- Electrifying Mini at London Classic Car Show

Would you electrify your E-type Jag or Morris Minor?

Convenience and performance amongst the reasons to electrify your classic car, preserving its presence for future generations

“Put an electric engine in a Classic Ferrari, you deserve to be locked-up”. Or so says Ferrari Specialist Joe Macari, owner of Joe Macari Performance Cars in London. Perhaps he had a point, he does after all own one of the most famous and handsomely stocked show rooms in the country. A Top Trump collection of classic and modern Ferraris, Lamborghinis Maseratis and the odd McLaren Senna.

The occasion was the London Classic Car Show. The moment an ERS Insurance sponsored Big Electric Classic Debate, compered by ex-Top Gear presenter Tiff Needell and featuring a cast of experts including:

- Jonny Smith - Fifth Gear Television presenter

- Joe Macari – Owner Joe Macari Performance Cars

- Mike Fernie - DriveTribe Content Editor and Mechanical Engineer

- Raphael Caille - Managing Director, Swindon Powertrain

- Alan Bradbury - ERS classic’s Specialist

To kick off the debate Tiff quoted an ERS survey: Should Classic Cars ever be electrified?

To date, the poll registers 58% yes, 42% no, although it has to be said, as the debate ensued at the conference, it was clear that the answer was bound to be more nuanced.

What did we find out?

Over time, Jonny Smith has been converted to the idea of Electrifying Classic. He likes the torque, improved drive and quietness. He even suggests we could see a new era of electrified hot-rodding, with laptops and battery packs used to fine-tune performance.

It seems Smith’s journey to conversion was spawned by the experience of a 1970s Enfield, apparently a car equivalent to adult measles – very rare and no one wants it. In the case of the Enfield, he argues, it’s a 9-foot long pocket Electric rocket that could put a Porsche 918 Spyder to shame.

A slight exaggeration perhaps, but you can certainly see the attraction. Perhaps the instant torque “wolf in sheep’s clothing” Classic EV, could usher-in a new era of Sunday afternoon entertainment; trawling the streets looking for GTRs and Ferraris, and then destroying them at the traffic lights in a plume of silence and absolutely no emissions. Sounds like good sport.

Macari was unimpressed. “Some cars are born with glorious engines”. It’s their very being, stirring the senses and evoking a different era. “What’s the point in electrifying them when you’re effectively destroying their soul?”

Hassle-free instant fun

DriveTribe’s Mike Fernie attempted to re-balance this view, putting forward a new perspective that so-called Millennials - younger car buyers - are far more open to the idea of electric. They’re more likely to care about convenience and performance, the opportunity to switch the car on and go, without the need for warming-up, tuning the carbs or fiddling with the choke and spark plugs.

Fernie also claimed younger drivers “couldn’t get enough” of the electric E-Type that Prince Harry and Meghan drove off into the sunset at last May’s Royal Wedding. He also added that younger drivers were much more open to buying an electric car as their daily run-around, compared to older car buyers

It was then that the debate seemed to take a more nuanced dimension, albeit not without exasperated sighs from the more petrol-veined devotees, including a somewhat impassioned compere, Tiff Needell. Surely comperes should sit on the fence and gently goad, or was Tiff betraying his motor racing ancestry?

The nuance appeared to be the idea that there is a “bar” on the classics scale of pedigree, - a quality of classic vehicle above which electrification becomes highly questionable. Four broad factors seemed to be at play here.

Firstly, the extent to which the vehicle’s engine is intrinsic to its character and appeal. According to Fernie, the bar should fall somewhere around the Jaguar E-Type, with vehicle rarity and aesthetics being related factors to take into account when tampering with its ICE. Perhaps the E-types aesthetics trumps the intrinsic value of its engine in his argument.

Secondly, it’s the economics. A car sitting below the bar, say a Morris 1000, not known for the prowess of its engine “back in the day”, might cost £15,000 to purchase in a good state of running order. Converting it to Electric could then cost a further £25,000. On pure economic grounds this amounted to “lunacy” in the view of Macari.

However, from the point of view of Raphael Caille who it has to be said, makes a living from tuning performance engines, it’s a decision that could make sense – the convenience and driveability are what really counts and furthermore - factor three - it helps to keep a classic car on the road.

Raphael Caille also offered up the forth factor: the Eco argument, explaining the reaction he sometimes gets when driving his Porsche in built up areas, recently being told his car “stinks” by a passing cyclist who drew up beside him at the traffic lights. With more and more global cities introducing low emission zone regulation, electrification could prove the only way to protect and sustain classics on our road.

Again however, this failed to be a clear-cut argument. With others suggesting that you burn-up more fossil fuels converting the car to electric than you can possibly offset in subsequent driving. Alan Bradbury from ERS also made the point that classics represent less than 1% of cars on the roads, so their potential ability to impact CO2 emissions would be marginal, especially if you burn more CO2 in the process of converting them to electric.

As the debate settled down it seemed the idea of “going electric “is best considered on a case-by-case basis. The happy medium might be the opportunity to zip around in your “switch-on and go” aesthetically pleasing everyday run-around electric classic, while the moment of visceral reward might come from an occasional burn-up in your sacrosanct American V8.

While the view in the audience swayed towards electrification of classics – perhaps 80% in favour. There seemed to be unanimity on the need to preserve the presence of classics on the road, by whichever means best.

The ERS Big Electric Classic Debate took place over two days, the above representing views from the second day. See video below for an overview of the first day's debate.

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1:30

Day 1 of the ERS Big Electric Classic Debate

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Comments (30)

  • I’d rather be waterboarded with the petrol that should be used on classics rather than ruining them with electricity. As “the American” from the first season of the grand tour said (I think)... “they say it’s got more power, than what? My damn toothbrush”

      2 years ago
  • I'd rather perform vasectomy on myself without anesthesia and an angle grinder that doesn't work and is on fire.

      2 years ago
  • I don't have a problem with EVs, but this is just vandalism. And why is that Johnny guy wearing a blazer with a yellow T-shirt?

      2 years ago
  • On the contrary, I think we should put proper Briggs and Stratton pull start engines in all Priuses.

      2 years ago
  • If you electrify a classic you don't deserve to own one

      2 years ago
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