So which version of the new Roadster am I actually reserving?

The short answer is the base car allready includes what you want, and the thruster stuff is a separate option, not baked into a trim. The regular Roadster is a dual motor rear wheel drive roadster. The fans and the drop-down skirts come with the car too, they are just a track feature. On the street the skirts stay up, the fans sit dormant, and you are driving what is still a very quick roadster on its own merits. The sub 2 second 0-60 people throw around for the normal car is with the fans doing thier thing on a prepared surface, wich tells you how much of that number is the downforce and how little is just the motors.

The wild headline figure, the one under 2 seconds to 60 that gets clipped out of context constantly, is tied to the cold gas thruster package. That option deletes the rear seats, puts a high pressure gas tank where the passenger used to sit, and needs a proper filling setup that ordinary owners will never have access to. It also raises real questions about how the thing gets certified for street use at all. Nobody is taking that version grocery shopping. On the fan skirts specifically, your read is right. They are sacrificial consumables meant for smooth track surfaces. Run them on public roads and they get chewed up fast, they lose their seal over every bump, and you are flinging grit at everyone behind you. That is a track day toy feature, full stop.

So for your reservation decision: skip the thruster box and you get the road car with the fan system as a track option. That is the version most reservations are presumably for anyway. My honest suggestion is to wait untill Tesla actually publishes the config options and pricing, because this car has been delayed so many times that whatever the reveal promised is not guaranteed to match what ships. If the config page when it arrives still shows the fans bundled with the base car, you are fine. If they have moved them behind a paywall by then, at least you will know before the money leaves your account.

That clears up a lot, thanks. I always pictured the gas thing as some little bottle in the trunk, not a whole seat getting ripped out. Kind of changes what the car even is at that point. If the padded seat thing gets removed, does that mean the second one of those packages they sell is basically a one person car? I only ask because I take my kid to hockey practice and a two seater is already pushing it.

Following this closely becasue I'm in the same boat with my deposit sitting there since the reveal. One thing I'd add from expirience with another car I ordered: the production version lost two of the gimmicks they showed on stage, and by then my money was already down. Lesson stuck with me. My question for anyone who's been through this before, do these track options ussually get retrofittable later, or is it a build-time only thing? If the fans can be added after delivery I'd honestly just take the plain car first and decide once I've actually driven it. Skirts dragging on my driveway every morning sounds like a headache I don't need on day one.

When I ordered my Model 3 back in the day the spec drifted between order and delivery, and what saved me was plain screenshots. I dated every config page and every email in one folder on my phone, nothing fancy. When the delivery paperwork came through with a diferent wheel option than what I'd picked, I pulled up the screenshot and had it sorted in ten minutes at the delivery center. Given how many times this Roadster has slipped, I'd do the same with the reservation page the moment anything on it changes.

Update: took the screenshot advice and dated every page of my reservation account, so at least I've got a paper trail now. First reply confirmed the dual motor setup is standard, which settles half my worry. But it cut off right at the part I care about, what the fans and skirts actually do at street ride height. Anyone know if they just stay stowed unless you enable them?