“Whatever it takes to keep interesting cars on the road” is how I approach the question of whether or not it’s OK to do electric conversions for older cars. Some purists hate it, and it’s true it’s never really the same as an internal combustion engine, but it gets the job done. And electrification has its advantages too — namely sweet, sweet torque.
Case in point: Omead Moinee’s 1986 AE86 Toyota Corolla with an electric motor, recently featured by the good humans over at Hoonigan. Inspired by electric Pikes Peak conversions, Omead’s car is in regular use as a drift car.
It’s really, really hard not to like this thing:
Engine Swap Depot says this car’s been around for a hot minute, debuting at SEMA back in 2015. The whole thing is a custom job with a huge 275 volt battery pack mounted in the back seat and trunk that produces 450Nm of torque at just 200 RPM. Two-hundred!
Doughnuts happen at the flip of a switch. It still keeps its five-speed manual transmission, unlike most EV conversions. That’s encouraging.
If the future’s electric, give me one of these over one of those damn pod cars.