Tesla Model 3 Facelift Imagined With Unlikely McLaren Vibes in Quick Rendering

It helped transition Tesla from the small-volume carmaker it was when all it sold were the Model S and X to the most important player in the EV market at the moment, with real chances to remain at this level for at least a few years to come. None of it would have been possible without the compact sedan, so the 3 will always hold a special place in the brand's history.

Released in the last day of March 2016 after countless delays, the Model 3 had an instant success registering hundreds of thousands of deposits during the first few weeks after its unveiling. Deliveries, however, were going to take a little longer, with the first coming near the end of July the next year.

Despite its overall success, the Model 3 was not without its detractors. Apart from the now customary Tesla build quality issues, people's main complaints had to do with the lack of an instrument cluster or head-up display and, to some extent, its exterior design.

The part of the car that came under intense scrutiny was its front end that bore some resemblances to a duck's beak. However, what people don't always seem to realize is that everything about that nose is dictated in much smaller part by a designer's vision and in much greater part by aerodynamics.

The Model 3 managed to beat the drag coefficient of the Model S, the most streamlined production car at that moment, by 0.01, taking its place as the record holder. An ant clinging for its life on the EV's headlight is enough to disturb that, so any design intervention in that area should be carried out with great care and countless hours spent in the wind tunnel.

Well, The Sketch Monkey will leave Tesla's designers and engineers to bother with that while he takes the easy path of modifying the car's appearance with no practical consideration for its aerodynamics. To be fair, though, at least in theory, his modifications can only make the Model 3 split the air even more efficiently since he's lowering its nose and making the entire hood longer, thus reducing the front vertical area.

Apart from that, all he does is replace the current headlights with a design that almost infringes on McLaren's, though we have to admit it does seem to fit the car nicely. A little more aggressive aero elements like the front splitter and the side skirts, as well as a delete of the taillights from the EV's rear quarter panels, complete the refreshed look. In the end, it's not bad, if a little unlikely. What do you think?