Teslonda Is an Antique Honda Accord That Uses a Tesla Motor and Raspberry Pi to Achieve Ludicrous…

In the car world we love to talk about how much horsepower we’ve got under the hood. But, the truth is that horsepower is only half of the acceleration equation, and the other half is weight. That’s why a superbike with less than 200hp can beat all but the quickest supercars to 60mph, and even that’s usually down to traction. That’s also why this antique Honda Accord accelerates faster than an Enzo Ferrari.

Even when it first rolled off the assembly line, this 1981 Honda Accord was incapable of reaching 60mph in less than 13 seconds. 38 years of wear and tear definitely didn’t do anything to improve that — at least until YouTuber Jimmy Built got his hands on it. Now it can reach that same 60mph in a blistering 2.8 seconds. As a reference for those of you who aren’t car enthusiasts, the quickest production car in history, the Porsche 918 Spyder, does it in 2.2 seconds.

That astonishing speed is thanks to the salvaged Tesla Model S P85 motor and 16kWh Chevy Volt battery pack that replaced the old Honda’s original drive train. The Tesla Model S P85 has a curb weight of more than 4,600lbs, while the Teslonda weighs a mere 2,438lbs. That one ton weight savings is enough to drop a stock Tesla Model S P85’s 0–60 time by more than a full second.

Of course, Tesla puts a lot of work into developing their electronic systems for tuning traction, motor output, and temperature. Jimmy’s Teslonda needed the same capability, and he turned to a Raspberry Pi to provide it. With a lot of software help from his friend Michael Mathews, he was able to use the Raspberry Pi for motor control and feedback that helps the Teslonda with traction control and motor monitoring. It’s also used for a really nifty dashboard display, which all adds up to make this the coolest — and probably quickest — Honda Accord in existence.