Your car, your rules. Not for me the sneering at a lowered Volkswagen Golf GTI that scrapes fibreglass along every speed hump it meets, nor any tutting at a Ford Granada turned banger racer. And ultimately I will turn a blind eye to those who put 6.0-litre AMG V8s in genuine Mercedes 300 SL Gullwings. There were a dozen, I think. One was painted in camouf lage.
So, I’m not a purist, then. I own a 1973 Volkswagen Beetle with ‘Baja’ springs and terrible fibreglass; and a Honda 125 commuter motorbike that’s slowly becoming a Scrambler. I’m very much of the ‘your car, do what you like’ mindset.
And so to Everrati, which has turned the 964-generation Porsche 911 into an EV. It’s a restomod, electrified. An electromod? Whatever. I’ve no problem with this, either, even though the charismatic flat six has been dispatched for Tesla motors that, according to our Mike Duff, served as “a reminder of how much of the 964’s appeal is due to the engine”.
I’m also fine with what’s next on Everrati’s to-do list: the Ford GT40. Not the original but a recreation by Superformance, which makes splendid continuation cars. I drove one once, and it was just as heady as the real thing.
The experience was dominated not by the straight-line speed that would mark out an EV but by the tone, response and, ultimately, volume of a V8 that sounded like it would gladly eat me.
There’s more like this. Electric Classic Cars is going to install Tesla gear into the Ferrari Testarossa – a car whose flat-12 engine is basically the point of its existence. Ferrari literally named it after its engine.
But again, this is fine. Some classics would suit being EVs better than others, and I’m not sure these ones really do (I could totally get the vibe of an electric Land Rover), but I’m not a hypocrite, so carry on.
I’m not convinced, though, that this is, as claimed, futureproofing classics. It’s not. It might be a way to drive into cities without paying a surcharge, but if classics were large on legislators’ radars, it wouldn’t cost me nothing to tax a Beetle that also needs no MOT test certificate. Classics are a pretty benign hobby.
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@Speedraser: 11% of all rare earth materials extracted are used in the process of refining oil. Catalytic converters in petrol and diesel engined cars make extensive use of rare earth materials such as palladium, rhodium and platinum. Crude oil refining requires the rare earth material Lanthanum. There are huge reserves of lithium in Chile and Australia, it is not a rare earth material. Plus lithium and cobalt can of course be recycled, unlike oil. Future battery technology will eliminate the use of materials such as cobalt. I presume as you're so worried about the use of rare earth materials that you're going to give away your mobile phone and laptop?
If the e-motor isn't new, then it's not additional bad-for-the-environment production. However, many of these do use new battery packs -- awful for the environment. And those batteries will need replacement. Let's not forget -- the overwhelming majority of rare-earth minerals needed to produce EVs comes from China -- the WORLD'S BIGGEST POLLUTER BY FAR. Mining those minerals and producing batteries and motors in China, with utilities predominantly powered by COAL - is most certainly NOT helping the environmnet. Especially when, as noted, the classic car has already been manufactured and covers a low annual mileage. This is absurd.
This is a stupid thing to do to a car, for all the reasons outlined. But it is expensive, so at least that limits the number of stupid people doing it