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Gullwing

Started as Tesla Model 3

Tesla Gullwing: white 300SL-style EV with teal interior and its doors open

A 300SL-style coupe on 99% Tesla technology.

Not a classic car with electric parts bolted in, and not a body on old Tesla batteries scattered wherever they fit, eating the cabin. Underneath, the Gullwing is a Tesla Model 3: 99% of its technology, platform and battery included.

So every question about range, acceleration and dynamics is answered by Tesla. The neo-retro body is ours: fiberglass, and sitting far lower than a Model 3’s.

Turquoise rear interior behind the seats, where the charger unit now sits

Body meets chassis

The decisive step was marrying the body to the chassis. The body laid smoothly along the axles, then the charger unit would not fit under its low line.

Solving that took almost two weeks. The charger now sits behind the seatbacks: the biggest technical change we made to the Model 3.

Teal leather seats under the open gullwing door

Original Tesla seats

Both seats are the Model 3’s own, cut shorter for the neo-retro line. They move on their buttons like any Model 3’s.

Every sensor stayed where it was: the car knows when you get in and out, and switches itself on and off without a button.

Teal-wrapped steering wheel and the touchscreen of the Gullwing

The steering column moved forward

The column and the pedal box moved well forward, and the screen moved for the lower seat. The layout is now close to a Plaid’s, an S’s or an X’s.

Front of the white fiberglass body with round headlights and the doors open

Cameras instead of mirrors

There are no mirrors, and none are needed. Change lanes and the screen shows the whole side of the car; miss something, and the car warns you.

Teal gullwing door and polished wheel of the white Gullwing

No noises of a self-made car

Sitting this low and this close to the rear axle is hard to describe. What is easy to tell: no pump noises, no home-made cooling, no suspension that was never designed for the weight.

On the Tesla platform you can build a classic electric car. Turning a classic car into a good everyday EV is not possible.

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