Some people would call this Mazda MX-5 conversion blasphemy. Turning the perfect roadster into a tubbed dragster with massive Hoosier radials. Ripping the light, rev-happy four-cylinder out of the front and replacing it with a massive lithium-ion battery pack. Hooking up two forklift electric motors. And then running 9-second passes all day long.
Spotted by our friends at Jalopnik, this drag strip showdown between two electric cars is the ultimate apples-to-oranges comparison. One car was built by robots in a factory in California, and uses incredibly advanced aerospace-grade materials and the absolute latest in electric propulsion technology. The other started life twenty years ago in a factory in Japan, and has had its petrol-burning internals entirely gutted and replaced with a battery pack, two forklift motors, and a bunch of chassis strengthening.
Tesla’s Model S is a beautiful, powerful, incredibly high-tech car, and runs an absolutely impressive 12.72 second quarter mile, but the electric MX-5 does it three and a half seconds faster. There’s no arguing with that.
Bonus: here’s another video of the same MX-5 smoking a Ford F-250:
Double bonus: there’s actually a (far more tame) electric MX-5 running around Australia at the moment — a white 1990 NA MX-5 was converted back in 2008, by Zero Emission Vehicles Australia. [Jalopnik]