(CNN)Purists may be horrified by the thought of an electric Ferrari, but can speed win them over?
After thousands of hours of restoring and modernizing one of Ferrari’s luxury sports car, Californian Eric Hutchison accomplished the unthinkable and created the very first — and, as it turns out, fastest — electric 1978 Ferrari 308 GTS.
“I really was dying to know how this 308 compared to a stock 308,” Hutchison, of electric car conversion specialist Electric GT, tells CNN Supercharged. “We had a professional driver drive both cars in a timed environment on the same track — about a mile and a half — and the professional driver did that lap in 1:26 with a gas Ferrari.”
The opportunity for speed is what makes the car a perfect vehicle to transform, according to Hutchison.
“The Ferrari makes a great candidate for conversion because when you’re converting the car to electric you’re adding power, you’re doubling the power, you’re doubling the torque,” he says. “This car was meant for speed… It handles it really well. This car actually…. feels natural with this amount of power…”
CNN’s video here.
Full Article here.