It certainly isn’t cheap, but some folks are opting to do this.
This may be new to the AP writer, but this has been around a while here in the US and in Europe.
VW Beetles make good conversions with a forklift motor, AC motor controller and Prius batteries. 96 volt controllers are available off the shelf. It doesn’t require much strengthening if you don’t try to stuff 500 hp into them.
EV drag racing has been around for over 15 years with custom high voltage, high current controllers.
Yup!
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I recall seeing electric conversions of Porsche 911s highlighted in a TV show a few years ago. It may have been on Chasing Classic Cars. I think it was this place, although they appear to be just selling conversion kits now.
If you pull the whole drive train out and replace it with electrics, is it still a classic car? Or is it just a novelty one off? Not a classic anymore in my book.
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So for less than $70,000 this guy has the ultimate ‘sleeper’. I approve.
The ultimate Retro-Mod,
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Hot Rod magazine has been running a series of articles on this topic. 57 Chevy.
Haven’t read HR since the mid seventies, but when 14 I subscribed and followed the first few years of Project X, BTW, it is a 210 not a Belair, the silver is paint, not an aluminum insert.
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A few years ago I saw a Porsche 911 with an EV conversion. I recognized the Curtis Sep-ex forklift controller undrr the rear deck. He had lead acid batteries for power. Likely a short range no-AC car but it was well done.
Motor trend network has run season 1 of vintage voltage, uk show of conversions done to classics,
Something else to add to my “When I win the Powerball” list. Convert a MGA or MGTD to EV.
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I saw an article a few months back about a shop doing EV conversions on Bugeye Sprites which left me wondering what you’d have to do to accomodate the heavy batteries in a very light car and where you’d put them?
Seems like by the time you strenghten the chassis and beef up the suspension and brakes all you’ve got left is the body shell and it will never handle like the original.
Reminds me of the FiberFab Beetle to MGTD body conversions but at least they were fairly cheap.
No need for me to wait for a Powerball windfall. I was informed by telephone message on my answering machine over the weekend that I am a grand-prize winner in the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes. All I have to do now is to call them back and tell them my bank account information so they can deduct the taxes, then they will deposit my winnings, $2.4 M, into my account …hmmm??? … publisher’s clearing house sweepstakes? I don’t recall hearing anything about that since the Tonight Show w/Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon ended in the early 90’s … hmmm … maybe I ought to think on this a bit before providing my bank account info … !!! lol …
Top gear had a triumph spitfire powered woth a bmw i3 battery in a test with amother host driving a Subaru Brat with tesla power, the triymph didnt handle all that well but both had better range than tthe Nissan Leaf wirh the full tuner bodykit and maybe 70mi usable range.
When I worked at a gas station in the 60s, one of our regulars was rebuilding the engine in his Bugeye, stopped by the station with the bare engine block, I could lift it, probably less than 50 pounds.
No, that’s not possible because I received an identical message from them a few weeks ago. Surely this couldn’t be a scam, because I already provided my banking and Social Security numbers to them. 
Would an anonymous source try to scam me in relation to a sweepstakes that I had not entered? No, of course not!
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I’ll be a might-upset if you get my winnings … lol …
Trust me…
NOBODY is going to get those supposed “winnings”.
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