Tesla Fremont Factory Displays Pike’s Peak Model 3 Racer
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Tesla recently displayed the Model 3 that participated in the 2020 Pike’s Peak International Hillclimb at its Fremont factory. Unplugged Performance shared the news on Twitter along with a thank you to Tesla’s team for taking good care of the vehicle.
“We especially loved the selfies taken by Tesla factory staff in the car!” Unplugged Performance tweeted while adding that the rebuild of the Phoenix into Bionic Phoenix is continuing.
What a treat to see this in person! pic.twitter.com/uQze535Aq4
— RyeBread (@Rysidhu1) February 21, 2022
In 2020, Ben Schaffer of Unplugged Performance took a Tesla Model 3 to the Pike’s Peak International Hillclimb and Randy Pobst was behind the wheel. The team faced some highs on that trip, but they also faced a few challenges in the August run. Randy Pobst entered the Bottomless Pit at 113 mph in the Model 3 when he had an accident. Fortunately, he was in the safest vehicle the NHTSA had ever tested and was unhurt. Unplugged also noted that all of the work they put into the Ascension-R race car ensured that the only thing hurt was his ego.
Despite the accident, the team assessed the damaged and worked their butts off to get the car fixed and allow Randy the chance for a comeback. Although the Model 3 performed well, the crash caused internal damage to the battery pack which resulted in Pobst taking on Pike’s Peak with about half of the car’s original energy capacity. He was able to make the summit in the end, and that is a huge win by itself.
The real comeback, however, was the 2021 Pike’s Peak International Hillclimb where Pobst drove the Tesla Model S Plaid. Unplugged Performance won its class by a large margin and defeated some of the cars that were built to win. Pobst’s time was 6:57.220.
Unplugged Performance added that Pobst averaged 80.159 miles per hour on the treacherous and highly challenging course. The speed was well above the speed limit on most of the world’s highways. Unplugged Performance wrote: “Overall, we are thrilled to demonstrate the potential of the platform and proud to continue development on this great new chassis. We will continue to be the innovator and the leader for Tesla performance worldwide.”
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