Lifestyle
Tesla Model 3 drag races Pontiac Firebird Trans Am in tense 1/4-mile battle
A Tesla Model 3 equipped with range-saving Aero Wheels recently battled an all-American muscle car — the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. In a standing quarter-mile race, the Long Range RWD Model 3 proved that while it does not have the brutal acceleration of the Model S P100D or the optimized setup of the Model 3 Performance, it still has enough power to make a strong impression on the drag strip.
During the unveiling of the Model 3 back in 2016, Elon Musk remarked that Tesla does not make slow cars. Tesla’s official figures for the single motor Model 3 are quite conservative, with the vehicle having a 0-60 mph time of 5.1 seconds and a top speed of 140 mph. Despite this, however, the all-electric sedan has been steadily gaining some reputation on the track, with the vehicle being able to run hot laps around the famed Laguna Seca Raceway and beating a Porsche to take the winner’s circle in a Time Attack event.
On paper, the race between the Model 3 and the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am is the very definition of a bout between past and present. The Firebird Trans Am, after all, is one of the most recognizable muscle cars ever made. Designed to be a competitor to the ubiquitous Ford Mustang, the Firebird Trans Am became iconic due to its sleek lines, long sloping hood, and its wedge-shaped profile. The specific trim of the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am on the race against the Model 3 was not specified by Drag Racing and Car Stuff, the YouTube channel that uploaded the run, but based on its design, the vehicle appeared to be a refreshed 4th generation model, which was produced from 1998-2002.
Power-wise, the 1998-2002 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am was equipped with a hefty 5.7 L (347.8 cu in) LS1 V8 engine that produced 305 bhp (1998-2000), or 310 bhp (2001-2002). During the 1998-2000 era, the Firebird Trans Am was listed with a 6.1-second 0-60 mph time and a top speed of 160 mph. During the final two years of its production, the Trans Am was listed with a 0-60 mph time of 5.7 seconds and a top speed of 160 mph. These were the last Pontiac Firebird Trans Am to be made before GM stopped production of the vehicle. GM eventually opted to discontinue the Pontiac brand altogether, but rumors over the years have been emerging that the Firebird Trans Am line will be resurrected in the near future.
So what happens when the Long Range RWD Model 3 clashes with one of the Firebird Trans Am? Off the line, the Model 3 immediately gained a lead, thanks to the instant torque provided by its rear electric motor. Midway through the run, the Pontiac Firebird found its footing, and it started gaining on the Model 3. Unfortunately for the muscle car, it was a little bit too late, as the Model 3 crossed the finish line soon after.
The race ended with the Long Range RWD Model 3 hitting the quarter-mile mark in 13.68 seconds while traveling at 101.83 mph. The Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, on the other hand, finished the race in 13.74 seconds while running at 111.85 mph.
Considering that Tesla is now producing the Model 3 Performance, it would likely not be long before the drag strip welcomes the electric car as its next formidable challenger. With a 0-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 155 mph thanks to its two electric motors, the Model 3 Performance would likely make an impact on both the track and the drag strip.
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Watch the Tesla Model 3 battle the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am in the video below.
Elon Musk escalated his monthslong feud with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this week, pledging that his own AI video tool will produce a competing version before the year is out. Responding to a fan-made, AI-generated clip of the ancient epic, Musk wrote on X, “Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”
In June, Musk quoted an xAI-shared trailer built entirely with Grok Imagine Video 1.5, a two-minute-plus reimagining of The Odyssey styled after a 1970s classical Hollywood epic, and predicted “full movies by the end of the year,” as Teslarati reported at the time. That trailer, built from 36 consistent shots by a single creator, was Musk’s proof of concept. This week’s pledge turns that prediction into a specific commitment, tied directly to Homer’s text rather than a generic demo.
Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer https://t.co/bVHzUmY9WN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
When a fan separately proposed that Musk fund a live-action alternative, to “give Mel Gibson $100 million to film an Odyssey adaptation with painstakingly historically accurate ships, armour, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek,” Musk replied with two words: “I’m down.”
The Grok Imagine pledge lands as the tool’s underlying infrastructure has changed hands. Grok is no longer a standalone product, it folded into SpaceXAI after SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI closed in February, meaning the compute behind any Odyssey production traces back to the same Colossus supercomputers now bundled into SpaceX’s pitch to investors. Musk has separately said SpaceX’s own engineering data is being fed into the next major Grok training run, a two trillion parameter model he’s called the “2T run.”
Whether Grok Imagine can sustain a feature length narrative, rather than a series of impressive individual shots, remains the open question.
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Cybertruck
Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love
Tesla’s Summer Update removes the USB drive step from customizing your car’s digital wrap design.
Tesla’s latest 2026 Summer Update quietly closes out one of the more tedious steps in personalizing a Tesla’s digital appearance. Uploading a custom wrap design used to require a USB drive. Now it doesn’t.
The feature is listed in Tesla’s release notes as “Send Custom Wraps from Mobile App.” The company described it plainly: “Skip the USB drive and upload a custom wrap of your car from the mobile app. Instructions for creating a custom wrap here: github.com/teslamotors/custom-wraps.”
The digital wrap tool has been around since Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, when it launched for Cybertruck owners first, as Teslarati reported at the time. Getting a design onto the car meant formatting a USB drive, creating a folder named exactly “Wraps,” dropping in PNG files sized between 512×512 and 1024×1024 pixels and under 1 MB each, then plugging the drive in and applying the wrap through Toybox. Tesla expanded the tool to other models and renamed it from “Colorizer” to “Paint Shop” with the 2025 Holiday Update, while also adding license plate and window tint customization alongside the wraps.
Custom wraps via mobile app https://t.co/5OydZ26g9p pic.twitter.com/uexU0ZePxu
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
The latest Summer Update removes the USB step from that process. Owners will be able to pull a design from wherever they saved it, whether that’s a download from social media or something built from Tesla’s own GitHub templates, and push it to the car directly through the app.
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
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It’s a small fix relative to the rest of this latest release, which also included expanded Grok voice commands, automatic navigation that learns regular routes, and self-driving stats inside the mobile app, all detailed in our rundown of the full Summer Update. The USB requirement was one of the more common complaints about Paint Shop since it launched. Tesla did not say when the wrap upload change would reach individual vehicles, only that the broader update is rolling out now in waves.
Elon Musk
Tesla Diner is throwing a birthday party with a Franz-signed special treat
Tesla Diner turns one on July 21 with Optimus, roller skates, and a Franz-signed hat.
Tesla is throwing its Hollywood Diner a first birthday party on July 21 and the celebration comes with a guest list of unique items, including a limited run of Tesla Diner birthday hats personally signed by Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen for the first 50 customers who place an in-car order at midnight.
One year after lines wrapped around the block on Santa Monica Boulevard for a diner that most of the restaurant industry did not take seriously, Tesla is making the case that the concept was worth the years it took to build. The concept had been in Musk’s head since at least 2018, when he floated the idea of “an old school drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant” on X, describing it years later as “‘Grease’ meets ‘The Jetsons’ with Supercharging.”
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
What made the diner genuinely different from any restaurant that came before it was not the menu or the nostalgia. It was the ordering model. Tesla owners could place food orders directly from their vehicle’s touchscreen before arriving, a small feature that hints at something much larger on the horizon. As the Cybercab and unsupervised FSD expand across major cities, the diner model becomes a template for an entirely new kind of commerce. A robotaxi pulling in to charge does not need a human to walk up to a counter. The vehicle places the order, the food is ready on arrival, and the passenger never interrupts the experience of being driven somewhere else. It is the first glimpse of what drive-through commerce looks like when the car is doing the driving.
As Teslarati has reported, Musk signaled immediately after opening that the Hollywood location was only the beginning, posting that Tesla would expand the concept to major cities worldwide and along Supercharger corridors on long-distance routes if the first location proved successful. One year in, the birthday celebration on July 21 makes a strong case that it has. Tesla announced a full day of events including a Cybercab on display, a birthday menu, Optimus in attendance, face painting, a photo booth, roller skating servers, a light show, a Skypad DJ, and complimentary collectibles.
If Musk’s ambition holds, the Hollywood diner is year one of something much bigger. The birthday party is the proof of concept. The robotaxi fleet is the business model waiting behind it.
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Tesla Diner is turning 1 on July 21st, so we’re throwing a party
Come swing by for a day full of fun:
– Cybercab on display
– Birthday menu
– @Tesla_Optimus
– Face painting for kids & adults
– Photo booth
– Servers on roller skates delivering your order
– Light show
– Skypad DJ… pic.twitter.com/TD8pOjihYs— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) July 18, 2026
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