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Tesla Model S Plaid takes first in class at Pikes Peak

Tesla celebrated a victory in the Exhibition class at the 2021 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Sunday, laying down a 6:57.220 pass on the famous uphill time attack – good enough for 10th place overall – in the hands of pro driver Randy Pobst.  Pobst documented the attempt in the above video and called the Unplugged Performance Model S race car "the most bad-to-the-bone electric car ever made," praising its performance. Note that the race car uses an old-fashioned, round steering wheel ... because it's better. Though this year's climb was held on a course that was shortened due to weather conditions farther up the mountain, Tesla's attempt paid off quite handsomely yet again.  Things were not so rosy for Bentley, which finished second to sister brand Porsche in the Time Attack 1 class. Bentley driver Rhys Millen was hoping to nail down the third and final course record to complete its triple crown with its bonkers Continental GT3 Pikes Peak racer, but Romain Dumas spoiled their fun in the 2019 Porsche 911 GT2RS Clubsport, knocking off the bigger Bentley with a few seconds to spare. Bentley's finish was still strong enough for 4th overall despite the disappointment. Related video:

Leilani Munter loves her Energy Freedom Race Car, Tesla Model S

Leilani Munter is putting a red, white and blue spin on green at the Kansas Speedway tonight. That's where the eco-minded racer is debuting her Energy Freedom car with the message that people should be able to choose how clean they want their energy to be. Tonight is the last race of the season for ARCA, a stock car racing series a level below the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Munter told AutoblogGreen this week that this is the perfect time to bring up the energy freedom issue, since the media is already paying attention. She's no stranger to this sort of thing, either, having driven a race car with solar power assistance at a race at Chicagoland and running a 100-percent renewable energy car at Daytona earlier this year. "I wanted to show people that [EV] technology that is available to us now." – Leilani Munter "My degree is in biology, so I've always been eco-minded," she said before recounting a story about driving her personal Tesla Model S from Charlotte, NC to that race in Chicago. "I wanted to show people that this is a technology that is available to us now and that you can make long trips," she said. She used the burgeoning Supercharger network to fill up along the way and even announced her stops ahead of time in order to meet fans, both of her racing and EV technology. She said some people asked about running out of electricity, but answered them with a laugh and explained that she's got this thing on her dash board that shows her how many miles she has left, just like a gas gauge. Regular readers might remember Munter from the "Eco Dream Team" of race car drivers she put together in 2008 or when she saw the effects of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 first hand. She also had a previous life in Hollywood as a stand-in for Catherine Zeta-Jones. She said that she used the money she made from working on movies to go racing school. That was 14 years ago, and she's used her racing skills to not only promote green energy but also to bring more green to the track since then. She adopts an acre of rain forest or donates to coral reef protection after each race. As for the new Energy Freedom car, Munter said that, "As Americans we should have the right to choose where we get our energy. Utilities are getting a little nervous about people choosing renewable energy, and this car is meant to bring that topic up. I have solar panels on my roof and I can drive off of sunshine every day.

Google CEO Larry Page says his billions should go to Elon Musk

When you have basically all the money in the world, it can be tough to spend it all. It will be even tougher to spend when you're dead. If you're Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page, though, you already know how you want your money to live on after you're gone: support innovators like Tesla CEO Elon Musk. That's what Page said at the TED conference in Vancouver, Canada this week, anyway, adding that the already-wealthy Musk is worthy of the Page billions because he's one of the people who can change the world. Page said: He wants to go to Mars. That's a worthy goal. We have a lot of employees at Google who've become pretty wealthy. You're working because you want to change the world and make it better; if the company you work for is worthy of your time, why not your money as well? We just don't think about that. I'd like for us to help out more than we are. On top of Tesla, Musk also runs SpaceX and Solar City. Tesla said in a statement to Automotive News that, "[Musk] is honored by Larry's comments and very much admires what he has accomplished with Google."