A YouTuber decided to modify his Tesla to cure his range anxiety.
He was tired of stopping to charge his Model S on road trips, so he installed a gasoline engine.
You know – the thing Teslas were specifically built without.
The result was incredibly loud and wildly inefficient, but aesthetically pleasing.
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Installing a gasoline engine on a Model S
Matt Mikka is the brains behind the YouTube channel Warped Perceptions, where he pulls off all sorts of engineering feats.
One of his pet peeves is having to wait for his Tesla Model S to recharge on road trips.
He decided to install a powerplant in his Tesla so that it can charge while driving and whenever it’s stoppped.
To put it to the test, he embarked on a 1,600-mile road trip without touching a charger.
Pity he didn’t hear about the students who created an EV that goes 1,600 miles on just one charge before this long and expensive project.
He did an incredible and impressive job of installing the single-cylinder, 400cc, overhead valve, gasoline engine, placing it at the car’s rear.
Mikka left it exposed, which gave the sensible silhouette of the Model S an edge and turned a lot of heads along the trip.
Road tripping with a gasoline Tesla
The Model S has an impressive range of 400 miles on a single charge, but Mikka wanted to push that to 1,600 miles.
A few miles into his trip he noticed his car was using an unusual amount of gas.
It turns out that over a certain speed, gasoline started spraying out of the rear of the car.
This was one of many hiccups along the way.
The car was basically using energy faster than it was making it, prompting a police officer to actually pull him over for driving too slowly.
This problem was ongoing, creating a new version of range anxiety.
Another issue was the outrageously loud engine.
At night, he left the engine running so it could charge overnight, much to the dismay of the residents of each of his stops, some of which reported him to the police.
Eventually, Mikka completed his trip but much slower than he had hoped.
What was impressive was that the engine basically ran for seven days non-stop.
Rather than admitting defeat, Mikka has plans to rip it apart and build it bigger and better.
We’d love to know what Elon Musk thinks of him turning his quiet and eco-friendly creation into a loud gas-guzzler.
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