DIY Electric Ferrari 308 is the Best Car Ever - VIDEO

The car you see here is unique. Based on a 1978 Ferrari 308 GTS, the car has been fitted with three powerful electric motors and a G50 manual transmission.

That’s right, kids. This Ferrari 308 is a plug in, fully electric car with a manual transmission. It’s a fascinating thing, to be sure and I, for one, can’t help but look at pictures of that shifter and imagine myself blasting through the canyon roads of the Appalachians in this thing. Shifting, downshifting, and listening to the wind scream.

Temptation is a Manual Transmission Ferrari EV

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Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work like that. Jalopnik’s Andrew Collins, who got to drive the car, writes, “Just like any car ever, the lower gears are where you’ll find the most aggressive acceleration and higher gears make it possible to comfortably cruise at speed. Instead of moving your way from first to fourth as you accelerate, you can basically just pick your acceleration rate from a stop and ride whatever gear you like for your entire drive. Second gives you a nice pull off a stoplight and onto a fast canter. Third gives the car a much gentler reaction time. First is borderline scary.”

Still cool.

Plug-in Classic | Electric Ferrari 308 GTS

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This electric Ferrari project was born of tragedy. The ’78 Ferrari 308’s engine bay caught fire a few years ago, effectively destroying the most expensive go-fast bits of the old Italian beauty. It was beyond any means of traditional repair.

That’s when the owner had the genius idea to take the car to EV West. The EV experts there ended up replacing the 32v Ferrari V8 with 330HP worth of HPEVS Custom Electric AC-51 “V-8” motor package, Curtis 1239 controllers and 46 kW-h lithium battery.

If that sounds complicated, it’s because it was.
This one-off Ferrari was a build that went far beyond “complicated”. Far enough, in fact, that the car’s creation spawned a 23 page build thread on the FerrariChat forum. All of which kind of begs the question, though: was it worth it?

Watch the nearly silent-running, all-electric Ferrari do its best Magnum PI impression- along with a few high-torque donuts- in this video, below, then let us know what you think of the car in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Electric Ferrari 308 + Manual Transmission

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Source | Images: Electric GT, via Jalopnik.

Electric “Magnum PI” Ferrari 308 Is Stunning

The Ferrari 308 starred along with Tom Selleck in the long running TV show Magnum PI. Unfortunately, the cars had a tendency to set themselves on fire. That’s what happened to the car you see here. But that was just the beginning of the story for Eric Hutchinson.

Eric wanted to convert a Ferrari to electric power but didn’t want to start with a car in pristine condition. After a fuel leak led to a fire in the engine compartment, this car was far from factory fresh. Eric bought it with a salvage title for $10,000. Then he and his friend Michael Bream from EV Westcame up with a plan to convert the car to electric power.

The plan called for using 3 AC51 HPEVS electric motors arranged in a V configuration. The finished result bears an uncanny resemblance to the original Ferrari V-8 engine that was in the car when it left the factory in 1978. The motors are even painted red to match the original engine color. Hutchinson and Bream created a unique pulley and belt system to link the motors to a single driveshaft.

For power, they mounted 48 individual 3.3-volt lithium-ion batteries throughout the car —  24 in front and 24 more in two packs of 12 in the rear. Combined, the batteries have 31.5 kWh of capacity, which is good for a range of about 100 miles.

The finished car is only 150 lbs heavier than it was when built in Maranello. It has 465 horsepower and 330 ft-lb of torque. Both numbers are considerably more than the original 3.0 liter Ferrari V-8 engine produced. It was rated at 235 horsepower.

Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne said recently that an electric Ferrari would be “obscene” because it would lack the distinctive wail of a Ferrari engine. Maybe. But there’s a good chance most of us wouldn’t turn this car down if it showed up in our driveway with a note on the windshield saying, “Drive Me.”

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Source: Green Car Reports | Photo Credits: Engine Swap Depot