On this episode we talk about the professionals and cons of changing iconic basic vehicles to electrical. We speak about why folks convert them to …
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EV will never give the vesceral feel of the engines sweet sound and running it through the gears – you take the soul out of classics when you butcher them into a toaster. MANY (real) lovers will agree – the car was born with an ENGINE not MOTOR. If you want an electric car build the damn thing but dont butcher cars that are getting rarer and rarer every damn day.
depends, if you pack up and properly store the original, or it didn't have it in the first place then it should be. it would last allot longer and could still claim allot lower mileage.
Have you converted a Triumph TR7? One of my favorites in the day!
Why not get your dog stuffed instead? , but then you wouldn't call it a pet, wouldya?
It's a sin, you never ever never do that to an E Type. full stop … to other cars maybe, if it wasn't that expensive. I was tempted to do it to a vintage Mini Clubman, but gave up the idea, because it just doesn't make sense, … given the fact that there are small, modern EVs which had been more or less properly engineered for electric drive in the first place and costing less than a conversion.
long range EVs as such don't make sense, because pollution and exploitation of resources are just relocated and do not really enter the eco equation.
EV's a good business idea, almost fanatically promoted by the erroneous CO2 perception. CO2 is not a pollutant, despite the mantra continuously trying to tell us otherwise.
respect nature, preserve wildlife, don't pickle the squirrel.
IS not a Sin. first of all the owner can do whatever he want to its own car, besides that talking about pluses of EV in certain classics, for example small two stroke engines are much more poisonous, and harder to use daily, many other engines the more old they become is harder and expensive to keep it running. Even is better to have rarity engines in "display" mode than running in a vehicle. I'm thinking in things like the Isetta the Messerschmitt KR 200, DKW autounion, ETC. My grandfather had a Borgward. Isabella I was looking a abandoned one to restore, but the engine was missing, EV conversion can bring back to life those cars also.
What a great job you do, by making people aware of environmental issues. But, there is still a lot to do to clean electricity supply. At minute 14:45 you picked a particularly good day for CO2 intensity, which in 2022 was on average at 229 g/kWh
yes
Iconic, classic? Yes. Beautyful ? Not at all…..
I have a Mazda MX-30 and a south facing 6kWh Solar array, most of the electricity I drive on comes from my own sun. Yes I'm dreaming of an Electric E-Type… Though I realistically I'm probably looking at a mk1 MX-5 electric conversion 🙂
I think people confuse the “soul” of the car with the “character” of the car. I’d say (almost) all cars derive some of their character from the engine, and some more than others. I’m thinking of 60’s/70’s muscle cars that were built with big, rumbling engines as the main feature of the car. You certainly can put a big electric motor in there, and maybe improve the performance, but the character of the car will be changed completely. A Beetle or Fiat 500 or the other hand was built as cheap and easy transportation. Sure the putt putt putt of the little engine adds some charm to it, but more power, reliability, and cleanliness won’t change the cute curvy lines or diminutive size. I’m working on rebuilding. 1957 Jeep CJ5 with the goal of doing an EV conversion, and have been catching flak from the comments section about it, so I’ve been thinking about what defines the character of the Jeep. The seven slot grill and round headlights, 4wd with solid axles and leaf spring suspension, the iconic squarish body style…and that’s about it. Throw any engine you want in there and it’s still a Jeep, so why not electric?
I have to say that converting an XKE or a Lamborghini Miura to electric is akin to taking the guts out of a Patel Philippe and retrofitting it with the innards of a Casio – the latter keeps much better time but lacks the heart, soul and feel of the original. If I’m going electric will keep drive the Tesla with all the bells and whistles.
thanks that someone finally mention it that 50% of the cars (I say in Europe 95%) sound like lawnmovers with voicecracks.. Including all that Supras, BMW's and what you have….sounds all shitty.
if someone says E-cars don't have a soul because they don't have a sound let them listen to a twin Hyper9 setup and they wil become believers
I'm not all for it
The one fact you can't get away from is that for many classics, a large part of the appeal is the engine, be it big American V8 or thoroughbred Italian V12. The sound, the smell, the vibes make them almost a living entity. I had to laugh when you compared electrifying a classic with fitting a V8 into the AC Ace to give us the Cobra! Really?😂😂😂OK, as regards main stream motoring there are benefits and there are drawbacks. The big no-no for me is range and the "range anxiety" as it's been called. I need a car that will tow a 1.5 ton caravan, 2 people and luggage to Scotland on one charge and recharge in 10-15mins at an easy to find roadside charge point. At the moment, my 25yr old diesel 4×4 does that with ease and that's why I can't get excited about coughing up £20/30/40/50k for a vehicle that can't do what I want it to. As a cheap (or not so cheap!😂), "nip into town" runabout maybe but for realistic long haul motoring, an electric answer is still years away.
In my opinion soul refers to the heritage.
As a classic car driver you do the upmost to keep the car as original as possible. Of course the car has old technology. You can not compare a smart watch with an expansive Swiss mechanical watch either. We all know the smart watch or EV beats the mechanical watch or the combustion engine on running cost and reliability. But there is also something called heritage and history, which you as a lover for a oldtimer try to preserve.
However I wouldn't mind to convert cars of which thousands were made, ( hence no special track record,) but some also convert cars of which literally a hand full were (custom) made (Bentley, RR, AM) and to me that's a shame
Richard..I've been riding motorcycles for 46yrs and after converting my 1980 honda goldwing to fully electric..I enjoy the country rides more now than ever before…I can even hear the birds in the trees sometimes .I love it..and thank your team for their help with parts and advice..Trev
I'm from South Africa. Here we have load shedding every day, some days for 4 hours. We then have 4 hours on and then 2 hours off then another 4 hours off. With a electric car here I will be walking more then driving
O yes we have coal that makes our electricity and that gets stolen aswell so here we have to look at bicycles for diesel is R27/L
I understand the argument about the engine being the "beating heart" of a vehicle but… I also get the argument for conversion
I have to admit I don't have an experience on any EVs but let me think about this.
Combustion engines… they make noises. Remember their tone, raspiness, pitch, and how they "sing" up and down through the rev range. And though many of them lack the talent to sing, some of them do have a powerful voice of a diva, and some of them instead howl like a beast. Remember that the fact that they literally breathe, drink, and has "blood" flowing inside them. We can feel them carrying a load as they run, their clunkiness before they give up, or their scream before they die out of overwork. Some of them begs to sprint while others call for a peace. They need attention, maintenance, or otherwise they'd get sick. If you put them to sleep for too long it'll be hard to wake them back up. All of that and, as an enthusiast, you like to feel their presence through the touch of your senses, both when they accompany your journey and when you are taking care of them at their homes.
Those imperfections don't exactly make them actual organisms, but they do nevertheless mimic being one pretty well. Honestly, now that I mention those things, they remind me of something else… as ridiculous as this sounds, they remind me of a pet — they are a hassle to take care of, they might sh*t on your floor, they cost you a lot of money, and best of all they are practically useless. But people adopt them because they look cute, act cute, and sound cute… and that makes people happy. And for many, they might not even mind the annoyance of taking care of their pets because they have just fallen in love with them. When you see something as your baby you might feel protective more than you are annoyed.
Now, EVs are not exactly absent of those traits, but let's be honest they make much less drama. And they feel more alien to us because of that reason — they are perfect. They mimic a machine better than they mimic a living being — much more industrious but also much harder to befriend.
And everyone knows that they just can't have the same effect by artificial means (the fake noise through the speakers, for example) because everyone wants to believe that they are sensing the real thing. I don't know what it is yet, exactly, but there is something about believing in reality that somehow just gives you meaning — to live in a fake reality, it seems like, is an existential threat that has a direct effect on how we are feeling. I mean, how would I feel if I discover that my dog is perfect only because it has been specifically engineered to suit me?
TLDR: A "soul" — the way I see it — is a measure of how much something mimics an organism. Combustion engines are more "soulful" than electric motors because they mimic being an organism better, both in the way they run and the way they live.
NAME 1 COMPANY actually recycling lithium batteries just 1 ??? You can't because it can't be done at the moment
I would love to get an old classic, but would never consider it over reliability. Twiddling with carbs, replacing old rubber fuel lines, the list is endless. If I could afford an electric classic someday, totally would
I have a '66 Mustang 2+2 that I'm going to convert to a Tesla 3 rear power unit and suspension. Batteries will be self contained lifpo4 units spread around the car. Looking at probably 125 miles real world range but no storage.