We recently wrote about an interesting project involving a flood-damaged Tesla Model 3 Performance that was set to be transformed into something completely different.
YouTuber B is for Build first wanted to see how many parts can be removed from the American EV before it noticed anything was wrong, and even though it threw a couple of error messages on the screen about seat belts not being buckled and Autopilot not working, it still drove fine.
Now, in the latest video of the series, Chris (who owns and runs the B is for Build YouTube channel) and his colleagues chopped just about everything that was extra weight on the Model 3 and wanted to see how much quicker it can accelerate from zero to sixty miles per hour, compared to when it was still fully assembled.
And, as you can see in the video embedded at the top of this page, the team took things to the next level, with just the driver’s seat left in place and a portion of the B-pillar that supports the driver’s side seatbelt. Everything from the doors, hood, and bumpers to the lights and interior trim was removed to make it as light as possible.
It’s a philosophy that fared well with brands like Lotus and Caterham, which are famous for making extremely light vehicles that handle very well and offer a lot of fun, even though they don’t have much power.
But the Model 3 Performance does have plenty of power – Tesla doesn’t advertise how much horsepower it has, but it’s enough to propel it to 60 miles per hour in 3.1 seconds and on to a top speed of 162 miles per hour, according to the official specs sheet.
In their own test, the guys at B is for Build managed to accelerate from 0-60 mph in 3.56 seconds with the car still in its original form, while the stripped-down version was over a second faster, reaching 60 mph in 2.46 seconds. That’s almost as quick as the theoretical 1.9 seconds of the much-delayed Tesla Roadster.
As always, we’d like to know what you think about this, so after watching the video embedded at the top of the page, scroll down to the comments section to give us your thoughts.
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Source: B is for Build (YouTube)