After almost exclusively owning Hondas for many years (there was a lone VW in there I believe, as well as an S13 he owned for literally one day) Mario made quite a change in early 2013 when he joined the Ford camp with Ketchup, his Focus ST. Following that he of course then also bought and built a Fiesta ST (Sriracha) and Focus RS (Selsun, now Sourpuss) so it seemed his loyalty was very much with the Blue Oval now. It was no surprise then that when it had been announced that Selsun was no longer his, many people assumed that another Ford product would be taking its place.
The (at the time) yet-to-be-announced new vehicle wasn’t some insane secret, but we still stayed relatively hush about it because it was interesting to see what the guesses were. Many initially assumed it was a new Bronco because the timeline fit with the first deliveries and he’d shown interest in them before, but we then hinted that it was in fact an electric vehicle and so the primary guess then became Mach-E. The odd person did throw in some ideas of non-Ford products (Porsche?), but amusingly nobody guessed it correctly.
Say hello then, to Mario’s new car: a 2021 Tesla Model 3!
This is a bit of a change, isn’t it? It’s the first time the YO LOW plate has been on something other than a Ford hot hatch, and is the first EV in the group as well. From a trio of brightly-coloured, manual, turbo cars to a white, fully-electric sedan…which is quicker than any of them. Reportedly he’s already having quite a good time walking 911s and the like.
As for the specs on this particular example, there aren’t really many options with these cars so it largely comes down to colours and wheels but he did order a dual motor (AWD), long-range version instead of the base RWD variant. It’s finished in Pearl White, has the all-black interior, and features the 18″ Aero Wheels.
Incidentally, as he showed me, the aero covers can be popped off revealing a pretty decent-looking set of wheels behind them. This is of course so you can access the lug nuts but we agreed that these wheels – if spaced out correctly and fitted with center caps – would actually look pretty good.
Inside, it’s the expected minimalist experience with the large central screen for all functions and readouts with a nice, unbroken accent running across the dash and into each door.
Just testing out the web browser…all good!
Now as our original plan would have played out, I had arranged to take the day off so that I could accompany Mario to the dealership to collect the car and play around with it, but unfortunately it ended up being delayed about a week so he instead brought it by my work immediately after picking it up to show me. He therefore had all of the extra goodies still in the car including this cool little model of a 3, albeit in the wrong colour. Haha. The delay did result in a nice little coincidence however, as he ultimately collected the car on Sept 23 – exactly 10 years after I had picked up Mustard.
With the car therefore now being a whopping 9 days old, given Mario’s track record you may assume that it has already been modified…and you’d be correct! At the time of these photos being taken the only change the car had seen was the fitting of his old Broadway mirror – which he always transfers to each new car – but if you follow his Instagram (@eglove) you’ll know that it has already seen some suspension work on top of another mod we already fitted, which hasn’t been shared.
While the platform is definitely a change from the norm, it’s not a sign of him retiring from modifying cars. With EVs being a fairly untouched segment around here as far as project cars go we’re excited to dive into this one and have the chance to experience (and document) something completely new. It won’t rival the STs or RS for mod list length but should still become something rather head-turning and unique, all while offering more punch than any of the prior three could ever dream of, because electric.
The one thing that’ll never change though, is Mario having a quicker car than me.
-Bill