we install a shifter that didn’t smash your fist into that
17-inch touchscreen? Our intention was to keep the vehicle
looking as close to stock as possible on all fronts, so that at
least from a glance, if you didn’t hear the thunderous babble
of a V-8 idling, you would assume it was a regular Tesla. The
touchscreen had to keep its spot, and if we couldn’t hide the
shifter, at the very least it needed to look good. Originally we
thought it funny to have a huge gated shifter with a Tesla bat-
tery cell as the grip, but ultimately we installed a short throw
shifter to keep a safe distance from the screen.
Once this was in place, we felt confident not just that our
build was in the homestretch but that we finally had a car
that could mark our arrival at SEMA. Four months remained
until the show. Surely that was enough time.
While we were piecing together the drivetrain in one
garage, Chad Hrencecin and Bryan Maynard from the Elec-“THE SOUND WAS SNAPPY,
THROATY, AND DOWNRIGHT MEAN.”
trified Garage had the shell in another.
They pulled out nearly 3,000 feet of wiring,
keeping only what was needed to power the
normal features of the car from its touch-
screen, and wired up a new fuse block in
the glove box.
Bryan also fabricated our heat shield, a
10mm aluminum face with a 1⁄8-inch com-
posite glass-fiber core. Despite pulling the
engine in and out a dozen times to perfect
the fit, we needed to finish the wiring when it
was time for the shielding to go in. So Bryan
had to cut and mold the shielding around the
motor by hand while it was in place.
An LS3 doesn’t move on the power of
our hopes and dreams, so we needed a fuel
cell. Fortunately, the Model S’s trunk has
a sub-level void that can also be used for a
seven-seater configuration to let two kids in
reverse jump seats dangle their feet into the
rear hatch. Sorr y, kiddos, we filled the space
with a 14-gallon gas tank and chased a line
to the filler cap into the Tesla’s rear taillight,
where the charge port used to be.
Then there was the problem of how to
cool the motor. Another f lex in this Tesla’s
designs are the solid, no-grille front ends. It’s
more aerodynamic and signifies that they
don’t need air f lowing to a motor. We wanted
to keep that appearance, but our motor very
much needed air. EVs do, however, have giant
batteries that need to be cooled, lest they
start a fire. Our Tesla has an air duct for the
batteries’ radiator tucked into the bumper,
so we kept the original vents and rerouted the
air to the engine and its radiator.
We now had something that looked like
a functioning vehicle. The drivetrain was
installed, and the body had been “upgraded”
for it. But with a month to go, there was still
a lot to do before we could arrive at SEMA
with a motor that made noise. Stock Teslas
are largely silent; ours had to be different.68 March/April 2022
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