Tesla has set the standard for electric vehicles, and the company’s Model S Plaid has quickly become the standard for EV performance cars. No matter what Tesla model you have, T Sportline can personalize it for you and make it even better. Check out the recent upgrades to this brand new, 2021 Tesla Model S Plaid.
There are so many exciting elements to this build, but it all starts with the vehicle’s owner, who shipped his Tesla Plaid from his home in Georgia across the country to the T Sportline Customization and Service Center in Van Nuys, California.
As delivered, this vehicle was originally Solid Black in color, but the first decision was to change that to something completely different. Turning to Inozetek, we wrapped the Plaid in Inozetek's Chalk Gray. And while most wraps offer a satin or matte finish, we went with a gloss finish, which is something we feel Inozetek is particularly good at.
To offset the stunning Chalk Gray hue, we opted to leave all of the window trim, side-mirror caps, the front fender camera housings, the rear diffuser, and more in the original black finish to maintain really nice, sporty feel and give the exterior a bit of contrast.
Moving to the wheels, the car came with the optional 21-inch Arachnid wheels from Tesla. Some people prefer to have a bit more sidewall on the tire than those offer, and we opted to swap the factory wheels out for a set of our Gloss Black TST 20x10-inch wheels front and rear. The new rims are shod with Michelin 285/35-20 tires and the new combination provides an aggressive fit and appearance with just enough sidewall.
Tesla doesn’t make a big show of its rather capable brake calipers, but we turned up the personalization on them by painting the calipers to match the new Chalk Gray exterior color. It’s attention to detail like this that always makes a customized car turn out well.
Now that the Plaid is looking the part for everyone to see, it’s time we turned our attention to the place where the owner will spend the majority of his time, the interior.
As an upscale brand and model, Tesla’s Model S Plaid is rather well appointed on the inside, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement and personalization. With that, we completely reupholstered the interior in our customer’s favorite color and leather material. What you see here is Bentley Saddle, and we actually import the leather hides from tanneries in Europe. Doing that allows us to give customers exactly what they want.
Everything from the mid-dash level down has been given the Saddle treatment. We added our signature, square-quilted pattern to all four door panels and the upper V-neck area of the seats to provide a real pop to the inside of the car, and we also used perforated leather on the seats to ensure that the heating and cooling keeps the occupants comfortable.
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This car was originally equipped with matte carbon fiber interior trim, which is an option for the new Model S, but it wasn’t the look we wanted for this build. To dress it up further, we changed out the matte carbon fiber accents for gloss finish carbon fiber trim on the doors, the dash, the center console, and even the seat backs. Those were originally wrapped in vinyl and now look rather racy in gloss carbon fiber.
Possibly the signature piece in this Tesla Model S Plaid’s interior is the yoke steering wheel, but there was room for improvement with regard to its appearance. To complement the Saddle leather interior, the steering wheel was likewise wrapped in the warm-toned hide. T Sportline offers a number of steering wheels upgrades, but for this project, we went with the gloss carbon fiber accented version to match the other gloss carbon trim inside the vehicle.
The headliner is often customized when performing upholstery upgrades in custom cars, but Tesla does a great job on the production side by providing black Alcantara for this surface. As a final touch, we laid down a set of T Sportline’s plush floor mats inside, which are really thick, comfortable, and adorned with the T Sportline logo.
It’s tough to improve on the greatness that is the Tesla Model S Plaid, but any production car can benefit from personalization, and T Sportline is here to create something special for every Tesla owner.