Lifestyle
Tesla Model 3 Performance spins out at 135 mph during top speed attempt
Very few things can rival the exhilaration that one feels when going on a top speed run. With a powerful vehicle like the Tesla Model 3 Performance, such exhilaration becomes even more pronounced, since the vehicle is propelled by the instant torque and raw power from its dual electric motors, which produce a combined 450 hp and 471 lb-ft of torque.
Top speed runs on the Model 3 have been conducted in the past. Last August, for example, Long Range RWD Model 3 owner Michael Striker opted to go flat on the Bonneville Salt Flats. During his top speed attempt, the electric car actually went past the vehicle’s rated 140 mph top speed, reaching 142 mph before Striker decided to pull back on the accelerator. Striker’s top speed run was pretty impressive overall, especially considering that his car was equipped with 18″ Aero Wheels, which are not tuned for performance.
Ben Ahlander, a Tesla Model 3 Performance owner, wanted to push his electric car to its limits. His Model 3, a Midnight Silver unit equipped with 20″ Sport Wheels, was charged before it was taken to the Salt Flats in UT for its run. Right before accelerating, the Model 3 owner even opted to play some highly appropriate music for the top speed attempt — Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” from the Top Gun soundtrack.
Immediately noticeable from the Model 3 Performance’s run was how quickly the vehicle breached the 100 mph barrier. True to the vehicle’s reputation, the electric sedan blazed past 60 mph and well past 100 mph quickly. The vehicle just kept pulling after that, all the way to 154 mph, which is 1 mph short of the car’s listed top speed of 155 mph.
A following top speed attempt proved to be a lot more exciting and a lot more intense for the Model 3 owner. After hitting what appeared to be soft sand, the Model 3 Performance started spinning out — while it was speeding at around 135 mph. The electric car displayed several warnings when it came to a stop, including notifications for the regenerative braking and stability control system being disabled. Automatic Emergency Braking was also disabled after the 135 mph spin-out.
Ben later noted that when he looked further into the area where he conducted his Model 3 Performance’s top speed attempts, he noticed that there were warnings about softer sand due to wet conditions. It should be noted, though, that despite the high-speed spin out, the Model 3 did not show any indication that it was in danger of rolling over, thanks to the vehicle’s low center of gravity due to its floor-mounted battery pack. While spinning out at 135 mph is a pretty harrowing experience on its own right, Ben Ahlander notes that he would definitely do another top speed run in the Salt Flats as soon as his vehicle receives the Track Mode update.
Tesla’s Track Mode update is currently being rolled out to the company’s Model 3 Performance fleet. Tuned in collaboration by Tesla’s engineers and professional racecar driver Randy Pobst, Track Mode gives the Model 3 Performance the capability to handle corners in a manner rivaling that of track-bred sports cars. During Pobst’s tests, for example, the Model 3 Performance completed a lap around the “Streets” of Willow Springs International Raceway in CA in 1:21.49, faster than one of Motor Trend‘s Best Driver’s Car winners in the past — the Ferrari 458 Italia, which completed the course in 1:22.30.
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Watch the Model 3 Performance spin out at 135 mph in the video below.
https://youtu.be/RZbLeRD8hQE
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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