INSIDESTORY Tackling the motoring issues that matter
Tristan Shale-Hester
tristan_shale-hester@autovia.co.uk @tristan_shale
FOR many enthusiasts, the idea of owning a classic car is highly appealing, but the reality can be very different. While classics are often stunningly beautiful to look at and feel more special than modern models, running a vehicle that’s several decades old can prove to be an expensive and time-consuming challenge. What’s more, it’s no secret that petrol-powered cars are on the way out. With the UK’s 2030 ban on the sale of new conventional internal combustion-engined models fast-approaching, filling a vehicle with petrol – as well as the necessary additives to make it compatible with modern fuel – may well become pricier and more difficult for owners of classic cars. One straightforward solution is being offered by manufacturers and third party firms alike, however: to futureproof classic cars by ripping out their petrol engines and installing electric motors in their place. To find out how this works and what the end result is like, we went to Oxfordshire to visit a firm called Electrogenic, which is leading the way in classic-car conversions. Electrogenic was founded in 2018 by Steve Drummond and Ian Newstead. Steve is a mechanical engineer whose background is in the energy industry, through which he became an advocate of renewable energy. For him, converting classics to electric power is a way to help the car industry go green. Ian began his career as an RAF radar technician, before switching to cars when he got a job with racing team Norman Abbott Engineering. He opened his own garage in 1995, specialising in the restoration of classic air-cooled Volkswagens and Porsches. The idea to start working on EVs came from Ian’s daughter, he told us. “I was working on a car, but I suffer badly from allergies and one of the worst things for me is unburnt fuel; it makes my eyes itch and run,” Ian explained. “My daughter looked at me as if I was a monster and said: ‘Dad, you’ve got to stop doing this. Why not work on electric cars instead?’” Ian and Steve already knew each other through the motor trade and, when discussing a van the two were haggling over, Ian suggested that it would be better with an electric motor rather than its existing engine. “We did some research, including a trip to California,” Steve told us. “We decided that, for the first time ever, it
was possible to make an electric car worth owning. Four years later, here we are.” Electrogenic will now take any car and convert it from petrol or diesel power to electric, taking into account whatever specifications the customer desires. The process is fully reversible, too, but if you do change your mind, you’ll have to find another firm to restore the original motor, because Electrogenic doesn’t undo its own work. “We don’t want to lose these cars,” Ian told us. “The last thing we want is to see them disappear or end up in museums. We want to see them still driving on the road and this enables them to do that.” It’s not just about futureproofing, though, as Steve explained: “Most sixties and seventies cars are actually quite difficult and unpleasant to drive. They’re slow, they struggle to pull out at junctions, et cetera. “If you make these cars able to keep up with modern traffic, though, they become something that’s fun to drive instead of something that’s a bit scary.” Steve and Ian weren’t content to let us take their word for this, they wanted us to try it out for ourselves. So, we headed down the road from Electrogenic’s Kidlington headquarters to the test track at Bicester Heritage, where we were handed the keys to a finished customer car. The model in question was a 1964 Porsche 356 C. Originally, this rear-engined coupé had come with a 1.6-litre flat-four petrol engine, producing around 94bhp, coupled to a four-speed manual gearbox. This enabled 0-60mph in 10.3 seconds and a top speed of 115mph. In a move that may outrage purists, though, Electrogenic changed nearly all of these details. In the car we tried, there
“We decided that, for the first time ever, it was possible to make an electric car worth owning. Four years later, here we are” STEVE DRUMMOND Electrogenic co-founder
CO-FOUNDER Ian Newstead was already working with classic cars when his daughter suggested he switch to EVs to help him manage his allergies
16 1 June 2022
www.autoexpress.co.uk
