Franz von Holzhausen has spent 18 years drawing every Tesla that matters. His latest move involved no pencil, no screen, no clay model. He took chassis 001 of the Model S Plaid Signature Edition to a detail shop.
Not a tuner. Not a dyno facility. A detail shop.
The man who designed the car sent it to Unplugged Performance in Hawthorne, California, a company famous for squeezing extra speed out of Teslas, and asked them to wrap it in paint protection film and ceramic coating. He wanted window tint for UV blocking. He wanted every panel decontaminated and sealed.
He did not ask for a single extra horsepower.
The car already makes 1,020 hp and 1,050 lb-ft from its tri-motor powertrain. It runs to 60 mph in 1.99 seconds and through the quarter mile in 9.23 seconds. With the Track Package, it tops out at 200 mph. There is nothing left to prove on a spec sheet.
Von Holzhausen’s Plaid wears Garnet Red paint, a custom color that nods back to the Signature Red offered when the Model S launched in June 2012. Gold badges. Gold brake calipers. White leather interior. The yoke steering wheel. It is the first of 250 Signature Edition units built, and it was sold exclusively through invite-only emails at a starting price of $159,420.
That 250-unit Signature run, along with 100 Model X Plaid Signature models, was delivered at a Fremont factory event in May 2026. Tesla treated it as a farewell ceremony for both flagship nameplates. No general orders were taken. The guest list was curated. The message was clear: the Model S and Model X, as we have known them, are finished.
Unplugged Performance’s Auto Spa team handled the preservation work. Full decontamination across every body panel came first. Then paint protection film was laid over the entire exterior, followed by ceramic coating on the painted surfaces, trim, and wheel faces. The cabin got complete window film coverage. This was museum-grade treatment applied to a car that could still demolish nearly anything at a drag strip.
When a car’s own designer chooses preservation over modification on unit number one, he is telling you exactly where this vehicle sits in Tesla’s history. This is not a platform that will see a refresh, a facelift, or a next-generation successor under the same name. It is a closed chapter.
The collector market will take notice. Von Holzhausen’s decision sets the template for how the 250 Signature Edition owners should think about their cars. Unplugged Performance, a shop that has built its entire business on making Teslas faster, just completed a job where speed was irrelevant.
Tesla has been steadily narrowing its lineup around the Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, and the forthcoming Robotaxi. The Model S held its ground as the halo car for over a decade, but halo cars eventually become artifacts. Von Holzhausen knows that better than anyone. He drew the thing.
Fourteen years of production. One final run of 250 cars. Chassis 001 now sits under a layer of film, sealed against time rather than pushed against it.
Share this Story