Simone Giertz hardly needs an introduction at this point. She conquered YouTube with her bizarre robots that fail spectacularly, turned her electric car into a computer mousehttps://www.neoteo.com/es/observa-esta-inventora-convierte-coche-raton-ordenador, and gave a TED talk worth watching from start to finish. What did she come up with now? Actually, there are two problems: she wants an electric pickup, and Tesla is going to take a long time to launch one on the market. The solution? Buy a Tesla Model 3 and cut its structure until it becomes a pickup, “TRUCKLA”.
Every time we think we've seen it all in the automotive world, something completely strange, outlandish, and not exactly practical appears. Examples? Well, at the beginning of February we talked about the Limo-Jet, a private plane turned into a limousine. The Ford Beatnik looks like a superhero's car, and it looks great from every angle. And if we travel back in time, the Ghost Car was only created to demonstrate the virtues of Plexiglas.
However, there are many enthusiasts out there who modify their vehicles with performance and general usability in mind. That brings us back to Simone Giertz, “The Queen of S**t Robots”. After joining forces with Kari Byron to detonate fake brains and create giant scissors, Simone concluded that she needs an electric pickup truck. The problem is that Tesla has no immediate plans to launch one. This is what happened:
If you can't watch the half-hour video right now, here's a summary: Simone called several friends and YouTubers, among them Laura Kampf (a formidable DIYer you should follow), and Rich from Rich Rebuilds, the rebel mechanic who brings destroyed Teslas back to life. The base for this project was a Tesla Model 3, which after several production issues, surpassed 200,000 units and became the best-selling electric car in the United States.
Simone received a new Model 3 without difficulty, and the team got to work. They weighed the car, removed the interior, and as expected, the integrated monitoring system on the Model 3 threw multiple warnings (Laura accused it of being “a snitch”). The glass is especially difficult to remove, even with a heat gun and a wire to cut the adhesive.
As soon as they finished the first cut, they discovered that the structural requirements of the Model 3 were greater than expected. From there, the goal was to reinforce the entire structure and prevent the car from “folding like a taco”. Want to see the final result? Well, Simone filmed a commercial for her TRUCKLA:
I admit it, when the charging cable of the Model 3 starts spinning like a lasso, I was laughing my head off. I guess some Tesla purists aren't too happy about the modification, but after two million views and a #2 trending on YouTube, Simone Giertz's TRUCKLA is a success. There are still aesthetic details to work out, and I hope she shares them.
