DUBAI 25 April 2018: Back in 2016, Ferrari boss Sergio Marchionne said an electric Ferrari would be “obscene”.
Whilst Marchionne has since changed his stance, admitting that the automaker will move towards electrification by 2020, CNN’s Supercharged met with Eric Hutchison, who has spent thousands of hours restoring and modernising his vintage 1978 Ferrari 308 GTS.
Hutchison found the 1978 Ferrari totally destroyed after a catastrophic engine fire — the motor and all of its electronics were irreparable. But $10,000 later, he was the owner of a Ferrari 308 shell.
Now fitted with three batteries, the California-based vehicle is not only sustainable, but faster too.
“The electric car absolutely decimated the gas car,” he says, having hired a professional driver to compare the two, concluding with a 10 second difference between the cars.
Having put the car up for auction, the GTE’s current owner, Drew Gill, was ecstatic to find out the sports car was electric: “It’s fast, it’s way better than any other electric car that you’re going to drive on the market today, and it’s a Ferrari. What else do you want out of a car?”
Key quotes:
Hutchison on the condition he found the car:
“When I brought the project home from the junk yard, I was completely horrified. It had been burned up in a fuel fire, gasoline leaked on the motor. It smelled, all the rubber was melted, there was broken glass. It was frankly a mess. I think I quit four times in the year and a half to two years that it took to get there.”
Hutchison on the polarising nature of the vehicle:
“Converting what is historically a gas car with a big roar to all electric is extremely polarising in public. Because it’s a Ferrari there’s ‘Why’d you do that?’. This car came back to life with double the torque and almost double the horsepower, essentially. It’s a whole different experience. It might not have been engineered for this much speed, but it handles it really well.”
Owner Drew Gill on purchasing the only electric Ferrari in the world:
“I didn’t know that it was electric when I was bidding on it, I just thought it was in pristine condition and something that you can drive. Being from California, electric right now is the way to be and then the good thing about it is there’s no emissions — all you ever have to do is change brakes and change tires.”
Hutchison on how the electric 308 compares the original:
“I really was dying to know how this 308 compared to a stock 308. 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 electric car absolutely decimated the gas car, watching the professional driver off the line, the electric car left like a 25-foot burn out as he was just gripping for traction.”
Story, Image & Video Credit: CNN Supercharged