Kyle Wade, the man behind the Boosted Boiz is back again with an all-new body-swapped creation he calls the CyberCat. Under the skin of this very normal-looking 2016 Dodge Challenger is the drivetrain from a Tesla Model S Plaid. That’s right, there is over 1000 horsepower resting under the hood and trunk of this American Muscle car, and they’re all electric.
How did we get here? Wade is somewhat famous for his Tesla antics. In fact, it’s the exact same Tesla drivetrain that helped him rise to fame. Originally a salvage car bought on Copart, Wade quickly dismantled the vehicle, built an exoskeleton for it, and went racing. That wasn’t his ultimate goal though.
Instead, he knew all along that he would give it a body, and the body he gave it made waves. Dubbed the Plaidessey, it was a 2001 Honda Odyssey. Wade described it as a win-win when he’d take it drag racing. “If you lose, you just lost to a Honda minivan. If you win, congratulations, you beat a minivan. It’s a win-win for us,” he said at the time. Things are changing though: the Odyssey is no more and the CyberCat sits where it once did.
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Why swap an already body-swapped car? The Plaideyssey technically fit, but due to the shape of the passenger compartment, the dash ended up being huge. The cabin wasn’t jiving even though the wheelbase was. Below you can see just how far back the front seats are in the Model S while the body of the Honda has the front doors far forward.
The Dodge Challenger, however, has a cabin that picks up what the Tesla Model S Plaid is putting down. The Challenger has a 116.2-inch wheelbase and the Tesla has a very close 116.5-inch wheelbase, but mating them up wasn’t wildly simple.
In fact, the wheelbases being so close to one another actually creates a new issue as several structural components share the same space. While we talk about body swaps relatively often, the manual labor involved sometimes goes unnoticed. In the video below you get a first-hand look at all of it.
The team had to cut and hack the floor, the firewall, the strut towers, and some of the structural support out of the Dodge before attempting the first test fit. By the time they’re ready, a very small child, or maybe a dog, could walk from the inside of the rear bumper out through the front of the car unobstructed.
Despite that, the team had several points of interference. The first challenge was that both cars had the A-pillar in the same spot so the Boosted Boiz had to decide between using the Tesla pillar or the Dodge pillar. Once that modification was out of the way, they found that the dash was interfering and that the rear frame rails on the Tesla were in the way as well.
All of that work paid off in terms of overall fitment, though. Things like the dash now fit almost as though they were built together. The team even managed to make the rear shock towers fit under the Challenger body with literally millimeters to spare. From there, it was time to put the car together with salvaged Hellcat body panels. From the outside, it’s impossible to tell that under the skin is just an everyday Tesla Model S chassis, motor setup, battery, and cabin.
At this stage, with an almost bare interior, the crew took the CyberCat to Cleetus McFarland who not only did some donuts in it but also gave it his blessing. Now, there is little left to do on the 1,020-horsepower Challenger; Wade and his crew just need to finish installing the interior.
That’ll include speakers, door cards, and perhaps a more performance-oriented driver’s seat. What’s best is that now, driving the car feels a lot more like driving a normal car, says Wade. “The van felt so weird. Getting in and out (of the Challenger) I don’t have a big old pillar right next to my shoulder.”
Once finished, there’s a good chance that this body swap stays mated for life due to how well it fits. Regardless, it’s an incredibly fast car that will likely cause some confusion for die-hard Mopar fans who have the pleasure of seeing it pass by on the road. No, it won’t ever have a supercharger whine coming from under the hood, but it’ll leave a red light like its supercharged twin, or even better.
So I found out a dodge challenger had the same wheelbase as a Tesla model s plaid and I built this. Calling it the CyberCat pic.twitter.com/TnJh8kfxjm
— Kyle Wade (@BoostedBoiKyle) December 3, 2024
This is fucking sacrilege and blasphemy…Tesla’s and EV’s are TRASH…Gasoline Forever!
I just watched the two CyberCat videos yesterday, and it’s really interesting how well the body fit on the chassis. Not because I’m interested in a modern Challenger, but because I’ve been following this guy (Steve Mirabelli) on youtube that has masterfully merged a few classic B-body cars (a Satellite, a Charger, and 2(!) Charger Daytonas )with modern Challengers and Chargers.
So this boosteboisvideo proved that as long as you have a slanted rear window it’s entirely possible to make a ‘General Electric’ ’69 Charger on a model S chassis, if you have the fabrication skills.
I’ve been following the BoostedBoiz for years. The pivot into playing with EVs (along all the usual content) has been a move I love. There’s so much uncharted territory and the rage it induces in people who hate electric for the sake of hating it is such a bonus.
At the end of the day, they just wanna go fast. The fact that they’re trying the latest tech in fun ways just makes it better.
I think some of the rage is justified, but misplaced. Electric cars from OEMs are being built as black boxes that are intended for disposal soon after the warrantee expires, when these cars are using drive system technology that could easily outlast the best ICE car 3-5x over, if only you could repair it. But for the most part, you cannot. Just design the damned things to be repaired with basic tools, no software lockouts, make the battery pack easily accessed for repairs and/or removed for replacement, get rid of all the screens and go back to physical buttons/switches/knobs, de-tech the damned things, and build the chassis/mechanicals to the durability/reliability standards of a 1980s Toyota/Honda/Mercedes with added anti-corrosion measures, and EVs could basically be “forever” cars that are operated over their usable life with minimal maintenance. And that usable life could/should be an entire human lifetime, with 2-3 more battery packs along the way.
EVs could easily be the best cars ever built. They suck because those entrenched companies building them seemingly want them to suck. The rage should be directed toward those within the auto industry making these stupid decisions to build disposable cars, EV or ICE.
Standardization will come with time. I took decades for ICE to get on the same page of a basic formula.
That being said, when it comes to the packs, that should ALWAYS be of limited access to end consumers. My team is in the process of developing the training and safety procedures for a fleet of EV transit buses.
You have no idea just how dangerous those high voltage packs are. A lot of people are going to get BBQ’d before we get some solid industry standards around the trade licensing and training for these things.
I’m actually well aware. Electrical engineer. I’ve deliberately started battery fires for fun.
If we want EVs to be true to their mission statement, they must be easily repaired. If the battery is going to be sealed off, at least make it easy to swap, and easy to reprogram the drive system and charger to accommodate the new parameters. Otherwise, EVs are going to become bricks in old age with otherwise perfecly good components that could provide decades more life.
The gap between your field and the automotive/heavy trade is a large chasm when it comes to the skillsets of those expected to work on these. I’m a bit of an oddball as I have a computer engineering background before I became a diesel tech.
These batteries are going to kill professionals, let alone shade trees. We are very far away from people working on these like they do an old Iroc.
If you can’t safely work on an EV battery, you aren’t a professional. There’s such a thing as “learning to do your job”.
There is no current framework for the automotive trade to work on EVs. They’re too new. Techs didn’t just magically become electricians overnight.
There’s also very little in the way of safety regs for repairing EVs, which is it’s own problem.
This is like getting mad that your horse-drawn coachbuilder isn’t competent in fixing your Model T. There’s been a significant leap forward in the industry, which will take years to standardize, regulate, and train people to work in.
“There’s been a significant leap forward in the industry, which will take years to standardize, regulate, and train people to work in.”
Yes, and? I’m not clear what your point is here. Your solution to EVs requiring new skills to work on is to make them physically impossible to work on? Just tell people “Don’t poke the Death Box unless you know what you’re doing”. My home breaker box could kill someone, so I don’t open it up and work on it and I don’t ask the neighborhood handyman to do it either. I hire a trained electrician. That’s not a reason for it to be hermetically sealed at the manufacturer so I have to buy a whole new house just to add a circuit.
I said “limited access”, not “hermetically sealed”. Making the packs easily swappable runs the risk of exposure to high voltage DC. Which requires high voltage PPE/tools, lockout/tagout procedures, verifying zero state of energy, and a rescue plan for anyone that comes in contact with a live circuit.
That is, if you want to do it safely. Otherwise, don’t fuck with the orange wires and the things they connect to.
Heater cores require extensive disassembly to replace, but we’re not throwing away cars over a heater core. Some stuff just doesn’t need to have easy access, nor should it.
Now, standardized diagnostics and serviceable modules/sensors/thermal management systems? Absolutely. But opening DC packs is opening Pandora’s box. There’s a metric fuck-ton of stored energy, and there’s no off switch like the mains of your house.
Reading this string and both sides have good points. Should we be able to work on an EV? I believe so. Is it dangerous? Currently I would say yes.
I just retired from long haul telecommunication, and we used amps that were 10-15 kilovolts at 1 to 2 amps. They will fry you.
That said, the manufactures put in double safety measures (have to turn a key here then there to even access the inside), and you won’t run the risk of shock, because the system is built to prevent it totally. Why couldn’t EVs be done the same?
People 100% throw away cars over heater cores. And people are *definitely* throwing away EVs because the batteries are expensive to replace. Just look up all the stories of people building their own powerwalls out of scrapped Leaf batteries.
If the cost to repair a vehicle exceeds the value of the vehicle, given the choice 99% of people will buy another car instead. That’s just basic economics.
Yes, when the heater core is the final straw.
People junk cars over the cost of a replacement engine as well. Just go look at all the kia/hyundais that are otherwise fine cars under 10 years old in the junkyard.
This is exactly why we got rid of our EV. Bought it used, the battery died but thankfully was under warranty. The replacement battery was $14k on a Kia Soul EV that we paid $16k for. So we knew that the second battery would die in a few years and the car would be bricked, because nobody wants old tech with a dead *very expensive* battery. The car would have easily lasted 150,000 more miles if the battery wasn’t a heap of dying weight. The dealer that installed the $14k warranty battery offered us $5k on a trade. They said leasing is the only way to go with EVs. I refuse to rent a car and I’m not paying 30-80k for something that is garbage like a bricked old phone once the battery goes bad.
I’ve always dreamed of getting a salvage EV and making a classic pickup into an EV, but the electric skills aren’t there for me to troubleshoot all the black boxes. If it were like an R/C car I’d be all in.
This is all kinds of perverted and I love it. I’d wager it lost about 40% of its range vs the Model S assuming it’s the same Model S battery, all thanks to the aero drag increase of the Hellcat body.
It’s so wrong, it’s right! And the best part is no Fartsonic Chamber!
They could have just waited. I have a feeling they’ll be able to get a deal on a factory EV Charger in a year.
Maybe not. Instead of a discount, they may just toss in a free factory charger for the factory Charger.
If you don’t mind buying something that can and will randomly brick itself…
You have to put in effort to screw an EV up this badly. At its core, the drive system on an electric car should really b no more complicated than that of a golf cart, but these companies are screwing them up on purpose to lock out DIY/indie mechanics from repairs.