Okay, let’s get this straight: Contrary to what you may have heard, the original Tesla Roadster, produced from 2008 to early 2012, was not an electrified Lotus Elise.
Yes, these cars closely resemble each other and share some parts, but under the skin they’re worlds apart. In a 2008 blog entry, then-Tesla VP Darryl Siry, tongue firmly in cheek, put …
I really, really want Fred's orange polo
I'd completely forgotten about the Tesla Roadster, but I still think they look awesome. Let me know when their price drops under $10k and I might actually be interested.
Right? Sadly, the Teslas are already appreciating. 
I'd love to get my hands on some used Tesla Seats, to see if they are a bit more plush than the Lotus ones. They do fit me pretty good, but they are quite hard.
I would love a K swapped Elise or Exige; that would be quite the track weapon.
This was one of the most interesting articles in a while. Love the owner swap comparisons.
Kudos to Mr Webber.
In reply to Tom Suddard :
IIRC they're $100k+ cars now.
Now, the Mars Roadster, that one's the most valuable. I look forward to the Classic Motorsports article when it comes up for sale. As is, where is.
$100k for an electric elise? Ouch, I'll take an (or two?) exige S thank you very much :)
Very cool article.
I wonder if you could swap the front clamshells. I kind of like the Tesla's front end better. I wonder if you could put it on an Elise?
Are those factory Elise wheels? I like the look of them a lot.
In reply to BA5 :
The radiator takes up a bunch of that space. The Tesla front end looks pretty low to jam the cooling system under it.
My god, this Tesla just takes an ordinary single-DIN head unit rather than cramming all the controls into a screen like the new ones.
Tesla founder Martin Eberhard (not Elon Musk) said his inspiration for the roadster came from driving around Silicon Valley and noticing every house had a Porsche and a Prius parked outside. His thought was, why not somehow combine the two?
It was Elon who drove a lot of the changes from the Elise. After he joined the company and took control, he demanded that the headlights be changed and that the chassis be redesigned to lower the sills. Probably good changes, but the resulting expense and more importantly the schedule slips almost killed Tesla. "Who killed the Electric Car II" has scenes of a depressed Elon trying to calm customers furious that their roadsters are not yet ready for delivery.
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