That time I met Elon Musk

"Dsscats" (dsscats) 07/18/2014 at 00:05 • Filed to: None

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I'm the guy with the badass blue tie!

Just kidding. Some time last year year, my school was invited to take a tour of the SpaceX facility. For those of you who don't know, SpaceX is Elon Musk's other company. Yes, it's as just badass as Tesla. They build rockets and materials to be sent into space, and had a contract with NASA to deliver materials to the ISS. The company is just as well run as Tesla, and the facility is just as white and sterile and stylish as you'd expect (although there was a full sized Iron Man suit to brighten things up a bit). I would normally try go in depth about the facility, but it's been over a year since I went and I cant remember much, and most of you only care about the car stuff!!

We toured the [spectacular] facility. Once we got back to the start, the whole group was sat down in a conference room and got to ask some questions to a very kind PR guy. He answered all of our questions sufficiently, but all I wanted to do was see Elon Musk!

Finally, he came in to the room. The first thing I noticed was that he is tall. Like, 6' 5" tall. Maybe more. Everyone immediately started asking him questions. What we were able to gather from the answers he gave was that he never sleeps. Ever. He legitimately said that he gets 1-2 hours of sleep a night. Eventually, I was able to ask him a question and I asked what any gear head would have: "What was your first car?"

He answered with something I wouldn't have expected. Apparently his first car was an 80s American "land yacht successor" (K-Car type) which barely ran. After that, he ended up getting a relatively nice E21 320i. The most interesting thing he talked about was that when he initially got some money, he bought a British Racing Green Mk1 E-Type. In classic E-Type fashion, the car didn't even make it home from the seller's house before breaking down. Skipping ahead to the late-2000s, he ended up getting a 997 Turbo (Maybe S). After that, he drove his own ca, a Tesla Roadster, and the rest is history.

Over all, he was a really nice guy. You could tell he really loved what he did, with both SpaceX and Tesla. He was not only kind enough to answer all of our questions, but he even opened up his schedule and stayed an extra 45 minutes. It was a really great experience and I was so chuffed to be able to talk cars a bit with ELON FREAKING MUSK.

ddavidn > Dsscats 07/18/2014 at 00:20

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I want to meet him. I'm a big fan. Both of Tesla and SpaceX (I usually watch the launch livestreams) and I bet he has a million great ideas that haven't gone public yet.

PushToStart > Dsscats 07/18/2014 at 02:40

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I'm not surprised at all that he only gets 1-2 hours of sleep per night. He seems like the type that would stay up late thinking about anything and everything.

Very cool experience, both getting to meet him and touring SpaceX.

Dsscats > PushToStart 07/18/2014 at 03:32

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It was super cool. He had a bit of a stutter and ny friend said that some people with extremely high IQs have stutters because they can't get out all their thoughts fast enough