A Triumph GT6 converted by e-Drive Retro Using Torque Trends ev-TorqueBox
Imagine a world where your vintage vehicle doesn’t leave lakes of oil and plumes of smoke everywhere it goes. E-Drive Retro can turn that gas-guzzling vintage vehicle into a clean, green electric machine. The company has developed a plug-in electric drivetrain of its own design that can replace the internal combustion drivetrain of cars built from the 1950s through and 1970s. The company’s goal is to create a whole new category of cars: Electric Vehicle Classic Car Conversion.
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Enthusiasts have been converting vintage cars to run on electricity for years. Some did it for the fun of it, like the 1972 Datsun 1200 that became the drag racing White Zombie. Some did it because for decades commercially available electric cars were few and far between. Lightweight vintage Porsches were popular conversion cars, as were old Volkswagen Beetles.
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But e-Drive Retro says it can swap out a gasoline engine for an electric drivetrain without changing the original driving feel or the look of the car. Prep for the conversion includes 3D scanning of the car to fit the new drivetrain precisely into the sometimes quirky space provided by a vintage car. The drivetrain is modeled, fabricated, and 3D printed as necessary and then installed in the car.
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The company doesn’t stop at electrifying the car, though; it also promises to “future-proof” your vintage car. The proprietary control system adds sensors, wireless technology, and Big Data capabilities that allow for updates and performance monitoring.
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What’s the catch? Well, for now anyway, e-Drive Retro’s services are only available in northern Europe. The company is based in Helsinki, Finland, so if you can get your car there, you can swap that cranky, old combustion engine for a new emissions-free EV without losing a single style point.
The engineering excellence and innovativeness of your products, as well as the very high quality of their fabrication, and your characteristic attention to meticulous customer service all come to mind freely whenever I refer my clients or colleagues to Torque Trends.
We searched the globe for a suitably robust, compact and cost-effective fixed-gear transmission to complement our proprietary Plug-In EV Drive-Train. Our engineering search led us to Torque Trends.
Upon evaluating your fantastic Planetary Reduction Gearbox, we became convinced that this was the finest product of its type available globally. We were impressed with the compact yet ultra-heavy duty design.
We had been close to purchasing a competitive unit from a well-known manufacturer in Switzerland, however their design was clumsy in comparison, and their price was literally 4x that of Torque Trends! Suffice it to say that we have been very pleased with the performance of the Helical Planetary Gearbox we have been using in our GT6-EV.
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This car has been featured in magazines and nationally televised broadcasts in Finland, Estonia and Sweden, even appearing in Popular Science and other US/UK automotive publications. We are proud to serve as an Authorized Torque Trends Dealer in Northern Europe and often recommend your reduction gear solutions for EV projects of every description. In 2017 we expect to broaden the relationship to begin representing your EV Conversion Systems product lines for FORD and Chevrolet light trucks, as well as entertaining similar solutions for light utility vehicles of European manufacture across our key operating regions there.
-Michael Richardson, Founder & CEO
e-Drive Retro, Estonia
