The Tesla Model 3 that crashed while racing at Pikes Peak in 2020 made the rounds in the automotive news as a testament to the racing car’s safety, seeing how Randy Probst, who was driving the Unplugged Performance-modified EV, came out of the wreck alive and well.
And while Randy is still seen on a regular basis in car videos, most notably in Jason Cammisa’s productions made under Hagerty’s umbrella, nothing new was published about the car itself. Until now, at least, because the good people at Unplugged Performance, who make a living out of modifying and customizing Teslas, have brought the wrecked Model 3 out of the dead and made it better than ever before.
Named Bionic Phoenix, the repaired and much-improved racing EV now sports one of the most aggressive carbon fiber body kits out there, with what seems to be a miles-long front splitter and a huge rear wing, which help the car achieve a massive 4,000 pounds (2 tons) of downforce at speed.
The company behind it doesn’t mention the car’s weight, but it pulled all the stops to make it as light as possible, replacing the standard windows with Lexan, stripping the interior, and replacing as many metal body parts as possible with dry carbon panels . And to make things even more serious, the UP-03 forged wheels are 13-inch wide and the driver has a center seating position, just like in a McLaren F1.
It’s unclear at this point what Unplugged Performance plans to do with the reborn Bionic Phoenix Model 3, but judging by its past record attempts at various famous race tracks in the United States, I think it’s safe to say we’ll see it sooner rather than later showing the company’s expertise in pushing EVs to the next level in terms of performance.
What’s interesting is that Unplugged Performance can usually sell you just about anything you see on their modified cars, so we can expect the same with this latest creation, which means the aftermarket for Teslas suddenly got a bit crazier.
