Classic Cars Go Electric

Yes, that is a Jaguar XK120* from the early 1950s up there.  You may have been expecting an essay on modern electric cars that could turn out to be collector's items (the original Tesla Roadster from 2008-12 for example), but then our title would be "Electric Cars Go Classic." Here we're focusing on older cars that have been retrofitted with fully electric powertrains...

The Lunaz Group, headquarted in a research park near England's storied Silverstone race track, has engineered electric conversions for Jaguar's XK120, 140 and 150 series, an interesting choice because the swoopy curves of the body design never left much space for luggage, let alone battery packs, and the longish engine bay has a narrow bonnet for access.  On this XK120 fixed-head coupe, they fitted an 80 kWh battery pack, and twin electric motors offer the equivalent of 375 hp. The zero to 60 run comes up in 5 seconds, and Lunaz quotes a range of 250 miles.  Lunaz also quotes a price of $435,000...

Perhaps inspired by these privateer examples, Jaguar Land Rover Classic announced a Jaguar E-Type* Zero in autumn of 2017, and hinted that cars similar to these development prototypes might eventually be supplied to customers.  The blue car above is based on a Series 1.5 model from 1968, with electric power unit including battery filling the space and using the mounting points of the original gasoline engine. The idea was that the electric conversion could be easily reversed, as the car's chassis, suspension and brakes remain as in the original.  External clues of the conversion are limited to absence of exhausts, and fitting of LED headlights under the glass covers (which anyway weren't a feature of the Series 1.5 in US form). The car's instrument panel, however, was completely reconfigured to suit the digital age, and the original four-speed gearbox is traded for a simple choice of Forward or Reverse. Range on the blue car was about 170 miles at full load, with 0 to 100 kmh (62 mph) coming up in 5.5 seconds. Intriguingly, weight was about 100 lb. less than before conversion. Despite enthusiastic reviews from the press and from test consumers the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Jaguar suspended this project in late 2019. It's not clear whether there was an insufficient supply of Series 1 and 1.5 chassis, or whether updating the original design to meet applicable crash and safety standards so the Zero could be offered as a new car, rather than as a retrofitted old one, presented the biggest hurdle...

Meanwhile, Lunaz also has performed all-electric conversions on the original 70s Range Rover as well as the vast Rolls-Royce Phantom and more svelte Bentley Continental Flying Spur, both from the early Sixties. The Bentley with its close-coupled four-door Mulliner coachwork is particularly fetching.  Price?  If you have to ask...

Also in the UK, Richard Morgan's Electric Classic Cars offers electric conversions on a smaller scale, beginning with the Fiat 500 (a '65 model) shown below.  The 11 kWh battery pack combines with an electric motor 47 hp and 70 ft.-lb. of torque, and the little car has a range of 50 to 75 miles "depending on driving style and conditions", not all that much less than that of the larger, new-style 500e offered until last year by Fiat Chrysler in the United States.  ECC upgrades the brakes to discs, and their electric heater may improve on the one in the original air-cooled two-cylinder...

Electric Classic Cars has also applied its talents to a 1979 Porsche 911 SC Targa that arrived at its workshop in needy condition. The car uses a 54kWh battery mounted at the front, with two electric motors at the rear.  Zero to 60 takes under 6 seconds, and range is around 200 miles. Because there's more weight on the front wheels than in the original car, ECC has installed speed-sensitive power steering.  Unusual for an electric, the ECC 911 keeps its 5-speed gearbox, though as with all electrics, there's so much instantly-available torque that use of the gears is optional.  Modern touches include the LED headlights, while retro ones include bright metal trim around those lights, and 1960s style bright metal door mirrors.  Also, in place of the 911SC badge, there's a 911E badge on the engine lid...

         

Meanwhile, in Southern California, Zelectric has converted a couple of 1968 Porsche 912 coupes to electric power.  This green one uses a Tesla Model S P85 motor.  Weight is only 2,505 pounds. Zelectric quotes range at 120 to 145 miles, "depending upon speed."  And apparently speed is available, because Jay Leno pronounced the Zelectric 912 the most enjoyable electric car he'd driven.  The vented plexiglass rear quarter windows may save a bit of weight and add some style, like the wheels, which are Walker Outlaws.  Zelectric has also converted Type 1 VW Beetles, as well as a Microbus.  Starting with your donor car, Zelectric conversions on 912, 911 and 914 Porsches start at around $88,000.

Because its original mid-engined configuration with large storage below front and rear decks makes for generous battery storage areas, and because its somewhat un-Porsche-like rectangular styling resulted in modest resale value until recently, Porsche's 914* has turned out to be a popular chassis for electric conversions.  Massachusetts Institute of Technology was possibly the pioneer in electric 914 rest-mods, engineering this fully-electric conversion on  a 1974 chassis donated by a professor in 2006, two years before Tesla introduced its Roadster model.  Many 914 conversions have been completed by others since then, and I encountered one of these in Colorado a couple years ago.

Another approach to electric retrofits would be to seek out a car with a well-established, terrible reputation for engine reliability. There would, after all, be fewer twinges of guilt or nostalgia in taking a really bad engine to the metal recycler. Chevrolet's Vega, introduced for the 1971 model year, never recovered from troubles with its OHC four which pioneered (prematurely as it turned out) etched silicon-hardened cylinder bores in its aluminum block, and combined that block with a cast iron head. Troubles included valve guide failures, high oil consumption, overheating, and engine fires. There was a twin-cam Cosworth version, and it has been mostly forgotten along with the base car, as all suffered from early rust problems too. Still, the guaranteed low resale value would mean low initial cost for your starter chassis, and there was a Kammback wagon model which would leave plenty of storage space once you installed the battery pack and motor or motors.  At least one electric Vega has been completed.

Perhaps GM should've realized that cars named "Vega" might suffer from mechanical ennui. Just over a decade earlier, Jean Daninos, chief of the Facel Vega marque, had forsaken the Chrysler V8s in its large GTs for a 1.6 liter DOHC inline four in his new Facellia, a sort of French anti-Alfa. The new power plant, engineered and built by Pont-a-Mousson, which also built Facel's manual transmissions, soon established a record for mechanical suicide, with holes in pistons, inadequate cam bearings, and overheating problems, eventually leading to the company's bankruptcy in 1964. By 1963, Facel Vega had given up on the Post-a-Mousson four and replaced it with the Volvo B18 on its new Facellias.  You could replace it with an electric power unit, though, if you found a rusty Facellia project car in need of rejuvenation. This approach would, like those Chevy Vegas reconfigured with battery packs and electric motors, be an optimistic response to those who believe that whatever trouble starts in Vegas stays in Vegas...

*Footnote:  We posted a brief history of Jaguar's groundbreaking XK120 in "Game Changer: Jaguar X120" on July 16, 2017, and reviewed the E-Type's early evolution in "Racing Improves the Breed", posted Aug. 13, 2017.  Divergent designs for the Porsche 914 received attention in "Porsche 914:  Alternative Visions", posted March 13, 2016.

Photo Credits:
Top & 2 from top:  Lunaz Group 

3rd:  pinterest.com

4th:  Jaguar Land Rover

5th:  Lunaz Group

6th & 7th:  Electric Classic Cars (electricclassiccars.co.uk)

8th:  zelectricmotors.com

9th & 10th:  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

11th:  Chevrolet Division of General Motors

12th:  Wikimedia

Classics and Coffee in Downtown Boulder:

We showed up for our second Classics & Coffee on Sunday, July 25. The event attracted roughly twice as many cars as the June event (we'd missed the May show), but the supply of coffee may have been tighter because of the long line that soon formed outside of Spruce Confections, perhaps drawn by the jazz outfit that took over the Confections courtyard.  Even though the show is focused on European classics, the idea of "classic" gets stretched to include modern cars like that metallic yellow BMW M4 and modified ones like its ancestor E24 coupe in the foreground…

…as welll as Detroit iron (well, fiberglass) like organizer Mike Burroughs' 1970 Corvette with the small block expanded to 383 cubic inches.  A lineal descendant of the SBC powers the new mid-engined Corvette parked down the line; more on that later. 

The lineup included a 991 Series Porsche GT3 in yellow, a more recent 911 in gray, a Ferrari 328 GTS, a late Series 1 E-Type Jaguar, a hot rod Dodge Aspen from the late Seventies, a first-series modified Camaro, and (not pictured) a Puch.  We covered Puchs awhile ago, but we haven't talked about Ferrari V8s.  The 328s are especially appealing...

Ferrari produced the 328 GTB and GTS from 1985-'89 as a refinement of the 308 series, with a transverse mid-mounted aluminum four-cam V8 and 5-speed gearbox behind this cockpit.  Note the gated shift lever, a Ferrari trademark. The 328 was known to be an especially reliable and user-friendly Ferrari, with many engine maintenance functions possible without dropping the power unit.  In that way it is utterly unlike modern mid-engined cars (insert your example here; they all have designed-in access problems).  The owner told me he's done a lot of work on the car himself; it has 70,000 miles on the clock...

Also shiny, black and Italian, this modern Abarth 124 Spider made the trip to Boulder from California when its owner moved here.  Chassis and suspension design on the new Fiat and Abarth 124, introduced in 2017, is shared with the Mazda Miata, while the engine is the Fiat MultiAir turbo inline 4.  

In stock form the 1.4 liter engine made 168 hp; this car has been modified to produce more.  These 124 Spiders, especially the Abarth versions, are fairly rare in the US, and fated to stay that way now that Fiat has dropped out of the American market…again.

The new mid-engined Corvette C8 created lots of interest, especially when the owner opened the engine lid.  Production of the new car, available in coupe and convertible form, began in February 2020, just before a pandemic distracted human civilization from cars…apparently temporarily. The chassis design features aluminum structure; this keeps weight under 3,400 lb.  The engine placement moves the cockpit forward about 16.5 inches compared with the C7. Like the first Corvette from 1953, which had a 2-speed Powerglide, this one's only available with an automatic, but it's a dual-clutch 8-speed.  Designer Tom Peters has said the transmission choice was made to fit within the structure, which relies on a central tunnel for stiffness.  The owner, however, told me he thinks that tunnel is sized to fit batteries which may be slated to appear in C8 Version 2.0...

The C8 features a small luggage bin behind the engine, and another one ahead of the cabin. Oddly, the displacement of the 495 hp Chevy LT2, at 6.2 liters, is almost the same as the hot-rodder's favorite, the bored and stroked 383 small block sitting in the 1970 Corvette nearby.  In the modern mode, though, engine access is tight, and the attentions of amateur mechanics are deflected by lots of shiny plastic and carbon fiber... 

Engine access was never a problem on the E-Type Jaguar.  This 4.2 liter Series 1 example from 1967 was designed in a period when easy access to the mechanicals was a selling point for weekend racers as well as DIY mechanics.  And the car's biggest target market, Southern California, had plenty of both kinds of buyers. The Series 1 was the first production sports car with 4-wheel disc brakes (inboard at the rear) and 4-wheel independent suspension.  The first E-Type appeared in April 1961, and the twin-cam, aluminum-head inline XK six was replaced in the Series 3 by an aluminum, SOHC V12 exactly ten years later.

Like the Ferrari 328, the body on this Series 4 Alfa Romeo Spider was designed by Pininfarina. It's descended from the Series 1 Duetto on the Giulia chassis which appeared in 1966. The Series 4 went into production in 1990 with 1.6 liter and 2.0 liter versions of the legendary Alfa aluminum twin cam; the US just got the 2.0 liter.  On-board engine diagnostics and Bosch Motronic fuel injectiion were added to familiar Alfa features like 4-wheel disc brakes and a 5-speed gearbox, and an automatic option was added.  The redesigned nose, tail and interior boosted sales, and this essentially 1966 design stayed in production through 1993, with a couple hundred "CE" cars produced for the US and sold as 1994 models.  That's almost as long a production run as the original Porsche 911...

Despite its resemblance to previous models in the 911 Series, the 964 version Porsche introduced in 1989 was claimed by that company to be over 80% new in terms of mechanical content.  The 964 was the first 911 available with all-wheel drive and also the first available with the Tiptronic gearbox. Suspension design was changed as well, with coils replacing torsion bars.  Production gave way to the even smoother-looking 993 version after 1993.  This car, though, is a rare Ruf conversion with special wheels and other mods...

The BMW 2002, launched in 1968, put the struggling manufacturer on the map in the US car market, where it was mostly known for motorcycles. In '71 the 2002tii (Touring International Injection) appeared; 130 hp doesn't sound like much today but it made the 2,300 lb. car a bit of a hot rod.  This recently-restored example came from Montana; the owner noted that only about 10% of the sedans had this car's sunroof option.  Production ended after 1975, and a  Touring hatchback version was offered through 1974, which was also the year the sedans got clunky 5 mph US bumpers and rectangular tail lights...

Perhaps to provide a color-coordinated comparison, an industrial designer brought this modern BMW M4*, an F82 (there's also an F83 convertible). In the tradition of previous BMW coupes, it has an inline six, 3.0 liters like my old '73 CS.  The twin-turbo M4, however, makes over 440 hp. It would make an interesting track-day comparison with the adjacent Porsche and that C8 Corvette. To compete with the noise of all these engines, we recommend that organizers move the jazz from the Spruce courtyard into the garage space at Vanatta Auto Electric.  Then it may be possible to actually hear the music, and get closer to a coffee at Spruce Confections.  The next Classics & Coffee is August 29, from 8 to 10 AM at 8th & Pearl.

*Footnote:  The June edition of Boulder Classics & Coffee was pictured in our post for 7/16/21, along with a session of the Lafayette Cars & Coffee from the pre-pandemic era. "Cars and Coffee in New Canaan" showed up on 10/28/19, and we tried to shed some light on the cultural forebears of the Cars and Coffee movement in "Lost Roadside Attraction:  Before Cars & Coffee There Was Zumbach's", posted 4/11/18.  On the BMW M4, we reviewed the controversial 2021 redesign of the M4 in our post for 6/20/21, entitled "Worst Car Designs Revisited."  

Photo Credits:
All photos are by the author.

Classic Cars & Coffee in Boulder, Colorado (City and County)

Despite the presence of the Shelby American Collection*, Boulder, Colorado has always felt a lot more like a hangout for mountain bikers than for classic car geeks.  Which isn't to say there aren't people here who know their way around cars. Vanatta Auto Electric, at 1981 Pearl Street in downtown Boulder, is a reminder of the Boulder that existed before the internet and designer coffee, when the downtown featured a machine shop (though it was one that did work for NASA) and even a hardware store.  When I found out that the FuelFed people were having a Coffee & Classics event for old European cars in front of Vanatta, just south of Pearl Street on 8th, I decided to bring my old Jag, thinking that England was sort of European, at least until Brexit.  Maybe because of Brexit, though, we got parked near that shady tree beyond the Ford van.  More on the Jag in some future post...

There had to be a Ferrari, and in this case it was a modern California retractable hardtop.  The California body design was created by Pininfarina, like that of its late Fifties / early Sixties namesake.  Unlike those earlier ragtop spiders, though, the modern California was the first front-engined Ferrari road car to be powered by a V8.  Also unlike their approach on the earlier V12-powered Californias, PF spent hundreds of hours studying air flow patterns in the wind tunnel...

The early, short wheelbase, chrome-bumper Porsche 912 had tasty "S" wheels.   Next to it, though, was a swoon-worthy Alfa 2000 GTV…

If I'd had to drive home in something other than the car I'd brought, this would've been the one.  A good example of a great car, and a timeless design. And one with no microchips anywhere...

The June 27 event, the second Coffee & Classics in downtown Boulder, had a high visitor to vehicle ratio.  Happily, there were no concours judges in evidence anywhere, and anything with a European connection was accepted, included the Seventies VW Thing, a Karmann Ghia, an AMG Mercedes, my '67 E-Type, the immaculate GTV, and a '67 (I think) Porsche 912.  We're hoping for more cars at the next Coffee & Classics, which will be on Sunday July 25, from 8 to 10 AM at 8th and Pearl in downtown Boulder.  If it's like most Sunday mornings, there will be live jazz at Spruce Confections, which conveniently also offers coffee, at 767 Pearl Street.  I'll bring a '67 Jaguar E-type FHC, or a 1970 Lancia 2000 PF coupe, whichever is happiest with me that morning, or both, if we can convince an extra driver to come along...

It's a good thing the Boulder event organizers chose the last Sunday morning of spring and summer months, because that way their event will never be in conflict with the other Cars and Coffee event, at the eastern end of Boulder County in Lafayette, which happens the first Saturday of designated warm months.  This one has been going on for a few years, and casts a wider net, including domestic, Japanese and European makes.  I showed up on a warm spring day 3 years ago.  Maybe because the event organizers were shooting for a theme of "cars in outdated colors", or trying to contrast scruffy condition with textbook restorations, they had me park my '67 Jag next to this flawless Alfa Giulietta Sprint from a decade earlier...

Or maybe they were just trying to show the evolution of fastback GT coupes.  Franco Scaglione's design for the Bertone-bodied Alfa Giulietta Sprint was the first example of a modern GT car at an affordable price when it appeared in 1954.  We can underline the "modern" part by pointing out that the Alfa's high-revving, DOHC inline four with aluminum block and head was not something that had appeared in a mass-produced car until this moment.

Along with the eagerness of the 1.3 liter engine, which made over 90 hp in Veloce form, the Sprint's rigid, lightweight chassis design and quick steering made for alert, responsive handling.

Pre-Fiat Lancias of any description appear less frequently than Alfas at Cars & Coffee; this Fulvia coupe appeared at the same show in Lafayette and appeared to be in fine shape, displaying the crisp, glassy form of Piero Castagnero's original mid-Sixties design, though without the bumpers he'd intended...

The "2.5" insignia on the grille, however, hinted at a possible surprise under the hood.  Fulvias, built from 1963 through '76, were never offered with engines larger than 1.6 liters.  Because Lancia was a company run by its engineering department, the narrow-angle V4 was offered in six different displacements, and with 3 slightly different angles between cylinders, during that period.  Might someone have put a Gamma flat-four from the Fiat era in there?  Would that even fit?

Well, the owner-builder didn't try that, or even something like an earlier Flavia flat four, maybe because he was unaware that before the Fiat takeover, Lancia had made anything other than engines with "V" configurations.  He did an impressive amount of work, however, in making a tidy installation of the 2.5 liter Subaru flat four that went into his Fulvia.  One wonders if it would'nt have been a lot less work just to rebuild the original Fulvia V4.  But that might have violated the hot rod spirit that seemed to be in evidence at Lafayette Cars & Coffee...

This modified original BMC (as opposed to modern BMW) Mini Cooper took a different approach to "hot rod" than the sleeper Fulvia. With its chopped top, flared fenders and green Union Jack pattern on the roof, it screamed "SoCal custom car".   Because the bonnet stayed closed, we never found out what powers this little creature...

In a slightly bigger size category, but in the same hot rod spirit, we found a Ford Shogun, based on the now-forgotten Ford Festiva of the late Eighties...

Back then, an outfit called Special Editions (C. Beck and R. Titus) had the idea of mounting the Yamaha-built 4-cam, 24-valve Taurus SHO V6 in the back seat area of the Ford Festiva, transforming a humble front-drive econobox into a mid-engined, rear drive tire-shredder capable of running the quarter mile in 12.9 seconds at just under 101 mph.  Only seven were built, each in a different color, with 003, the silver one, going to Jay Leno.  This is apparently 005, the purple Shogun equipped with a roll cage and 5-point belts for SCCA duty...

Apparently one reason the Shogun found so few buyers was its $42,000 price tag in 1989.  This was, however, about $10k less than a base Porsche 911 that year.  Perhaps the Special Editions crew needed a better connection with Ford, the kind that Alpine had with Renault when they built the similarly crazy 5 Turbo rally car.  Or that kind that Shelby had with Ford, back when Shelby American built this Shelby Mustang GT500, their last take on the Mustang theme, from 1969-'70. Shelby made 1,536 of the GT500 fastback in 1969, but only 286 in 1970, their final year.  This example appeared across the lane from the Shogun. 

The next Lafayette Cars & Coffee will be at 355 W. South Boulder Road in Lafayette, Colorado (80026) on Saturday August 7, from 7 to 10 AM.

*Footnote:  For photo essays on the Shelby American Collection, see "Roadside Attraction—Shelby American Collection Part 1: AC and Cobra", posted here on 12/28/17, and "Roadside Attraction—Shelby American Part 2:  Ford GT40", posted on 12/31/17.  We featured "Cars and Coffee in New Canaan" on 10/28/19, and shed some light on the cultural forebears of the Cars and Coffee movement in "Lost Roadside Attraction:  Before Cars & Coffee There Was Zumbach's", posted 4/11/18. 

Errata:
Original text mis-identified the green Porsche as a 911; it's a 912 according to the owner, who oughta know. Should've blown up the rear view and put on those reading glasses.  Apologies.

Photo Credits:
All photos are by the author.