Ashlee VanceNYT Best Seller | Reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek

The Man Gutting America's Most Beautiful Cars #cars #classiccars #americancars #engineer

9 Jun 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:58

The video profiles Mark Davis, an engineer and artist based in Austin who has spent nearly a decade converting classic internal‑combustion vehicles into high‑performance electric machines. The segment showcases his work on a 1972 Chevrolet Blazer, now powered by a Tesla Model S drivetrain, describing the dramatic speed boost and the emotional reaction of owners seeing their nostalgic cars transformed. Mark is presented as a bridge between nostalgia and cutting‑edge technology, embodying Austin’s broader culture of blending the old with the new.

If you have the money and you want your old but beautiful car to be modernized and fast-forwarded into the future—
This is the shop, I presume?
Yes, indeed. Here's where it all happens. Then you should visit Mark Davis in Austin.
If you parked this and you walked up to it, you're like, my God, look at my car!
For almost a decade now, Mark has been transforming classic cars with their internal combustion engines into all-electric dynamos.
This beast, so it's a 1972 Chevy Blazer driving out of a Tesla Sport Model S. This is the fastest fucking Blazer you've ever been in.
He's an engineer and an artist. He's a lover of nostalgia and technology, the old and the new. Mark is positioned between two worlds, and in that, he's a perfect metaphor for Austin itself, as you'll see.