Tesla Meets Lowrider Culture in Bold Fusion

The Lowrider Tesla Turning Heads and Sparking Controversy

At the July 2024 Groupe Car Show in Fallbrook, California (just north of San Diego), a colorful array of classic lowriders and mini-trucks lined the car show strip. Among the hundreds of meticulously hand-crafted vehicles, one car stood out, not just for its unique design but for what it represented—a bridge between tradition and modernity. Luis Gomez and Delmy Romero’s 2022 Tesla Model X was the only Tesla on display, a striking testament to the couple’s dedication to merging the electric vehicle future with the old-school lowrider culture.

Hailing from San Jacinto, a city east of Los Angeles, Gomez and Romero aren’t strangers to the road. They travel across California, Las Vegas, and Arizona, proudly showcasing their one-of-a-kind Tesla at various car shows.

“She bought it brand new, drove it for about 400-500 miles,” Gomez recalls with a smile. “Then it took us nine months to build.”

The transformation began with the paint—no ordinary paintjob, but a 17-stage process with the help of Jose at Paramount Paint & Fabrication.

“Delmy picked the scheme from a skateboard,” Gomez explains. “Jose had 17 skateboards in his office, and Delmy pointed out elements she liked. With a colored pencil sketch, the vision began to take shape.”

The car started as candy red, but it evolved into an electric masterpiece layer by layer.

“Then Tony, our airbrush artist,” Gomez continues, “added a design under the hood featuring butterflies emerging from roses, which were Delmy’s preferences. The airbrushed face designs were mostly Delmy’s choices, including the clown-faced girl with a beanie on the passenger side B-pillars, just below the camera. She picked the ugliest chicana clown faces you can find. On one side, we have Nikola Tesla, the inventor behind the Tesla coil; on the other, we have Albert Einstein.”

The car’s undercarriage tells its story with airbrushed murals of cars cruising on Whittier Boulevard. Sometimes, the couple shows off the EV jacked up with mirrors underneath so onlookers can see the unseen artistry.

The result was an uber-shimmering, ever-changing surface that could rival a kaleidoscope facing the sun’s spectrum. Gilbert Daniel from House of Kolor elaborated on the paint’s complexity.

“This is part of the SHIMRIN 2 House of Kolor system, a candy basecoat system that layers colors on top of one another. This silver leafing underneath adds a metallic chrome reflection, accentuated by different-colored candies.”

But the exterior customization didn’t stop at the paint. The couple’s Tesla features aftermarket headlights from TesLux Innovations, and the two even built a JackRabbit Mini eBike, which is painted in the same vibrant and meticulous scheme. Every detail of the Tesla has been carefully considered, from the air ride suspension by Hoppos to the engraved parts by San Diego-based Dago Dane Engraving.

The interior, crafted by CLJ Customs and Chuy’s Auto Upholstery, is a plush blend of purple hexagon seat and door card inserts that mirror Gomez’s tattoos and red-colored Alcantara suede, all set against a backdrop of a purple shag rug.

“In all my cars that I’ve ever built, I’ve always had shag carpet,” Gomez says. “It’s just the lowrider thing. You always saw that in Cheech & Chong movies.”

The attention to detail extends to the steering wheel, which has been rewrapped with baseball stitching from a Model S Plaid and candied accents that tie the entire interior together.

Gomez and Romero’s Tesla is more than just a car; it’s a rolling piece of sonic artistry, complete with a Focal/Utopia sound system and chrome 22-inch Forgiatto wheels on Vogue white-and-yellow wall tires.

However, the couple’s build isn’t without its critics. Their fusion of Tesla technology with lowrider tradition has sparked controversy in both communities.

“You have your old-school veterano (OG traditional) lowriders, and some of them wave and give us a thumbs-up,” Gomez says. “But then you have others flip us off or even throw trash at our car as we drive by.”

Despite this, the Tesla won the Best of Show award at the Electrify Expo in Phoenix, where families and kids adored the unique lowrider.

As they continue their journey, Gomez and Romero’s Tesla Model X challenges the boundaries of what a lowrider can be, embodying both the future of automotive innovation and the enduring spirit of lowrider culture. Whether loved or loathed, their creation is impossible to ignore, leaving a lasting impression wherever it rolls.