100-Year-Old WW2 Veteran Takes First Ride in a Tesla, His Reaction Is Priceless

Having fought in the Pacific theater in the 1940s, where he served in the 81st Wildcat division, this guy is a living legend. And he had quite the special 100th birthday with a fire truck and police car procession all dressed up in U.S. flags driving by his house.

He also spent quality time with his classic cars, which came out of storage after more than 40 years. He owns a rare 1946 Cadillac and a gorgeous 1956 Plymouth Belvedere, both of which haven't seen daylight since the 1970s. His son takes them out of their barns and gives them a good cleaning for this special celebration.

You can check them out in the rather touching video below, which documents the process and shows the entire family having fun around the house. Dragging them classics out of storage proves to be tricky, but eventually, they come out into the sun to flex their stylish bodies one more time. It's such a shame they're not running anymore, it would have been great to see the owner take them for a spin.

But the 100-year-old vet gets a piece of motoring action toward the end of the video when he makes first contact with a Tesla Model S. Not before he admits that he knows nothing about electric cars. The Model S in question is a P85D, which has been discontinued and it's not as brutal as the P100D or the Plaid, but it does hit 60 mph (97 kph) from a standing start in 3.2 seconds.

And that's enough to impress this World War 2 veteran, who starts laughing and asks "how many Gs was that" when a hard sprint pushes him into the seat. "I can't imagine that much power and going that quick," he says while getting out of the passenger seat, visibly impressed with the Model S' performance.

Check it all out in the video below. The Tesla Model S ride and reaction comes in at the 16-minute mark.