Turns Out You Can Fit A V8 In A Tesla Model S

Rich Rebuilds is attempting to build the first running V8-transplanted Model S, and is off to a tremendous start
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A few years ago, some images of a supposedly V8-powered Tesla Model S were doing the rounds. In actuality, it was a joke shot mocked up using some Tesla-derived office furniture, but Rich Rebuilds has decided someone needs to do this for real.

The YouTuber, who has a history of working on Teslas, explains that he’s an old-school petrolhead at heart who just happens digs EVs. This is the ideal project to bring his two passions together, but it’s going to be a tough ride.

As seen by the dry fitting of the engine, it was necessary to hack out the standard car’s strut tower bar to get it in there, so a bolt-on replacement will need to be fitted. Meanwhile, the standard power steering rack’s motor won’t fit under the Chevrolet Camaro-sourced LS3 filling the front end of the car, so a replacement is set to go in.

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Perhaps the biggest challenge will be fabricating a transmission tunnel. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to cut out the tunnel from the Camaro donor, since it’s steel and the Model S is made from aluminium. Welding the two together ain’t gonna happen. The solution involves hacking up the floor of another Model S which met its end at the hands of another YouTuber in the name of getting views. Oh, and a large chunk of the rear subframe had to be lopped off to accommodate a rear differential.

There’ll no doubt be plenty of other challenges in store as Rich Rebuilds tries to make the first working LS-swapped Tesla, but he’s off to a good start. Strut bar and power steering rack issues aside, it must be said - that V8 seems to fit beautifully, looking almost like it was made to take a big internal combustion engine…

We can’t wait to see how this project progresses.

Comments

Anonymous

Why not go all the way and build a harness and have horses pull the car?

01/15/2021 - 19:16 |
3 | 4
RodriguezRacer456 (Aventador SV) (Lambo Squad)

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Ah the “horse buggy < gas car< to electric car” argument

The horse and buggy and gas car are two completely different modes of transport (powered by animal vs. powered by human machinery). Meanwhile, gas cars and electric cars are literally the same modes of transport just with different methods of making the car move so at the end of the day, that argument holds no water.

01/27/2021 - 17:46 |
0 | 0
HORSEPOWER!

Dude Rich rebuilds be making Elon get Triggered LOL!

01/18/2021 - 02:47 |
0 | 0
HORSEPOWER!

BTW does anyone know what happened to the Carthottle App?

01/18/2021 - 02:47 |
0 | 0

It died a death.. It was removed from the App and Play stores ages ago

01/18/2021 - 20:16 |
0 | 0

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