For nearly two years, we’ve been arduously rebuilding and improving the Model 3 racecar after it was totaled at Pikes Peak 2020. We are well on the way to making the ultimate Tesla racecar.
The Unplugged Performance Model 3 Race Car, dubbed “Bionic Phoenix”, saw its rise from the ashes of the 2020 Pikes Peak Hill Climb event. An event in which Randy Pobst crashed this racecar and, unfortunately, ended his blazingly fast take on one of the world’s toughest hill climb courses. Eventhought we were able to rebuild the car well enough to get it up the hill on race day, ultimately it was totaled and required a complete bottom-up rebuild. For the entirety of last year and several months into 2022, we’ve been arduously rebuilding and improving the Model 3 racecar, molding it into one of the most capable racing machines out there. And right now, to further test the platform, we lent our Bionic Phoenix Model 3 to Kyle O’ Rourke, one of the best autocrossers out there, ensuring this stage of development is thoroughly tested in a real-life racing environment.
“We lent out our Bionic Phoenix project to Kyle ORourke for some autocorssing just to see how the car reacts in that environment. Kyle took home first place and we gathered more valuable data about how the suspension behaves in these tight low-speed corners.”
As a result, Kyle took first place in the SCCA CST class, proving the capabilities of this vehicle and ensuring we gather more telemetry and other data, helping us to fine-tune the suspension. We have a few more events planned in the forthcoming months with our Model S race car so the Model 3 will continue to evolve slowly as we focus on Pikes Peak 2022 in our Model S Plaid. Our teams are racing Unplugged Performance modded Model 3s and Model S’ all across the world, posting winning results and/or record-breaking lap times. All a result of the hard work in both engineering & design, but also thanks to our partners who give our parts the hardest test they could get: races.
You can grab a detailed view of the Unplugged Performance Bionic Phoenix Model 3 at the AutoX autocross event in the media gallery right below. For more information about building a bespoke Tesla racing car for your racing needs, please don’t hesitate to contact us and discuss what you need. Our sales team will assist you with every item needed to make your EV one of the fastest cars on the track.
