A classic car melds beautiful form with smart function, but also folds the driver’s experience into the total gestalt of the design. In other words, visual appeal means less if the driving experience isn’t equally classic. Top auto designers strive to make the feel of a car magical, like alchemists transmuting glass, rubber and steel into gold. With the perfect combination of elements, they produce a transcendent experience greater than the sum of its parts, and a classic is born.
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After owning several vintage Beetles, a ’68 Karmann Ghia, a ’67 Triumph GT6, and now a Porsche 914, I’ve gained a deep appreciation for the character and classic vibe of these vehicles. From the feel of the steering wheel, seats and floor pedals, to the look of the dash, and the smell of the upholstery, these cars formed themselves to my psyche and became part of me, like a favorite leather jacket. It’s hard to ignore the role gasoline engines play in this tableau. Certain engines are a wonder of design and are rightly regarded as objects of art. The vibration and note of the engine as it propels you down the highway is a significant part of the driving experience. Many enthusiasts regard it as the defining feature.
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I am attracted to classics because of their design and feel, not particularly because I’m in love with gas engines. Internal combustion engines are complex affairs, with literally hundreds of moving parts, and plenty of opportunities to fail. I’m willing to go out on a limb and say there are many others like myself who see the gasoline engine as a necessary evil – a toxic bundle of noise, odor, heat, grease, and temperament that is in dire need of an update. The electric motor is quiet, clean, simple, and maintenance free, with just one moving part – the spinning armature. The opportunity to eliminate the grease and radically simplify the means of propulsion draws me back to the classic auto once again, only this time reborn as an EV.
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Wouldn’t you like to own a classic with an updated, high tech and clean method of propulsion? But which of your favorite classic cars would you choose to electrify? The remainder of this post is my personal answer to that question. I didn’t include many American models, because it’s classic imports that really make me swoon. If you’ve met my wife, you understand my preference for small, stylish, smart and sporty.
As you peruse these vehicles, re-imagine them as cool, quiet, powerful and dependable electric beauties. Rather than spending the rest of their lives as showpiece relics from the petroleum dark ages, they can be given a new lease on life with an updated power plant and drive train, and shamelessly driven for the next 100 years. One day, when electric storage and propulsion is further advanced, today’s first round of manufactured electric cars will themselves become classics.
(** Note: All of the below images have been lovingly borrowed and sources have been properly cited as a link to each picture.)
1967 Triumph GT6 – I bought this model and year Triumph in Santa Ana in 1980 when I left the Marines. I drove it cross-country to Pennsylvania, and then back to Los Angeles 6 years later. It easily took the Grapevine at 80 mph in overdrive without breaking a sweat. My heart is throbbing just looking at it now. So shiny.
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1967 Austin Healy 3000 BJ-8 – I’ve always loved the shape of the front end and grill of this car. If you feel the same way, check out this Tears for Fears video. Another look at this car in action is in Jerry Seinfeld’s web series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. I’m guessing there’s lots of room for batteries under that hood.
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1972 BMW 3.0 CS Coupe – This body styling is really the taproot of all BMW design that followed – the boiled-down essence that only gets more vital with age. I originally considered the 2002 as my favorite vintage Beemer body style, but this trumps it. All it really needs now is an electric motor.
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1970 Opel GT – Not an obvious choice, but this is a cool body style, like a tiny little Corvette. Definitely an example of design that deserves to be celebrated and enjoyed. The EV Album has more than one example of an Opel GT that has been successfully converted to electric.
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1965 Volvo P1800 – Beautiful lines define this classic two-door sport coupe, which Roger Moore drove as Simon Templar in The Saint. How can you argue with good taste? This would be an awesome electric vehicle.
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1967 Datsun 2000 – During my cross-country journey in the Triumph GT6, a fellow U.S. veteran pulled his ride into the spot next to mine at a small motel. It was a Datsun 2000, in about the same condition as my Triumph. After chatting for a short while, we actually considered doing a straight title swap. I always wonder how different my life would be if we had followed through. This is a sweet ride. Imagine how much sweeter it would be as an electric.
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1958 MG A – Stunning. This is not generally seen as a top-shelf roadster, but there is something captivating about the slope of the front grill and hood, as well as the classic sexy curves of those rear fenders. It has only gotten better with age. Just imagine slipping silently along Mulholland on a bright Saturday morning, sun in your face, wind in your hair, and without the hydrocarbons.
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1974 Alpha Romeo GTV – I don’t know much about this beefy little coupe, except that it probably looks fabulous tearing up the Italian Riviera. I’ve always liked the looks of this model, and I think it would be an absolute blast to drive. Especially as a juiced-up EV.
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1964 Chevrolet Corvair – This was the only air-cooled rear-engine car produced in the US. My best friend’s father had one when I was in elementary school. Parked in the carport, we used to practice shifting with the clutch and gas pedals. I remember on the road, it felt just like a big rollerskate. Ralph Nader became a household name taking shots at the safety record of the Corvair in his book Unsafe at Any Speed, although it was subsequently exonerated by Texas A&M as no less safe than similar model cars of the time. This is the perfect color for this car, and the perfect car for a conversion.
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1966 Corvair Monza Corsa – Here is the later model that also deserves a second chance. Sportier and beefier than the earlier Corvair, this would have ample room in both the rear engine bay and front trunk for plenty of batteries. It has a nice, muscly look to it.
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1968 Triumph TR250 – This was also known in the UK and Europe as the TR5. It’s basically a TR4 with a racing stripe and a bump in the hood to accommodate the bigger straight 6-cylinder engine. I almost bought a TR4 as I was ending my tour in the Marines, but the dude sold it to somebody else, so I bought his GT6 instead. This is nearly the same car that Penny’s dad Ralph was going to convert, inspiring me to turn my Porsche 914 into an EV.
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1972 Triumph TR6 – The successor to the TR5, I lusted after this car while in junior high. It had a straight six engine and could do 0-60 in a bit over 8 seconds, with a top speed of 120 mph. As you can see, it has a very clean and purposeful body style, deserving every bit of lust it provoked. There are few other cars that carry this color so well, in my opinion. They are rare on the road these days, and it would be a pleasure to give one a new life as an EV.
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1969 Citroën DS – This unique French luxury sedan already looks like an electric car. Well-known for its innovative hydraulic suspension and transmission, 1.5 million of these were sold in a 20 year production run starting in 1955. It was also sold in the U.S., but never took off due to differing expectations in luxury cars. These are rarely seen anymore, except at auto shows.
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1967 Mercedes 230SL – Another German car company with a reputation for quality engineering and design. This is a good candidate because it has lots of room for batteries under the hood, originally packing a straight-six engine. It’s also relatively light for the first large roadster with a safety body, weighing in at approximately 2800 lbs. Understated and classy. It would be even more understated as an EV.
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1958 Jaguar XK150 – Mad gorgeous. It would be difficult tearing the guts from a car that is so beautifully restored, unless the engine has already given up the ghost. A quick search on EV Album turns up zero results for a Jaguar EV conversion, but a Google search returns a YouTube posting of a beautiful 1937 Jaguar conversion. Not sure I’d want to commit such sacrilege, but for a moment, imagine it as a quiet, clean, powerful, high-tech electric. Awesome, right?
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1958 Studebaker Golden Hawk – My uncle drove one of these up and down the east coast as a professional liquidator of department stores. When he visited, the Hawk would sit in the driveway, locked and idling. He would not turn the engine off because the battery was dead, and it would not start again without a jump. Every several hours, day or night, he would drive to a gas station to fill the tank. Gas was cheap back then. What a sweet ride if the battery was lithium.
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1967 Volvo 123 GT Amazon – The 120 series was well known as a robust and reliable family car, and was a serious competitor in races and rallies. I once saw a Volvo like this at the San Francisco Art Institute covered in spatter Zolatone from head-to-toe. I thought that was pretty cool. Electric… think about it.
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1967 VW Karmann Ghia – After flying home to Pennsylvania from Camp Butler in Japan, I bought a Karmann Ghia to drive cross-country to my last duty station – El Toro MCAS in Orange County, CA. I remember how she took 2 feet of fresh powder early one morning on the interstate in Amarillo like a motor boat, and never once lost footing. I listened to Jack DeJohnette and Patti Smith the whole way across, because those were the only two cassette tapes I had. It was the first time I had driven across the continent, and it was a great trip. It was a fun little car, but I wouldn’t own another unless it was electric.
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![Porsche 356 1948-1965 (1961-1963 356B Coupe 60) (01) [AA1]](https://914electric.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/porsche-356-1948-1965-1961-1963-356b-coupe-60-01-aa1-e1381721643658.jpg?w=450&h=251)
1963 Porsche 356B Coupe – Dr. Ferdinand Porsche originally started creating sports cars before being tapped by the German government to build a little company called Volkswagen. Once VW was self-sustaining, his efforts returned to his first love, finally resulting in the classic design you see here. Many iterations of this basic shape can be traced through the evolution of the Porsche line through the years. An electric motor would make it no less classic.
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1967 Porsche 911 – Of course, the highly esteemed archetype of sports cars, which nailed down a classic design and stuck with it through the years. This is the basic, sturdy, classic 911 that is a very good candidate for EV conversion.
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1971 Datsun 240Z – Funny how this car doesn’t look that old, but was actually built 3 years earlier than my Porsche 914. The reason could be that many of these basic design elements have been incorporated into today’s models, or that so many of these were sold and driven in the U.S. that we take this look for granted. Nonetheless, it has ample room under the hood for a new power plant, and I’m guessing replacement parts are easily gettable. It’s also roomy and is plenty of fun to drive.
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1967 Austin Mini Cooper – What a cool little car. It’s all about the fender flairs, racing lights and and custom rims – otherwise, the Mini looks very boxy and plain. This would be a blast as an EV, once the battery placement was puzzled out. My guess is the rear seat and trunk would be sacrificed.
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1958 Alpha Romeo Guilietta – Another beautiful car from Alpha, designed by Bertone. I stumbled on this looking for the Alpha GTV, and didn’t know it existed till then. It might be difficult finding parts, but it would be one gorgeous EV.
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1965 Sunbeam Tiger – This was originally the Sunbeam Alpine, but with a Ford V8 engine dropped in by Jensen, originally proposed by Carroll Shelby. Apparently, the V8 had to be shoe-horned into the engine compartment, which means there would likely be enough room for a traction pack and electric motor. Just sayin.’
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1957 Porsche 356 Speedster – Before y’all get up in arms about desecrating the Holy Speedster, be advised that this is a Beck replica, and it’s already been converted to an EV by Jack Rickard of EVTV. This was one of a series of shots that was posted when the car was up for sale on eBay.
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SACRILEGE
As much as I believe in the inevitability of the EV revolution, below are a few cars I would not touch, simply because they are perfect as-is. I’m not sure I would be proud to disfigure them in any way, and I don’t know if electrifying them would really add any value. These cars are meant to burn explosive flammable liquids, and perhaps there will be a clean alternative for those who wish to drive them long after gasoline is outlawed.
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1962 Corvette – Remember the old TV show Route 66? Remember Nelson Riddle’s Theme from Route 66? It doesn’t get any cooler than this early model Corvette, which was literally a co-star of that show. This would actually be a bitchin’ electric vehicle, but my palms sweat just thinking about the cascade of hate email that might drown me.
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1967 Jaguar XKE – Gorgeous, classy, sleek, elegant… My stomach goes to knots just thinking about dismantling such an unrivaled masterpiece. The gas engine, chassis, body, and cockpit are a synthesis of perfect design, and changing out any of those elements can only equal something less than perfection. Yet, how crazy would this be as an EV? In my experience with the Porsche, most people are impressed to see a specimen in such good condition, but a bright light bulb always appears over their heads when they learn it’s electric. I never get tired of that “aha” moment, but would they feel the same about an XK-EV? Not sure I want to be known as the “Destroyer of Legends.”
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1967 Shelby Cobra – It’s ridiculous to even think about converting this car to electric. It was obviously designed around the massive gas engine, with barely a thought for the driver. The Cobra reeks of power, looking like it sucks the oil straight out of the ground and burns it raw as needed. Maybe ridiculous as an EV, but I’ll include this link to Carroll Shelby himself driving an electric Cobra. Enjoy.
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Since our encounter with the median on Coast Highway requiring AAA to flatbed us home, I noticed some strange drops in the pack’s state-of-charge, sometimes falling up to 10% in an instant. I called Orion to discuss the issue, and they requested some cell data logs. You generate them by driving around with a laptop running the Orion utility, connected to the BMS via the USB port, and waiting for the suspicious event to happen. A glut of data is captured for each cell on a second-by-second basis, including cell voltages and internal resistance, shown in the columns above. Notice Cell 21 registers over 5.3 milliohms internal resistance, which is at least 5 times that of a healthy CALB lithium cell. The usual is just under 1 milliohm. Orion suggested either Cell 21 was damaged, or the cable connection to that cell was presenting a high resistance.
My gut ruled out bad cabling, so I immediately went on the prowl for a replacement for the ailing Cell 21. The CALB SE180AH is among the first generation workhorse prismatic LiFePO4 cells that many EV conversions are based on. CALB has since produced a second generation grey lithium cell, but I wasn’t for mixing them with my first generation pack, so I began my search for an original blue cell. CALB’s US warehouse in Pomona did not have any remaining old stock, and the next shipment by sea from China wasn’t due for 3 months. It wasn’t happening, so I reached out to several EV parts dealers hoping that somebody would have a spare, and finally located a few at EVTV. Because they were so hard to locate, and were in good used condition, I bought all three for good measure. Three birds in hand…
Once a chunk of time became available, I set about extracting Cell 21 for replacement. The first step is to disengage the battery pack before touching any tools to EV components. My emergency disconnect is a Curtis-Albright high current snapper switch, which is mounted on the center console inside the cabin. Its one job is to break the series battery circuit, dropping the pack voltage to zero. I call it “punching the clown nose.”
The next step is to disconnect all of the cell taps and other connections to the Orion BMS. This prevents accidental short circuiting of partial pack current through the BMS, which would certainly end its life on this planet.
Following that, we separate the small green Anderson connector, isolating the auxiliary battery from the vehicle’s electrical system. Again, this ensures that there isn’t an accidental and unanticipated short that could torch any number of sensitive EV components.
Next step is pulling the large connectors from both input and output of the DC-DC converter, which is the gray box shown above. Then all red cell tap wires and high current cables are disconnected from the cell block that’s being extracted.
The vertical poly straps that secured the module to the battery rack were clipped, and voila! Fifty pounds of plastic, copper, and lithium lifted straight out of its resting spot in the former fuel bay. Lastly, the horizontal poly strapping was snipped, and the cells separated.
Along the way, I decided that Cells 23 and 24 were also exhibiting internal resistances slightly higher than the rest of the pack. It was an obvious advantage to also replace them while they were accessible. Above are the “new” cells configured, numbered, strapped together, and ready to drop into the battery rack. The strapping tool above takes a few attempts to master, but ends up being the simplest, thriftiest, and dependable solution to mount these heavy cells firmly in their racks.
While things were apart, I also noticed the rubber standoffs for the DC-DC converter were a bit too soft for the job, and caused it to sag more than I liked. So I bought a few larger standoffs from McMaster-Carr, and replaced them while access was easy. In the shot above, I’m holding one of the older, skinny rubber mounts, with the new, thicker mounts already in place.
Here is the DC-DC converter reinstalled, and the new lithium cells strapped into the battery rack. Operating the strapping tool in such a confined space was a challenge, but the poly staps became intensely tight just one ratchet click at a time.
Before reconnecting the cells, the battery terminals and strap ends are brightened with a bit of sandpaper, and then schmeared lightly with Noalox to prevent corrosion and promote maximum conductivity at the joint.
Here are the cells reconnected, complete with braided bus straps, cables, and cell taps. All remaining connections are made in reverse order – the DC-DC converter is plugged back in, the auxiliary battery is put back online, all connectors are restored to the BMS, and the clown nose is given a good yank. Several seconds pass without a trace of magic blue smoke, which is very good.
Driving about and capturing more cell data shows Cell 21’s resistance falling within acceptable range. It’s still slightly high, probably due to the 3 foot of 2/0 cable that connects to Cell 20, rather than the usual short braided straps. According to the gents at Ewert Energy, this is not unusual, and they discouraged me from losing sleep over a slightly elevated reading.
I didn’t lose sleep, but I did have dreams about eliminating that last milliohm from Cell 21’s resistance. I didn’t think the cable was bad, but the culprit could easily be a bad connection at the terminal lug on the cable. What you see above is a gift to myself – a 16 ton hydraulic crimping tool, purchased online for about 50 bills. It really is the best solution, compared to the barbaric swedge tool that I had used for all the original cable crimps. It also includes 10 sets of different size crimp bits to accommodate various cable and terminal dimensions.
Luckily, there was enough extra length on the front pack cables to allow for new terminal lugs without needing to re-cable everything. After disconnecting all traction pack cables, plugs, and leads, I cut the terminal lugs from all four of the cell connections on the front pack modules.
This is a perfect hexagonal crimp on a 2/0 AWG cable terminal. The idea is to put so much pressure on the cable inside the lug, that the copper strands are caught in a “cold weld,” fusing them together into a single lump of copper. I apologize for not including a picture of the process, as it required both hands.
Finally, we see most of the cells in the pack (in red), being discharged to bring their voltage down to the same level as Cell 23 and 24 (row 3 – column 3 and 4, in white). This is called top-balancing, where the goal is to match the voltage of all cells at their maximum state-of-charge. The EV field is divisive on this issue of top vs. bottom balancing. The arguments for bottom-balancing are very compelling, but this system was built to top-balance, and that is how it will continue to operate. Perhaps I will give the alternative a shot in the near future. In the meantime, I have already recovered about 5 miles in range, and continue to gain as the pack gradually comes into balance over repeated charge/discharge cycles.
ElectroClassic EV 