- An early 1990s Ford Mustang Foxbody had its engine replaced with an electric motor while retaining its original five-speed manual.
- It’s now over twice as powerful as it originally was and, unlike many EV swaps, it’s actually a bit lighter too.
- This EV conversion used exclusively new aftermarket parts, so there’s no salvage Tesla motor under its hood.
Converting classics to run on electricity is a touchy topic for purist enthusiasts, who want to keep old cars original with their combustion powertrains intact. But while you may not agree with all classic car EV swaps, some make more sense than others, and this early 1990s Fox-body Ford Mustang might be one of them.
The name refers to the third-generation Mustang built on the so-called “Fox platform,” which underpinned more than a dozen rear-wheel-drive Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models. This Mustang debuted in 1978 and remained in production until 1993. It was much more popular than the downsized and depowered second-generation model.
But as was the case of most performance cars of that era, it wouldn’t be considered fast by modern standards. Unless your Fox Mustang had the 5.0-liter V8 or the 2.3-liter four-cylinder turbo under the hood, it likely needed over 10 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph. Even the V8 needed around 7.5 seconds to push the car to 60 mph, which dropped around the six-second mark when electronic fuel injection bumped the engine’s power to 225 hp.
That’s why perhaps it isn’t as big a deal that the low-mileage, one-owner Mustang was converted to run on electricity by FuelTech in Georgia.
The key points with this particular conversion featured in a video uploaded by The Racing Channel are the original manual gearbox, which you don’t have to use in an EV, but it still adds to the driving fun, and the fact that it isn’t any heavier than the original.
Even though in an EV conversion, you rip out the heavy engine, you usually make the car heavier than it was to begin with by adding batteries. This conversion, though, is around 50 pounds lighter than stock, which is pretty impressive and with 500 horsepower and over 700 pound-feet of torque, it should feel like a rocket ship.
The stock transmission will probably fail with all that torque it was never designed to handle, but the builders want to keep this car a manual, so a new transmission will likely be put in its place when this one goes kaboom.
Weight distribution between the two axles was kept even by splitting the battery pack (of unspecified capacity): about half it is under the hood, in front and around the drive unit, inverter and other electronics, and the rest is in the back.
When they take the car out for a drive, the most unusual part of it is shifting gears. You do it as you would in a traditional combustion car, and you can even hear the motor’s RPM drop as well as the slight judder from the clutch when lifting off, and it engages. If I drove this car, I’d probably use the clutch more than I would have to, just because I could. It’s arguably better than having simulated gears and combustion engines like some manufacturers do.
While EVs don’t need a manual transmission since they have a lot of torque from virtually zero RPM, having one with cogs that you can swap is more engaging for a keen driver. When you don’t want to go through the gears, you can simply leave it in second or third, as it has more than enough torque to get the car off the line without you having to start in first.
The best part is that you don’t have to press the clutch to disengage the motor from the transmission since an electric motor’s rpm drops to zero when you stop. We say there’s definitely a future for conversions like this one, especially since this is the easiest way to do one since you get to keep the original transmission, prop shaft, differential, axles and all the standard suspension components.
Would you convert an old classic to run on electricity similarly to this? Tell us in the comments.
