Gruber Motors

World Traveling Record Breaking Tesla Roadster

Pete Gruber — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 15:02:01 +0000

In May of 2012, the longest standard electric car journey to circumvent the globe in 80 days began, with Tesla Roadster, VIN 507.

Rafael De Mestre, owner and driver, set several world records:

🏆Winning the first EV race around the world in a STANDARD all-electric vehicle;

🏆Being the first man to drive ALONE around the world in an electric car;

🏆Making the FASTEST electric vehicle circumnavigation around the world ever (127 days);

🏆Making the LONGEST drive in a standard electric car (28,282 km).

Tesla Roadster VIN 507 became pretty famous, and a German museum in Munich, asked if they could display this travelling Roadster in their exhibition of a year.

Unexpectedly, hundreds of thousands of visitors came to the exhibition to see this historic EV, and when they asked if he would extend the display time, he agreed. During this extension, the car was not properly charged and the main propulsion battery died.

The owner now decided to transport VIN 507 to the USA on an unmotorized sailing ship to Gruber Motor Company, for a complete rebuild, weatherizing, and resolving all deferred maintenance in both electronics and mechanical portions, to prepare this historic Tesla. In partnership with Telsa, who generously fast tracked a replacement main battery, this historic Tesla is now ready for another trip around the world.

Rafael will be picking up his Roadster at the Phoenix, AZ Gruber Motor Company service center Monday June 26, for its next adventure driving through the United States through November, and eventually across the ocean to China, Kazakhstan, and Europe before finally concluding to Morocco, retracing the same route he drove back in 2012, promoting the upcoming 80edays 2024 edition and spreading the powerful message of sustainable transportation.

“I am excited to embark on a new chapter with my Roadster, promoting the possibilities of electric vehicles. I want to demonstrate their reliability on a global scale driving the second time with the same electric car around the world” said Rafael de Mestre, the electromobility pioneer and driver behind the original world journey.

Collection of Roadster Tips

Pete Gruber — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 23:13:51 +0000

The Tesla Roadster is an iconic little two seater sports car originally slated to be a Lotus Elise conversion to EV by Tesla.
A number of miscalculations turned the car into a custom vehicle, with only 7% of it still Lotus. Fortunately, Tesla recreated body panels, and made frame modification preserving the original look and feel of the sporty Lotus Elise.

This is a collection of tips, gathered from years of Roadster Newsletters.

We are always available either by phone, 800 658-5883 Extension 500, or email ev@gruber.com, for free tech support.
As always, our goal is to support the Roadster community. We believe in transparency, and are committed to vehicle owner education.

Roadster VIN Decoder

Pete Gruber — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 11:14:00 +0000

Charging a Tesla Roadster

Pete Gruber — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 19:28:56 +0000

The Tesla Roadster comes with two charge cables, and an optional wall charger custom made for the Roadster by Clipper Creek, capable of deliver a 70 Amp charge. The two charge cables are:

“Yellow” Charge Cable – Plugs into standard 15-20 Amp 120 Volt AC home outlets, and provides a slow charge limited to 15 Amps
UMC Charge Cable – Plugs into 240 VAC 50 Amp home outlet or dryer receptacle, and provides a 40 Amp charge.

As Roadsters age, and cells become marginalized, the best way to charge is the “Yellow” charge cable, leaving it plugged in all the time, in “Standard” charge mode which will limit the charge to about 80%. The car will decide when it needs a charge, and if left plugged in, the car will always be ready to go.

There are four charge selections, and only one should be used with aged batteries shown below.

A number of charging options are available with a Roadster.

You can access these by clicking on the wrench icon shown:

On the charge setting screen shown, select “STANDARD” mode charging to 83%
SOC which optimizes battery life. This is also the preferred level prospective buyers want to see.

STORAGE – Originally designed for limited while not in use occasional charging
but the low SOC sometimes results in rapid path to bricking and should not be used.

RANGE – Designed for occasional long trip use charging to 100% and hard on cells.

PERFORMANCE – Same as above

This is what the screen will look like while the Roadster is charging.

The charge method shown is 220 Volts AC using the Roadster specific Clipper Creek
wall charger capable of charging at 70 Amps.

If the Yellow Charge Cable was used, pugged into a standard outlet, the Voltage reading
would be 120V at 15A charge.

When finished charging, the Charge Port LED light ring will shift from Amber Pulsing, to solid blue.

For aged Roadster with legacy battery packs, it is recommended that extremes are avoided.
Do not run the range down below 30 miles, and use only “STANDARD” or 80% charge.

When the Roadsters were new, and first released with fresh ESS Main Battery Packs, the range predictions below at various charge methods were accurate.
With legacy packs now going on 15 years, the upper range projections are no longer valid, but this chart shows battery utilization at various charge settings:

The 5th Roadster Built

Pete Gruber — Fri, 25 Nov 2022 17:49:44 +0000

The first 11 Tesla Roadsters were actually produced in the UK, at the Hethel Plant.

After this first production run, Lotus began shipping Gliders, or complete Roadsters without drive trains to the USA, to a small Tesla production facility in Menlo Park, CA, and then electrifying the Roadsters.

This particular VIN #5 Roadster, has a Euro VIN starting with SFZ unlike the US versions which start with 5YR, since it was produced in the UK.

This Roadster became available for sale years ago after being in private ownership, in a family of people passionate about sustainable energy use, and solar.

A death in the family triggered this sale, and I became aware of its existence as family members were distributing “for sale” flyers for VIN #5 at a local Scottsdale EV car show.

Although its early production ranking and collectible value seem glaringly obvious at this point as Roadsters have been recategorized as collector cars, at the time VIN #5 became available for sale, Roadsters were still in a depressed market.

I actually spent the weekend promoting this Roadster for sale to a few friends, and by Monday, my wife and I decided it might be cool owning one of the first Roadsters ever built, and we struck a deal with the seller.

Another intriguing history item was that legend has it this Roadster was offered to Kimbal Musk, Elon’s brother, but he preferred to put his investments into Vegan Restaurants and passed it up which is why an early car like this went into private ownership. We researched this angle only to find Kimbal was indeed offered an early Roadster, but is was a Founders car, also VIN 5.

VIN #5, today spends its time being invited to EV car shows and events, as the public is now much more interested in Tesla history and beginnings, of which the Roadster has become the centerpiece.

For more details about Gruber Motor Company, visit and view our numerous videos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates.

Facelift for Signature 100 Roadster

Pete Gruber — Sun, 20 Nov 2022 12:54:02 +0000

As Roadsters move into collectible status, the pedigreed versions, like early signature 100 or 250EU cars get most of the attention.

This Sig 47 Roadster showed its age and wear and tear, but the owner, recognizing its growing value, wanted to restore portions that would maintain originality and value.

The paint was faded with cloudy PPF. The seats had separation and wear marks, and the headlights were a cloudy mess with a loose lens inside, and a bad case of peeling, and ESS pack was bricked with a PEM full of EOL capacitors, and decaying insulating material, the soft top delaminating.

With these highly collectible Roadster, to preserve originality, we advise owners to repair, and resolve deferred maintenance items like PEM upgrades, suspension repairs, stock brakes, seat and headliner re-upholstery, headlight repairs, items that generally are acceptable changes that do not affect or diminish collectability value.

We also recommend however staying away from non-factory upgrades for these highly collectible vehicles like audio equipment upgrades, vehicle color changes, performance brake upgrades, CF accessories that were not on the car when sold, 12V battery relocation, or anything that would deviate from the list of items on the original build sheet.

This Sig Roadster, left with PPF replacements and paint improvement that makes the paint look a mile deep, Italian leather seats in the same color as the originals, freshly powder coated wheels in original color, and all deferred maintenance resolved in the electronics of the car, akin to an acceptable engine rebuild in an ICE collectible.

For more details about Gruber Motor Company, visit and view our numerous videos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates.

Sedona Roadster Comes to Visit

Pete Gruber — Wed, 17 Aug 2022 21:29:06 +0000

This Roadster, VIN 1147, is one of the cleanest, well-preserved, electric blue 2010 Roadsters we have seen.

We received a Tesla Roadster from Sedona, and were again surprised how well most owners take care of these iconic cars.

The images of the Roadster were taken around our shop, sprinkled with images I have taken in Sedona over the years.

What a great Roadster color choice (Electric Blue) when you live in a part of the world awash in bright vibrant colors.

This Roadster came in for an annual, PEM rebuild, and headlight rebuild, which is one of our newest services which takes often yellowed, peeling, foggy headlight assemblies, and makes them better than new.

Our home state, Arizona, has a worldwide reputation as the home of the Grand Canyon, one of the seven wonders of the world, but once people visit Sedona, it typically becomes their new favorite location in Arizona.

For more details about Gruber Motor Company, visit and view our numerous videos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates.

Arctic White comes back to life

Pete Gruber — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 01:38:46 +0000

This Roadster, VIN 1403, is on the final test drive in these pictures, and almost ready to go home.

It came in with a dead, locked wheels, and a bricked battery, like so many of the Roadsters shipped to us.

The instant it arrived, we put it on life support, since we always get a log file before the Roadster even came in, and knew exactly which brick had a resistive cell. We have developed a sophisticated parsing program that analyzes Roadster log files, which are constantly being recorded, which allows us to see more clearly what is going on under the hood.

We can even pinpoint early trends not yet visible on the Vehicle Display Scree (VDS), for predictive analysis and early warning of evolving failures.

We were prepared for a bit of battery surgery, after initial life support and further diagnostic analysis for final confirmation, the offending dying cell was neutralized.

After careful cell balancing using our custom built 11 point charging system, this car now charges to 179 in standard mode, with a very healthy CAC of 150.89.

The customer then elected to get a full PEM rebuild and upgrade, OVMS to alert him through his cell phone of any issues, and paint improvement and a full PPF treatment, taking this Arctic White to a stunning new level of exterior protection and permanent shine.

This beautiful low mileage Roadster (10,000 miles) is now back on the road.

For more details about Gruber Motor Company, visit and view our numerous videos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates.

Two Major Repairs

Pete Gruber — Sat, 16 Jul 2022 02:13:21 +0000

Tesla Roadsters have a weakness unlike later models, that if you do not charge them for a couple of months, they reach a state of charge low enough where the charge port will no longer allow a charge.

The term coined in Tesla circles when this happens is a “Bricked” condition.

The only recourse for an owner is taking it to a shop like ours that specializes in Tesla Roadster service, since even the Tesla Service Centers no longer perform main battery recovery and repair, with a $30K replacement as the only option, combined with a wait list up to 2 years.

This Roadster came in dead for two reasons:

1 – The Power Electronics Module (PEM) had failed due to unresolved failed transistor insulating which eventually shorts the power transistors and blows the power inverter boards.

2 – The failed PEM did not allow the pack to be charged, and it eventually “bricked”.

This beautiful low mileage Roadster (8000 miles) is now back on the road, and charges to over 180 miles range.

For more details about Gruber Motor Company, visit and view our numerous videos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates.

Helping a car dealer sell a Roadster

Pete Gruber — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 19:26:15 +0000

Our website features a free “Tesla Roadster Matchmaking” section, where sellers can list their Roadsters for sale, without auction deadline pressure, eliminating no reserve risks, ability to talk to the sellers directly, and best of all, access to knowledgeable Roadster experts, available to coach prospective buyers who have lots of questions.

We became aware of a local car dealer selling a Roadster, and stepped in and offered to help by cross-posting the car. We sent his listing to over 250 prequalified Roadster buyers, and it sold within 2 weeks.

The buyer is a discerning customer and wanted to tastefully take his Roadster to the next level. Along with cosmetic improvements like having the dealer perform paint improvement and PPF, he then sent to Roadster to our shop for a complete PEM upgrade and rebuild, performance brake package, and other cosmetic items like cloudy CF repair, rear view mirror, TPMS sensors, delaminating hard top, OVMS, PEM cooling fan upgrades. Since the Roadster came from a 4 seasons area, he even had us soda blast and clear coat any flash rust on the suspension components.

The twilight blue color really pops in the bright Arizona sun, and will continue to do so in its new home in Palm Springs.

For more details about Gruber Motor Company, visit and view our numerous videos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates.