We Drive an All-Electric Ferrari, the Car that Shouldn’t Exist

(upbeat music)

The Ferrari 308 GTS.

This has to be the most iconic of all the Ferraris.

Introduced in 1977 at the Frankfurt Auto Show,

this one is in the correct color.

Of course it has to be red.

Some really nice details,

like the targa top here that lifts out.

Original period features on it.

This one's a 1978.

And it even has the charging port.

What?!

This car was rebuilt from a burnt out wreck.

The V8 engine was destroyed when a fuel leak caught fire.

But that didn't matter to Ferrari fan, Eric Hutchinson.

We found this car at the junkyard,

with the salvage title,

completely burned up from a fuel leak.

We picked it up for about 10 grand,

brought it home,

and decided to work on a conversion project.

What better way than give it life,

than put in electric motors, double down on the power,

and make one heck of a performance machine out of this car.

[Jack] Ferrari boss, Sergio Marchionne, once said,

An electric Ferrari is an obscene concept.

Well, this is what obscene looks like.

(tires squealing)

There's a trio of electric motors belted together,

and a 30 kilowatt hour battery pack spread,

between here in the back and up front.

They mean that the car can now travel 80 miles on pure,

strangely silent electric power.

It maintains a similar front to back weight distribution,

as the original mid-engine car.

And better still at only 100 pounds heavier, it's quick.

(laughs)

It has that awesome, instantly available torque,

that electric motors give.

Woo, that's fast!

[Jack] 330 foot pounds of it, versus the original 179.

What's really neat about this car,

is that we were able to put in a G50,

and use the manual stick shift,

that came with the Porsche transmission.

This car models out at 8,000 rpm,

and 84 miles per hour in second gear.

[Jack] Hutchinson wants to do some upgrades,

before doing an instrumented 0 to 60.

But it's likely to be under five seconds.

That's faster than the old V8.

And, even when it's stationary,

an electric Ferrari certainly adds some fun

to the typical line up of plug-in vehicles.

While you still won't be able to buy one from the factory,

perhaps this car,

may change Marchionne's mind about electric Ferraris.