The World’s First Electric Ferrari Ditches The V8 For Tire-Crushing Electric Motors

A San Diego-based EV conversion company salvaged a charred Ferrari (they had many to choose from) by turning it into what the company claims is the first fully electric Ferrari, a 415-horsepower electric tire-crusher. It’s glorious, if a little blasphemous.

A few months back, Ferrari Boss Sergio Marchionne said the idea of an electric Ferrari was an “obscene concept,” and that he was “bothered by the [Tesla Model S’s] quietness.”

Electric-car conversion company Electric GT disagrees, so they have taken a Ferrari 308 GTS and ditched its roaring V8 for a quiet set of electric motors. But the EV Ferrari is anything but quiet when it’s ripping those rear tires loose, sending clouds of smoke billowing to the sky. Check it out:

OK, so the V8 wasn’t exactly “roaring” by the time the EV conversion team got it. In fact, it was pretty well gone thanks to a fuel leak that caught the engine and much of the car’s wiring on fire, the aftermath of which can be seen in the pictures below:

A closer look at the flambéed V8:

The team from California ditched what was left of that engine, selling off all salvageable parts to Ferrari 308 GT owners, and then chucking in three electric motors.

Those motors are said to make a combined 150kg-ft of torque, 275 electric horsepower, and 415 “gas equivalent horsepower,” though I’ll admit to not knowing what that latter term actually means (horsepower is a unit of power independent of the energy source).

Sending juice to those three motors are 48 lithium ion battery cells at 180 amp-hours each, combining for 28.5 kWh of capacity and 158 volts. Based on these numbers, the cells are most likely 3.3 volts and wired in series.

Those batteries can get the 1,520kg car (45kg heavier than stock) about 80 to 100 miles before required a recharge. That’s not a lot of range, but it’s plenty of distance to have loads of fun, especially considering that the company decided not to go with a simple gear reduction, instead opting for a “Porsche G50 5 speed gearbox in a flipped mid­ engine orientation to reliably deliver the electric Ferrari’s increased torque.”

And apparently it’s actually as fun as it sounds, as the EV team said: “The massive torque transferring through the transmission engages the driver in a clutch dropping gear pounding Ferrari experience.”

That must be an odd sensation rowing through those gears, as the motors likely don’t have the same rotational inertia as a gas engine. Still, it sounds awesome, and I want to try it.

h/t: The Drive