One of our favorite kinds of trucks is a pickup that’s based on a car. The most famous of which is the Chevrolet El Camino, but there was also the Ford Ranchero, the Ford Durango, the Dodge Rampage, and all of Australia’s utes. Tesla hasn’t ever officially sold a ute, but that didn’t stop one mad engineer of a woman from making her own.
Today, our wonderful editor and graphics extraordinaire, Pete, wrote an Autopian Asks about cars that should be turned into El Caminos. That Autopian Asks featured a digitally edited Tesla with a Honda Grom in its bed. But this actually does exist! Big Harv:
Simone Giertz made a Tesla Camino-and drove it to the Cybertruck launch.
Simone built her ‘Truckla’ in 2019, a few years before the launch of the Autopian. However, it’s totally worth highlighting Simone’s work. She’s an inventor who creates things that you never knew needed to be created. She’s perhaps most famous for the Truckla, a Tesla Model 3 that got turned into a functional truck after a date with some cutting and welding tools:
If you have 30 minutes or so to spare, you should watch the build video:
Kristen Lee also wrote about her in 2019, and that article is worth reading.
Brian wrote about the company offering modifications for the Ferrari 599, and why Ferrari likes suing its own enthusiasts. I think Ferrari might be the least-liked brand by Autopian readers. Mr E:
I think it’s masterful how Ferrari has managed to force the majority of its customers to allow themselves to be bossed around by them after they’ve paid lots of money for the pleasure of owning one of their cars.
It’s also rather sickening.
Surely, someone makes a sticker of Calvin pissing on a Ferrari badge?
Also, here’s an unexpected reader twist. Spopepro:
The world of false scarcity luxury goods. Hermès is the world’s most expensive gachapon. How many scarves do you have to buy before you are offered the opportunity to order a bag? The fun is finding out!
FndrStrat06:
Hermes is ridiculous on a whole other level, but all fashion brands manipulate value through false scarcity and FOMO.
I like a nice pair of shoes, I have a few pairs of Louboutins. They make a few thousand, then change production lines to the next ‘season.’ Repeat ad nauseam. Limited edition pairs go for tens of thousands, and they’ll make maybe 10 of them, all reserved for celebrities and their whale customers than have already spent $100,000 or more
There’s no reason to stop production on a certain style other than just because. It’s gross. All of mine are secondhand, which makes me feel a little better about indulging myself.
Dolsh:
TIL the Venn diagram of Autopian readers and Christian Louboutin shoe wearers has a little more overlap than I thought.
Have a great evening, everyone!
Topshot graphic image: Simone Giertz/YouTube
I’m going to get political, I’m sorry (not sorry).
I’m not against artisans making their rich customers beg for the artisans’ work. The false scarcity thing is a reaction to the industrial revolution that made things like clothes and cars relatively abundant. How is a highly skilled artisan supposed to make money in a world like that? low volume, and taking advantage of (BS) consumer culture. Now that being said, I have no idea how Ferrari and Hermes treats their workers. If they aren’t paying their workers properly, then eff them. I won’t be surprised though, capitalism is going to capitalism.
Simone is fantastic; I’ve been following her channel for years. I feel like the audience for the Autopian overlaps with her projects. If you haven’t watched, you should.
I had never heard of her till recently, she was on the “Mythfits” podcast (hosted by Tori and Kari) a few weeks back. One of the stories she told was how she was at the launch of the Cybertruck, and you could feel the disappointment in the room.
Fascinating. That implies other people had actual expectations for that thing, despite all evidence to the contrary. I guess the reality distortion field is still alive and well.
I bought a spool table. That’s how big a fan I am.
Fun Simone Giertz story for you: we had just arrived in Mexico City and were starving so we went to this vegan taco place we wanted to try. Next table over I swore it was Simone. I didn’t want to stare but I was pretty convinced. She was even wearing a hat with SLG on it, and google informed me her middle initial is L. We spent the rest of lunch trying not to be weird and the rest of the trip laughing about it.
Then at the airport, at our departure gate, she was there at the next gate! And in the better lighting of the airport I came to realize that no, you did not eat lunch next to Simone and she no longer even looked that similar. I’m just glad I didn’t tell her I loved her work.
“TIL the Venn diagram of Autopian readers and Christian Louboutin shoe wearers has a little more overlap than I thought.”
The color scheme on my 1978 911 autocross can was inspired by Louboutins…all grey everywhere but the inside is that flash of red CLs have on the sole.
Presumably FndrStrat06 has as fine a taste in guitars as shoes. I’m guessing painted headstocks.
I always thought that Louboutin was pretty amazing branding
To tie it into cars it reminds me of the auto body shop that would buy advertising space to print “Dells wrecking and paint” on the bottom of the cars so when there was a photo of a crash it would get in the paper.
Oh, criminy, so many people just get it so bone-headedly wrong about Calvin, those stickers need to die in an all-consuming conflagration. That kind of thing is actually completely out of character for Calvin as anyone who’s actually *read* the comic strip knows. And Bill Watterson most understandably hates those stickers with a vengeance but it’s been extremely difficult to take any legal action. Maybe he should recruit Ferrari’s team of lawyers…
Agreed! The strip was so funny in broadly varying ways, and never mean. Even with Calvin trying to be mean to Susie, he always immediately got his comeuppance. It ranged from astute social commentary, gently delivered, to pure and simple kid joy.
And then people turn it into petty aggression over, of all the actually meaningless things, choice of car brands.
Somewhat related, see also taking utilitarian off-road vehicles that are great for scrambling through nature, and putting angry grilles on them.
I mean, it’s basically the same thing that happened with The Punisher. That series soundly denounces most of the things the logo has come to stand for these days.
See also: Fight Club
I wasn’t aware of this person but I have to say I watched the OG 30-minute build video with intention. And like, it’s legitimately good video! Better than latter-day Discovery Channel, tbh. “I’m worried but” edit edit edit “turns out we made it!” vs “i’m worried I’m stressed let’s throw chairs F*** you” edit “turns out we made it [with a 6-figure production budget]”
Way more wholesome. I like it!
I don’t remember when I first became aware of Simone, but I made sure that my daughter knew about her. I thought she was a great example of women in STEAM.
I just watched it thru, and this is the first time I have ever been able to stomach more than three or four minutes of anything on youtube aside from music.
If Tesla knew what they were doing they would make this a production model. I love this build. I’m a metal fabricator in northern California and would love to work on a project like this one.
Her face at the Cybertruck reveal should have been the thumbnail for every review.
This one, right:
https://i.ibb.co/jZZFCr9N/Screenshot-2026-01-28-091112.jpg
She was recently on the “Mythfits” podcast talking about that, she said you could just feel the collective disappointment in the room.
The Truckla build was great, I also remember when she brought Truckla to the Cybertruck launch and her reaction on the reveal was very much what we were all feeling, and it wasn’t really good. They should’ve just made some Trucklas.
I remember following the Truckla build. Simone is a bad-ass.