Remember our Ace Performance Project Tesla? It is a dual-motor long-range Tesla Model 3. When we last left off we have added Falken Wildpeak A/T Trail tires and a Yakima GrandTour Lo roof-top cargo box. This made the entry-level Tesla a lot more capable in the snow and made transporting skis much easier, and safer.
But we were not done!
Lifting and Strengthening
Since this Tesla will travel across many snow-covered dirt roads of New England, we chose to give more ground clearance. The guys at Ace Performance installed a Mountain Pass Performance 1.75-inch lift kit. It is a spacer-type lift which retains factory springs and shocks. While this kit gave us more ground clearance, it did not allow for bigger tires than the 235/50-18 (27.3”) Wildpeaks we already had due to the design of the Tesla Model 3 control arms, as seen in the above top-right picture.
To keep the suspension geometry in check, Arastradero Rear Upper Camber Arms were installed. The car was then professionally aligned. To keep everything nice and protected, we added a Smash Me Tesla Front Skid Plate. The beefy 1/8-inch aluminum plate replaces the factory plastic undertray and protects the edge of the battery, coolant hoses, and the front drive unit.
More Cardio
The modification that makes the biggest difference, however, is the least visible one. Ace Performance added the Partybox for Tesla Model 3 from Mountain Pass Performance. The Partybox allows for full disability of the very intrusive Tesla stability control systems of the car.
From the Mountain Pass website:
Our Partybox allows for controlled sliding and ideal track performance by allowing some slip and deactivating intrusive stability control nannies.
The Party Box is activated and de-activated by pressing the “slip-start” button on the screen and allows a fixed amount of wheelspin, and fully disables stability control. The vehicle will not throw any faults during light slides but continuous drifting or slides may trip a stability control fault, and the vehicle will continue to operate with the 50% wheel slip limit, but with regen disabled.
If you are interested in a Partybox for your Tesla, please read the Mountain Pass website very carefully.
Showing Off
Now that we have lifted and gotten faster, it’s time to show off a bit. Under the right conditions and a good driver, of course, it’s time to do something fun. The quick hoon video seen here is just us doing snow doughnuts on a private property. But soon we will have access to a much bigger facility, and we will have a much better video of our hoonage. The video will show the improvements that our modifications have made to Tesla’s most affordable model.
Stay tuned!
Note:
If you like our project Tesla and are interested in recreating something similar, Ace Performance is an authorized Mountain Pass dealer. They can assist with a lot of other components as well, and perform the installations.