The Men Spending 50,000 Just to Reserve a Tesla Roadster

The base model--without thrusters or the flight system--will likely cost several times that amount to buy. "I'm going to do everything in my power to get the flying one," says one customer. In mid-October, CEO Elon Musk sort of made good on a long-standing promise: Tesla's new second-gen Roadster flew through the air . Technically, the vehicle used compressed air to "thrust" itself --the "flying" lasted mere seconds, and the system takes six to seven hours to refill . Never mind, though--some buyers were eager to unsheath their credit cards to reserve one of the cars. "I was freaking out," says Alex Lawrence, the owner of used-electric-vehicle dealership EVAuto, who already had one reservation for a second-gen Roadster and watched the demonstration live online.