Unplugged Performance went north to Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca for the Gridlife Laguna Festival on September 27th, 28th, and 29th with not just one but two race cars.
While Gridlife Laguna Festival is a unique convergence of motorsports, car culture, and music, it offers us the opportunity to represent the evolution of cars and motorsports to EVs. As the EV revolution continues to transform performance tuning and customization, events like Gridlife provide the perfect backdrop to showcase the cutting-edge technologies and of course, the innovations of driving the future of high-performance EVs. This festival, held at the legendary Laguna Seca Raceway, brings together enthusiasts that share our same passion for tuning, racing, and pushing cars, specifically Teslas, to their limits. By working together we show the broader community that not only can EVs compete, but they can win, set records and turn a lot of heads while doing it.
While we’ve competed at Gridlife Laguna before, this is the first time we’ve done so there, or at any event, with two Unplugged Performance Tesla race cars: our iconic Model S Plaid ‘Dark Helmet’, and our 2024 Model 3 Performance ‘Red Rocket’ both piloted by our trusted development driver, Craig Coker. Craig has hundreds of combined hours in the seat of these two cars, and has set many previous lap records including Dark Helmet’s Production EV record at Laguna Seca last year, and fastest Model 3 record at Laguna Seca just last month. It’s also important to note, that while we are referring to these as two race cars (and Dark Helmet very much is,) the Model 3 is a daily-driven family commuter car that was driven from Unplugged Performance HQ in Hawthorne, CA up to Laguna Seca, raced all weekend and drove home without concern or incident. Talk about reliability!
Gridlife Laguna Festival is made up of various events including TrackBattle, the name of their time attack series, in which both UP cars competed. The event runs officially for three days starting with practice sessions, followed by qualifying sessions where drivers are competing to earn their place in the main competition: TrackBattle Podium Sprint. The last day is mostly a High-Performance Driving Event for open tracking and exhibition.
Dark Helmet Journey to Laguna
Craig began his Gridlife Laguna journey from UP in Hawthorne early Thursday morning piloting his Tesla Cybertruck Cyberbeast with Dark Helmet secured to the UP trailer, in tow. With various stops along the way for easy pull-through Supercharging it was an eventful trip that landed Craig at the track in the afternoon along with the rest of the UP Race Team. Both cars were prepped and ready for Day 1 practice and qualifying in their respective competitive racing classes.
Dark Helmet competed in Unlimited class which means it’s up against the fastest cars at the event where there are no limitations for tire, power, or aero. Other entrants included a full Ford GT factory race car, a highly-modified Nissan 350Z with likely as much power as Dark Helmet, but around half the weight (read: double the power:weight ratio), as well as various other highly-tuned Porsches, BMWs, Miatas, and more. It’s worth noting that while Dark Helmet looks the part with its overly aggressive exterior splitter, massive rear wing, other aero parts, and massive slicks, its modifications are limited to the same UP parts that any Model S owner can install on their car for everyday use including our Superlight Carbon Ceramic Big Brake Kit (BBK), UP front and rear sway bars, UP x Ohlins 4-way TTX coilovers, billet adjustable suspension arms for rear toe, rear camber, front camber, other suspension arms like front lower arms and rear traction and trailing arms with upgrade spherical bushings, carbon fiber front brake duct kit, and 19” UP-03 Forged wheels. We develop these parts on track, and put them through the most thorough testing (racing) before they go to market. Track-proven they are!
UP 2024 Tesla Model 3 Performance, aka ‘Red Rocket’ vs the competition
The UP 2024 Tesla Model 3 Performance, aka ‘Red Rocket’ ran in Street GT class which is limited to production cars and a max 315mm wide 200 treadwear tire, and factory-applied aero. Other entrants in Street GT class included cars like a modified 700hp C8 Corvette, and a small handful of modified BMW M2s and M4s. Like Dark Helmet, Red Rocket’s powertrain is also completely unmodified, running the same 510hp as any other new 2024 Model 3 Performance, with modifications being limited to similar UP parts list including UP Race Pro Coilovers utilizing our Adaptive Suspension Canceller Kit, adjustable suspension arms with spherical bushings, Carbon-Ceramic Front big brake kit (BBK), and 18×10.9” UP-03 Forged wheels weighing just 19 lbs are engineered to withstand the abuse of the race track. We wrapped them in 295/35 18 Yokohama AO52 tires, added a couple upgrades to the interior for safety including the UP carbon race seat, and 4-point harness bar. But again, due to class restrictions, the exterior was complete stock.
Practice sessions kicked off race weekend on Friday and this is where it starts to count for a few reasons. The lineup for all subsequent sessions, practice, qualifying or in the Podium Sprint, are based on times from the previous session. This is extra important for us in Teslas where we want to take the first out-lap at a slower pace to preserve thermals and battery. If we were to get caught behind other slower cars, it both reduces our ability to attempt new track records or secure preferred placing in the next session. Additionally, Gridlife’s Drifting series starts after the first TrackBattle practice session, and because drifting changes the surface of the track leaving tire dust behind, the weekend’s fastest lap opportunity actually comes in the first practice sessions. Well, unfortunately, due to the timing of when we were able to get the Model 3 Performance out in the first practice session, that car got a non ideal start to the weekend. Craig then hopped immediately into Dark Helmet where we saw similar results. We went into the second practice session showing progress, and reliability across the two cars.
The Sprint before the Sprint
Next up was qualifying sessions for the Podium Sprint. There were three qualifying sessions, 1 on day 1, and 2 on day two. The goal here is to hit top-5 in the class to earn your way to the Podium Sprint, which of course, is where getting first, second, third to get on podium, is the goal. We were looking good at the end of day 1, and planned to hit the track hard the next morning for the second qualifying session. The weather, on the other hand, had different plans. Upon arrival at the track on Day 2, there was a thick fog lying across the entire track preventing visibility which delayed racing for a couple hours.
Once Craig got out for the first session of the day, we found ourselves in 4th place for Dark Helmet and 2nd place in the Model 3 Performance. Feeling confident in our position for Podium Sprint, we decided to skip the last qualifying session to allow the thermals to cool as much as possible before running the Podium Sprint at the end of day Saturday.
The Final Sprint for Two Podiums
At Gridlife Laguna, their Track Battle Podium Sprint is set up as the final race for which the final results are based on. This means that any previous times set in practice or qualifying are not considered for final race timing. In the Podium Sprint, drivers get two full hot laps to set their fastest laps, of which the faster is counted toward the final race results.
With five drivers in each class, Craig was off to the races with his eyes set on two podiums. Dark Helmet came off track with a 1:28.465, just nudging out the competition by two tenths of a second and securing 3rd place. The Model 3, on the other hand, was chasing down the 700hp supercharged Corvette but was bested by about eight tenths, but was able to secure a second place win beating out all the BMW M cars in the class. Significant as not only do we find ourselves in competition with these cars in motorsports, but these are the benchmarks in the automotive industry that Tesla often finds its Model 3 Performance pitted against for comparison. The end result was awesome to experience: one event, one driver, TWO PODIUM FINISHES!
It was the first time we’ve entered into a motorsports event with two cars and it was great to see the teamwork and effort put out by the UP Race Team to achieve, what we consider a win. Two cars with stock powertrains, mostly just bolt-on braking and suspension parts, and in the case of the Model 3, stock aero AND likely one of the few cars that drove a few hundred miles to the race event and drove home on its own power without incident.
Looking forward…
Events like Gridlife Laguna Festival are still driven by an overwhelming amount of internal combustion engine cars. While there were a few other EVs and hybrids, we found ourselves representing the EV revolution to show the world that EVs, with little modification can be highly competitive, a lot of fun, and clean in the process. Whether it’s high-performance suspension upgrades, lightweight aerodynamic components, or EV-specific wheels designed for track and street performance, we’re committed to meeting the evolving needs of this dynamic community. For us, Gridlife Laguna Festival isn’t just an event – it’s an opportunity to engage with the forward-thinking community who are passionate about both cutting-edge technology and unparalleled driving experiences.
Looking forward to next events, Dark Helmet will continue in the Gridlife FCP Euro Championship series which is made up of Gridlife Willow Springs which we took first place at earlier this year, Laguna Festival and lastly Thunderhill in November where we have a good chance to take gold in the full series. Until then…
