A Ferrari Testarossa—now fully electric! Meet the Tesla Rossa, a classic supercar transformed by Electric Classic Cars. We explore how legacy automakers are facing the same challenges as retrofit specialists: adapting old designs to a battery-powered future. Can classic cars keep their soul without the roar of an engine?
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00:00Well, this is the iconic Ferrari Testarossa, originally had a 12-cylinder engine in, but
00:13now we've called it the Tesla-Rossa for a good reason.
00:16What's that?
00:17You'll find out if I lift the engine bay lid to reveal what is not there anymore.
00:23Where is it?
00:24Exactly.
00:25What have we got here?
00:26This is the Tesla motor that we've put in this, taking the big 12-cylinder, big lump
00:31of the thing out, and we've replaced it with a motor and battery pack, so down there is
00:35the main battery pack as well.
00:36We've got another one up front that balances the car out, so now it handles better, it's
00:42got more reliability, less maintenance issues, and a lot more power because it's electric.
00:47More power.
00:48Oh yeah, a lot more power.
00:49Why have you done this?
00:50Why do people want cars like this beautiful-
00:52You lose a lot with the noise and the vibrations.
00:55But modern cars can be a little bit soulless, they can be treated like white goods, for
01:00instance.
01:01And there's a lot of people that want that emotional connectivity to their classic cars,
01:06but still have it electric and without emissions and have that reliability, so they can use
01:12it and enjoy it every day without the stress of whether or not it's going to break down,
01:16what's that vibration, et cetera, et cetera.
01:19So that's why a lot of people now are considering converting their classic cars to electric.
01:23A Ferrari Testarossa is very much at the high end.
01:26We do little cars, city cars, Fiat 500s, little minis, Land Rovers, all sorts of classic cars
01:32that people want to continue to use into the future, we can convert to electric.
01:36Would you say that there's a comparison to be made between the work that you're doing
01:40to convert these cars to electric, these classic cars, with the problems that are facing more
01:45of the traditional car makers when it comes to competing with new electric vehicles coming
01:49from China, for example?
01:50Certainly, because we've got to try and fit a battery pack to an existing ICE vehicle.
01:55And to get started, a lot of the legacy manufacturers have also got that same challenge, that they've
02:02already got a platform that's with a petrol or diesel car.
02:06Let's see how we can actually convert that existing platform to electric.
02:09Well, that's essentially what we do in very niche format.
02:12And again, we also use new batteries as well.
02:14So all the batteries and the components like chargers, DC converters, et cetera, come from
02:19the same factories in China.