Lifestyle
Tesla Model 3 Performance conquers CA raceway with multiple laps in Track Mode
While speaking at the Joe Rogan Experience last September, Elon Musk remarked that he believes “a Tesla is the most fun thing” anyone can buy. Musk pointed out that Tesla’s electric cars are not just simple vehicles — they are things designed to “maximize enjoyment.” This is something that owners of the Model 3 Performance are feeling now, especially since Tesla has started rolling out the “release version” of the vehicle’s Track Mode, a feature that optimizes the electric car’s performance and handling so that it could be driven hard on the track.
A Tesla program manager recently related her experience with her Model 3 Performance — and Track Mode in particular — on social media. Earlier this month, Kristy Morgan, whose LinkedIn page notes that she is “is an engineer and supply chain professional with expertise in materials and services procurement, strategic sourcing, and supplier auditing” took her Model 3 to the Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, CA, where she attended an event that taught how to drive on a closed circuit. Kristy participated at the BMW Car Club of America Golden Gate Chapter’s High-Performance Driver Education (HPDE) program, which teaches drivers the elements of racetrack driving in the 3-mile east course at the CA Raceway.
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- [Credit: Kristy Morgan/Facebook]
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- [Credit: Kristy Morgan/Facebook]
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- [Credit: Kristy Morgan/Facebook]
Tesla engineer Kristy Morgan’s Model 3 Performance at the 2018 BMW CCA GGC HPDE. [Credit: Kristy Morgan/Facebook]
In a Facebook post after the event, Kristy noted that her Model 3 Performance’s Track Mode did not disappoint. “It made me feel like a hero, kept me safe, and let me have WAY too much fun!” she wrote. The engineer was instructed by a friend and fellow employee at Tesla, who encouraged her to push both the limits of her vehicle and her own “nerves.” Kristy was supported by her husband, who acted as her pit crew, torquing the Model 3 Performance’s lugs, checking the car’s tires, and Supercharging the vehicle in between her runs.
One of Kristy’s hot laps around Thunderhill Raceway was shared on YouTube, showing how the Model 3 Performance’s Track Mode allowed the vehicle to hug the racetrack and handle all its turns and straights with authority. In the description of her video, Kristy noted that she was able to complete all the laps and sessions over the two days of the 2018 BMW CCA GGC HPDE. The Tesla engineer further stated that she experienced “no power limiting, no thermal limiting, no ‘limp mode,’ and no brake fade” during the duration of the course.
Perhaps the most notable image from Kristy Morgan’s Track Mode sessions, though, was the consumption chart of her Model 3 Performance. As could be seen in one of her Facebook uploads, the Model 3 Performance with Track Mode showed an energy consumption of 890Wh/mi — something that is rarely seen in Tesla’s electric cars.
The Model 3 Performance is Tesla’s first track-capable vehicle. Equipped with the company’s larger, more energy-dense 2170 battery cells, the vehicle is designed to stand toe-to-toe against the best high-performance sedans in the auto market. The vehicle has impressive specs, with a 0-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds, a top speed of 155 mph, and dual motors that provide a combined 450 hp and 471 lb-ft of torque. When Tesla began the release of Track Mode for the vehicle, the company noted that it aimed to utilize the power of the electric car’s dual motors and instant torque to “make cornering on the track feel just as natural as forward acceleration.”
Unlike conventional Sport Modes from traditional automakers, the majority of which disable features like stability control, Tesla’s Track Mode actually adds features to the vehicle. Tesla was able to do this by replacing the electric car’s stability control system with its own Vehicle Dynamics Controller — a software specifically developed for the company’s electric vehicles that acts as both a stability control system and a performance enhancement on the track. Prior to releasing Track Mode to its Model 3 Performance fleet, Tesla collaborated with professional racecar driver and Motor Trend journalist Randy Pobst to refine the “release version” of the function. Testing Track Mode’s release version around the “Streets” of the Willow Springs International Raceway in CA, Randy was able to complete a lap with the Model 3 Performance in 1:21.49 — faster than one of the auto publication’s Best Driver’s Car winners in the past, the 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia, which completed a lap around the same course in 1:22.30.
Watch one of Kristy Morgan’s hot laps around the Thunderhill Raceway in the video below.
Lifestyle
Tesla wins over Netflix’s Selling Sunset star, who’s now ditching his Bentley
Selling Sunset’s Jason Oppenheim swapped his Bentley for a Tesla and promised ten for employees.
Jason Oppenheim, the luxury real estate broker best known as the star of Netflix’s Selling Sunset, has parked his Bentley for good and moved into a Tesla Model Y, and he says Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is the reason.
Oppenheim, who founded The Oppenheim Group, the Los Angeles brokerage at the center of the show, posted a video to X on Saturday evening that he called “the most important video I’ve ever posted.” In it, he rides from Newport Beach to his firm’s Los Angeles office, a trip he put at roughly an hour and 15 minutes, while FSD handles the drive and parks the car without him touching the wheel or the accelerator. He said he handed the Bentley to his father because he no longer has any use for it.
Tesla shared the clip from its main account on X about two hours later, pulling out the quote that has since spread well beyond the Tesla community:
“[FSD Supervised] is life-changing. I was on the phone with my brother last night, and I made him buy one. He literally bought one while we were talking. I’m buying 10 of my employees a Tesla with FSD. It’s 8x safer than the average driver. There’s nothing more important than the safety of you and your loved ones.”
Oppenheim was candid about why the safety pitch landed with him. He admitted in the video that he is a distracted driver who answers emails and texts behind the wheel, and framed the employee purchases as a way to keep his team off their phones while driving. Elon Musk posted “Tesla FSD feels like magic” less than half an hour after the video went live.
The endorsement lands at a convenient moment for Tesla. The company delivered 486,532 vehicles in Q3, beating Wall Street’s estimates and marking its best quarter ever without the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.
A public service announcement. https://t.co/NYa1IpKwBX
— Jason Oppenheim (@OppenheimJason) October 4, 2026
Tesla FSD has been subscription only in the U.S. since February at $99 per month, and Tesla said in its Q2 update that active subscriptions hit 1.48 million, up 56 percent year over year, with more than 55 percent of new North American deliveries leaving with FSD attached. That attach rate is the figure Ron Baron cited last month when he told CNBC “the time to buy the stock is now.” At current pricing, Oppenheim’s 10 employee cars alone would add $990 a month, or about $11,880 a year, in FSD revenue.
Tesla AI head Ashok Elluswamy said in July that FSD had logged more than 12 billion miles while going roughly twice as far between collisions as manual driving. FSD also remains a supervised system, so Oppenheim and his employees are still required to watch the road, even as Tesla rolls out v14.3.10 with Automatic Collision Evasion, which can steer or brake on its own to avoid a frontal crash.
Lifestyle
Tesla teases “Halloween Mode” update with Optimus rising from a graveyard
Tesla’s Halloween teaser hides a covered vehicle and an Optimus hand rising from the ground.
Tesla has started teasing a Halloween software update for its vehicles, with a short clip on X that reads, “Halloween is coming.” The clip opens on a glowing pumpkin before pulling back to the car’s center touchscreen, where the usual parked visualization has been replaced by a graveyard scene, and the vehicle draped with a white sheet so it reads as a cartoon ghost.
Halloween is coming pic.twitter.com/lM3ASUeOqX
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 1, 2026
The second detail is a robotic hand clawing its way out of the dirt like a zombie, which looks to be the hand of Tesla’s latest Optimus V3 humanoid robot. While Tesla still has not formally shown Optimus Gen 3 walking around in service, renders pulled from Tesla’s Android app last month gave the clearest look yet, including far more refined hands that Tesla has said carry 22 degrees of freedom. The hand has been the hardest part of the program. Musk has called it the majority of the robot’s engineering difficulty, and Tesla’s patents describe a design driven by tendons with the actuators moved into the forearm.
Tesla Optimus V3 hand and arm details revealed in new patents
Optimus also has a Halloween track record. Last October the robot handed out candy in Times Square, and a costumed “zombie” Optimus shuffled around the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles on Halloween night.
On the software side, Tesla’s 2025 Holiday Update expanded Santa Mode with a Santa sleigh, snowmen, snow effects, and a festive lock chime, so it wouldn’t be too far fetched if we saw something similar but themed for a Halloween Mode.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s newest feature lets you floor it out of a Supercharger while plugged in
Tesla’s new Emergency Drive Away feature lets owners flee a Supercharger while still plugged in.
Tesla has given drivers a way to escape while a vehicle is plugged-in at a Supercharger, in the event of an emergency. The company’s charging team announced a new feature on X called Emergency Drive Away, which lets a driver shift into Drive and pull away while the charging cable is still connected to the car.
Until now, a Tesla would not leave Park with a charge cable plugged in. Drivers had to release the latch from the touchscreen, the Tesla app, or the button on the charge handle, then wait for the port to let go. Emergency Drive Away removes that lockout, but Tesla is clear that it comes at a cost. “Use of this feature will damage your vehicle and the Supercharger,” the company wrote, adding that the function is meant for emergencies only and that deliberate misuse will lead to “additional penalties.” Tesla did not say what those penalties are.
Emergency Drive Away lets you shift into Drive while still plugged into a Supercharger pic.twitter.com/40GSzyP4lG
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) October 1, 2026
The in-car prompt is just as direct, with the warning reading: “Driving with the cable connected will cause damage to your vehicle and the Supercharger. Short camera recordings will be shared with Tesla.” That footage gives Tesla a way to separate a real emergency from someone who simply did not want to wait for the latch.
The feature requires software update 2026.38.3, and Tesla said in replies to owners that it works at every Supercharger in the United States without new stall hardware. Model S and Model X vehicles built before 2021 are not supported, and the company says the feature applies to U.S. Superchargers “for now,” leaving Canada and other markets out at launch.
Tesla Supercharger argument leads to tragic shooting incident
Tesla did not tie the announcement to any specific event, but it arrives two months after a gunman opened fire at an In-N-Out in Twin Falls, Idaho, on August 1, targeting three people in two Teslas at the neighboring Supercharger. One of them, a 66 year old man from Salt Lake City, was killed. Superchargers have been the scene of violence before, including a fatal shooting at a station near Denver in 2023.
In the weeks after Twin Falls, owners pushed Tesla for a native way to escape a stall, and many pointed back to EVject, the aftermarket breakaway connector Tesla sued in 2024 over claims it lacked overtemperature protection. The two companies later reached an agreement that led EVject to recall its earlier connectors in favor of a version with thermal sensors.
Our mission has always been about providing peace of mind and eliminating sitting duck scenarios.
We patented the built-in breakaway charger tip on Feb 15, 2023. Awarded Jan 30, 2024. Then shared the designs with @TeslaCharging
Thank you @Tesla for rolling out a solution. This… https://t.co/djOzswLw9N
— EVject (@EVject) October 2, 2026
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