Photo: Steve Berry
We can’t neglect the advantages of electric vehicles and the fact we need to stop burning that much dinosaur fat for the sake of our planet, but does this grant us the reason to convert classic American muscle cars into soulless buzzing machines?
The trend started with the White Zombie project, when John “Plasmaboy” Wayland converted a 1972 Datsun 1200 coupe into a DC electric drag car by using two 9-inch motors fed by a pack of lithium-ion batteries good for 355 V. The little silent beast had success, managing to score a best of [email protected] mph on the quarter mile, while reaching nought to 60 in just 1.8 seconds.
Following his success, John recently joined forces with Mitch Medford, a muscle car enthusiast and tech CEO from Texas, to take the EV passion to another level. As Hemmings Daily reports on the whole story, the two guys now plan to make a niche market for electric “muscle” cars, and their first project is a 1968 Ford Mustang fastback.
The guys said they want to make the Mustang look like it just came out of the assembly lane, but instead of a rumbling 289 cubic inches, they’ll fit dual 11-inch electric motors under the hood along with a Gear Vendors overdrive unit and a 40 kWh Koham battery pack good for around 120 miles (193 km/h).
The setup will provide the equivalent of 750 hp and 1,800 lb-ft (2,440 Nm) of torque. Yes it sounds pretty damn crazy and John hopes the car will reach 60 mph (96 km/h) in just 3 seconds, despite the weight of the motors and battery pack.
If the “Electrostang” comes off nicely, the two enthusiasts want to turn it into a business and create conversion kits for different other muscle cars, like some sort of Carol Shelby of the non-gasoline era. But is it worthy to gut iconic cars off their charm and soul just to turn them into cyborgs?
We can’t argue with the performance such cars will get from using high-torque gearshift-less powertrains, but we do have something to pick with their worthiness.
As green as “electric muscle cars” might sound, you’ll find out there is no major environmental gain in this than simply enjoying an old-fashioned gasoline powered version. The US currently relies on coal and natural gas burning to create around 60 percent of the country’s electricity.
So, unless you have your own solar panel array/windmill generator in the back yard to fill up the car’s battery, you might as well save the money (the complete electric Mustang is said to go at well over $100,000) and get an oldschool ground-shaking big-block V8 original muscle car. It may have the same puny range, but boy, you’re gonna enjoy every single damn mile.
Following his success, John recently joined forces with Mitch Medford, a muscle car enthusiast and tech CEO from Texas, to take the EV passion to another level. As Hemmings Daily reports on the whole story, the two guys now plan to make a niche market for electric “muscle” cars, and their first project is a 1968 Ford Mustang fastback.
The guys said they want to make the Mustang look like it just came out of the assembly lane, but instead of a rumbling 289 cubic inches, they’ll fit dual 11-inch electric motors under the hood along with a Gear Vendors overdrive unit and a 40 kWh Koham battery pack good for around 120 miles (193 km/h).
The setup will provide the equivalent of 750 hp and 1,800 lb-ft (2,440 Nm) of torque. Yes it sounds pretty damn crazy and John hopes the car will reach 60 mph (96 km/h) in just 3 seconds, despite the weight of the motors and battery pack.
If the “Electrostang” comes off nicely, the two enthusiasts want to turn it into a business and create conversion kits for different other muscle cars, like some sort of Carol Shelby of the non-gasoline era. But is it worthy to gut iconic cars off their charm and soul just to turn them into cyborgs?
We can’t argue with the performance such cars will get from using high-torque gearshift-less powertrains, but we do have something to pick with their worthiness.
As green as “electric muscle cars” might sound, you’ll find out there is no major environmental gain in this than simply enjoying an old-fashioned gasoline powered version. The US currently relies on coal and natural gas burning to create around 60 percent of the country’s electricity.
So, unless you have your own solar panel array/windmill generator in the back yard to fill up the car’s battery, you might as well save the money (the complete electric Mustang is said to go at well over $100,000) and get an oldschool ground-shaking big-block V8 original muscle car. It may have the same puny range, but boy, you’re gonna enjoy every single damn mile.
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