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Tesla Model S P100DL Electric GT race car track-tested by Top Gear veteran

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British racing driver and former Top Gear and Fifth Gear television presenter Tiff Needell recently got behind the wheel of the Electric GT’s Tesla Model S P100DL race car. In a video uploaded on YouTube’s LoveCars channel, the former race driver provided several compelling insights about the vehicle, including its handling, its speed, as well as its areas for improvement.

The Electric GT, officially called the Electric Production Car Series, is a zero-emission racing series featuring modified Tesla Model S P100D vehicles. The Electric GT’s inaugural season is scheduled to begin at Jerez on November 4, 2018, ending on October 13, 2019 at Algarve. Ten races are planned for the upcoming racing season.

Tiff’s test drive of the Electric GT’s P100DL race car was held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, a track famed for hosting the Spanish Grand Prix and the MotoGP. The track, which is 2.892 miles long, features 16 turns including an iconic straight stretch where vehicles can achieve top speed. According to the veteran race driver, the Model S P100D featured impeccable handling and aerodynamics that simply allowed the vehicle to stick to the road despite him performing aggressive driving maneuvers.Β 

As noted by auto journalist Bozi Tatarevic on Twitter, several scenes of Tiff’s Electric GT test drive video revealed interesting details about the modified electric car. Apart from stripping the car of its interior and fitting a widebody kit made of flax fiber composite to reduce the vehicle’s weight by 1100 pounds, several aspects of the race-ready Electric GT Model S P100D stood out. As noted by Tatarevic, the Tesla race car’s door handles are permanently out, which likely helped save weight on the vehicle. An error displayed on the driver’s console pertaining to the electric car’s Air Suspension also suggests that the vehicle is equipped with an aftermarket coilover setup.

The Model S P100D’s performance brakes were further replaced with larger Alcon brakes. As noted by Tatarevic in his observations on Twitter, the rotor hat on the Electric GT race car’s brakes combines a wheel spacer. The hood of the vehicle is canted as well, likely to aid the electric car’s cooling systems. Brief shots of the vehicle under the hood seemingly reveal that Electric GT might have also modified or replaced the brake master cylinder for the vehicle. Inside the cockpit, a racing ECU could be seen installed beside the P100D race car’s media control unit.

As impressive as the Electric GT Model S P100D was on the track, however, Tiff Needell ultimately noted that the vehicle’s battery still showed some heating issues, as revealed by the Model S’ systems throttling performance after 1.5 hot laps around the Barcelona track and fans being directed towards the vehicle’s battery pack after run. The veteran racing driver stated, however, that if Electric GT can find a workaround with the Model S’ battery heating issues, the racing series could very well be successful.

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While the Electric GT has chosen the Model S P100D as its vehicle of choice for its inaugural season later this year, another Tesla vehicle is steadily gaining reputation on the track. Just recently, a non-Performance Long Range Model RWD Model 3 with aftermarket suspension and brakes won the Canadian Sport Compact Series Time Attack series, defeating a Porsche Boxer and a Mazda RX-8 to claim the title. During the entire event, Sasha Anis, the driver of the vehicle, noted that the Model 3 did not experience any heating problems at all. The Model 3 Performance, which Elon Musk stated would be 15% faster than a BMW M3 around the track, is expected to perform even better during spirited driving.

WatchΒ Tiff Needell’s test drive of the Electric GT Model S P100DL in the video below.Β 

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Elon Musk

Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration

Tesla is now shipping Cybercabs from Giga Texas with Starlink hardware built in as standard.

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tesla cybercab with no manual controls showing a movie with two employees inside

Tesla’s Cybercabs are now leaving Gigafactory Texas with Starlink hardware on the rear hatch in significant numbers, according to drone footage captured Tuesday by longtime Austin drone observer Joe Tegtmeyer. Production at the factory ramped back up after the Labor Day weekend, and his flyover of the outbound lot showed rows of gold Cybercabs alongside Model Y Long Wheelbase units, many carrying the satellite module for the first time as standard equipment rather than a one off retrofit.

Tesla first showed Starlink built into an actual Cybercab on August 10, when the Robotaxi account posted images of a single gold unit with the antenna integrated into the roofline above the taillights and called it the first Cybercab with Starlink integration. That followed a July reveal where Tesla and Starlink jointly posted a cutaway diagram of the antenna placement without a working vehicle to back it up. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI software, said at the time that the connection isn’t required for the car to drive itself. It exists mainly for navigation, customer service and keeping tabs on the fleet.

Musk has made a different case in public. During Tesla’s Q2 earnings call, he said the company can’t afford robotaxis stranded in what he called “Bermuda Triangles of lack of cellular connectivity,” and he separately claimed on X that Starlink will eventually reach every Tesla built, calling it the only way to deliver high bandwidth to billions of vehicles. He has also pitched the antenna as an entertainment upgrade, telling riders they would be able to stream 4K video or play games during a trip.

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The rollout has moved fast since. Robotaxi service opened to the public in Austin on September 3, and Cybercabs had already been spotted with Starlink hardware in Houston and near Miami International Airport in the weeks before Tuesday’s factory footage showed the module shipping at volume rather than on scattered test units. Whether the satellite link earns its keep is still an open question. Tesla’s unsupervised service currently runs in dense metro geofences in Texas and Florida, markets where cellular coverage is already strong, which is not where the rural dead zones Musk describes tend to show up.

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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.

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Tesla Cybertruck construction site

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.

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.

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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