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Fascination Everrati Porsche 964 and Defender Series IIa: dissimilar brothers

Fascination Everrati Porsche 964 and Defender Series IIa: dissimilar brothers

Much has been written about the British electric restomod specialists Everrati. We drove the 964 Porsche 911 and the Land Rover Defender (Series IIa) and found that two cars couldn’t be more different. Both are fun!

Finding the way to the coolest retro mod electric cars is not easy. Everrati is located on a remote former US military airfield in Upper Heyford / Bicester in Oxfordshire in the heart of England. The name is exciting and a creation of “Ever” (English. Always) and “Rati” (Hindu goddess of love). So cars that you love forever. “Besides, it sounds Italian,” Justin Lunny smiles. With such a verbal creation one involuntarily expects something. In fact, Lunny and his partner Nick Williams are tackling the restomod issue electrically. And how!

The two Britons don’t do things by halves and dare to do two real classics at the same time. The Land Rover Defender of the IIa series and the Porsche 911 of the 964 series. Two icons that you can only really burn your fingers on if you approach the matter half-heartedly. So Justin Lunny and Nick Williams put their heart and soul into electrifying the vehicles. For Lunny, one maxim was untouchable: the cars must not lose any of their flair. Simply pulling in an electric powertrain and adding a battery will not work. After all, customers pay several hundred thousand euros for an Everrati.

Chief engineer Mike Kerr, who has already proven his skills at Lotus and McLaren, gave the two classic cars the finishing touches with meticulous CAD design and endless test laps, sparing neither cost nor effort. With the 911 in the ultra-casual Gulf design, the technicians have combined an electric motor with a 53-kilowatt-hour battery. The result is a rocket with 372 kW / 506 hp. It becomes clear as soon as you get into the car. The specifications were implemented one-to-one. Even the axle load distribution corresponds to that of the original. It takes about a year to convert a car like this. The CAD program is an indispensable helper, because every 964 body that is used is precisely measured. “We don’t just put the same powertrain in every vehicle,” explains Mike Kerr.

The driving meets expectations, no, exceeds them. And that by far! The E-Elfer starts like the fire brigade and only needs a little more than four seconds to reach 100 km/h. Class. But in the curves you get that real Weißach-Zuffenhausen feeling. An in-house differential helps with traction, and even when the rear comes alive, the Everrati Porsche remains easy to control. An electric widowmaker? Certainly not! This is also due to the precise steering, which comes pretty close to the Porsche model. If electric then please.

After just a few kilometers it becomes clear that this 911 has more soul than any Tesla. A bit of high-tech is allowed with all sense of tradition. With a box located in front of the gear stick (including the golf ball), the driver can change the tuning at the touch of a button and give the rear even more freedom. The interior of the E-Elfer also exudes the charisma of the original, starting with the checkered fabric in the seats, the doors and the dashboard, the Alcantara elements and leather upholstery through to the round instruments typical of Porsche and the bucket seats. It hardly gets any more posh. “The car will be restored by absolute Porsche specialists,” says Justin Lunny. The fact that the range is only around 320 kilometers should not bother anyone with a car like this. Here the fun comes first, and it is immense. However, this also has its price: the conversion costs 280,000 British pounds plus taxes.

The Land Rover Defender is also a pleasure, and at least £150,000 plus taxes it is even comparatively cheap. The British classic also fulfills the Everrati dictate of faithfulness to the original. The electric off-road vehicle with its 115 kW / 156 hp drives, sounds and feels like a real Defender from those days. The interior is rustic-reduced, as you would expect from a Defender these days. Steering wheel with a thin wooden rim, uncovered sheet metal and only the most necessary round instruments. Doors rattle, the engine whirrs and after a while the comfort separates the wheat from the chaff. It doesn’t matter that the 60 kWh batteries only last for around 240 kilometers. And if things go over hill and dale, the typical gear reductions are of course also available in the electric version. This Defender is the cool city or beach car and steals the show at the ice cream parlor of every Italian sports car.

The wealth of ideas of the two car fans is far from exhausted. The next big number is a conversion of a Ford GT 40, which should get a 700-volt system. In addition, the tireless petrolheads are working on a front-engine, rear-wheel drive platform for a Mercedes pagoda. The drive train then also forms the basis for a Ford Cobra or similar models. So in the future some well-heeled contemporaries are likely to look for the buildings on a former military airfield in England.

Source: Stern

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