The 86 is showing its age, having been presented in series-production form at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show. There’s even talk the next-gen model will be called GR 86 instead of GT 86, but until then, let’s talk about this Nissan Leaf-powered conversion from Philip Schuster.
Based in Ulm, the German enthusiast started out by swapping the 2.0-liter boxer engine with an electric motor capable of cranking out 140 kW. That’s 190 metric horsepower or 188 mechanical horsepower, complemented by 400 Nm or 295 pound-feet of torque. The battery may feature a capacity of only 24 kWh, but the packaging is more interesting than expected.
Philip has modified the spare wheel area under the trunk for 24 modules out of a total of 48. The remaining 24 modules are spread between three custom-made boxes in the fuel tank (12), under the e-motor (6), and next to the electric motor (6). “If I like the result of the project, I will invest in a 30-kWh battery out of a newer Leaf,” said Schuster on his YouTube channel.
The battery management system is an Orion BMS 2, the inverter comes from a Leaf and features a main board by Johannes Huebner, and the ECU has been replaced by an Arduino-based microcontroller. As for charging, the port hidden by the fuel filler door is capable of charging at a rate of 3 kW.
Every electric vehicle needs a DC-to-DC converter, and this project doesn't stray away from this rule of thumb. For his electrified sports car, Philip sourced one from an early Tesla Model S luxury sedan.
Last, but certainly not least, the car actually moves under its own power! Schuster came with the idea of converting the coupe with a boxer powerplant into an electric vehicle after “a severe engine failure,” and most of the Leaf components that went into the build were salvaged from crashed cars.
As per the fourth of four videos featured at the end of this article, the 86EV easily hits 215 km/h (134 mph) on the dyno while 100 km/h (62 mph) takes less than five seconds. Not bad for a garage-built project, that's for sure!
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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