by Gabrielle DeSantis

Have you ever wanted to see a Tesla take on a tornado, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz? Okay, maybe you haven’t thought, “I’d really love to see a Tesla in a Tornado,” but knowing that it’s happened – and there’s video! – makes it a must-see. Of course, it helps that the Tesla owner is okay, otherwise, it might be a different story. 

Where was the tornado?

Tesla versus the tornado (there’s a movie title here somewhere) happened in Canada, specifically Ontario, on July 15, 2021. According to Yahoo News, the tornado was a 2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale. It did touch down near businesses in Barrie, Ontario – and of course near the Tesla. 

Altogether, it was a pretty serious tornado. According to CP24, 100 people were displaced and 20 homes are uninhabitable because of the tornado. Additionally, ten people were taken to the hospital. 

What happened between the Tesla and the Tornado?

It was a Tesla Model X involved in the tornado. According to the video owner on Reddit, the Tesla driver was safe inside a business when the tornado touched down. The video footage shows what it was like inside of the tornado, without having to risk anybody’s life. 

In the video, heavy wind is visible thanks to the debris it’s carrying with it. There’s rain falling pretty heavily as well. You can see the rear of another SUV parked nearby pushed toward the Tesla Model X. Traffic cones are also seen being thrown by the wind through the parking lot. 

Is there video footage?

Teslas are filled with cameras – they have cameras pointing inside, outside, and replacing sensors that were previously operated by radar and lidar. So of course there’s video footage of the tornado.

It was the driver’s side camera that captured the footage of the tornado, and it’s pretty unbelievable to see, like a real-life (and therefore more terrifying) version of the movie Twister. 

The Tesla owner goes by Vanilla Gorilla on Reddit. They wrote, “The paint is pretty scuffed up pretty bad and a few dents, but it survived pretty well compared to other cars in the parking lot.”

Not only is there a video, but there are also pictures of the tornado damage after the fact. Vanilla Gorilla shared these, and they show how the Tesla survived the tornado. There are scuff marks all over the Model X’s body, and the side mirror was essentially ripped off. It’s pretty clear that the Tesla must have been hit by a good number of things during the tornado. From the look of things, it will likely need a full paint job. 

Seeing what the inside of the tornado is like is pretty wild, and kind of cool. Considering there were a total of five tornados in the area on the day of this tornado, it’s also pretty lucky that no one was more seriously injured. Hopefully the Tesla owner will be able to get their car good as new soon.

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The post Watch This Tesla Take On a Tornado appeared first on MotorBiscuit.

by Gabrielle DeSantis

The wealthy do everything differently. We philistines frankly have no idea just how different their lives are. That includes something as simple as renting cars at the airport. If you’ve ever gotten on a plane, you’ll know what the process is like. Board, maybe get some peanuts, watch a movie on your iPad, go haggle with a rental car agent, cry. Every aspect of that process is different for the hyper-wealthy.

The rich don’t just do rental cars different

I should know. For some time, I worked at… well, let’s just call it “Bob’s Rent-a-Car”. We rented cars at a private airfield. Because it was a private airfield, that means we rented to people coming off private jets. Now, these are some of the most absurdly wealthy people on the planet, literally. Once, we rented a car to Jeff Bezos and his security team. I could name plenty of other A-listers that came through the airport, but for them, the rental experience is totally different.

Each guest (you have to call them guests) has a file. In that file are all kinds of ridiculous requests and pet peeves. One guy loved Fiji water so much he told us it, along with a random array of snacks, must be in his car. Another liked to have the radio set to a specific station. Additionally, all cars were washed, detailed, and cleaned obsessively. We’d also warm the cars up in the winter and pull them plane-side for those wealthy folks who just could not walk another step.

You’d be surprised what kinds of cars wealthy people rent

Now, I’m sure as you’re reading about this, you must think that Bob’s Rent-a-Car has a fleet of immaculately clean Bentleys, Ferraris, or some other six-figure car. Yes, we did have those, including a Bentley Bentayga Kim K was fond of. Honestly, we never rented them. Bob’s Rent-a-Car would rent those cars out for hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a day. In most instances, the people I spoke to simply didn’t want something that ridiculous.

Peyton Manning liked to rent a plain-old Toyota Highlander for a few hundred bucks a day. Super nice guy, by the way. The wealthy like their rental cars to be subtle, especially some of our more recognizable clientele. By a shocking margin, the Toyota RAV4 was our most popular vehicle. That said, Bob’s Rent-a-Car knew who they were renting to and would charge “for the experience.” Honestly, the attention to detail is what our clientele pay for, not flashy cars.

Sometimes, money is everything

However, there was always that one occasion every full moon when all the stops had to come out. Daddy Warbucks was coming to town and his security detail needed three black Cadillac Escalades, each brand new and well over $100,000 in value. If we didn’t have three on hand, someone was sent to another location to collect it, almost without exception. I once drove 357 miles in one day collecting cars. When you’re wealthy enough to pay $10,000 or more for a plane ride from Cancun to Los Angeles, the cost of your rental, or its flashiness, is something I’m simply too poor to understand.

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The post The Hyper-Ritch Rent Cars Differently Than the Rest of Us appeared first on MotorBiscuit.