The erstwhile and undisputed co-founder of Weblogs Inc. (parent of this here site), Jason Calacanis, revealed some time ago that he had placed an order for a Tesla Roadster. At the time he had missed out on the opportunity to purchase one of the first 100 Signature series cars. Those are the cars that come after the 25 Founders series cars. The buyers of the Signature series cars had to pay up in full in advance. Following Jason's recent opportunity to borrow Chairman Elon Musk's #1 Roadster, Jason evidently decided he couldn't wait until 2009. Fortunately for Jason, venture capitalist Ray Lane gave up his spot in the sequence since Lane's firm, Kleiner Perkins, is an investor in rival start up Fisker Automotive. Tesla offered Lane's slot to Calacanis, who obviously grabbed the opportunity. According to Tesla VP Darryl Siry, a couple of other signature series slots have changed hands including one that was recently snapped up by Matt Damon.

Calacanis is scheduled to get car #16 in the signature series which is #41 overall. According to Siry, the switchover to the new powertrain is now scheduled to occur at around car #38, so Jason's car should come properly equipped and shouldn't require an upgrade. Since departing from Weblogs Inc. Jason has also done some venture capital work with Sequioa Capital and started another new company called Mahalo. Mahalo is described as a human powered search engine that uses an editorial staff to create a directory of what they consider the best of the web. Once he does get his Roadster, Jason is considering actually giving it away on Mahalo as a promotion for the site. Stay tuned for more info on that.

[Source: Jason Calacanis]

That's Jason at the wheel - Photos by CK Sample III

Our old buddy Jason Calacanis is at again with Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster. He borrowed the Tesla Chairman's car for the weekend and Friday he took a bunch of his employees from Mahalo out for rides. Later he and someone named Conrad went out for a drive with Jason's Nokia N95 streaming the event live over a service called Qik. Needless to say, Jason and Conrad were mighty impressed with the ability of the electric sports car to pick up velocity. After driving it, Jason doesn't seem to have any second thoughts about ordering one.

Like Tesla founder Martin Eberhard, Calacanis is installing solar panels on his house to charge the Roadster and he seems completely committed to the idea of getting his transportation needs free of the grid and imported oil. While Jason is correct in his comments about the the vast majority of car trips being less than the the 220-mile range of the Roadster, he is a little off the mark when he describes the car as being free of compromises. The Roadster is an outstanding performer but as I said in my driving impressions back in January, it is most definitely not for everyone. Anyone with more than one passenger to haul around can forget it, as could anyone of more than modest stature. This is definitely not a car for everyone. The battery technology still has a way to go as well. Even in this little car, it takes a 1,000lb battery to get 220 miles. In a car that can take your family to dinner it would take up a lot of space and it will be interesting to see how WhiteStar is packaged. Check out the video after the jump.

Tesla Motors opened its first retail store the other day and held a party to celebrate the event. Of course we all couldn't attend but thanks to 21st century technology, videos were taken on cell phones and streamed live across the internets for all to see via Qik. In fact, they are still on the internets and we have some after the break. Jason Calacanis of Weblogs fame shot the first featured moving pictures while Jeff Macpherson from Tiki Bar TV shot some clips as well. So go ahead and have some hors d'oeuvres and a cocktail whilst you mingle with the rich and famous and check out some Tesla roadsters. Hear music legend Quincy Jones play the Tesla horn. Watch Elon Musk talk to the camera of Chris Paine about grilled cheese sandwiches. Why are you still here? Go watch!

UPDATE: swanky House Music TV video added.

That's Jason at the wheel - Photos by CK Sample III

For those unfamiliar with the history of this site, a little background. AutoblogGreen and our elder sibling Autoblog are both part of the Weblogs Inc. network of blogs. Weblogs Inc. also includes sites like Engadget and its off-shoots, Joystiq, TUAW, Cinematical and many more. Weblogs Inc. was founded by a gentleman named Jason Calacanis and his business partner Brian Alvey in 2004 and in late 2005 they sold the company to AOL who own it to this day. Jason eventually went on to some other endeavors and most recently launched a human generated search site/directory called Mahalo.com. Along the way he also decided to plunk down some of the cash that he accumulated from building and selling his various enterprises on a Tesla Roadster. Jason wasn't one of the earliest customers and unlike everyone but Tesla Chairman Elon Musk has yet to receive his new battery-propelled speed machine. Fortunately for Jason, Elon apparently took his kindergarten lessons in sharing to heart and decided to loan production Roadster #1 to Jason for a bit and Jason shared his good fortune with his own staff at Mahalo. Check out the Flickr photo set here and Mahalo's Roadster page here. And for the record, yes, it is a slow news day.

[Source: Jason Calacanis, CK Sample III - Flickr]