Elon Musk, the founder of the cutting edge companies Tesla and SpaceX, has a resume that could make many high-powered CEO’s look unambitious and drab by comparison. In addition to this, he is currently the only person in human history to have ever parked a car in the endless vacuum of space (It’s still up there, just floating around). Whatever you may think of him, he is an interesting person.
Musk made his money early on with the sale of Zip2, an online mapping service set up with his brother Kimbal. After working on this company for four years, the sale generated him roughly $22 million, more than enough for some to sit back and rest on their laurels. Musk, ever the entrepreneur, poured the money into an online banking company originally called X.com, now much better known as Paypal, which went on to become a hugely successful endeavor and multiplied his small fortune into a very large one.
Elon Musk’s personally owned Tesla Roadster was shot into space back in February. Prior to this, it was used for his commute to work
From interviews, we know that Musk is an engineer at heart. He is also the founder of a car-manufacturing company (Tesla) and it can reasonably be assumed that he is something of a car enthusiast. So we’ve decided to take a look at what the South African billionaire likes to drive, because why not?
So what does a billionaire drive?
Aside from the cherry red Tesla Roadster, which he launched into space, it is understood that Musk owns a few more down-to-earth cars. As can be expected from the founder of an electric car company, this includes a selection of electric Tesla models. In Ashlee Vance’s biography Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, as well as a video interview with Bloomberg’s Betty Liu, it is revealed that one of the cars Musk owns is a black Tesla Model S P85D. This by itself is a pretty sweet ride, going from 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, with 687 lb-ft of torque, and coming in at roughly $120,000.
In an interview with Forbes back in 2012, we can also see Musk driving a red 2008 model Tesla Roadster. This was the car he used for commuting to and from work and is the very same car that was shot into space by the Falcon 9 Heavy launch back in February. At the time of the interview, Musk also owned a Porsche 911, which he used primarily for dropping the kids off at school. In terms of antiques and collectibles, Musk also owns a Ford Model T, and reportedly paid $866,000 for the Lotus Esprit that appeared underwater in the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. From a different interview with Business Insider, it has also been revealed that Musk’s collection includes an Audi Q7 SUV, an E-type Jaguar and a Hamann BMW M5.
Musk at the 2015 Tesla Motors Annual Meeting
The McLaren incident
We know that Musk began his car collection properly after the $300 million sale of his startup company, Zip2. As a reward, and to splash out with his first big paycheck, Musk bought himself the upscale McLaren F1, one of the fastest and most expensive cars at the time, which in a bizarre incident he ended up totaling without insurance. In telling the story Musk revealed that famous tech investor and co-founder of Paypal Peter Thiel was sitting in the passenger seat, Thiel asked Musk what the car was capable of, Musk replied “watch this”, and immediately hit an embankment, the car was thrown in the air where it performed a full 360 degree horizontal spin and landed in a heap. Luckily, Musk and Thiel were okay, but the uninsured sports car was completely destroyed. Ouch.
Elon can certainly afford to purchase these cars brand new and the cost of upkeep is unlikely to be a cause for concern for the multi-billionaire. Musk gained his fortune through hard work, putting in insanely long hours, and a slice of genius, however for the rest of us, the odds of becoming rich enough to splash on cars like these are somewhat less likely, so there’s no harm in living vicariously. Out of the collection, the E-type Jaguar is the most typical example of a man finally affording his dream car, with Elon first deciding at 17 years old, after looking through a book of classic convertibles, that this was the car he would buy if he ever made enough money. Eventually, he was able to achieve this dream, only to find out that the car was more of a headache than he anticipated, “That was like a bad girlfriend – it kept breaking down on me and caused me all sorts of trouble… in fact it broke down on the way back from the dealer”. Ouch. Musk kept the car, however, and ended up spending over £35,000 in fixing and maintaining the car.
It may be surprising to discover that the owner of an electric car company committed to saving the world through emission-free vehicles does actually have gas cars in his collection. However, it’s less surprising when you consider that aside from being the founder and CEO of multiple companies and a father of six, Elon is a true motor-head and car enthusiast. The man works so hard at the whole world-saving thing, often working up to 120 hours a week, that he probably never gets to drive the cars anyway. This is one person who can definitely afford to indulge.
