Lifestyle
Tesla Model 3 Performance outruns Dodge Challenger SRT Demon in drag race
The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is a muscle car created specifically for the drag strip. When Dodge was promoting the vehicle, the company’s execs were quick to point out that the monster muscle car was quicker than a Tesla Model S P100D. During testing, the Dodge Demon hit 60 mph in 2.1 seconds (including rollout), while the electric car reached 60 mph in 2.28 seconds.
In more ways than one, the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is a car that pushes the boundaries of the internal combustion engine. Stepping on the accelerator allows the vehicle to hit 30 mph in just one second, and with the right setup, the car can finish the quarter mile in 9.65 seconds. Equipped with a 6.2-liter Supercharged V8 engine that produces 808 hp, the RWD, 8-speed Demon is one of the most formidable rivals of Tesla’s quickest electric beast.
The Tesla Model 3 Performance is a quick vehicle, but it is a car that is designed to be competitive on the track. It’s still formidable on the drag strip, but in terms of straight-line acceleration and 0-60 mph times, it still falls behind the Model S P100D or the Model X P100D with its 0-60 time of 3.5 seconds. With this in mind, the Dodge Demon, which is designed to compete and beat the Model S P100D, should have no problems outrunning the Model 3 Performance in a drag race.
A recent set of races between the two vehicles has revealed that beating the Model 3 Performance might not be too easy for the Dodge Demon.
A Tesla Model 3 Performance recently made an appearance at a RaceLegal.com-organized 1/8-mile drag racing meet at the SDCCU Stadium in San Diego, CA. The Model 3 Performance’s driver, Hunter Kupka, noted in an email to Teslarati that it was his first time on the drag strip, and that his electric car was only four-days-old when he went to the event. The Model 3 only had 70% of charge, and it had an extra 100 pounds of cargo in the trunk. The stock tires of the vehicle were also inflated with 43-44 PSI, a setting that is more optimized for range than maximum performance.
The Tesla Model 3 Performance and the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon engaged in battle three times, and in each round, the electric sedan managed to actually beat the monster muscle car to the 1/8-mile mark. In the first race, the Model 3 Performance crossed the 1/8-mile marker in 7.7 seconds while the Demon finished the race in 7.89 seconds. The second race was better for the electric car, as it crossed the finish line in 7.69 seconds while the Dodge completed the race in 7.7 seconds. In the third race, the reaction time of the Demon’s driver resulted in another win for the Model 3 Performance, which finished the race in 7.73 seconds.
The results of the Model 3 Performance and the Dodge Demon’s 1/8-mile drag races. [Credit: Hunter Kupka]
It should be noted that had the race gone longer, the Dodge Demon would have most definitely caught up to the Model 3 Performance. In each of the races, the fossil fuel-powered muscle car crossed the finish line traveling 9-10 mph faster than the electric sedan. That said, it remains undeniable that the Model 3 Performance displayed an amazing amount of consistency during the races, regardless of its state of charge or the PSI of its wheels.
Watch the Model 3 Performance battle the Dodge Demon in the video below.
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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
Tesla Summer Update begins rolling out: a look at the new features
Tesla briefly offered this Robotaxi part for your personal car
