VP26 for sale

[Tex EV]

Used Tesla Roadster For Sale - CarGurus
Tesla: Roadster

Is a VP car just like any other production Roadster? The eBay listing states 2-speed transmission and a 0-60 time of 5.0 seconds. Wondering if one should have any special concerns if seriously considering this car.

 

[wiztecy]

Those are old specs in that ad hence why it states a 2-speed trans. This was the first trans Tesla went with but failed to hold up to the high stress/torque of the electric motor when doing a demanding up-shift. This was called the 1.0 Roadster. All transmissions for customer cars and VPs that were sold to the public have been replaced with the Borg Warner eGearDrive single speed trans, hence the 1.5 Roadster revision.

VP's were the earlier cars Tesla used to market the Roadster around the country as well as to show investors what the production car will be like. There's little difference between those and the 1.5 Roadsters now a days but were mostly showcase vehicles.

There's a whole bunch of cool history that's documented about the evolution of the Roadster as well as VPs if you search the TMC forum.

Validation Prototypes (VPs)
Validation Prototypes (VPs)

 

[Tex EV]

Lots of great info. Thanks!
Looks like this is the only known VP done in Fusion Red, making it a little more unique.

 

[TEG]

Is a VP car just like any other production Roadster? The eBay listing states 2-speed transmission and a 0-60 time of 5.0 seconds. Wondering if one should have any special concerns if seriously considering this car.

Yes, and the stuff about 2-speed and 0-60 time are wrong.

VPs were made in scattered order in the early production... So they got made in an order interspersed with Founders' and production cars. There were VP cars #1 through VP#33... And then a VP#201 done as some sort of special project.

They were effectively "marketing cars" to be used in media events, loaned to car review shows / magazines, etc.
Most were kept in the Tesla private fleet for a long time, but many were eventually sold (as used) into private hands.

By the way, here is another picture of VP26 when it was at the old Menlo Park store:

 

[Tex EV]

Very interesting. So despite being a VP, it's likely not a pre-production car and thus shouldn't command a premium over "regular" 1.5s?

 

[TEG]

Right, I think it is like any other production 1.5 in that era. I don't think there is a premium associated with it.
The very early VPs were used for some durability and experimental testing, and I think Tesla avoided selling those.
But VP26 was near the end of the VP series where they just needed another car to give demos and such.
I supposed they might have used them occasionally to try slight modifications like seat improvements or things like that, but I wasn't really aware of anything special about them.

There were earlier prototypes (the EPs) that weren't ever intended to be sold to anyone outside the company.
Those were more true prototypes.