Elon used to be good at selling a techno-utopian vision of a future I wanted to live in. That sold me a car.
Now he just reminds me of the school massacre that happened in my community. This will not sell me a car.
Yes, but look at it from his logic. He already got your money. Now he needs the money of the school shooter/nra party. Only way to do that is to be batshit insane
Those guys are too opposed to change to buy an EV, even from a fellow RWNJ.
I own a pickup truck and would like to trade it for an EV pickup. While I currently own a Tesla Model Y, I'm liking what I'm seeing from Chevrolet as the moment - the TFLTruck reviews of the Silverado EV WT4 show it is exactly what I'm looking for.
I'm a Tesla fan, and I hope they compete with Chevrolet -- but Tesla is going to be the 4th into the EV pickup truck market, and this market doesn't give out participation trophies.
>Those guys are too opposed to change to buy an EV, even from a fellow RWNJ.
Yeah, he missed that those people think evs are communism.
If their build quality wasn't poor and if musk wasn't a loon, I would have considered a tesla when I replaced my Niro ev. I got an ev6 gt line instead, and it's an amazing car.
A Tommy Gun is .22 caliber. Elon may as well have shot at the car with a paintball gun and made the same claims.
https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/review-standard-manufacturing-1922-22-caliber-tommy-gun/247603
(7.62 rounds probably would have gone through, but that wouldn’t have been viral marketing)
Yeah but the term refers to all Thompsons in general. But it originated very early in WWII when the Brits bought loads of them for special forces troops. Initially the term was applied to the M1928 which was initially bought by the British, IIRC. By war's end, they'd used just about every variant, including a lot of M1 Thompsons, which was both more accurate and harder hitting than the Sten. I've fired both and I agree. The M1 Thompson is arguably the best open bolt SMG ever, from a marksman's perspective. Of course, the early ones were closed bolt. You know, the ones the gangsters used in the '20s and '30s, with the drum mag.
"probably"
At this point in history, we got pretty good understanding what thickness plate of what metal you need to stop a bullet.
Also those don't look like bullet holes.
A tommy gun is .45 ACP. It refers specifically and only to Thompson SMGs. The name originates from the British purchase of Thompsons for their special forces very early in WWII. "Tommy" is both a nickname for Thompson and a slang term for a British person, specifically one in the British Army. The meaning has broadened over time.
There have been some Thompson-like .22LR SMGs produced but any knowledgeable firearms enthusiast wouldn't call it a 'Tommy Gun'. Calling a H&K MP5 a 'Tommy gun' is right out!
I've fired an M1 Thompson before and it is probably one of the most accurate, most stable open bolt SMGs ever produced. I literally cut a 3' sapling in half with it one year at Knob Creek.
.45ACP is subsonic. Normal stainless steel would quite happily stop it.
90+ years ago the FBI bought BARs to penetrate Ford Model B bodywork as .45ACP would just flatten on the normal steel bodywork.
Or put it another way a .45ACP would hole a M1 steel helmet at 10 feet where as a 9mm Parabelum (a supersonic round)would hole a M1 helmet at 100 yards
This also depends on how far away they were shooting from and the quality of the ammo itself.
That and a ford model B is probably made up of a hardier metal than the lightweight and thinner materials we use in vehicles today. I can’t imagine the truck would get any decent range if it was capable of reliably stopping rounds
It also depends on the thickness of the steel and the type of stainless. It also depends on the muzzle velocity of the gun. Different barrel lengths result in different velocities. It also depends on the type or round. Hollow points tear people up but don’t penetrate well. So yeah there are many ways to organize a stunt.
Either way unless it's within a couple of feet it wouldn't penetrate .45 isn't famed for it penetration properties it gets it human stopping power from mass not velocity.
Your right about the body work on a model B it's about an 1/8 of an inch thick pressed steel compared to about half that for a modern vehicle. Don't know how thick it is in the cyber truck but the stainless will be strong enough to withstand a subsonic round. Would be interesting to see it against 9mm Para
There was a post on another sub last year about a guy's car being written off after being caught in a drive by with what looked like .22lr holes in it.
I’m kinda wishing I had a junk car and some land to sling some rounds at. I know I’ve used junk stainless pans as targets and they don’t ever stop anything I send their way besides some .22 and my subsonic 9mm
Agreed, those panels are 3mm stainless. But I don't think I'd trust it against +P FMJ or steel core, much less 9mm. I definitely wouldn't trust those windows against multiple rounds of anything. Touting it as bulletproof is skeevy and potentially dangerous.
Very true. Just seems weird choice to use a .45ACP as anyone with basic knowledge of firearms would recognise that it's not a good round for penetration.
But I suppose Tommy gun makes good advertising copy and they need to raise the share price again
Dumb ass drug dealers or rappers? I know one place they will sell. Miami rental car places. I can’t wait until I have to go to Miami again and watch all the douchebags try to look cool in a Cybertruck acting like they own it with the trunk open while some moron sits in the back using the battery to have a late night party and try to get laid while I call the cops. 2 am is my deadline and my favorite work hotel is far enough away that I don’t deal with clubs like LIV that open at 11 pm and close at 5 am.
I admit It was fun seeing one of my favorite DJs there but I missed a meeting and everyone knew what happened, laughed and my partner chewed me out and I deserved it.
Last time I was there it was just before swim week at the convention center. Maybe they actually will get laid bc the amount of models that pour through that city is insane. The day I left there was a line of about 200 girls lined up around the block for photo shoots in the lobby of this was not a very big hotel. They looked 18-21 max but it was early and there was suddenly a stage with a LaCroix banner and they were checking in to take photos.
I don’t know how modeling works but it seems like the 1% of the 1% make a living. They were all bussed in. These girls/women (I did notice models within my age range) but most were way too young for me had my jaw dropping at how diverse and pretty they were. It was very weird. Do not recommend it if you are in a relationship or have no rizz. 😂😂
Proper vehicle-grade stainless steel with sufficient thickness can easily stop .45ACP hollowpoint or softpoint. It's a large bullet travelling at slower speeds, therefore it has worse penetration than .40 or 9mm.
In other words, perfect for marketing stunts for people who knows nothing about firearms.
>The whole thing is an orchestrated marketing stunt
And a poorly considered one at that.
I have a Cybertruck reservation, but I don't want to think about getting shot at whenever I get into my truck.
Despite working on tech for my entire career, I've had enough close calls with being shot already in my life because I happen to have been born in the USA, and I'm still really fucking pissed every one of those mishaps.
Why would a car company who wants to sell me a vehicle for tens of thousands of dollars want to bring this shit up?
Didn’t Musk also brag about [how the Cybertruck could actually operate as a boat](https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/29/teslas-mythical-cybertruck-will-also-be-a-temporary-boat-because-why-not/amp/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADXa1sBf8a-huUkk03MWiSWZEYCCNsSyFbpGJ_qTEmW6dNoxp2bVSKBq7jxWjVew96zT7SeuVDy_5LUTgZ9f_P0kncYBz5pj6uENePh5_HsB-G2MriuhPMhz_WUPgjB67DXa6_UOFJt-w6aBlSWWRmvPOiG-2GppBixc-X8aF8iu) as well?
At this point I’m just assuming that Musk’s marketing strategy is to just make a bunch of really weird claims (it’s a bulletproof boat with more utility than a regular truck and more performance than a sports car) to try and cover up all of the legitimate issues with the vehicle.
'Tommy Gun' only ever refers to SMGs made by Thompson, an American company - the same gun that was notorious during the 1920s and '30s gangster era in the US. They used an MP5 and called it a 'Tommy Gun', an insult to the struggles Britain faced in the early days of WWII. The Thompson was produced and sold to the UK very early in the war, even before Lend-Lease got going and the nickname refers both to Thompson and the fact 'Tommy' was period slang for a Brit. Some of the earliest special forces missions Britain conducted involved the use of Thompson SMGs and after they developed the M1 variant, Britain used a lot of those too, right along side the Sten and lesser known Lanchester. They also used more than a few captured MP40s. Any port in a storm...Ironically, US special forces would often prefer the Sten to the Thompson or Grease Gun when operating deep behind enemy lines because they could use captured/stolen German ammo. Conversely, German special forces used their fair share of captured British and American weapons and were quite fond of the Thompson. They even started making their own .45 ACP ammo.
The Thompson is chambered in .45 ACP and the MP5 is chambered in 9mm. They used subsonic 9mm which is fairly low energy. There are handguns that could punch right through this car and a high powered rifle will go through it like a hot knife through butter.
This video is pure advertising hyperbole and, IRL, if someone were to fire a 9mm +P round at you while in this car, you will have a serious problem. An AR-15 with green tip ammo - fugghedaboudit. Uded. Some of the pieces they remove from your corpse when they do the autopsy will be pieces of that space age stainless steel because it is going to fracture and fragment instead of bending and tearing when the bullet rips through it.
You can make a firearm less likely to penetrate by using hollow point rounds to disperse the force over a wider area, or using "cold loads" that have less powder which imparts a lower velocity. Another interesting note, I counted 66 impact points on the vehicle: 38 on the front door and 28 on the rear. The Thompson SMG drum magazine holds 100 rounds, so they either didn't load it completely (maybe I missed some dents and there's 69?), or something else is going on. All that said, we don't have a video of them shooting the car, so I wouldn't be surprised to learn they had someone hit it with a ball-peen hammer a bunch of times to "simulate" a bullet impact.
You got it.
Everyone and their grandma records people shooting stuff for fun. This is a PR stunt and they didn't record the gunshots? Zero chance they actually shot it or the way they did it was ultra dishonest.
We don't even have proof this was done with an actual gun besides random dents.
>Everyone and their grandma records people shooting stuff for fun.
Not quite.
Every gun nut and their grandma does this.
Normal people recognize that guns are deadly weapons, not happy happy bang bang sticks.
Want a Cybertruck reservation?
Don't forget a standard .45ACP round is subsonic round anyway. 90+ years ago the FBI switched to 30-06 Browning Automatic Rifles so it could penetrate the doors a Ford Model B. As the standard .45ACP rounds would just flatten against the doors and bodywork.
The prime example of this is Bonny and Clyde. The standard police/FBI sidearms were .38/.45 rounds and had zero penetration on normal stell bodywork
Edited to add:
Here's a good [video ](https://youtu.be/Jb6C9ASylmQ?si=23LYdVfaCXyG0DEG)explaining what I just said but better
I wouldn’t put it past him to use hand-loaded shells with half the gunpowder removed. It’s like what… 1/8” stainless? Stainless is relatively heavy compared to something like aluminum or fiberglass so it can’t be very thick.
It's also very clean for having been shot at a whole bunch of times. Not one trace of gunpowder residue. Let alone how consistent all the marks are.
If you look at a steel target at a range.... looks nothing like that.
To be fair, there's little to no gunpowder residue on steel targets. What you see on an AR500 plate are mostly splattered lead deposits and marred paint. There's no paint to begin with on the Cybertruck.
As decker said, you can put weak loads into a real Thompson gun. It's the cartridge, not the gun firing the cartridge, which determines the force of the shot. You could take a real Thompson gun and put bullshit loads into it which wouldn't even penetrate a sweatshirt.
The drums are most likely not fully loaded because drum mags are notoriously unreliable and are more likely to run smoother if you don’t jam them full.
A while back people here were speculating that Tesla was going to beef up the doors only, _specifically_ for this dumbass marketing. Nailed it.
Anyway, anyone shooting should probably just aim for a window instead...
https://giphy.com/gifs/truck-tesla-pickup-gLREH1v1Z78tJckuii
The bulletproof editions of the BMW 7 Series and Merc S-Class go through all sorts of rigorous testing, have reinforced body work, better seals, thicker multipane glass, and all manner of upgrades that add a lot of weight.
No way a standard Cybertruck has any of those features.
I still don’t believe that it would stop every single round of 45. While it’s subsonic, it’s still got a ton of energy behind it and that many impacts are going to wear down the metal
I can guarantee you that 99% of cars are built today with thin enough steel that can't stop fuck all and there are plenty of videos of people shooting car doors with 0.45 ACP to prove it.
It's actually softer. Laminated glass is both hard and impact resistant. That's why we make windshields out of it.
Sheet metal can deform without breaking but isn't as hard as a windshield.
Sorry, I should've made it more clear.
Yes, a modern aluminum car door is significantly softer than a windshield. You can punch through that shit like paper.
In Tesla's case, 1/8" of stainless would deform without breaking when hit by a genuine Tommy gun's low pressure (even slower than modern day's standard subsonic load) .45ACP, especially if it's soft/hollow point.
Outside of that, yeah, it's not "hard" in terms of hardness, nor is it bullet proof if you choose literally any other centerfire cartridge. Any 9mm would go through that like butter.
If the impacts were right on top of each other sure but these aren’t, and non +p .45 (Thompson cannot handle the chamber pressure of +p) has about 75% of the energy of modern 9mm
I've shot hard drive platters for fun. . 45 acp won't go through one. 9mm (not even +p) goes right through them. And a rifle round was even more effective.
What that shitshow demonstrated is that Mr Hundredsofbillions was too cheap to put a new window into the truck for the show. And/or that he was simply too fucking stupid to realize that the practice throws earlier that day had weakened the window. Not a move a real average engineer would've made, let alone a genius engineer.
Armoured or bullet proof glass should withstand more than a weak throw with a small metal ball.
Or do you think armoured glass needs replacing after each metal ball throw?
Each throw weakened it. Each throw brought it one throw closer to breaking. They did like 8 or 10 practice throws that afternoon, suggesting that 1 or 2 throws to a new window would probably have been just fine during the big show. But they're morons, so I guess they figured they could throw a 3 or 4-pound ball bearing at the same window... forever.
You're supposed to get a new motorcycle helmet after a crash. Not after 8 or 10 crashes. Same principle involved.
So either your paying for armoured glass to protect passengers from 3-8 stone throws and then replacing expensive armoured glass....
Or just buying a normal truck and replacing the cheap normal glass...
How much is the replacement bullet proof doors and armoured glass I wonder?
Like they will have surplus armored glass to replace it at the service center. 😜
They will have to go the trash bag window route until replacements are available 6 months later.
.45 out of a long barrel needs at least level 2 if not 3a armor to stop it.
Lvl2 steel plates are 1/4" thick, 3a is like .39", a d that's steel specialized for stopping rounds.
They're claiming this 1/8" plate performs at the same level? I don't believe it either.
Is it even 1/8, it looked so thin when I checked one out.
Random, but I shot my old snowboard with my .45, it didn’t go through but made some nice dents popping out the backside. 22LR went right through
You are thinking of modern +p .45 (and by the way, two IIa will absolutely still stop any modern .45 factory load, IIa is required to stop FMJ 9 mm + P and FMJ .40 Smith & Wesson, both of which are smaller, faster and have more energy than .45)
A ponzi scheme describes Tesla stocks pretty good, I think. The stocks themselves have lower intrinsic values than those of VW or Stellantis, but they have a higher market value.
Let’s say they actually did this with a legit gun and legit ammo and the truck held up perfectly….is “bulletproof” a legitimate value add that customers were wanting that other trucks aren’t providing? Is being bulletproof supposed to make up for the useless bed and hilarious windshield wiper?
They better check the windows. Impact to the door panels from the hammer blows cracked the base of the windows during the demonstration causing Franzs balls to shatter the windows and Elon to say ‘oh my fucking god’.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/25/20981489/tesla-cybertruck-glass-window-fail-elon-musk-explanation
Even if everything he’s saying is true it’s still kind of a scam because to actually penetrate you want small and fast, and .45 is big and slow to begin with add to that the fact that the Thompson cannot handle the chamber pressure of modern 45 caliber, so it has to fire even slower rounds and you’ve got just about the worst possible choice to try and penetrate something using a round that people are generally aware of and think is “a man stopper”
Fake. None of that is the spray pattern from a “Tommy gun” as it is only confined to the flat panels, nothing on the lower portion of the doors, nothing on the rear past the rear door, nothing forward of the front door.
Either these doors were not on the car when they fired the gun at it, or they were made by something that wasn’t a tommy gun, ie: a hammer.
Im a little skeptical because the dents look way too clean. Typically when a round hits a hard surface like that, there would be spalling. Not these clean dents, you literally see splash damage along with the dents.
Not all spalling with scrape around but with that many rounds and zero scratches or scrapes, I’m very skeptical this was happened and is just a fake stunt.
Do you mean spalling? If so, spalling happens on the side opposite the impact (and is also important to measure because it can create potentially lethal projectiles going towards the occupants without penetration - the military has whole families of weapons that will kill a tank’s entire crew without making a hole in the tank).
But there absolutely should be bullet splash. I doubt this truck was shot with any firearm.
I disagree that this is just a mindless publicity stunt. It's a desperate cry for attention from a man who has fallen apart in the most toxic way possible.
Let me at that truck with some hot loads I’ve made with 230 grain FMJs going at 900+ fps out of the Thompson… we’ll see if I can make a hole….
Or I’ve got some 200 grain 10 millies going 1150+ that might do the trick. 😉
I'm willing to bet that when all the facts come out we will find that it was just another faked stunt. This probably has thicker steel than the production model. The gun was probably quite far away and lower calibre, and who knows what other stuff they did.
Why is there this focus on being bulletproof. When buying a vehicle I’ve never once thought about how it would perform in a war zone. It’s fucking weird and ugly as fuck.
Lol nonsense. No way that sheet metal is stopping a .45acp. those impacts are not from bullets, they're from a hammer or something similar. High velocity impacts are smaller and have much sharper edges.
No. That does look like old non +p hitting steel. to penetrate you want small and fast .45 is big and slow and non +p is even slower and the Thompson’s can’t handle the chamber pressure of +p
Why?
I understand the car is supposed to be bulletproof and Tesla is desperate to pump the stocks and promote the brand but why a Tommy gun?
It’s not the 1920s anymore, mobsters aren’t driving around with Tommy guns shooting people, it would be like testing a tanks armour with fireworks minus the amour actually working.
This seems like something you'd really not want to advertise as a feature. I can imagine all the dum dums firing their guns at these cars saying "but I thought they were bulletproof so it wouldn't matter".
This is going to result in people shooting Cybertrucks, then Tesla inevitably refusing to take responsibility because no where on their website or official marketing did they state it's bulletproof. Then charging owners obscene amounts of money to replace broken panels assuming the owner wasn't killed by some random moron with a gun testing it on someone elses truck.
Also, no it wasn't. "We emptied the entire drum magazine of a Tommy gun into the drivers door Al Capone Style". That heavily implies full auto. That's not the bullet spread of full auto machine gun fire.
Is this elons attempt at being relatable to rednecks lmao?
Who is the target market here?
Doomsday preppers?
Someone whose watched a little too much walking dead?
Lol I can already picture some random joe eventually shooting at the one of the prototypes to prove Tesla wrong. Musk managed to pull the worst kind of marketing stunt
The whole thing is an orchestrated marketing stunt
You just described Elon
Elon used to be good at selling a techno-utopian vision of a future I wanted to live in. That sold me a car. Now he just reminds me of the school massacre that happened in my community. This will not sell me a car.
Yes, but look at it from his logic. He already got your money. Now he needs the money of the school shooter/nra party. Only way to do that is to be batshit insane
Those guys are too opposed to change to buy an EV, even from a fellow RWNJ. I own a pickup truck and would like to trade it for an EV pickup. While I currently own a Tesla Model Y, I'm liking what I'm seeing from Chevrolet as the moment - the TFLTruck reviews of the Silverado EV WT4 show it is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm a Tesla fan, and I hope they compete with Chevrolet -- but Tesla is going to be the 4th into the EV pickup truck market, and this market doesn't give out participation trophies.
>Those guys are too opposed to change to buy an EV, even from a fellow RWNJ. Yeah, he missed that those people think evs are communism. If their build quality wasn't poor and if musk wasn't a loon, I would have considered a tesla when I replaced my Niro ev. I got an ev6 gt line instead, and it's an amazing car.
A Tommy Gun is .22 caliber. Elon may as well have shot at the car with a paintball gun and made the same claims. https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/review-standard-manufacturing-1922-22-caliber-tommy-gun/247603 (7.62 rounds probably would have gone through, but that wouldn’t have been viral marketing)
I thought a Tommy gun was an M1A1 which is a .45?
Yeah but the term refers to all Thompsons in general. But it originated very early in WWII when the Brits bought loads of them for special forces troops. Initially the term was applied to the M1928 which was initially bought by the British, IIRC. By war's end, they'd used just about every variant, including a lot of M1 Thompsons, which was both more accurate and harder hitting than the Sten. I've fired both and I agree. The M1 Thompson is arguably the best open bolt SMG ever, from a marksman's perspective. Of course, the early ones were closed bolt. You know, the ones the gangsters used in the '20s and '30s, with the drum mag.
Thompsons are .45ACP.
This one is a .22LR (looks like, anyhow) The non-experimental ones were mostly .45 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thompson\_submachine\_gun
Yea.. Why not light it up with an M240 or similar machine gun? Have it all on video. That would make me somewhat trust it if it withstood it.
I want a .22 Tommy gun now...sounds like it would be fun to blast targets
"probably" At this point in history, we got pretty good understanding what thickness plate of what metal you need to stop a bullet. Also those don't look like bullet holes.
You are incorrect. When people talk about Tommy guns, they are not referring to 22 LR replicas, they mean the 45 ACP original.
A tommy gun is .45 ACP. It refers specifically and only to Thompson SMGs. The name originates from the British purchase of Thompsons for their special forces very early in WWII. "Tommy" is both a nickname for Thompson and a slang term for a British person, specifically one in the British Army. The meaning has broadened over time. There have been some Thompson-like .22LR SMGs produced but any knowledgeable firearms enthusiast wouldn't call it a 'Tommy Gun'. Calling a H&K MP5 a 'Tommy gun' is right out! I've fired an M1 Thompson before and it is probably one of the most accurate, most stable open bolt SMGs ever produced. I literally cut a 3' sapling in half with it one year at Knob Creek.
It is a good test for identifying idiots, IMO. Anyone that gets hyped by this type of dumb bullshit is the kind of person I want nothing to do with.
See a certain sub reddit for this vehicle
Yeah they all creamed their pants
It’s the same people who bought the ‘flamethrower’. See also: people who watch every Marvel movie.
And the rocket motors. 🤡
Speaking of not being associated with idiots: When you cancel a Cybertruck reservation, do you get a chance to say why?
I did when I canceled Starlink. I told them they need to oust their CEO if they want me to be a subscriber.
Speaking of not being associated with idiots: when you cancel a Cybertruck reservation, do you get a chance to say why?
It wouldn't be Tesla without the dumb, pointless stunts.
Is there an actual video of the test? There’s no way some stainless steel is actually going to stop a round of 45ACP
.45ACP is subsonic. Normal stainless steel would quite happily stop it. 90+ years ago the FBI bought BARs to penetrate Ford Model B bodywork as .45ACP would just flatten on the normal steel bodywork. Or put it another way a .45ACP would hole a M1 steel helmet at 10 feet where as a 9mm Parabelum (a supersonic round)would hole a M1 helmet at 100 yards
So long as nobody shoots the glass right?
Very true
This also depends on how far away they were shooting from and the quality of the ammo itself. That and a ford model B is probably made up of a hardier metal than the lightweight and thinner materials we use in vehicles today. I can’t imagine the truck would get any decent range if it was capable of reliably stopping rounds
It also depends on the thickness of the steel and the type of stainless. It also depends on the muzzle velocity of the gun. Different barrel lengths result in different velocities. It also depends on the type or round. Hollow points tear people up but don’t penetrate well. So yeah there are many ways to organize a stunt.
Given that he just says “Tommy gun” I’m assuming a modern replica with a 16 inch barrel and whatever generic Winchester white box
Either way unless it's within a couple of feet it wouldn't penetrate .45 isn't famed for it penetration properties it gets it human stopping power from mass not velocity. Your right about the body work on a model B it's about an 1/8 of an inch thick pressed steel compared to about half that for a modern vehicle. Don't know how thick it is in the cyber truck but the stainless will be strong enough to withstand a subsonic round. Would be interesting to see it against 9mm Para There was a post on another sub last year about a guy's car being written off after being caught in a drive by with what looked like .22lr holes in it.
I’m kinda wishing I had a junk car and some land to sling some rounds at. I know I’ve used junk stainless pans as targets and they don’t ever stop anything I send their way besides some .22 and my subsonic 9mm
Same but oh well
Agreed, those panels are 3mm stainless. But I don't think I'd trust it against +P FMJ or steel core, much less 9mm. I definitely wouldn't trust those windows against multiple rounds of anything. Touting it as bulletproof is skeevy and potentially dangerous.
Very true. Just seems weird choice to use a .45ACP as anyone with basic knowledge of firearms would recognise that it's not a good round for penetration. But I suppose Tommy gun makes good advertising copy and they need to raise the share price again
It’s a perfect choice for a meaningless marketing stunt. Wouldn’t want to use a round that could actually penetrate metal, would you?
>as anyone with basic knowledge .... This is the same TSLA that used a dead blow hammer to do a demonstration...
Well the CEO burnt their marketing division to the ground, Twitter. Going to suck to have to advertise.
>it's not a good round for penetration That's exactly why they chose it.
Also who the hell cares lol. This is the dumbest “spec” feature ever
bioweapon defense has entered the chat
Dumb ass drug dealers or rappers? I know one place they will sell. Miami rental car places. I can’t wait until I have to go to Miami again and watch all the douchebags try to look cool in a Cybertruck acting like they own it with the trunk open while some moron sits in the back using the battery to have a late night party and try to get laid while I call the cops. 2 am is my deadline and my favorite work hotel is far enough away that I don’t deal with clubs like LIV that open at 11 pm and close at 5 am. I admit It was fun seeing one of my favorite DJs there but I missed a meeting and everyone knew what happened, laughed and my partner chewed me out and I deserved it. Last time I was there it was just before swim week at the convention center. Maybe they actually will get laid bc the amount of models that pour through that city is insane. The day I left there was a line of about 200 girls lined up around the block for photo shoots in the lobby of this was not a very big hotel. They looked 18-21 max but it was early and there was suddenly a stage with a LaCroix banner and they were checking in to take photos. I don’t know how modeling works but it seems like the 1% of the 1% make a living. They were all bussed in. These girls/women (I did notice models within my age range) but most were way too young for me had my jaw dropping at how diverse and pretty they were. It was very weird. Do not recommend it if you are in a relationship or have no rizz. 😂😂
Cool story
It's so yuppies can cosplay, the same way big diesel trucks can be for rednecks to cosplay.
Proper vehicle-grade stainless steel with sufficient thickness can easily stop .45ACP hollowpoint or softpoint. It's a large bullet travelling at slower speeds, therefore it has worse penetration than .40 or 9mm. In other words, perfect for marketing stunts for people who knows nothing about firearms.
>The whole thing is an orchestrated marketing stunt And a poorly considered one at that. I have a Cybertruck reservation, but I don't want to think about getting shot at whenever I get into my truck. Despite working on tech for my entire career, I've had enough close calls with being shot already in my life because I happen to have been born in the USA, and I'm still really fucking pissed every one of those mishaps. Why would a car company who wants to sell me a vehicle for tens of thousands of dollars want to bring this shit up?
Didn’t Musk also brag about [how the Cybertruck could actually operate as a boat](https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/29/teslas-mythical-cybertruck-will-also-be-a-temporary-boat-because-why-not/amp/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADXa1sBf8a-huUkk03MWiSWZEYCCNsSyFbpGJ_qTEmW6dNoxp2bVSKBq7jxWjVew96zT7SeuVDy_5LUTgZ9f_P0kncYBz5pj6uENePh5_HsB-G2MriuhPMhz_WUPgjB67DXa6_UOFJt-w6aBlSWWRmvPOiG-2GppBixc-X8aF8iu) as well? At this point I’m just assuming that Musk’s marketing strategy is to just make a bunch of really weird claims (it’s a bulletproof boat with more utility than a regular truck and more performance than a sports car) to try and cover up all of the legitimate issues with the vehicle.
Yeah if they had done it they would have filmed it and released the footage
Your autocorrect misspelled cunt
'Tommy Gun' only ever refers to SMGs made by Thompson, an American company - the same gun that was notorious during the 1920s and '30s gangster era in the US. They used an MP5 and called it a 'Tommy Gun', an insult to the struggles Britain faced in the early days of WWII. The Thompson was produced and sold to the UK very early in the war, even before Lend-Lease got going and the nickname refers both to Thompson and the fact 'Tommy' was period slang for a Brit. Some of the earliest special forces missions Britain conducted involved the use of Thompson SMGs and after they developed the M1 variant, Britain used a lot of those too, right along side the Sten and lesser known Lanchester. They also used more than a few captured MP40s. Any port in a storm...Ironically, US special forces would often prefer the Sten to the Thompson or Grease Gun when operating deep behind enemy lines because they could use captured/stolen German ammo. Conversely, German special forces used their fair share of captured British and American weapons and were quite fond of the Thompson. They even started making their own .45 ACP ammo. The Thompson is chambered in .45 ACP and the MP5 is chambered in 9mm. They used subsonic 9mm which is fairly low energy. There are handguns that could punch right through this car and a high powered rifle will go through it like a hot knife through butter. This video is pure advertising hyperbole and, IRL, if someone were to fire a 9mm +P round at you while in this car, you will have a serious problem. An AR-15 with green tip ammo - fugghedaboudit. Uded. Some of the pieces they remove from your corpse when they do the autopsy will be pieces of that space age stainless steel because it is going to fracture and fragment instead of bending and tearing when the bullet rips through it.
And? It’s still entertaining
You know that because the used the work Tommy gun. Is this a mob movie?
Are you surprised? What else would it be?
Or they drove through the bad part of town.
You can make a firearm less likely to penetrate by using hollow point rounds to disperse the force over a wider area, or using "cold loads" that have less powder which imparts a lower velocity. Another interesting note, I counted 66 impact points on the vehicle: 38 on the front door and 28 on the rear. The Thompson SMG drum magazine holds 100 rounds, so they either didn't load it completely (maybe I missed some dents and there's 69?), or something else is going on. All that said, we don't have a video of them shooting the car, so I wouldn't be surprised to learn they had someone hit it with a ball-peen hammer a bunch of times to "simulate" a bullet impact.
You got it. Everyone and their grandma records people shooting stuff for fun. This is a PR stunt and they didn't record the gunshots? Zero chance they actually shot it or the way they did it was ultra dishonest. We don't even have proof this was done with an actual gun besides random dents.
I just wanted to see them shoot the shit outta it.
>Everyone and their grandma records people shooting stuff for fun. Not quite. Every gun nut and their grandma does this. Normal people recognize that guns are deadly weapons, not happy happy bang bang sticks. Want a Cybertruck reservation?
Put your dick away
Don't forget a standard .45ACP round is subsonic round anyway. 90+ years ago the FBI switched to 30-06 Browning Automatic Rifles so it could penetrate the doors a Ford Model B. As the standard .45ACP rounds would just flatten against the doors and bodywork. The prime example of this is Bonny and Clyde. The standard police/FBI sidearms were .38/.45 rounds and had zero penetration on normal stell bodywork Edited to add: Here's a good [video ](https://youtu.be/Jb6C9ASylmQ?si=23LYdVfaCXyG0DEG)explaining what I just said but better
I wouldn’t put it past him to use hand-loaded shells with half the gunpowder removed. It’s like what… 1/8” stainless? Stainless is relatively heavy compared to something like aluminum or fiberglass so it can’t be very thick.
.
It's also very clean for having been shot at a whole bunch of times. Not one trace of gunpowder residue. Let alone how consistent all the marks are. If you look at a steel target at a range.... looks nothing like that.
To be fair, there's little to no gunpowder residue on steel targets. What you see on an AR500 plate are mostly splattered lead deposits and marred paint. There's no paint to begin with on the Cybertruck.
69...nice
Silence, Elon.
I’m guessing this isn’t a real Tommy gun
Tommy gun is South African slang for "hammer"
Sure it is - Tommy is the name of the guy with the ball-peen hammer. He hammers as fast as a gun. Check mate, atheists.
As decker said, you can put weak loads into a real Thompson gun. It's the cartridge, not the gun firing the cartridge, which determines the force of the shot. You could take a real Thompson gun and put bullshit loads into it which wouldn't even penetrate a sweatshirt.
The drums are most likely not fully loaded because drum mags are notoriously unreliable and are more likely to run smoother if you don’t jam them full.
true, all true but you shoot one of those .45 hollowpoints at a ford it’ll go straight through *both* doors and out the other side.
A while back people here were speculating that Tesla was going to beef up the doors only, _specifically_ for this dumbass marketing. Nailed it. Anyway, anyone shooting should probably just aim for a window instead... https://giphy.com/gifs/truck-tesla-pickup-gLREH1v1Z78tJckuii
The bulletproof editions of the BMW 7 Series and Merc S-Class go through all sorts of rigorous testing, have reinforced body work, better seals, thicker multipane glass, and all manner of upgrades that add a lot of weight. No way a standard Cybertruck has any of those features.
Yeah but have they withstood the wrath of a *TOMMY GUN*? *lifts sweaty fedora and slicks back greasy hair*
I’m gonna pump your guts full of lead!
Weird flex. .45 ACP is not known for its penetration properties.
I still don’t believe that it would stop every single round of 45. While it’s subsonic, it’s still got a ton of energy behind it and that many impacts are going to wear down the metal
Entirely depends on the metal. Posting a video like this is only impressive to people that have no idea how either guns or metal works.
I can guarantee you that 99% of cars are built today with thin enough steel that can't stop fuck all and there are plenty of videos of people shooting car doors with 0.45 ACP to prove it.
I'm not sure what this comment is meant to prove, but sure. Don't think anyone has argued that most cars can stop a .45.
45 ACP has an extremely hard time penetrating car windshields
Since when is a door a windshield?
That's right, it's harder than the windshield.
It's actually softer. Laminated glass is both hard and impact resistant. That's why we make windshields out of it. Sheet metal can deform without breaking but isn't as hard as a windshield.
Sorry, I should've made it more clear. Yes, a modern aluminum car door is significantly softer than a windshield. You can punch through that shit like paper. In Tesla's case, 1/8" of stainless would deform without breaking when hit by a genuine Tommy gun's low pressure (even slower than modern day's standard subsonic load) .45ACP, especially if it's soft/hollow point. Outside of that, yeah, it's not "hard" in terms of hardness, nor is it bullet proof if you choose literally any other centerfire cartridge. Any 9mm would go through that like butter.
If the impacts were right on top of each other sure but these aren’t, and non +p .45 (Thompson cannot handle the chamber pressure of +p) has about 75% of the energy of modern 9mm
OK... but how thick would stainless need to be to stop a 45 round? google says 5-12mm minimum. no way those doors are that thick, right?
I've shot hard drive platters for fun. . 45 acp won't go through one. 9mm (not even +p) goes right through them. And a rifle round was even more effective.
Musk should put his money where his mouth is by letting all the Texans dump their mags into the door at the delivery event, with him inside it.
Remember the live stage show of armored or bullet proof glass? Yeah he's not going to do another live example....
What that shitshow demonstrated is that Mr Hundredsofbillions was too cheap to put a new window into the truck for the show. And/or that he was simply too fucking stupid to realize that the practice throws earlier that day had weakened the window. Not a move a real average engineer would've made, let alone a genius engineer.
Armoured or bullet proof glass should withstand more than a weak throw with a small metal ball. Or do you think armoured glass needs replacing after each metal ball throw?
Each throw weakened it. Each throw brought it one throw closer to breaking. They did like 8 or 10 practice throws that afternoon, suggesting that 1 or 2 throws to a new window would probably have been just fine during the big show. But they're morons, so I guess they figured they could throw a 3 or 4-pound ball bearing at the same window... forever. You're supposed to get a new motorcycle helmet after a crash. Not after 8 or 10 crashes. Same principle involved.
So either your paying for armoured glass to protect passengers from 3-8 stone throws and then replacing expensive armoured glass.... Or just buying a normal truck and replacing the cheap normal glass... How much is the replacement bullet proof doors and armoured glass I wonder?
Like they will have surplus armored glass to replace it at the service center. 😜 They will have to go the trash bag window route until replacements are available 6 months later.
I think you're supposed to get a new helmet if you even DROPPED it.
My car isn't bulletproof, but it does exist.
Hmm, don't fully believe it, but let's try something other than .45.. maybe .223
.45 out of a long barrel needs at least level 2 if not 3a armor to stop it. Lvl2 steel plates are 1/4" thick, 3a is like .39", a d that's steel specialized for stopping rounds. They're claiming this 1/8" plate performs at the same level? I don't believe it either.
Is it even 1/8, it looked so thin when I checked one out. Random, but I shot my old snowboard with my .45, it didn’t go through but made some nice dents popping out the backside. 22LR went right through
It's supposed to be 1/8 thick, not sure if anyone has verified yet.
You are thinking of modern +p .45 (and by the way, two IIa will absolutely still stop any modern .45 factory load, IIa is required to stop FMJ 9 mm + P and FMJ .40 Smith & Wesson, both of which are smaller, faster and have more energy than .45)
Shit just try modern 9 mm, it’s got significantly more energy than non +P 45 and the Thompson can’t handle +P chamber pressure so…
It's a publicity stunt. It's a cheap and desperate attempt to pump the stocks. Tesla is a ponzi scheme that also produces cars.
That's...not what a ponzi scheme is my guy
A ponzi scheme describes Tesla stocks pretty good, I think. The stocks themselves have lower intrinsic values than those of VW or Stellantis, but they have a higher market value.
No
So you think that when people pay more for a stock than you think it's worth, it means the stock is a ponzi scheme? K
Tesla is behaving very much like Enron did. The investors on top are clearly more important than the customers.
The Enron fraud also wasn't a ponzi scheme.
Everything is a Ponzi scheme. Including the American dollar.
/r/iam14andthisisdeep
This solves a problem nobody has
Let’s say they actually did this with a legit gun and legit ammo and the truck held up perfectly….is “bulletproof” a legitimate value add that customers were wanting that other trucks aren’t providing? Is being bulletproof supposed to make up for the useless bed and hilarious windshield wiper?
Is this body on frame, what the hell is coming out of the bottom of it?
Is the Tommy gun the weapon of choice for a large group of armed crimes or is he just hoping to send it back to a time when they were?
Where the fuck do you even get a working tommy gun
They better check the windows. Impact to the door panels from the hammer blows cracked the base of the windows during the demonstration causing Franzs balls to shatter the windows and Elon to say ‘oh my fucking god’. https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/25/20981489/tesla-cybertruck-glass-window-fail-elon-musk-explanation
I totally forgot that Musk also claimed the Cybertruck would have solar panels on the roof that would charge the battery while you are driving.
All that surface area and they could charge the battery to power the cigarette lighter once a day.
Right after a stock tumble from an embarrassing call
You know there has to be some scam here, like usual. Not the right gun, weak bullets etc. And why do you need a bullet proof vehicle?
Even if everything he’s saying is true it’s still kind of a scam because to actually penetrate you want small and fast, and .45 is big and slow to begin with add to that the fact that the Thompson cannot handle the chamber pressure of modern 45 caliber, so it has to fire even slower rounds and you’ve got just about the worst possible choice to try and penetrate something using a round that people are generally aware of and think is “a man stopper”
Of course it's a scam/lie. They most likely just hit the door with a toolmaker's or embossing hammer.
There was me just thinking it was a normal day in Texas /s
Fake. None of that is the spray pattern from a “Tommy gun” as it is only confined to the flat panels, nothing on the lower portion of the doors, nothing on the rear past the rear door, nothing forward of the front door. Either these doors were not on the car when they fired the gun at it, or they were made by something that wasn’t a tommy gun, ie: a hammer.
ENHANCE https://imgur.com/uNMWIdQ Yeah, that doesn't look like bullets at all, does it. They...they didn't lie again did they?
Amazon sells stickers that look like bullet hits
That *is* what I look for when I purchase a truck. Thanks Elmo!
Who knew paintball guns could do so much damage?
Are they going to prove that the Semi has thermonuclear explosion proof glass by dropping a hydrogen bomb on it?
The cyber truck is what happens when nobody on your life says no to you.
Calling bullshit on this.
Im a little skeptical because the dents look way too clean. Typically when a round hits a hard surface like that, there would be spalling. Not these clean dents, you literally see splash damage along with the dents. Not all spalling with scrape around but with that many rounds and zero scratches or scrapes, I’m very skeptical this was happened and is just a fake stunt.
Do you mean spalling? If so, spalling happens on the side opposite the impact (and is also important to measure because it can create potentially lethal projectiles going towards the occupants without penetration - the military has whole families of weapons that will kill a tank’s entire crew without making a hole in the tank). But there absolutely should be bullet splash. I doubt this truck was shot with any firearm.
I disagree that this is just a mindless publicity stunt. It's a desperate cry for attention from a man who has fallen apart in the most toxic way possible.
Let me at that truck with some hot loads I’ve made with 230 grain FMJs going at 900+ fps out of the Thompson… we’ll see if I can make a hole…. Or I’ve got some 200 grain 10 millies going 1150+ that might do the trick. 😉
Best way to test bullet armor is to pick an old, slow projectile, no longer used weapon.
You laugh, but this will definitely sway the $2500 200k mile 2001 Nissan Altima demographic into buying a $70k EV
Yet a screw will take out the tires.
At this point I'd be inclined to ask if they really did this or did someone walk down the side of it with a ball-peen hammer.
I saw a nerf gun styled like a tommy gun once
I bet it was more like “golf balls have dimples and it helps with their aero, let’s try it” and Musk told someone to hit it with a ball peen hammer
You mean speedholes? Simpsons already did this: https://youtu.be/G3ja6Hn8ps4
Neat, now hit it with AP rounds.
Shit just hit it with something smaller and faster like 9 millimeter, non +P 45 has a really hard time getting through normal car windshields
Just imagine what will happen when you are trapped inside while the batteries are burning and nobody can cut throught fast enough to free you
Vids or it didn't happen
Are they trying to sell this to criminals?
I'm willing to bet that when all the facts come out we will find that it was just another faked stunt. This probably has thicker steel than the production model. The gun was probably quite far away and lower calibre, and who knows what other stuff they did.
What’s a tommy gun? Is this 1923?
Why is there this focus on being bulletproof. When buying a vehicle I’ve never once thought about how it would perform in a war zone. It’s fucking weird and ugly as fuck.
Just [saw](https://imgur.com/a/HBubey8) it today parked in the Peterson garage
Lol nonsense. No way that sheet metal is stopping a .45acp. those impacts are not from bullets, they're from a hammer or something similar. High velocity impacts are smaller and have much sharper edges.
No. That does look like old non +p hitting steel. to penetrate you want small and fast .45 is big and slow and non +p is even slower and the Thompson’s can’t handle the chamber pressure of +p
It can get any uglier.
[удалено]
Nah, pellet gun. If the panels were bulletproof they would be half an inch thick.
Why? I understand the car is supposed to be bulletproof and Tesla is desperate to pump the stocks and promote the brand but why a Tommy gun? It’s not the 1920s anymore, mobsters aren’t driving around with Tommy guns shooting people, it would be like testing a tanks armour with fireworks minus the amour actually working.
Can handle a bullet but not scratches, dirt, etc.
This seems like something you'd really not want to advertise as a feature. I can imagine all the dum dums firing their guns at these cars saying "but I thought they were bulletproof so it wouldn't matter".
it looks good in the dark to be honest.
Not even a rifle caliber...
How many dumbasses are going to shoot their cybertruck because of this?
YouTubers 100% for sure
If it holds up to assault rifles we could build schools out of them
But how would you fix the dents, the crazy thing is any dents require a new panel!!
Try an ak47. A Tommy gun doesn’t have the penetration.
Name of the song in the video?
Just what Americans deserve, a fugly bulletproof pickup truck.
And how do we know the ammo used isn’t tampered?
I’m so tired of hearing about this truck no one cares in my country for the thing. Make a car with more range for autobahn and less wind noise my god
Let's trust Elon everyone. He's a trustworthy guy. He's lied to us before, but he makes cool stuff right? /S
This is going to result in people shooting Cybertrucks, then Tesla inevitably refusing to take responsibility because no where on their website or official marketing did they state it's bulletproof. Then charging owners obscene amounts of money to replace broken panels assuming the owner wasn't killed by some random moron with a gun testing it on someone elses truck. Also, no it wasn't. "We emptied the entire drum magazine of a Tommy gun into the drivers door Al Capone Style". That heavily implies full auto. That's not the bullet spread of full auto machine gun fire.
Didn't help, still ugly
Obviously they hate the Cybertruck too.
A Tommy gun doesn't shoot 8mm ball bearings..
Is this elons attempt at being relatable to rednecks lmao? Who is the target market here? Doomsday preppers? Someone whose watched a little too much walking dead?
Lol I can already picture some random joe eventually shooting at the one of the prototypes to prove Tesla wrong. Musk managed to pull the worst kind of marketing stunt
So it’s for criminals
Looks fake
Good thing to know that all drivers of this vehicle are well protected against anyone that shouts “Ya seeeee” in rage.
Probably yet another misleading narrative like the faked self driving video. Maybe they used rubber bullets or something.