that, and would temporarily ban my IP when their servers detected a script was generating search requests.

 

[eHorses]

Still a tremendous amount of manual searching in past years. The scripts were a good place to start to help figure out likely VINs, but I spend many a day just typing VINs into Google to see what would come up.

I did try to automate searching through Google, but they don't like that, and would temporarily ban my IP when their servers detected a script was generating search requests.

@TEG you're our Tesla roadster superhero!

Now, can you use your superpower to write a script to find a cure for Covid-19 so we can get back to enjoying our roadsters without the need to social distance

 

[TEG]

If only it were that easy ! Let's not derail this thread to talk about covid. There is a giant mess of thread for that already in the investors forum: Coronavirus

 

[eHorses]

Lol, Agreed

 

[Les]

I own a 2010 red Roadster.... 846.
I bought it from the Government of Canada who brought it into Canada to test it for Canadian acceptance.
It might be the first Tesla in Canada.

 

[TEG]

Interesting... The first "official" Canadian VINned Roadsters started with a batch of #902 through #909...
#805 was brought into Canada as a Demo/Press car, but then bought back to the states after.

 

[Les]

Interesting... The first "official" Canadian VINned Roadsters started with a batch of #902 through #909...
#805 was brought into Canada as a Demo/Press car, but then bought back to the states after.

Thanks for the info.
Appears 846 is the first Tesla in Canada. My claim to fame,I guess.

 

[eugenel]

Hi @TEG, are you still recording Teslas? Outside the USA? If so, here's mine ...

VIN 787, 2.5 std, Black, owned from new in the UK. CAC 155.99.

 

[TEG]

Hi @TEG, are you still recording Teslas? Outside the USA? If so, here's mine ...

Thanks ! Looks like a fun Roadster road in your picture!