Felida Tesla owner gets charge out of vehicles

Phil Gorski was in the crowd last week when the angular Tesla Cybertruck rolled onto the stage in the company’s design center in Hawthorne, Calif., during its unveiling.

Gorski, 58, stood in the center of the second row near the stage and described the atmosphere as being like a rock ‘n’ roll show: smoke, lights and music for the roughly 2,500 people invited to attend. As the president of the Tesla Owners Club of Portland, the Vancouver resident has been to eight other Tesla events, but this was much different because the angular look of the truck was so unexpected.

“This thing is like a Mars Rover,” he recalls thinking. “People were cheering like crazy. People were saying, ‘What the F?’ They either thought it was the coolest thing in the world or the ugliest thing. There was no middle ground.”

He remembers soon after the unveiling, a Tesla employee brought out a sledgehammer to hit the side of the car to show its dent resistance. Even then, Gorski couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Maybe the sledgehammer would hit it and it would fall apart and unveil the actual design,” he remembers thinking.

Gorski’s trip to the Tesla unveiling on Nov. 21 was the latest experience in his fandom of the company and its products. In 2011, he ordered his first Tesla electric car before he saw the design, and his love for the vehicles has grown ever since.

The cars even helped him get through a near-fatal battle with chronic liver disease and a liver transplant. So as Gorski watched his idol, CEO Elon Musk, walk back and forth across the stage, he couldn’t help but feel grateful.

“That moment didn’t pass without reflection on all that stuff,” he said.

Tech geek, not gear head

Gorski grew up in Utica, N.Y., and attended Syracuse University on a baseball scholarship. A shoulder injury ended his hopes of making the big leagues, so after college, in 1983, he moved to Beaverton, Ore., to work with his brother, an IBM employee.

Over the years the two have worked in various hardware and software technology companies.

Gorski always considered himself tech-savvy, but never much cared for cars and their mechanics.

“I’ve always been a gadget geek. I’ve never been a car guy. I always liked technology and toys.”

Then he got some bad news.

In 2011, Gorski’s doctor told him he was experiencing elevated liver enzymes. He was diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic liver disease that restricts the drainage of toxic bile.

“They said at some point, you’re going to need a transplant,” he recalls.

Gorski continued to live life without any symptoms, but the disease lurked.

In 2013, Gorski stumbled across an article about Tesla. He was struck by the idea that a car could be good looking, have high performance, be safe, be all-electric and, eventually, be affordable.

He was hooked.

The article mentioned actor George Clooney had bought one of the first models, a Roadster, with a six-figure price tag. It was too expensive for Gorski, but he wanted to learn more about Elon Musk.

He began to research Musk and learned he was the co-founder of PayPal, an online payment company and bank. Musk sold the company to eBay in 2002, and invested a large portion of his returns in the electric car company he founded, Tesla.

“This guy’s cool because a lot of people I’ve read about are money motivated,” Gorski said. “But (Musk) was expecting to fail. He just thinks we should be driving with sustainable energy.

“I thought if this guy is going to put down $50 million and rattle the cages of automakers, I could put down $5,000.”

So Gorski put a deposit on the Tesla Model S before the designs were released.

“A year later,” he said. “I was sick.”

Dealing with illness

The liver disease had caught up to him. He recalls a friend telling him one day that his eyes were yellow, so Gorski sprinted to the mirror. The next years would cause him serious health issues, weight loss and, as he described it, feeling as lethargic as one would after a Thanksgiving meal.

“Sometimes I could be out and about. Other times, I could be out sick for days,” he said. “I was on this emotional and physical roller coaster.”

He hadn’t yet received his Tesla Model S, but the anticipation kept his mind busy through his medical ordeal.

In those moments when Gorski felt well enough to get up and walk, he’d most often get in his gasoline-powered car and drive to the Tesla store at the Washington Square Mall in Tigard, Ore. Talking to the employees there gave him an outlet for his excitement in the time before receiving his Model S.

“I’d go over and get to know the staff really well,” he said.

But after a handful of trips, Gorski suspected the staff was getting annoyed. He said they connected him to another man who was waiting for his Tesla. They began to talk about Teslas and their anticipation of their cars.

It was the seed of what’s now the Tesla Owners Club of Portland, of which Gorski is president.

At that time, in 2013, Gorski was waiting for a liver transplant. But he began to gather local Tesla owners, even if they hadn’t received their cars yet, via a Facebook group. They’d meet up once a week and “just B.S.,” he said. “It slowly started to evolve. People started to get cars.”

In 2013 he finally got the call from Tesla that his Model S was in stock. He picked it up soon after.

“Every time I got into the car to go somewhere, I grinned,” he said.

Gorski became more involved with Tesla and the owners club, and he began making trips to California for the company’s vehicle unveilings.

But he also was dealing with the depression that often accompanies a chronic illness. His health deteriorated, and his weight loss made him look frightfully thin.

On Valentine’s Day 2016, he got his donor liver and underwent surgery.

He made a quick recovery: Six months later, he and his wife sat on a beach in Hawaii.

“Not too many days go by where I don’t do an assessment and appreciate things,” he said.

Gorski now lives in Felida and owns a business called Ove-Nee Productions. The company takes 3D images and stitches them together to create virtual walkthroughs of buildings and rooms.

His fandom for Tesla has continued to grow.

The most recent event, for the Cybertruck, was a delight for Gorski because it was different from the last unveilings. But despite the truck’s design, which many call ugly, he’s still able to appreciate experiencing the company’s innovation, he said.

“Even getting the invitation, planning the trip, thinking about it — I appreciate the little things,” he said.

Gorski was one of about 200,000 fans who have put down a $100 fully refundable deposit on the Cybertruck. He compared the design to a pug dog, because it looks ugly at first but grows on you, he said. And the specifications of the truck really impress him.

The prices for the truck range from $40,000 to $70,000, and they are due for production in 2021.

Until the day his truck comes, Gorski still enjoys his Tesla sedan.

“I’m as enthusiastic today as I was in 2010 when I first started reading about it,” he said. “Even now when I just get in my car, I smile. How do I own one of these things? I shouldn’t even be here. I feel lucky.”

This article was updated to accurately state that Gorski ordered his first Tesla in 2011.