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Model 3 Tearing it Up at the Track

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I'm building a Model 3 race car. Full build. Stripped down, roll cage, wing, etc... no holds barred. And I'm taking it into real competition.

My passion is motorsport. I've been racing competitively for eight years and as soon as I drove a Tesla I knew the future would be electric. The general public doesn't realize it yet, but the war is already won. Just a matter of time before everything converts. And personally, I can't wait for that future.

Sure there's Formula E and Electric GT (if it ever gets off the ground). But what's really missing right now is the grassroots racing scene. For every professional race team there are thousands of people who want to take their street cars to the track and see what they can do.

Anyway, I've seen a bunch of videos and posts about taking these cars to HPDE events. But I've never really seen one driven in anger against solid competition. So here's a short video of it in action.

(Hint, watch to the end for a bonus lesson on why EVs are the future!)

 
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Juicing up for the next round:

nFhjns1.jpg
 

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I'm building a Model 3 race car. Full build. Stripped down, roll cage, wing, etc... no holds barred. And I'm taking it into real competition.

My passion is motorsport. I've been racing competitively for eight years and as soon as I drove a Tesla I knew the future would be electric. The general public doesn't realize it yet, but the war is already won. Just a matter of time before everything converts. And personally, I can't wait for that future.

Sure there's Formula E and Electric GT (if it ever gets off the ground). But what's really missing right now is the grassroots racing scene. For every professional race team there are thousands of people who want to take their street cars to the track and see what they can do.

Anyway, I've seen a bunch of videos and posts about taking these cars to HPDE events. But I've never really seen one driven in anger against solid competition. So here's a short video of it in action.

(Hint, watch to the end for a bonus lesson on why EVs are the future!)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwaD0I7ZzGw

Nice work!

Looking forward to following your progress.
 
Cool! Looking forward to seeing how you do, and seeing how much weight you can strip off of it. How much have you managed to remove so far? Why do you still have the rear door panels?

Door panels, windows, windshield, etc. are coming off soon! Even still we've already been able to take off 275 lbs. I suspect there's at least another 80-100 lbs between the drivers seat, carpets, glass, and other elements.

First on the scales:

hzj9Zxb.jpg


Heavy beast but amazing corner weights:

s5Vjs8r.jpg


Partially-stripped interior:

oEBsK9g.jpg


Current weight & balance:

coviu1k.jpg
 
Cool.

You should post some instrumented 0-60 times, just to make people here excited to see 0-60 under 3 seconds! It’s apparently a local obsession. ;) I figure you can do 2.8-2.9.

Seriously, I imagine that 0-60 is not of much interest to you...

windshield

This one puzzled me... for the cage?...do you put it back in later?

What happened to the wheel well liners? Intentional for ease of working on the car or for weight...or a casualty?
 
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Nice. What wheels are those?

18" Apex EC-7.

It's so funny how quiet it is when you're not around the other cars. All you can hear are some metal clanking and the wind. Thanks for posting this. It's cool knowing that this car is winning in so many arenas, including the racetrack.

It's really strange when there aren't any cars around. But I love it - feels so much more connected to the road because you can hear everything happening with the tires.

Cool.

You should post some instrumented 0-60 times, just to make people here excited to see 0-60 under 3 seconds! It’s apparently a local obsession. ;) I figure you can do 2.8-2.9.

Seriously, I imagine that 0-60 is not of much interest to you...

This one puzzled me... for the cage?...do you put it back in later?

What happened to the wheel well liners? Intentional for ease of working on the car or for weight...or a casualty?

Pulling the windshield is just a preventative measure - so many rocks flying around it will get wrecked. Replacing with Lexan. I'll also be removing the top and rear glass for safety.

Wheel well liners came out to make it easier for working on suspension - Tesla did a really good job designing the whole undercarriage for aero. Some really nice touches- no doubt I lost a couple mph by pulling some of those pieces out. They'll go back in once I fit the right tires.
 
You can easily take the seats out, just need a jumper harness to trick the sensor. Warnings are annoying.

I'm currently trying to figure out how to swap wheels to a deep dish wheel and to transfer over the knobs.

Cool. Any luck finding the right resistance? We've tested every 0.1 increment from 1.0 to 11.9 ohms and sensors still complain. Most airbags are around 2-3 so it's a bit strange. Then again so is most everything on the car!

Wow Great stuff! You made the passes look too easy! Love the Video.

Wow thanks! The car is a lot more competitive than people realize.
 
Awesome!! Love this, can't wait to see more.

What are you doing to address charging between sessions? Charging on a 14-50 or similar between sessions is a chore and not sufficient for a 4-session HPDE day...if you're running competitively I'm assuming it's not enough to keep up with your needs.
 
Awesome!! Love this, can't wait to see more.

What are you doing to address charging between sessions? Charging on a 14-50 or similar between sessions is a chore and not sufficient for a 4-session HPDE day...if you're running competitively I'm assuming it's not enough to keep up with your needs.

Yeah, the 14-50 is definitely not adequate for a 4 full HPDE sessions. But it's good enough for laying down a few fast TT laps before the tires fall off.

You need to invest in some real racing seat belts, 4 point restraints... lot safer then the stock ones

Fred

That's next step. Need a cage to do a race seat and 6-point harness properly.