THE MOJAVE ROAD is a 147-mile off-road route that starts at the Colorado River just south of Laughlin, Nevada, and ends near the Cajon Pass in California. Historically, beginning in late-prehistoric times, its trails represented a trade route connecting inland and coastal Native American tribes. Later it became a path along with the westward expansion, a challenging desert crossing. Today it's a popular off-road route, one we attempted to travel in a home-built, safari-style Tesla Model 3. We felt like pioneers—though we might've been better off in a covered wagon.
Ethan Schlussler and Edwin Olding run Grind Hard Plumbing Co., a gearhead collective with a popular YouTube channel featuring their zany mechanical projects. The off-road Tesla started as a salvaged 2020 Model 3 Dual Motor Long Range with front-end damage. The guys documented the process of getting it running with help from Tesla guru Rich Benoit in a series of videos. The short version: They cut off part of the damaged front structure, replaced the plastic bumpers with steel tubes, mounted a 12,000-pound-capacity winch, relocated the heat exchangers to the frunk, cut out a section of the hood, installed aftermarket lighting, raised the ride height by two inches, removed the front anti-roll bar, added front-wheel spacers, and fitted Falken Wildpeak A/T3W tires—all under the watchful gaze of a life-size Elon Musk cardboard cutout. Rock sliders were added for extra protection, and the rear bumper and part of the rear floor were removed for a better departure angle. A floor patch was made from an old street sign reading "Road maintenance ends." Fitting.
This story is from the April 2022 edition of Car and Driver.
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This story is from the April 2022 edition of Car and Driver.
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