Once upon a time it was on old airfields, now it’s ex-farms. Because boy, there’s a lot going on in the barns of these often far-flung places. This one here is located in the deepest hinterland of British Dorset, although it has been thoroughly renovated with fresh concrete, fresh paint and new buildings.
One part of Silent Classics is Rotron, a division that does fascinating things with rotary engines for drones and other things, and on the other side of the yard is Parajet, where they’re used to power fans that allow people to fly. Jack Kerridge used to work there before he went into business for himself. He’s tall and rangy and has a bewildered professorial air about him. The kind of guy you could tell from a mile away that he’d be up for some odd project.
How to get started converting classics
His first was converting a Fiat 126 into an electric car. It’s still sitting outside and doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, as Jack has moved on to bigger things. But first of all: why cars? ‘It’s in my blood. My father restores classic cars, so it was instilled in me from an early age. And then it just sort of drifted over here.’
So Jack is one of many who saw a niche in keeping classic cars alive by giving them a new, electric future. But unlike many others, he was more inspired by the technical side of things than the business, perhaps lucrative one. The 126 was a valuable learning experience; he learned a lot about reusing electrical components and how to make them work together.
The money is mainly made with the Fiat 500. ‘It is just so suitable for electric propulsion, and all the parts fit so easily into the existing chassis.’ They have now built about fifteen of them and the demand is still so great that he plans to perhaps set up a separate business unit and a completely separate, high end brand. Not bad, considering that Silent Classics itself was founded only a few years ago.
Here the classics are electrified
Jack’s team consists of five men, all young and versatile. “We do pretty much everything ourselves, and even when we hire labor or use subcontractors, we prefer to have them work from here,” he says. It’s not all about the electrical work. Huge lathes dominate one side of the shop, the welders crackle and spit sparks. But the electrical side is interesting.
The typical “take a crashed Tesla and build something new around it” approach doesn’t appeal to Kerridge. He’s more of a custom engineer. Each car is given the exact components that best suit his skills. Many of those components have been used before. “It’s getting harder and harder to find used batteries, so sometimes we’ll use brand new ones,” Kerridge says. “We’ll take those packages apart and build them into our own housing.”
This allows the team to build battery packs that fit exactly into the spaces of the donor cars. But because they are coupled to all sorts of electric motors, Silent Classics has to make all the control electronics itself. ‘We use open source software to help us do this, and in doing so, we also contribute to making it better,’ says Kerridge.
What other classics are being converted?
The workshop is chock full of ongoing projects. There’s a classic Range Rover high up on a bridge, as parts are being made for its underside. A Bond Bug sits wheel arch to wheel arch with a cream Jaguar SS and a beautiful Topolino.
Once it has its 21-kWh battery pack and 60-hp engine on board, you, as a resident of any Mediterranean villa, would want to go there every morning to get bread. Somewhere in the air dangles a project for a motorcycle, which is being worked on in your spare time.
The specs of the 240Z restomod
But the jewel in the crown of this place right now is an electric Datsun 240Z. It wasn’t built for a customer, it was built for Kerridge himself. It’s small and it’s mighty. It has a 36kWh battery mated to a dual electric motor that once called a Lexus GS 450h home and produces 320bhp. This isn’t an EV that weighs two tonnes or more.
Kerridge has also used it as an experiment: there are driving modes to choose from, an integrated tablet acts as a central touchscreen and the buttons are custom-made. You still have to turn a key to start it, though, and it has a good old-fashioned handbrake, just for fun.
And fun you will have. A humming sound accompanies us as we leave the yard. Wheel spin. Whatever you want, whenever you want it – you can have it. Kerridge reckons the weight distribution is somewhere around 50/50, with the motors and inverters mounted on the rear axle to counterbalance the mass of batteries under the bonnet. But that doesn’t mean the eco-tires are any match for the 320bhp unleashed on a 1300kg girth.
Conflicting feelings about the electric Datsun 240Z
The battery pack is nicely mounted, but of course it is not a straight-six. And that is also the reason why we are often sceptical about cars like this, which had a charismatic engine and are now saddled with emotionless electrons. But fortunately there is a feeling of connection: the wooden gear lever. It feels great, magnets that attract each other help you to engage the gear ‘with feeling’ and provide resistance when disengaging when you go back and forth between forward and reverse.
It is not yet completely perfectly finished. Kerridge admits that customers come first, and that it is therefore not worked on continuously. There is still a ‘clunk’ noticeable from the drive shaft, every time you release or press the right pedal, and at 60 km/h there is a wobble somewhere that still has to be investigated where it comes from.
But the whole experience – sitting in it, in that small, compact machine behind that long, lean nose and those short, thin window pillars, ensconced in rich leather – is bewitching. Perhaps it’s because we’ve never really been drawn to the 240Z as we have to other sports cars that we can relate to this one, while we still struggle with electrified 911s.
How does an electric 240Z drive?
But probably even more so, it has to do with the fact that this 240Z has a raw edge. Kerridge is the first to admit that he sometimes gets a little scared of the car. And we would be too, especially in the rain. Today, fortunately, the weather is beautiful and a perfect opportunity to try the infamous Zig Zag Hill with him. And there you quickly learn that you have to be patient and operate the right pedal gently.
You have to be smart about finding the point where you can find the most traction, and that’s fun, especially when those two engines are working through a tight differential. The Wilwood brakes are bliss (there’s no regen yet, but we prefer to do it by feel anyway), the steering is delicate and precise, and the coilover suspension gives you good control and enough comfort for the kind of driving you’ll be doing with it.
What can you use the electric Datsun 240Z for?
But what kind is this? It’s not refined enough for long journeys, and besides: there’s no fast-charging (that would have added too much weight and complexity; 7kW is the maximum) and the range is limited to around 210 kilometres. But hey, a nice little drive through the countryside on a summer’s day – there’s a lot to be said for that in this car.
Here’s how we picture it: parking on a hill, getting the picnic basket out of the boot, and thinking how much cooler and less ‘look at me’ a 240Z is than an E-type. And as a bonus, getting a lot of pleasure from the fact that the buttercups don’t wither as you drive by…
#Datsun #240Z #AllElectric #Cool #Restomod #Sacrilege
