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Elon Musk is Vanity Fair's number one 'disrupter'

Elon Musk's leadership of Tesla Motors has transferred well to pop culture. In this case, the electric-vehicle maker's CEO has popped up as Number 1 on Vanity Fair's annual "disrupters" list. Musk jumped from No. 5 last year and for 2014 came in ahead of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Apple's Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive; and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. Pretty healthy company. Vanity Fair pegged Musk's net worth at $12.9 billion, thanks in part to Tesla's stock climbing up about 70 percent in the past year (despite a recent dip) and has surged by a factor of 16 since the initial public offering in 2010. It also can't hurt that Tesla scored about $1.2 billion in government incentives when it agreed earlier this month to build its gigafactory in Nevada. Additionally, Vanity Fair feted Musk for his involvement in both space-exploration company SpaceX and home solar-panel provider SolarCity and described Musk's marital status as "complicated." VF just loves that stuff. Perhaps most impressive is the fact that Musk was the only auto executive to end up on either the publication's "disrupters" list or its "powers that be" list. The latter was headed by Fox's Rupert Murdoch, Walt Disney's Bog Iger and Comcast's Brian Roberts and Steve Burke. You can read Vanity Fair's write-up of Musk here.

The 'AMG of Tesla' unveils SEMA-bound Model S

Take a Tesla Model S, rip out the interior and throw on a new face and you might come up with the electric blue EV you see above. The modified Model S pictured is the new car that Unplugged Performance will bring to SEMA this week as it continues towards its self-declared goal of becoming the "AMG of Tesla." The first thing we noticed was how the updated fascia has a real Tom Selleck vibe, even if it's not quite the can't-look-away mustache of the Fisker Karma. Unplugged Performance says the new carbon fiber oval plastic nosecone is just one of a number of changes. It's easy to spot the new sports headlights and the 21-inch UP-01 wheels from the outside, but the inside is where most of the work was done. Unplugged Performance says it "dispensed with nearly all of the original Tesla innards" and "completely reimagined [the interior] for higher performance and more luxurious grade materials." That means a lot of the company's prototype upgrades are being shown here for the first time, things like sport seats in Italian Alcantara material and "luxury floor mats," that have "plush Rolls Royce carpet and Ferrari leather detailing." Performance has been changed as well, with prototype suspension components and new, prototype sports brake pads that UP says will "improve the car's driving dynamics." We won't be able to test them out when we get to SEMA, but we do look forward to getting a closer look at what's going on here. Unplugged Performance Brings New Developments to SEMA with Extensively Redesigned Tesla The Model S Gets a Face Lift and Slew of New Upgrades Las Vegas, NV – 11/04/2014 – Today, Unplugged Performance, a pioneer in Tesla Model S tuning, debuts their highly anticipated and freshly redesigned Model S at the SEMA trade show. The car features a completely new front end image, a complete overhaul of the interior, revised lighting, revised suspension, revised braking, upgraded wheels and enhanced aerodynamics. The first thing viewers will notice is that the oval plastic nosecone is changed to a wider and more aggressive design in carbon fiber. The bumper itself is an exercise in form following function with a priority on retaining cooling, ground clearance and aerodynamic efficiency. Despite the sharp modern looks, the bumper quietly integrates a ram air ducting system that feeds four factory integrated motorized cooling louvers which assist the car's cooling systems.

Tesla not bought with Bitcoin currency after all?

The story we posted about a dealership accepting Bitcoins as payment for a Tesla Model S is reportedly only partially true. Lamborghini Newport Beach instead used BitPay to exchange the electronic currency for US dollars before completing the sale, according to "Squawk on the Street" on CNBC.
"We found out that by using a little program that Bitcoin uses, which is actually BitPay, we would have received US dollars," Pietro Frigerio, general manager of the dealership, says in the interview. "It's like if you come into the dealership and you want to buy a Lamborghini using gold bars, we would not accept it. So you'd go out, exchange it, and you'd come back to us. That was how it worked [with the Tesla and the Bitcoins]."
Frigerio says that the dealership doesn't accept Bitcoin as a currency and only accepts US dollars as payment for its vehicles. That said, we wouldn't be surprised if using BitPay to turn Bitcoins into US dollars for the used Model S purchase was actually easier than going through a more traditional financial establishment. Head over to CNBC to check out the "Squawk on the Street" interview with more details.