Electric Motor in a Classic?
- Thread starter JeffKeryk
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Straight to the gutter... You're fired!
Some feel that way about taking out an original straight 6 and dropping in a 350.......
OTOH, if the drivetrain is shot, installing an electric motor gives the classic body a new lease on life. Is that much different than dropping a late-model V* into an old car?
Sure, but old engines were made to be rebuilt, unlike most modern ones.
I think it would be great to have a classic with an EV powertrain. Then all you have to worry about is repairing the constant rust that never seems to stop on old cars. Plus going from 10 mpg to a low priced EV charge would be extra money to spend on something else.
Swapping in an EV drivetrain along with enough battery to go anywhere and the software needed to make everything work reasonably well would cost enough to negate any fuel savings.
I totally agree. That's why I have a 2014 Corvette. Good mileage, no EV, and it drives and handles nicely. I paid my dues on old muscle cars long ago and still have headaches thinking of all the money I threw at them. Don't get me wrong muscle cars are cool but with a 3 car garage I don't have the room for one. I like looking at other peoples muscle cars or EV's that are in muscle cars and have read many articles etc. regarding these swaps. They are nice.
I believe its 30-60K. With only a portion of the battery pack, so the range sucks.
Old engines were not "made to be rebuilt," but they sure could be. And so can modern engines, both ICE and electric. There are at least two companies that I know of that rebuild Tesla motors.
Old muscle cars that are either good originals or properly restored are now so pricey that they can't be driven and enjoyed much.
They also don't do anything really well and aren't even all that quick by current standards.
OTOH, you can use and enjoy your Corvette and yeah, the highway fuel economy isn't bad at all.
Sure they were. Check out some FSMs. Older engines had plenty of extra metal so they could be machined as needed with oversize pistons and undersize bearings offered. Not so much with newer engines and Teslas don't have engines.
When a factory manual tells you that if taper and ovality exceed a certain very modest value you should obtain a new cylinder block that tells you that the engine was never intended to be rebuilt.
People aren't doing this for fuel savings. It's a hobby, or a technical exercise. It's just a more modern version of dropping a modern V8 into an old flathead, something akin to old-fashioned hot rodding.
The folks that are dropping 250,00 (and sometimes quite a bit more) into various resto mods and drivetrain swaps (some of which are ICE and others EV) aren't doing it to save a few dollars per year on fuel.
Tell me, when you see a deuce coupe or roadster with small block Chevy or 302 Ford backed with a 4- or 5-speed box, do you think of the horrific transgression that took place, the blasphemy of destroying an old classic or do you appreciate the creativity and workmanship that went into transforming a clapped-out rust bucket into an enjoyable street rod?
I appreciate a fully restored old car, or a survivor, and have owned one of each, but I also dropped a '58 Olds Rocket 88 mated to a Hydramatic into a 1954 Ford F100. They were all useful and fun-to-own-and-drive vehicles.
OK, I'll give you that.
There are crate EV motors w/the electronics. Also-swapping to an EV "power train" is not about saving fuel. Most EVs can go to ZERO mph to 60 in well under 5 seconds. While the weight of older classics may affect this-there are not many motors that are not big bucks that would have this kind of performance.
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