Electrifying News

AL had been wondering how much lithium can be plonked into, say, a 1975 GMC Sierra Grande? 

"General Motors has announced plans to offer its first electric “crate” motor replacement aimed at hot-rodders and vintage truckers. In November the company revealed the Chevy K5 Blazer-E—a converted 1977 SUV prototype—with a 200-hp electric motor taking the place of the former 400-cubic-inch V8. The battery pack from a Chevrolet Bolt is bolted to the cargo bed..."  Dan Neil in Wall Street Journal 6/5/21

Now, Dan Neil at WSJ is a favorite in this household. Even BB, not exactly a car-nut, reads him every Saturday. Neil's ruthless wit fires up a genre all too often lacking in internal combustion and horsepower. This week the WSJ ran Neil's piece on mostly-millennials giving their classic 20th century cars an EV makeover. 

"Supply, meet demand: During the pandemic, tens of thousands of suddenly unscheduled people scratched an itch to buy a classic car or truck. Data from Hemmings, a classic-car auction and lifestyle site, suggest many of these quarantined dream-chasers were millennials. Which means, right about now, these 21st-century car-lovers are learning the hard lessons of 20th-century cars. Like a pound puppy that piddles on the carpet, the vintage Austin-Healey seeping oil in the mancave gets less adorable, more returnable by the day...."

ZOOM SCHOOL San Diego-based Zelectric’s Tesla-powered 1968 Porsche 912.

Now, many of those folk Neil is writing about are dismayed by exactly the annoyances actual car-people find exciting and challenging--like sorting gremlins in a carburetor. The EV-modified cars become simulacrums of themselves--avatars?--but AL does see the point. Contemporary vehicles, from Tesla on down, look so tedious, who wouldn't want to be tucked into a painless fifty-three-year-old Porsche without having to adopt a Teutonic mechanic?