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.
Watch the Tesla Model 3 battle the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am in the video below.
Lifestyle
Tesla Cybertruck targets job site crews with new Tailgate Utility Track and Bed Gear Box accessory
Tesla launched a $350 tailgate track and a $985 lockable Bed Gear Box for Cybertruck.
Tesla’s Cybertruck team added two more items to the Tesla Shop, targeting job site crews and owners who use the truck bed for actual work rather than just showing it off. The official Cybertruck X account posted the Tailgate Utility Track and the Bed Gear Box within minutes of each other, part of a five item batch that also included a reflective jacket, a spray paint hat and an updated reflective tee.
The Tailgate Utility Track runs $350 and turns the folded down tailgate into another mounting surface. It’s a single aluminum track with a T-slot for sliding accessories and two L-track attachment points, plus two load stops included in the box. The pitch is straightforward: strap down oversized cargo, like lumber or a cooler, that hangs off the back of the bed without it sliding out mid-drive. It bolts onto the existing tailgate and works on every Cybertruck trim.
Tailgate Utility Trackhttps://t.co/PCAYXlFBvS pic.twitter.com/sCV2NVxf1W
— Cybertruck (@cybertruck) September 3, 2026
The Bed Gear Box costs $985 and is a different kind of accessory. It’s a lockable aluminum storage box, 55.78 inches long, 19.8 inches wide and 7.79 inches tall, that mounts to the bed’s L-track rails and comes with two internal bins for smaller items. According to Tesla, at just over 57 pounds empty, it’s meant to stay in place rather than come in and out with each trip, giving owners a factory-fit alternative to loose totes for tools, recovery gear or emergency supplies. Tesla’s listing notes that Long Range and Dual Motor AWD Cybertrucks need the L-Tracks accessory installed separately before the Gear Box will mount, since L-tracks come standard only on certain configurations.
Both accessories lean on the idea Tesla has been building toward since Elon Musk first described the Cybertruck’s third-party attachment strategy at the 2023 shareholder meeting, when he said the truck would ship with mounting points so outside companies, and Tesla itself, could keep adding gear without redesigning the bed. That’s the same L-track backbone underneath the tailgate shield and jumpseats Tesla launched last year, and the off-road armor package that arrived through the same X account in 2025.
Owners looking to round out the rest of the L-track ecosystem, cargo dividers, MOLLE panels, bed racks and similar gear, can find a wider range of options through our Cybertruck accessories collection.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk says he knows how to save Earth for a billion years
Elon Musk says sentient AI satellites launched from the Moon could keep Earth livable forever.
Elon Musk spent part of his weekend describing a plan to keep the planet livable for roughly a billion years, and it starts with satellites that can think for themselves.
In a post on X, Musk argued that swapping fossil fuels for solar and wind power will not be enough to protect humanity from what he called extremely severe extinction events, the kind that occur roughly every 100 million years. His fix is what he called sentient satellites, or solar-powered satellites, controlled by AI, that would sit in a fixed spot between Earth and the Sun after being launched off the Moon using a giant electromagnetic catapult instead of rockets.
The satellites’ onboard AI would make continuous, small adjustments rather than waiting on human instructions. The mass driver is Musk’s proposed way of getting the raw material there cheaply by using an electromagnetic launch track built on the Moon, where lower gravity and no atmosphere make it far easier to fling cargo into space than it is from Earth.
But we do need to act much faster than that if people still want to live where the beach is today. We have about 50 years or so to take action, which should be more than enough time for the space satellites to solve any heating problems. https://t.co/xhrVQALwQw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 30, 2026
Musk shared a Grok generated estimate suggesting roughly 5 percent of Florida’s land, or about 1.68 million acres, could face regular flooding by 2070 under a high sea level rise scenario, and said humanity has about 50 years to act before coastal living looks very different than it does today.
This is not the first time Musk has floated the idea. He raised a similar concept in November, describing a solar powered AI satellite constellation that could make tiny adjustments to incoming sunlight to fine tune Earth’s temperature. Musk has also tied planetary risk to his broader vision at SpaceX, where his compensation package is explicitly linked to establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony, one he has described as an insurance policy against the kind of extinction event he referenced this weekend, and where he has said humans could set foot within five to seven years.
Lifestyle
Police sergeant recounts his Neuralink journey with Elon Musk’s brain chip
A former Vancouver police sergeant with ALS accounts his journey to become a patient for Elon Musk’s Neuralink wireless brain-computer interface technology.
“I’m texting you from my brain right now.” That was the first message Lee Marten sent after waking up from Neuralink surgery, five hours and one migraine after dozens of threads were stitched into his motor cortex.
Marten, a former Vancouver police sergeant, is one of the first Canadian ALS patients to receive Neuralink’s N1 brain implant, and the 26th recipient overall. He tells his story in a first-person account published by Maclean’s.
Marten recounts how he was a healthy, athletic Vancouver police sergeant until April 2022 when symptoms of muscle twitching and balance loss, were followed by a bad fall that broke his leg. He would eventually be diagnosed with ALS in early 2025 at the age of 47. ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that progressively destroys the motor neurons controlling voluntary muscle movement, eventually taking away a patient’s ability to walk, speak, swallow and breathe. There’s no cure, and most patients live two to five years after diagnosis.
He describes the devastation of the diagnosis and how he began preparing for it while connecting with other young ALS patients through a WhatsApp group called Young Guns. Through that group he learned about a Neuralink clinical trial at Toronto Western Hospital and, after a roughly seven-month vetting process (physical assessments, psychiatric evaluation, a final interview with the Neuralink team), was accepted this past April as the trial’s 26th recipient and the first Canadian ALS patient to get the N1 implant. He recounts the May surgery in detail, including the robotic system that stitched 64 threads into his brain, and describes the app, Link, translating his neural signals into cursor control, which he was using within hours of waking up.
Marten walks through what daily use looks like, including weekly “brain training” exercises, a real-time neural-activity display, charging the implant via a beanie-mounted MagSafe charger, and using the implant for emailing, texting, social media, and gaming via a “Magic Box” that connects it to other devices. He also gives brief context on brain-computer interface history and quite candid about Musk, calling him “divisive” but saying he found him “easy to admire.
The piece closes on a heavier note, with Marten seeking to pursue medical assistance in dying as his symptoms progressed, noting that he’ll be able to communicate his final words to his family through Neuralink rather than facing a silent decline. He expresses hope the data from his case will help future ALS patients, even without a cure in his own lifetime.
