A Classic Mini Electric Adventure // Jonny Smith

yes yes YouTube arms outspread I know I'm Johnny Smith this is car perma and today I'm driving a very old fully electrified mini and I feel vulnerable but maybe I like feeling vulnerable [Music] okay put it in forward motion and drive off I'm not driven old medieval lemon yolks so what is this well it's a classic mini restored to the customers own spec if you want to and then it's given the Evie treatment so the a series transverse engine comes out the one that had the gearbox built in from minis of old so under the bonnet at the front they got an 80 kilowatt brushless electric motor that sits really low as a consequence the whole cars got a lower center of gravity and it's got a much better weight distribution than the original Mini which was already pretty good now at the moment there isn't a front or a fruit or whatever you'd call it in there but someone had ordered one of these could have some sort of luggage compartment fitted because this space and over the top of the motor this car doesn't have it because this is a showcase car and being such as a showcase of course if you to order a swindie you can choose whatever model Mini you want in whatever color types of rims interior trim electric or batsto sunroof for example that's all up to you this particular car is are based on a 1983 mini city but the mini design didn't change hugely since it was born in 1959 the design was always celebrating maximizing the space within a short wheelbase short overhangs amazingly sporty steering the suspension obviously massive racing pedigree no power steering because minis never had that just your rack and pinion and the reason why swindie swindon powertrain chose this as a sort of proof of concept car because a few years ago they realized that electric power trains were going to be more and more commonplace and they wanted to see how easily they could develop something that could be slotted into a number of cars and the reason why they chose a mini is because the boss man Raphael the French guy he likes minis and the good thing about minis is they're universally recognized even if you don't give a flying toss about cars you still know what a mini is we're just making our way around us out on to some interesting roads that aren't littered with speed ramps you realize how low the original mini was that's part of the appeal your bums low the right height slow you are in tune with every single input you make into the steering wheel I feel very big in this car it does remind me of my mates 1275gt when we were at college when everywhere nothing well got three four engines you've still got the original speedo that's something minis that just had nothing we think that Tesla Model 3 is having just one touchscreen in the middle with all the information on and a clean - well where do they get the idea from look at the original Mini this particular car is a testbed car for Swindon powertrain to show what is possible the boot has got more space in it than the original because they've taken the petrol tank as a consequence there's a big gap where the fuel tank used to be so I think that's a 200-liter boot which is actually pretty good for a car this tiny standard mini suspension standard mini rack and pinion steering non servo brakes but remember it's got regenerative braking so that's less stressful on the braking system itself because you're getting energy back from that to put back into those batteries because of course it only weighs a little bit more than a standard mini about 75 he knows more than a standard mini making this I think under 800 kilos in today's standards that's just nothing and that's why you don't necessarily need big brakes because it's not a heavy car so it's still got the non servo brakes those discs and they actually feel just fine the brake pedal is hard the centre of gravity is lower than the old mini and the weight distribution is better than the old mini it's 5545 weight distribution I think and centre of gravity is down by 45 millimetres because that a series engine that sits quite high in the engine bay now you've got a super low compact electric motor because it's got an aftermarket motor liter steering wheel it's actually smaller than the original mini wheel I'd normally struggle getting my leg under the steering wheel but it's got little bucket seats motorsport bucket seats there are so many aftermarket parts for this car restoration and accessories so you could make this car to your own spec any kind of interior you want different seat designs different steering wheel different switch gear different levels of luxurious materials and of course all the body panels even full body shells are available on the aftermarket so apart from a few bits and bobs it would be an all-new old car [Music] nor 260 about nine seconds top speed 80 miles an hour range about 125 miles 24 kilowatt hour battery pack that lives in this sort of made up transmission tunnel here just not like the original carpet you don't really notice now all those wind and power train have used their own battery pack in this particular car they're saying that future cars I think will use battery packs from salvaged cars like unless only for example or some modules from a Tesla like a lot of other electric classic car converting companies the advantage of that of course is you can get stuff secondhand that's still in a warranty from a salvage car and also in the future if you need to buy replacement cells you know they come from an OEM regen braking actually quite serious regen braking when I come off the throttle pedal it does really bite so I'm getting a bit of regenerative energy going back into the battery packs then of course it's drive-by-wire the throttle is really sensitive but I'm sure you can adjust that on the one hand this might look like a ridiculously expensive proposition 79 thousand pounds starting price but that does include the sourcing and the the building restoration of a classic mini so your 79 thousand pounds gets you a car of your choice as in a mini of your choice restored to your spec interior and exterior and then the evie drivetrain what this allows you to do a course is it allows you to drive a classic car more often than you ordinarily would you can everyday drive a car like a classic mini in congestion and you don't have that horrible feeling that it might not get you they're not saying that minis run reliable guys I'm just saying that they're old an old stuff might not always have your back and as a massive classic car fanatic I see both sides of this argument I see people saying no keep it purist classic cars should be as they were a snapshot of history but I also see the element of the the restomod there's an Eevee restomod movement there is only growing and I've seen it growing over the last decade and this can encourage people that otherwise wouldn't buy a classic car to think yeah I actually like the old look but I want it for a modern lifestyle I want to just get in and flick a switch and it just work so I can see the appeal of this yes you will pay for the privilege it's a big price tag you've got to really want to do it you know this is almost three times the price of a brand-new Mini II but it's for a different kind of person I think the other thing that classic electric cars do of course is they mean that they have more of a place in the future hopefully as piston engines might become more and more outlawed and the use is more restricted I've said this before a car like this might not be allowed to drive in it and say the center of Japan you know like round Tokyo but if it's converted to evie then there's a future in being able to be used in them in a city environment which is quite cool and it's part of this wave I suppose it's encouraging people to think about regularly using an old car in the modern world and there's a lot of people out there that I think a classic car fans in terms of aesthetics but they like the idea of one but maybe not the reality they're not purists they're people that look in an old kind of thing I call out a look of one I'd like to be seen in one do I really want to live with one day to day man and although I'm one of those people I think this could help the wider appreciation of classic cars will spoon [Laughter] it's Lippe you know you do feel vulnerable but then you do in old minis because you forget how big everything else has got on the road I don't know why though the fast road driver that low on my head goes it's like a natural reaction I don't know like I'm chipping along now I'm not gonna do 80 miles an hour in this windy which is why it's capable of because 80 in a classic mini on British roads in winter feels like about 180 so I'm not gonna do that I'm more than happy going along at 50 40 feels way quicker I just looked at the speedo this bill I came to 60 or 70 but in 40 you can imagine a bit of a paddy Hopkirk replica or um you know some sort of MINI Clubman 1275 clone you could call it a 1275 GE instead of a GT it's a very cold winter's day I've got my heated seat on I've got me underfloor heating on I don't know how efficient that is I've got the use of a heated windscreen and heated rear screen I mean there is a there's an electrical kind of wine I don't mind that because the original Mini had a really loud gearbox or really whiny gearbox same gearbox that some was in the austin allegro the gearstick here is just forwards neutral backwards summer conversions I've been in of classic cars keep the gearbox so you can still feel like you've got some engagement it's not actually needed because the motor will just have instant torque in any gear so having no gearbox almost or not a geared gearbox as it were and no clutch means there's less to worry about unless in theory to go wrong you just don't see all minis on the road anymore they used to be everywhere they used to be one of the go to first cars all the way into the 90s now well they stopped producing them in 2000 20 years ago I didn't want to directly compare the old mini to the new mini because it's not really fair because if you think rationally you just go for the modern car with its long warranty for a fraction of the price it's on the one hand you could go out and buy something like the mini e brand new Evie and then have your classic cars at the weekend in standard form or you can do it this way round and you can think well no actually I want a classic car to be used most of the time which is where this kind of proposition has a place at the moment I live my life the former I have a modern electric car as my daily driver and I have my classics that run on you know petrol for weekends and summer days and that kind of stuff there were actually experimental electric minis as far back as the 60s when the mini was quite you [Music] now this car is only 75 kilos more than the original mini better performance than the original a series and you get the charm of the mini still it still feels mini you know that indicator noise listen listen to this it really reminds me of my childhood lots of old British seventies cars and with that familiar solenoid relay or whatever it is oh hello hello I've been a tram lining bit of axle trap to someone who's quite wealthy who wants the mini look that probably lived in a city somewhere that's pretty keen on stamping out exhaust emissions I don't know Singapore Paris whatever I could see one of these you know tailored to their own tastes being being pretty cool why not people spend 50 grand on a wristwatch so the most of us who maybe haven't got that kind of disposable wealth it just seems too expensive I think the fascination for me about the swindie is the is the bigger picture and the bigger picture is Swindon powertrain is looking ahead developing a plug-and-play crate electric drivetrain that you can scale up or scale down and you can buy to fit in anything and there's this race going on at the moment almost a bit of a gold rush for a retrofit aftermarket simple crate easy system boss you're trying to do it a number of other people are trying to do it and the bottom line is once you can achieve that and sell it at a competitive price I think more people will be interested in this whole classic car evie game it'll broaden the appeal and that is only a good thing one of the reasons why I wanted to come to swing and powertrain is because it's like a company of two halves really it's on the one hand developing ebikes and power trains be axle power trains that will fit into a multitude of different cars to be retrofitted and on the other it makes fire-breathing touring car engines for use in competition so it's it's big on piston power and it's big into easy as well it just goes to show this stuff can coexist which to me is very car pervert I'd love to know what you think about a controversial project like this is it a good idea to convert old cars into evie or should they just be left and should we just drive more efficient modern v's day-to-day I think the way I sum the swindie up is as a turnkey package it works for some people but for me it's not really my bag they are not massively into minis but big where I'm really turned on and what what I see is being especially interesting is what's under there because swing and powertrain of use this is a guinea pig like I said they are going to launch a complete crate axle electric system that's modular in terms of states of Chu and you can put in anything to comply it and retrofit you in anything and suddenly I'm captivated because I want that type of thing in another classic car and maybe I want to do it myself but it's great to see what can be achieved in another episode of Carper that I'm going to go in there and do a tour of the Swindon powertrain because these guys are very interesting they do a very wide range of stuff from touring car engines all the way up to be bikes and stuff like that thanks again for watching if you haven't subscribed already please subscribe and if you want to comment comment you

Channel: The Late Brake Show

Views: 198,712

Keywords: austin mini electric, electric converted classic car, jonny smith, classic car review jonny smith, a series modified, old mini, classic austin mini ev, austin mini electric first drive, classic mini electric relic first drive, electric relic, carpervert, old mini meets new ev, classic mini electric resto-mod, resto mod, classic mini restoration, mini-e, mini cooper se

Id: X4QgKJ85vd8

Length: 18min 24sec (1104 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 10 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/LordAnubis12]

This retro-fitting is v exciting. I'd love a mid-90s jag but don't want to live with the horrors of maintenance and 20mpg. Fully electric one would be sweet.

[u/profane]

Can't wait for crate retrofit solutions to become available & drop in price...