#ProjectCars

During Tesla’s most-recent shareholders meeting, Elon Musk said the company’s pickup should be arriving this fall — adding that we would probably see it near the end of the summer if everything goes according to plan. Apparently disinterested in waiting another two months, robotics enthusiast and self-professed EV fan Simone Giertz decided to fabricate her own using a Tesla Model 3 as a starting point.

Giertz, who runs a YouTube channel focused on quirky building projects, claimed the home-brewed pickup’s relation to the sedan was one of necessity. She only chose the Model 3 because it possessed a steel chassis and was cheaper to risk ruining than a Model S would have been.

Chevrolet is responding to Dodge’s introduction of a Hellcat-based crate engine intended for project cars that absolutely have to produce an obscene amount of horsepower. The “Hellcrate” was introduced last year, making 707 hp, for the low price of $19,530 — which actually sounds kind of expensive when you say it out loud.

Not to be outdone, General Motors is offering a trio of new engines to complement its already full stable. There’s the supercharged 6.2-liter LT5 from the Corvette ZR1, which should trump Dodge’s mill at 755 hp, and two naturally aspirated alternatives that should be sufficient for most applications. The company is also taking them to SEMA, affixed to some vintage Chevy models to stoke consumer interest. Hence the sinister-looking, LT5-equipped 1973 Chevelle Laguna pictured above.

Project CARS is probably the most hotly-anticipated automobile-related video game to “drop” in the past few years. It’s ridden a positively Kanagawan wave of media hype and compensated “viral” marketing to its release – but at least one well-informed source is saying that this new emperor is decidedly trouserless.

Almost everything interesting from overnight happened in Australia. So lets talk about video games instead.

Full gallery here.

The Detroit Autorama has a definite blue collar vibe. Even those of the half million dollar cars competing for the Ridler award that are “bought, not built” are paid for by couples who obviously are affluent, but who have made their money not as doctors or lawyers or financiers but rather from operating some kind of small business enterprise. Most owners participate one way or another in their builds and most also have some experience working with their hands. Last year I had the chance to visit the facility where Chevy has the COPO Camaros built and I was present to watch two owners take delivery of what is essentially a $100,000 toy. One of them, Dan Sayres, of Waverly, West Virginia, now owns a number of automotive related businesses, including a collision shop and a recycling yard. He told me that he started with a single tow truck. It takes some smarts to go from one used tow truck to buying purpose built drag racers. Of course, you don’t need deep pockets to come up with a big idea. From the mid six figure Ridler competitors to the unfinished projects in the basement, there are lots of big ideas at the Autorama, not all of them successful. One of the biggest ideas, both figuratively and literally, is the car that Tom Carrigan built because he thought he could do it.

Even when on vacation, I can’t help tripping over interesting stuff. In this case, quite literally. Ouch. My toe’s still bleeding.