Page 12 - Motor Trend (February 2020)
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NEWS I OPINION I GOSSIP I STUFF TREND I 02.20
von Holzhausen, invited us to Its design is deceptively
be the first journalists inside to simple. Its profile is diamond-
see the automaker’s most hotly like, with five simple lines. Its
anticipated debut since the nose is wedge-shaped, its sheet-
Model 3: the Tesla pickup truck. metal quickly merging with a
Leading up to the truck’s single massive pane of wind-
public unveiling, MotorTrend shield glass—“bulletproof,” Elon
got behind the scenes with the says (with hubris, as it turns
Tesla team, provided feedback, out). Just as quickly as that line
and watched the Cybertruck rises, it drops back down, with
go from a life-size clay model the truck’s sail panels (which
to a (purportedly) bulletproof will include built-in storage
working prototype. in the production version)
and garage/tambour door–
As we enter the studio, Franz style roll-up tonneau cover
scans his key card and holds completing its faceted physique.
open the door as Elon leads us Its head-on view is equally
into the repurposed airfield arresting; a cyclopean single
WORDS CHRISTIAN SEABAUGH
hangar, where the first, radical LED flows across the nose
ome moments you never design headquarters just Northrop flying wings took to join the fender flares, and
forget. Seeing my bride outside of Los Angeles. shape. Now serving a much a second off-road-oriented
Swalk down the aisle Few outsiders have ever been different purpose, the well-lit lightbar lives at the top of the
toward me at our wedding. allowed inside the top-secret design studio nonetheless windshield. Its polished, stain-
Driving my first car home. And Tesla Design Studio, nestled sports an equally revolutionary less steel sheetmetal has a few
now, in a somewhat distant away next to the sprawling machine today. creases to define the tumble-
but still significant third place: SpaceX factory, a Falcon 9 Like a Zumwalt-class home and curves toward the
my initial glimpse of the new, rocket, and a scale replica of destroyer meets a leftover Blade rear of the truck’s 230.0-inch
industry-changing Tesla Elon Musk’s Hyperloop in Runner prop, Tesla’s truck looks length—roughly the length of a
Cybertruck electric pickup a corner of the Hawthorne like none I’d ever seen before. conventional Ford F-150 crew
in a clandestine September Airport. Elon and his right-
meeting at the automaker’s hand man, chief designer Franz
12 MOTORTREND.COM FEBRUARY 2020
