Ahead of the release of the Gran Turismo movie next week, Jann Mardenborough told Driving.co.uk that the accident was a part of his life and therefore had to be part of the film, too.

Mardenborough, 31, was racing a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 on the Nordschleife section of the 12.9-mile circuit in 2015 when his car became airborne at the notorious Flugplatz, which translates as “airfield” or, more literally, “flying place”, due to the undulation of the track that can result in cars leaving the asphalt. When Mardenborough’s car did so it flipped in the air then crashed through the fencing and into the spectators, one of whom was killed. Several others needed to be hospitalised as a result of their injuries.

Rather than shy away from this tragedy, Gran Turismo makes it a key part of the narrative. Mardenborough, who was heavily involved in the production from the planning stages right through the production and post-production, said he wanted to include the accident in the film — though only if it was handled with care.

“It’s my life; it’s part of my story,” Mardenborough told us (see video interview below). “So I feel it would have been a disservice for the audience for that not to be in there.

“I made sure all of us that were with the production — the producers, Jason the scriptwriter — that that was how it went down. Because it needed to be correct, because somebody lost their life in this accident. And the movie does a great job of that.

“It shows as well the deep dark moments of my life when I was in the hospital by myself. You know, the mental aspects to such an event, and in life as well: what can happen; how you can get out of that; how can you rebound and achieve something — achieve greatness — off the back of that. And so it had to be in there.”

Mardenborough became a racing driver for real after winning the Nissan/ PlayStation European GT Academy competition in 2011, and has gone on to score wins in single seaters and sports cars, including a podium for Nissan in the LMP2 class at the 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours race. The Gran Turismo movie explores that story.

Mardenborough, who was as a co-producer, stunt driver and consultant during filming, is played by Archie Madekwe (Midsommar). Other stars including Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings), David Harbour (Stranger Things), Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond) and Geri Halliwell Horner (the former pop singer who is married to Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Horner).

Gran Turismo is released in cinemas on August 9. Read our review of the film here.

Related articles

• If you were interested in Jann Mardenborough talking about his Nurburgring crash ahead of the release of Gran Turismo, you might be interested in our interview with him from 2014.
• Also check out our Gran Turismo 7 video game review, which we called a triumphant return to form
• And don’t miss this story about plans for Gran Turismo to be made into a television series

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The post Jann Mardenborough: Leaving my fatal Nurburgring crash out of Gran Turismo movie would have been disservice to audience appeared first on Driving.co.uk from The Sunday Times.

In fact, that’s just one of four anniversaries being recognised at Goodwood this year, and the main theme of the Festival of Speed will acknowledge 75 years since the Goodwood Motor Circuit opened, in 1948. In September, the Goodwood Revival will mark 25 years since the first Goodwood Revival was held, in 1998, and it’s also 25 years since the foundation of the Goodwood Road Racing Club that same year.

Ahead of the Festival of Speed, Driving.co.uk sat down with Charles Gordon-Lennox, 11th Duke of Richmond and the mastermind behind all of these world-famous events, to find out how it all got started, what are his favourite memories from the last 30 years, and what the future holds for the events.

If you want to know what he thinks about electric vehicles, what his biggest regrets are and why Jeremy Clarkson got a slap on the wrist at the first Festival of Speed, read on.

Will Dron: You’re celebrating four anniversaries this year, not including the 80th Members Meeting. In what ways will you be marking them?

Duke of Richmond: Well, obviously each one is a bit different. The big one is Festival of Speed and the main theme is 75 Years of Goodwood. We’ve split the cars into batches and there’s a big celebratory batch for the star cars. We’re trying to get together all of the great moments, great cars and drivers. We don’t want to repeat what we did when it was 25. We’ve got some big subplots, with 75 years of Porsche and 60 years of McLaren, for example.

WD: Are there any specific celebrations around Revival?

Duke of Richmond: We’re going big on Carroll Shelby. There’s also 75 years of Lotus, plus a big focus on the TT and the big races.

WD: That circuit’s steeped in history but why is motor sport, and having it at Goodwood, so important to you personally?

Duke of Richmond: Well, I just loved it as a child. My grandfather kicked it off in ’48. It was just a fun time, I guess, spending time with my grandfather. When he closed the circuit, obviously that was a bad moment. I was 10 when it closed and I probably started coming when I was two.

I was always keen on cars; I was taught by hearing quite a lot about them; it was a good connecting point.

WD: So that spurred you on to get some motorsport events going again?

Duke of Richmond: When I came back to live here we needed to find some ways of driving more revenue. The track was sitting there but it wasn’t very well organised. The airfield was the business that was very active but the track wasn’t very active at all.

Then we started the process of trying to get it reopened, and that proved pretty difficult, so we had the idea of trying to do something different. They couldn’t stop me doing something up at the house. But what would we do up here that might work? That’s when we had the idea for the Festival of Speed.

WD: What were the hurdles you had to overcome?

Duke of Richmond: The FIA [motorsport’s governing body] came to have a look at the circuit to tell me what we’d have to do if we ever were going to think of racing there again. They’d been down a few times and thankfully seemed keen to get Goodwood going again one way or another, and trying to find a solution that would be manageable.

They could easily have said, ‘Look, you need Armco all the way around the circuit,’ and it would never have happened. And if they looked at the set up at the house for Festival of Speed, they could easily have said, ‘Look, that isn’t gonna work,’ and we would never have even started it. We wouldn’t have thought twice, really.

It was only because Derek at the FIA and Dennis Carter, who was running the BARC at the time, were both going, ‘Yeah, I think we could do this, you know. This might be good,’ that we pushed on. But when he first went back to the FIA everyone was going, ‘Derek, what is this?! There’s a bit of string and then these cars!’ He said, ‘Well, as far as I’m concerned it’s no different to a rally stage. It’s fine.’ And he sat there and he just took all this flak from people. He was completely confident.

And Dennis was massively helpful in saying, ‘No, we’re confident that we can do this. It’ll be fine; we’re going ahead.’

Everyone could easily had wobbled and gone, ‘Oh this all looks a bit risky.’ But then that’s one of the joys of the Festival: you’re close to the cars.

And then also with the circuit; how do we make the circuit safe but usable? We can’t spend £10 million on it; we’ve got to find a way of doing it which is manageable.

WD: It’s remarkable that the circuit is so close to how it was back when it closed.

Duke of Richmond: The track’s untouched.

WD: Out of the main events is there one that you enjoy the most?

Duke of Richmond: No, I hate them all equally! No, I probably hate and love the Festival of Speed the most, in a funny way.

WD: Just because it’s such hard work to put together?

Duke of Richmond: And it’s easier to love the Revival. And indeed the Members Meeting, in a way. But I mean, I hate them only because it’s a massive effort. The Festival of Speed is unbelievably complicated, and we’re so reliant on people’s goodwill. We can’t make participants come, or do stuff, or pay them to come. They’ve got to want to come. So it requires a massive effort.

Whereas Revival is definitely easier because all those guys with the racing cars, they want to race them. We’ll send out the entry forms for Revival and they’re desperate to come. They’re all gagging for an entry and the spots go as soon as we send them out; they’re like, boom.

But with Festival of Speed it takes months and months and months. Because often a lot of the museums and big collectors, maybe in somewhere like Argentina or something… you have to persuade them; you have to make it easy. You have to fly the car. You’re gonna have to find ways to make it work.

And a lot of museums don’t want to run cars, or they don’t want to move them.

WD: Getting the major car brands to commit must be tricky, too.

Duke of Richmond: And frankly, post-Brexit, very difficult.

WD: Is that still the case?

Duke of Richmond: Very difficult. The paperwork is horrible for everybody, so it’s a huge effort now. And an expense, which it obviously wasn’t before. So it’s very difficult.

WD: Moving onto brighter things, what are your some of your favourite memories from 30 years of Festival of Speed?

Duke of Richmond: There are so many and I remember different ones at different times, but getting the right cars here has always been a very big thing. There are big memories around getting particular cars to come for the first time: the first time we had a whole Nascar team here; or the first time Ferrari came; or the first time that the six-wheeled Tyrrell came; or Nelson Piquet driving.

I’m just very sorry that [Ayrton] Senna never came; we just missed that. And very sorry that [Michael] Schumacher never came. Those are really our two big holes. And Keke Rosberg has never been, either. We just can’t persuade him to come.

WD: There must be magical moments away from the activities on the Hill that you remember as well.

Duke of Richmond: Yeah, people staying here in the house. I remember Dan Gurney coming for the first time and we literally didn’t see him for 24 hours; he slept for 24 hours! Dan became a hugely big part of it; he was at the first Revival, and I remember the first time I saw Dan in the paddock he had a long spanner stuck down into the Eagle, which was almost my favourite Grand Prix car. It wasn’t his car or anything, he was just getting it sorted out. Those were real, real racing drivers.

WD: Did you ever imagine how successful Festival of Speed would be?

Duke of Richmond: No. It’s been an amazing thing. Obviously we hoped it would be better than what people imagined.

We didn’t ever think we were putting on a hillclimb. The motorsport world thought Goodwood was putting on a hillclimb, but that was only ever going to get 2,000 people here; we knew no one was going to go to a bloody hillclimb. We saw it as an event.

And we thought it had potential, but I don’t think in our wildest dreams we imagined that we would have all the partners we’ve got, and the incredible group of supporters. We’ve got fantastic members, and nearly half a million people a year come to these events.

WD: It was just 25,000 that first year, wasn’t it?

Duke of Richmond: Well we don’t know for sure, but about that. We were told we’d be lucky to get two thousand.

WD: I did like the story that you told on a video about not knowing how to collect the cash at the gates.

Duke of Richmond: Yeah. It was Wilfred Cass, who lives nearby and had the sculpture park. He was a very entrepreneurial character and saw the problem in the car parks, so he went back home to his house, got all his wife’s old handbags out and then drove around the car parks giving them to the car park attendants so they could put the money in something. Then he drove around with his old BMW, with the boot open and all this cash in the back.

Back then you didn’t have to get a ticket in advance; it took us a few years to get that sorted out. And then one year we had to say, ‘Right, you can’t come without a ticket in advance.’ And we literally were turning people away, because we had to make that change.

WD: And fill the gaps in the fences!

Duke of Richmond: And fill the gaps. Well, they just broke the fences down after that.

WD: What were the major challenges in setting up that first festival?

Duke of Richmond: Oh, God. It was getting the build done. I mean, it would never have happened if it hadn’t been for our fantastic team. They were used to having to really muck in with the horse racing and stuff. The estate was much smaller back then — about 100 people or something. I remember our central display the first year was a DB9 on a plinth — that was it. Bit different now! I can remember, the night before we were still making that plinth. I went out there with a bottle of whisky for all the guys and we sat there and had a drink while we were finishing it off.

And we all painted the bridge, and so on.

I was on car park duty the first morning. I remember really well waving in the Mason-Styrrons, arriving in that little Barchetta Ferrari, and telling them, ‘You can go and park over there,’ Everyone was carrying their paddock list, and everyone was mucking in.

We did well, and just about broke even in year one. And we gained quite a few partners. But in year two it started to take off. Porsche saw it in year one and joined after that. Mercedes were very quick, too.

WD: At the Sunday Times we’re marking 30 years of Jeremy Clarkson writing for us, and one of his early articles was attending the first Festival of Speed.

Duke of Richmond: He stood on the roof. I remember he stood up on the roof of the house when they did the film for Top Gear and he was eating chips or something. I remember saying, ‘Jeremy, do you have to eat chips?!’

WD: Festival of Speed was the first step to reopening the circuit, then?

Duke of Richmond: Yeah. It took seven years but we realised it was really worth pushing hard to get the circuit reopened. We eventually got it opened in ’98.

WD: What do you remember those early Revivals?

Duke of Richmond: Oh, God. Well just the first moment, actually. Them actually going out to Practice was a big moment because we’d been waiting so long for it. We literally got the permission to run that day, pretty much… we were just doing it anyway by that point.

Seeing a proper race there, and seeing everyone actually really going for it. Because the unusual thing about Revival is they are really pushing — you watch most other historic racing and it’s not at that level.

I’m very excited by the increased number of young, really good drivers, from F1, Formula E, Indycar. The fact that all these Indy drivers and Nascar drivers — Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, all these guys —want to come and race at Revival is great. They’re not too precious about it; they go, ‘Yeah, we’ll just go and race… that’s what we do.’

Surtees driving the LM, too; it was his last race, he just went and nailed everybody. It was a masterclass. He was like, ‘It’s my last race. I’ll just show you guys how you do it.’

WD: And Stirling Moss has been a big part of Goodwood…

Duke of Richmond: Stirling always was just so impressive wasn’t he? He won his first race ever at Goodwood, in ’48 — he made his first win at the first meeting. And then he had his last race here, which was in ’62 [a crash that effectively ended Moss’s career behind the wheel]. So Goodwood was a pretty big part of his his career for sure.

I’m sure nowadays he would never have stopped. It’s a shame, you know — they made such a quick decision for him not to race again. He was unconscious in St Richard’s hospital here for a month, I think, but he made a very quick decision. He went out in a car once afterwards; he hardly tried it, you know? He wasn’t as quick as he thought he should be so he stopped. But yeah, he was so impressive wasn’t he, and so quick here?

WD: Stunning. I mean watching those old guys they do their stuff at the Revival is magic.

Duke of Richmond: Yeah. That probably is my favourite event. And one of the joys of this sport, and so lucky for us, is that we can watch the past masters at work. It’s a bit like watching your old rock band, isn’t it, in a way? We can recreate those those moments. You get the driver, he’s probably still wearing the original overalls, he’s got the helmet, you’ve got the car, he can still drive it … he’s probably quite good in it still. Emerson [Fittipaldi] and people like that are amazing still.

WD: So that’s a bit of history. But what about the future of Festival of Speed? You’ve innovated with things like the Future Lab and the Electric Avenue. But you must be full of ideas for what the future of Festival of Speed is going to be?

Duke of Richmond: Yeah, well, we think technology is a big part of it. This whole idea was a live show about what I guess is 100 years of motoring; it’s mobility past, present and future, and all the things that turn you on and are really exciting. Whether it’s a Blitzen Benz, which was the fastest thing in the world when it was made, except for a bullet, next to gyrocopters and other things.

We’re a platform, too. There aren’t many motorshows in the world now, really. We don’t want to be a motorshow, but being a platform for both the car world and the passion stream.

We’ve always had quite a lot of different customers, and I think that’s been an important part of what we do — to make it really good for the competitor, so they want to come and bring their cars, and that delivers the right audience for the brands, but at the same time putting on a show that spectators really enjoy. Whereas most motor racing events are put on for the people taking part and not for the punters that go and watch them.

WD: Carmakers now talk a great deal about sustainability. Is that something that you’re very conscious about at Goodwood?

Duke of Richmond: It’s actually a huge part of what we do at Goodwood. We’ve got a massive organic farm — the biggest organic farm pretty much in the south of England. We’ve planted 75,000 trees or something. And we’re doing that all the time.

The estate being healthy and sustainable is the most important thing. In a way the events are there to make that happen. We’re just lucky that we can do some of that, and something that we really love.

And I always do things which are connected to the place in terms of history, and have an appropriateness. I don’t particularly want to go and do massive concerts in the park, or something similar, because that isn’t what we do. We’re famous for the sports, and we’ve had them for a long time. My role is really to try and bring them back to life and make them relevant to a modern world. We’re running biofuels for the diesel, for example.

And with Festival of Speed we’re building a city. We produce more power out there than Chichester does. Some people say it’s the biggest greenfield site build in the world.

And then, how sustainable is the event itself? Putting on the event is really the big thing for us, not the cars going up the hill; that’s sort of completely irrelevant. Obviously that isn’t how people see it but that is huge, and an area we’ve always been very focused on.

WD: And at Revival there’s the Revive and Thrive initiative, which rekindles the make do and mend mentality of the post-war era…

Duke of Richmond: Revive and Thrive at Revival is really important. That is really, I think, a powerful message. It’s always been like that, I think we’re just telling it better now. I don’t know if you saw it at Revival last year, but we want the Revive and Thrive village to be the biggest secondhand event in the world. Secondhand is a really, really good thing. The cars are all secondhand, after all. Racing cars, they’re like an old pair of shoes, you know — they’re smashed up, rebuilt, smashed up, rebuilt.

And we’re gonna run them increasingly on synthetic fuel. And the whole ethos around ‘made to last’, ‘buy the best’, ‘love it, look after it, pass it on’, ‘reuse, recycle, repurpose’ — that’s the whole of the Revival. If I’ve got a nice suit, made out of ’50s fabric, why not? That’s great. Suddenly it becomes a modern sustainability message, which I think just puts it in a wholly different category. It’s just good.

WD: It definitely is an idea that resonates with a lot of people today.

Duke of Richmond: It does. And it’s also a vintage lifestyle event. I mean, the cars are an important part of it, but it’s become much more than a motor racing event, really. It’s not like going to Brands Hatch and watching a weekend’s motor racing. It’s the whole thing.

WD: It’s a step back in time, as you like to say. So how do you feel about electric cars? They’ve become a big part of the Festival of Speed.

Duke of Richmond: I think they’re inevitable, and there’s lots about them that’s really, really exciting. And they’re very fast; the fastest cars up the hill are now electric — the fastest race car, fastest road car, both are all-electric. It’s just different.

An electric hypercar… if you can afford it, and you want that sort of car, then that’s a pretty exciting thing to have. An old Series 1 Land Rover is quite a lovely old thing and is a great thing to drive around the woods. It’s just a different kind of thing.

But the joy of the whole classic car movement I don’t think is going anywhere. I was very worried about it five years ago but I feel much less worried about it now. I think that it’ll become maybe more niche. There’s surprisingly few classic cars around, really. There aren’t millions on the road.

Public opinion is a challenge, because it’s just been decided that certain things we love have got to go. And I think that’s very, very hard to get past. But actually, in reality, those old cars are just being sustained, like a pair of old shoes, and they don’t owe anybody anything. And they hardly get driven, anyway. So the reality is they’re not really doing any harm.

But I think if you’ve got synthetic fuel created by clean energy, that helps with public opinion. If it’s much more expensive, so be it, but it’s a very clear response [to the criticism of internal combustion engines].

WD: You favour synthetic e-fuels over conversion of classic cars to electric power, I imagine?

Duke of Richmond: I think I definitely do, because part of the joy for me is the originality of a car. It’s the integrity of it. Because if we were saying it’s just a body shape — that you like the look of it but will put an electric thing in it, then you’ve missed the point. It’s the whole opera. The engineering; the mechanical side of it is definitely part of the joy.

That’s not to say driving a superfast electric car is bad … but it’s not the same thing. And I feel much more confident these days that they can all exist together. It isn’t just like saying, ‘Well that’s all gotta go.’ Anyway, what’re you gonna do with them all? It’s just unrealistic.

And we’ve still got horses, haven’t we? And there are lots of people riding them. It’s not gone. Well, it’s a bit of a weird analogy but they’re not going anywhere.

WD: What do you think your grandfather would think of the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Revival?

Duke of Richmond: I think he’d think we were all absolutely bloody mad! But he’d love it all.

He’d love EVs, actually. Well, they might be a bit heavy for him; he liked really light, clever design and engineering. But he’d love all the future stuff. He wasn’t at all nostalgic. A lot of people talk about our events and nostalgia but I don’t think the events are about nostalgia, actually. I think they’re a celebration of a way of living.

I remember talking to him about Brooklands and the fact that Brooklands was gone. He’d spent so much time there; he loved it so much. But he couldn’t see any good reason for rebuilding it, which is interesting. But I think that’s a post war mentality. You get on. Modern was good, and there was a joy in the engineering.

The 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed runs from July 13 to 16. Read our guide to the event here. The 2023 Goodwood Revival takes place September 8-10. For more information about Goodwood events visit goodwood.com/events. Main image by Uli Weber for Goodwood.

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It’s even more remarkable considering the two-times world champion retired from F1 at the end of the 2018 season, having become disillusioned with the McLaren team and F1 in general. He mounted a comeback with Alpine in 2021 before making the shock decision to jump to Aston Martin for 2023. It proved to be an inspired move for Alonso, now 41, and has shown the world he still has every ounce of talent that won him two world drivers’ championships.

Ahead of his home race, the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, Alonso, 41, sat down with Driving.co.uk to discuss the reasons behind his F1 retirement and phoenix-like comeback, as well as his remarkable success with Aston Martin, how his experience in other disciplines such as Le Mans and Indycar has helped, and why he still has something to prove in the Dakar Rally.

David Green: Fernando, would you have imagined at the end of the 2018 season, having walked away from Formula One, that you’d be here on the eve of the Spanish Grand Prix, third in the championship after a strong second place in Monaco?

Fernando Alonso: Yes! […laughs]  I don’t know, I think when I retired I was thinking that in 2021 it would be new regulations coming so there could be a possibility to go back to Formula One, and with more even cars, budget cap and more standard parts for everyone, the cars and the performance eventually would get that little bit closer.  When I left in 2018 only Hamilton and Bottas could really challenge for a win and I thought that maybe in the future there’s an opportunity so, yeah, this could be in my head.

David Green: You certainly seem to be enjoying it, but at the weekend [in Monaco] when you were speaking to the engineer on the radio you said, “I’m pushing like an animal mate!” — the fire’s obviously still there?

Fernando Alonso: Yes, it’s still there, it has been always there. It doesn’t matter if I’m fighting for world championships or for fourteenth place, when I close the visor I still feel the same fire inside. And, yeah, I’m enjoying obviously when I’m fighting at the front, but let’s say outside the car it did change. You know, [with] the success I’m enjoying it more [but] inside the car it has been always the same.

David Green: And would you say at this stage in your F1 career, the challenge is more physical or mental?

Fernando Alonso: I think both. I think physically obviously it is demanding. Formula One has been always demanding with the G-forces that we have in the car. I have to train harder than when I was 20; I have to keep myself fit; I have to control what I eat; how much I sleep much more than when I was 20, that’s for sure.

But also mentally I think we have more races now in the calendar, we have more events, we live in a different world. There is obviously the social media as well. There are a lot of new generation of fans following the sport as well, which they need different things than in the past. So I think it is also more demanding in different ways.

David Green: I’ve always thought that sportsmen often retire because they’re bored and tired, but then they often grow to regret that decision. You seem to be in this amazing sweet spot now where you can really appreciate the privilege of driving F1 and enjoy it, but you still have all the talent to compete. Is that how you see it?

Fernando Alonso: I do agree. I think when I stopped Formula One I had in my head different challenges — I have the Indy 500, the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Dakar Rally — and while I complete those and I tick those boxes and I really enjoy those experiences, in a way I missed Formula One on those years because Formula 1 is still very unique; where you are living throughout the year, the travelling around the world, those amazing organisations behind those two cars.

So yeah, I think it was good to step back those two years and then come back with fresh energy, reset myself a little bit and see the things from the other side as well.

I remembered really not enjoying that much the national anthem and some of the things that we need to go through before the races, because I thought it was just an unnecessary thing to do before jumping in the car. But then watching the races at home I realised how important those kind of things are for the show, so now I think I embrace the whole thing a little bit better.

David Green: So it’s true that youth is wasted on the young and you can enjoy things more now?

Fernando Alonso: Yes […laughs]. For sure.

David Green: It certainly seems to be that way for the fans, who seem to be enjoying you more. I can almost feel the global collective cheer when you go for an overtake. A sense that everybody’s behind you. Do you get a sense of that now when you’re in the car?

Fernando Alonso: Yes, I do. I think there is, as I said, a different generation following Formula One [now] than in the early 2000s, when I won the championships. I think their parents were following me and now they’ve discovered the sport. The whole world, especially here in Spain, they rediscovered Formula One.

There is more access to everything in Formula One now; different content. There are more passes to go to the paddock; there are affordable tickets. I don’t know, there is a different way of living the sport now.

And green is the colour now that everyone wants to join. I think if you are a Formula One fan probably you have a Ferrari cap somewhere at home, and maybe you have a Red Bull cap because they won championships in the past. If you go to a race now and you go to the merchandising store you buy something green because they are everywhere. So I’m happy to be part of this Aston Martin movement now.

David Green: We’re at the Peroni Il Pitstop here in Barcelona, which is a way of bringing the sport to the fans who can’t get to the race. How important is it for you being here racing in Spain and seeing the fans?

Fernando Alonso: It’s amazing. Obviously every time I come here I feel a different energy. I feel the passion from the fans which are very different in Spain or South America. We live the sport like a football match so there is this different energy, and, yeah, thanks to Peroni as well we bring the fans to Formula One and the Pitstop.

As I said before, I think back in the 2000s this was not the content that the Formula One teams were given, so I think it’s a new sport now.

David Green: Obviously you’re having tremendous success with Aston Martin at the moment and everything is clicking into place. You’ve got a great car underneath you that is getting close to the front and you’re doing so well. But you mentioned earlier about your departure into other motor racing series. How much of a practical benefit to your driving was trying Le Mans, Indycar and the Dakar?

Fernando Alonso: It was. It was a benefit because I think I challenged myself in terms of different driving techniques, different racing philosophies. Especially endurance racing when you have to share the car for 24 hours with other drivers. The level of trust that you need to put on them, the level of trust on your engineers.

I think when I went back to Formula One I was a better driver and a better person as well because there were some professional challenges but also some personal challenges. At the Dakar Rally you have to cross the whole Saudi Arabia in 12 days with just one man sitting alongside you. So I think on a personal side I was a better man as well.

David Green: Just thinking about those multi-discipline experiences you had, you didn’t just compete, you were also very competitive. Is there a romantic element for you to emulate the great drivers of old — doing what they did in a number of series when people don’t expect, or think, that it’s possible in the modern era?

Fernando Alonso: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that was something that was common in the past, but not anymore now because every series, every category, is so professional.

You have to develop your skills from a very early age. If you are an Indy car driver from a very young age you go in the dirt oval and then into Indy car. If you go to Formula One from karting you develop certain skills, you go to the Junior Formula, some Formula One academies as well, and the simulator, all these things.

But it is now very difficult to see a Formula One driver doing the Dakar Rally because they are completely opposite.

So, yeah, it was a challenge for myself to really learn from zero and become a beginner again, you know, and have to learn. Even if I have all the success in Formula One, I have to learn from the best ones in each of the disciplines, so that was very interesting.

David Green: …and clearly successful.

Fernando Alonso: It was. But there are still some boxes that I still need to be complete — the Indy 500; the Dakar. I think, at the moment, after Formula One I’m more into trying Dakar again because I think it was the most extreme experience that I had, and the most different. There cannot be anything more different than Formula One and a Dakar Rally.

David Green: To get a second place on a stage in Dakar on your first attempt is extraordinary … especially given how singular the skill set is for that.

Fernando Alonso: Yes, exactly, so that’s a challenge that I have inside, one day to win Dakar because that will be unprecedented in motorsport.

David Green: So that’s your broader motorsport goal; what about Formula One goals?

Fernando Alonso: Winning a championship.

David Green: Naturally. So, which Aston Martin has Lawrence Stroll promised you if you win a race?

Fernando Alonso: [Laughs] Nothing really, nothing really, but it would be interesting to ask him. But I think Lawrence… look, he’s an incredible leader in the team. I think I had similar experience as well with Flavio [Briatore] back in Renault, where maybe they don’t have the technical background to know everything about Formula One, but they are very interested in learning. They have this power of leadership and this ability of managing 800 people in a very natural way, and it’s exactly what you need from the team principal or the owner of the team.

David Green: Do you think it’s a benefit that he wasn’t involved in Formula One in the past?

Fernando Alonso: I think so. I think if you’re in Formula One all your life you take certain things for granted. I think you need to come from somewhere else and see Formula One as a product; as something where you need to implement your ideas and not to follow the things that have been done in Formula One for years.

David Green: Well, it certainly seems like a very successful partnership and hopefully you’ll go on to race and championship wins together.

Fernando Alonso: Thank you. Hopefully, cheers.

With thanks to the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One® Team and Peroni Nastro Azzurro. Visit https://peroniitalia.com/il-pitstop for more information about the IL PITSTOP immersive experience.

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The post Fernando Alonso on his triumphant F1 return and why he still has something to prove appeared first on Driving.co.uk from The Sunday Times.

And so discussing the rise of hybrid and electric cars, along with increasingly-nannying safety technology, has caused him to whip out his well-worn soapbox.

“I don’t think anything’s changed for the better [since 1993],” he tells Driving.co.uk. “Most cars now are terrible. I struggle to review a hybrid or an electric car because I’m just not interested in kilowatts per hour.

“I signed up to talk about noise and power and styling and sexiness and all of those things. And now it’s just like reviewing fridge freezers or microwave ovens or tumble dryers. An electric component is a household appliance.”

Unfortunately for Clarkson and fellow internal combustion enthusiasts, governments around the world are clamping down on noisy, petrol-powered cars and in Britain, sales of new models powered exclusively by fossil fuels will be outlawed from 2030. New hybrids will be banned five years after that (not that Clarkson will miss those), leaving only zero emission electric (or potentially hydrogen) cars hitting showrooms.

“If that’s what they want to sell us, well, fine, but it’s not something I understand,” he says. “I can’t be bothered to understand any of it. Because I’m never going to buy an electric car. I’m not interested in electric cars.

“There always used to be the noise, and the noise is gone. Without noise then the car is not a car.”

Thirty years ago electric cars were milk floats and golf carts, and if you’d have suggested to the motorist of 1993 that they would return to our roads as passenger vehicles — and eventually displace petrol cars — they’d have laughed in your face. 

And the first car Clarkson reviewed for The Sunday Times was about as far removed from a modern EV as one can imagine: an Aston Martin Vantage, powered by a twin-supercharged 5.3-litre V8 engine. 

He wrote: “Unless your name is Ayrton Senna, you will not have felt, or heard, anything like it in your life before. At 2,000rpm it is breaking windows. At 4,000rpm your ears begin to bleed. At 6,500rpm people from the noise abatement society come round and give you a summons.”

In other words, it was just his sort of car.

“There always used to be the noise, and the noise is gone. Without noise then the car is not a car.”

Clarkson can’t remember who offered him a job writing for The Sunday Times because “it’s too long ago”, but the man who has become the most famous motoring journalist … in the world … clearly recalls the excitement of receiving the call.

“I couldn’t think of anything more amazing than being The Sunday Times’ motoring correspondent,” he recalls. “I used to look at Ray Hutton, who held that position when I was an uber-junior, and think, ‘My god, that man is a sort of automotive journalistic god, because he’s in The Sunday Times.’”

Clarkson, now 62, cut his teeth as a journalist at the Rotherham Advertiser before setting up the Motoring Press Agency (MPA) — selling car reviews and features to local newspapers — with friend Jonathan Gill (see separate story). 

He landed a column for Performance Car magazine in 1985 and in 1988, while still working for both MPA and Performance Car, Clarkson got the call-up to audition for the BBC’s Top Gear TV show. It was that mainstream exposure that brought his fresh style and irreverent opinions to the attention of The Sunday Times, which signed him as car reviewer in 1993.

“The Sunday Times was it,” he tells Driving.co.uk via the phone, for once while travelling in the back of a car (en route to catch a plane to the Bahrain Grand Prix). “As the ads said back then, ‘The Sunday Times is the Sunday papers’. And it still is.”

But that brings us back to the subject of modern cars, because if The Sunday Times hasn’t changed, times certainly are a-changing for motorists. And it’s not just that the types of cars being made these days is turning off Clarkson; the increasingly nannying safety tech is a constant bugbear, too.

“I had a car the other day that I hated — the Lexus NX. That was a bad one. You can’t open the door! It decides whether you can open the door or not based on whether a cyclist is coming, but a cyclist is always coming so you just can’t open the door. I can’t understand it. It’s stupid.”

Oh dear, did we get onto the subject of cyclists? Okay, in for a penny… what does he really think about our two-wheeled road companions in 2023?

“I mean, they’ve got it into their heads the roads are theirs,” Clarkson says. “Well, if I’m being generous, I’d have to say that they’re everybody’s, really. But everyone has to get on, and that doesn’t involve pedalling along in the middle of the road to actually physically stop cars overtaking. 

“And there’s also this business that the Mail Online is particularly guilty of, when there’s an accident, and it’s somebody in an Audi or a Porsche or a BMW, it’s their fault. But If they’re driving a Ford Kuga, it’s not their fault. There’s a sort of bitterness to nice cars. It’s all just gone awful. It’s all just awful.”

So driving’s no fun at all any more?

“I think it’s possible to have fun in a car, but you have to go and seek it out. You can’t just think, ‘I’ll have fun on the way home from work tonight,’ like we used to be able to do.

At the same time as his love for new cars has veered off the road, Clarkson’s passion for farming has evidently grown. Series two of Clarkson’s Farm, in which the titular presenter continues to learn the basics of the farming business and struggles to make any money from his estate in Oxfordshire (named Diddly Squat after an expert told Clarkson the land he’d bought was “the shittiest” they had ever seen, and financially barren), is currently the most popular programme for Amazon in the UK.

And while a few locals have been causing issues in terms of planning applications for Diddly Squat (as covered extensively on the show), the farming community itself has been strongly supportive of his efforts to bring the struggles of farmers to the masses, as he highlights the frustrating bureaucracy and plain hard work involved in the industry; something he continues in a farming column within the Sunday Times Magazine.

Can he ever see a time when he hangs up his driving gloves to concentrate full time on being a farmer?

“No, no, no, god no,” he tells me. “No, because I need another income source; farming doesn’t pay. But I may have to switch to writing about classic cars. Well, they won’t be classic but you know, it won’t necessarily be the latest new car.

“That might not be something The Sunday Times wants somebody to write about. So they might sack me, I don’t know. But I don’t feel qualified to write about the new electrical Volkswagen, because I don’t know what I’m talking about. I don’t know what f***ing kilowatts per hour are, or joules or whatever it is they run on. I have no understanding or interest in it.

“It would be like making — god rest his soul — Adrian Gill [The Sunday Times’s late food critic AA Gill, who died from cancer in 2016] only review vegan fast food restaurants. He would just say, ‘Well I have no interest in this.’ So there’s no point.”

“I may have to switch to writing about classic cars. Well, they won’t be classic but you know, it won’t necessarily be the latest new car.”

When Driving celebrated 20 years of Clarkson’s car reviews in The Sunday Times, a decade ago, Jeremy was still working for the BBC (the “fracas” that led to his sacking was still two years away). At the time he told us bringing Top Gear back from the dead was his greatest achievement… is that still the case?

“Well, actually, weirdly I do feel probably this farming show has kind of done more,” he confides. “Because it’s the first time I can actually be me on camera, rather than playing a role, which is quite nice. And also it seems to have really struck a chord with people. 

“I mean when Top Gear was at its peak and 350 million people were watching us all around the world every week, that was pretty spectacular. But I think the farming show is probably as satisfying as that.”

You can read Jeremy Clarkson’s farming column and car reviews in full at The Sunday Times. Click here to find out about the latest digital and print subscription offers: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/subscribe/

The post Jeremy Clarkson on 30 years of writing for The Sunday Times … and why he ‘can’t be bothered’ to understand electric cars appeared first on Driving.co.uk from The Sunday Times.

The MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, who led the Conservative Party from September 2001 to November 2003, said that the Chinese state’s subsidies for its homegrown companies, including producers of rare earth metals needed for EV batteries, runs contrary to World Trade Organisation rules and has “fixed” not only the car market but also other industries, such as telecoms.

“I raised this in the House of Commons,” Duncan-Smith told Driving.co.uk. “I was told that telecoms companies were turning to [Chinese firm] Huawei because of a market failure; the free market not being able to be competitive. It’s quite the contrary; what actually happened is, against the WTO rules China has essentially fixed the market.”

Doing so, he said, has allowed Chinese firms to undercut the rest of the world. The result for the car industry has been a need by western car makers to also build cars and batteries in China, where it is cheaper to do so, and to use much more affordable Chinese materials.

“This has been the case in the Chinese car industry for some time,” he said. “China has more battery factories than the West put together, many times over. Most of the West has now decided to buy their batteries from China. Their cars are being made in China.”

By 2030 it is expected that China will make more than twice as many batteries as every other country combined, according to consulting group Benchmark Minerals.

Research from CRU Group, published in the New York Times, states that 41 per cent of the world’s cobalt mining is controlled by China, and 73 per cent of its refining.

Cobalt accounts for 4.3 per cent of an EV battery, according to UK environmental think-tank Transport & Environment, and around 70 per cent of global cobalt production comes from mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the US Geological Survey’s (USGS) Mineral Commodities Survey 2023.

Amnesty International found that cobalt was mined in the DRC by children and adults in “horrendous conditions” such as narrow man-made tunnels, where they are at risk of fatal accidents and serious lung disease. Some of the world’s biggest brands were “failing to ask basic questions about where their cobalt comes from,” the human rights charity said. 

Graphite forms the largest proportion of materials in an EV battery, at 28.1 per cent, and China has cornered the market on this, too, with 70 per cent of the refining market. Grinding graphite causes air pollution and China’s less stringent environmental regulations mean that it can choose to ignore the more sustainable – and costly – processes sought by other developed nations.

Nickel comprises around 15.7 per cent of an EV battery. Processing the metal generates toxic waste that should be disposed of responsibly, which drives up costs massively in nations that clamp down on environmental waste.

The New York Times reported that China refines 95 per cent of the global supply of manganese (5.4 per cent of an EV battery) and 67 per cent of lithium (3.2 per cent of a battery pack).

It also found that China produces 77 per cent of the world’s cathodes, 92 per cent of the anodes, 74 per cent of the separators and 82 per cent of the electrolytes that go into batteries. It’s estimated that America makes about 1 per cent of the world’s cathodes, the paper reported.

Chinese price fixing is concerning not only because it gives China an unfair advantage but also because the resulting market dominance raises issues of data protection and human rights, said Duncan-Smith.

“It is a terrible country,” he said. “It’s run by an awful government that is brutal. It locks up dissidents and tortures them; we know very well that it’s committing genocide now in the Xinjiang region, getting rid of the Uyghur – an ethnically Muslim group. They put the kids into re-education camps and they’ve sterilised the women.

“The men have been shipped off to forced labour camps, and there they build all sorts of products that we buy without question, which are in the supply chains. Many of our solar arrays contain stuff that’s probably been mined and refined through slave labour.”

Despite these concerns, many leading car makers from around the world have entered into strategic partnerships with Chinese manufacturers, or established research and manufacturing operations in China, an effort to produce vehicles that are affordable to buyers and can compete with native Chinese firms.

Those that Driving.co.uk approached for comment highlighted stringent corporate responsibility guidelines and human rights rules, including strict anti-slavery requirements.

Manufacturing in China could prove to be a disaster for other reasons, according to Duncan-Smith: “China steals IP [intellectual property] all the time. Many companies have set up in China to produce stuff, next thing they know they’ve closed and gone because China’s stolen their IP. They do it all the time.”

The MP said he was informed by a reliable source about one Japanese car maker which had its vehicle IP stolen and a “shadow factory” built nearby, creating so-called copycat vehicles. “They began to realise that these Chinese workers were tired because they were working in two jobs … these workers were bringing all their knowledge and technology to the [shadow] company, and they were building cars that look just like the Japanese cars.

“The Japanese firm complained about it and the next thing they knew, a whole bunch of people came in and started smashing up the Japanese factory and burning it down. The police arrived and just stood and watched. The Chinese government just ignored them.”

Copycat cars in China are a well-established phenomenon, and there are even motor shows dedicated to them. In an unusual example of the West fighting back, JLR eventually won a three-year court case in Beijing against Chinese firm Jiangling Motor Corporation (JMC), which was found to have copied five specific features of the Range Rover Evoque for its Landwind X7.

However, now China has established itself as the world’s largest automobile manufacturer, many homegrown firms are producing high quality original products for sale in Europe. It’s estimated that as many as 25 Chinese car brands could flood the market in the coming years, with Ora and BYD having already launched well-received cars in the UK this year.

For those buying Chinese cars, data privacy could be a concern. Chinese companies are subject to espionage and national security laws that would require them to hand over data to the state when requested, according to experts.

It’s for this reason that many politicians, including Duncan-Smith, objected to employing Chinese telecoms giant Huawei to build Britain’s 5G networks. Huawei was attractive to the UK as it is able to undercut many international rivals.

“They [the Chinese government] see this all massively strategically; that they need to dominate global markets. And they are doing it. I can’t think of a market that they’re not now in or dominant over the West.

“President Xi has been very clear: he said from the word go he thinks that Western democracy is an ‘aberration 200 years old’, and that the only way to govern is their way to govern. He also has made it clear that he believes that the West is decadent, and that China’s role is about to be restored after years of chaos. They’re now restoring China’s rightful place in the world, as he sees it – one of dominance.

“They’ve learnt the lesson of the Soviet Union, which didn’t dominate economically and was destroyed by the economic power of the West. China now are destroying our economic power. And the West is scared stiff of doing anything about it because China can pull the plug.”

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The post Car market fixed by ‘brutal’ China and the West is ‘too scared’ to fight back, says Iain Duncan-Smith appeared first on Driving.co.uk from The Sunday Times.

At just over 4m long, the Cupra UrbanRebel is a shade shorter than a Renault Zoe, yet packed into its compact form is a battery pack capable of up to 273 miles, according to the brand, which is 10 miles fewer than a Zoe R135.

However, the UrbanRebel has the Zoe licked in terms of performance, packing a 226hp electric motor that allows a 0-62mph sprint in punchy 6.9 seconds, more than 2.5sec quicker than the Renault.

Cupra is making big noises about UrbanRebel’s environmental credentials. The car uses a mix of 3D-printed and 3D-knitted materials in its manufacture, with a lightweighting approach to the interior and exterior.

The small footprint, both in terms of carbon and dimensions, are designed to appeal to young city-dwelling motorists, according to the brand.

Speaking at Cupra’s “Unstoppable Impulse” event in Barcelona tonight, CEO Wayne Griffiths said:

“The UrbanRebel is more than just a car to CUPRA. This is the model that will democratise urban electric mobility. Emotional, sexy, and fun to drive and at the same time accessible. We prove that electric cars don’t have to be boring. This will be the next generation’s entry into our range.”, said Wayne Griffiths during the Impulse event.”

Cupra plans to launch the Barcelona-designed UrbanRebel in 2025, with production at the firm’s plant in Martorell.

Terramar hybrid promises 62-mile electric range

Before the UrbanRebel arrives, though, Cupra will introduce its first plug-in hybrid SUV. The Terramar, named after the historic racing venue in Sitges, will have a claimed electric range of 62 miles, which is double the range of most current PHEVs and similar to the electric range promised by the forthcoming Range Rover PHEV.

Long journeys are made possible without plugging in thanks to a petrol engine under the bonnet.

“Terramar … perfectly combines bold proportions with a long striking bonnet, while the shark nose means breakthrough resistance and the determination to win,” said Jorge Diez, Cupra’s design director.

“Thinking of how the driver will feel, we provide a unique experience with the latest technology, thanks to the driver oriented interior concept. All in all, a 4.5 metre long SUV, with Cupra DNA ready to shake one of the most competitive segments”.

Tavascan electric SUV to take on most competitive segment

Arguably the most fiercely-contested vehicle segment right now is that of the pure-electric SUV, with old hands such as the Jaguar I-Pace and Audi e-tron now facing stiff competition from the likes of the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Mercedes EQC and BMW iX3, and new entries that include the Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Smart #1 and Genesis GV60. It’s into this ultra-competitive market that Cupra will launch its own entry, the Tavascan.

The production Tavascan “remains faithful to the 2019 concept car”, with some design elements included that were “strongly hinted at” in the Cupra Tavascan Extreme E Concept.

We were treated to the production car design at the Cupra event this evening, including what Cupra promises is a signed-off image of the interior (above).

“The Cupra Tavascan doesn’t just capture the vision of contemporary electrification, but it also globalises the brand, taking Cupra to new markets,” the company said in a statement. It will be launched in 2024.

Cupra’s ambitions

Since the Cupra brand spun off from Seat in 2018 it has delivered nearly 200,000 vehicles, and the brand’s ambitious goal is to double its annual sales in 2022 and hit a planned 500,000 cars a year through global expansion. The company aims to double its dealer network and its €2.2bn turnover from 2021 this year, too.

The company is in the midst of a global expansion and is in the process of launching in Australia., with the first dealer opening in Sydney later this month.

Along with the three new models over the next few years, the current line-up of Cupras – Leon, Formentor and Born – will also be refreshed by 2025.

The Volkswagen-owned brand is also investing heavily in Spain’s electric infrastructure. It has pulled together a group of 62 national and international partners under a project called Future: Fast Forward, aiming to “transform Spain into a European hub for electric mobility”.

Future: Fast Forward recently put forward a plan to raise €10 billion – the single largest industrial investment in Spain’s history – to go into electrifying the country.

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The post Cupra announces three new models by 2025 including UrbanRebel, an electric supermini with a range of up to 273 miles appeared first on Driving.co.uk from The Sunday Times.

Callum, 67, is one of the world’s best-known car designers. He worked at the likes of Ford and TWR Design before rising to become design director at Jaguar. He now heads up the design firm Callum, specialising in the realising cars, furniture and just about anything else the business is called upon to do.

Although he has stepped down from his role at Jaguar, Callum has remained an external consultant to the company.

While some of his cars such as the Jaguar XK have taken their styling cues from the past, he doesn’t look at the future of car design with doom and gloom, seeing good design as important even in an era of autonomous vehicles and changing means of car ownership.

This interview was conducted following the news that a new vehicle painting robot from ABB is revolutionising car customisation.

What is the future for car design?

Ian Callum: “I absolutely believe that the motor car will still retain its individual need for people. And it will still retain its character within a world we know today. 

“Yes, it’s becoming more of a commodity and yes, it’s something people expect to have in their lives, like a washing machine or whatever other appliance you might need.  But there’s something very special about a car.  People do get emotionally attached to them. 

“And when they go and buy them, whether they may admit it or not, but the very look or design of car has a huge part in their choice.  They’ve got to like the look of the car to begin with.

“Of course, branding is very important in that aspect as well.  People often buy cars on brand.  But that just emphasises the fact that it is an emotional purchase.  And for that reason, the aesthetic of the car remains very important, regardless of what is going to happen with powertrains, the cars become electric – we’re talking about autonomous.”

Are cars in danger of all looking alike?

Ian Callum: “Well, there’ll be a degree of lack of individuality perhaps in autonomous cars where they become taxis rather than cars. But I think if anybody’s going to purchase their own car, regardless of powertrain, it’ll still be an emotional buy. 

“And I still believe the character of a car and the way it looks, the way it feels, the way it behaves in your life is important to most people.”

Mini has done well with offering a lot of visual options. Is that personalisation a thing for the future?

Ian Callum: “Well the whole importance of personalisation of a car is just becoming stronger and stronger, and there’s no doubt about it. I mean, I’m working with people who actually want the whole car designed for themselves, just one-offs. So, you know, the more cars around the world I think people want this personalisation.”

What do you think of the ABB robot that can paint designs onto cars?

Ian Callum: “The offer in this paint is absolutely incredible because it does offer a very individual look for any car, and a very personal look as well – if you’ve got a painting you want to replicate onto the car it can now be done. Before it’d be a complicated process of perhaps putting a wrap on it, which I always feel uncomfortable with. I think that real paint on a car is the way to go. 

“You could do it by hand. Of course, that’s going to take days if not weeks to do. And you’re not going to get a perfect replicated design that you might want.  So this is offering all sorts of new levels of individual design for a motor car.

“In fact, it’s incredible. It will get to the point where no two cars that you buy – albeit they might be the same car line, the same brand – they will not be the same.  Whether it’s out of choice of features or whether it’s a very individual paint job. 

“I do believe, looking at the way this works, that it will – it could become – beyond something that’s elite and something that’s very niche.  I think you can go onto semi-mass market cars. 

“It’s obviously a special order of some kind.  It will probably end up on a special paint line within a mass production process.  But I think I can see this being applied to cars that you and I could buy. I think it’s extremely exciting.”

Is the business case there for offering more options?

Ian Callum: “Yeah, I mean personalisation costs money.  But I think the large car companies now realise that personalisation is also a money-maker.  Because people are happy to pay for it. I think when people are looking at a bargain-basement car they will just pay what they have to pay. 

“But when most people buy a car they do want to add their own personal touch.  And quite often they’re very, very happy to pay for it. 

“And that’s in fact how car companies make money, it’s all the personalisation, all the features, all the accessories people might add to the car, is where a lot of their margins come from.  And this just is another opportunity to add margin to the product. 

“And I’m sure if the pricing is right – and I’m not talking about a cheap alternative – I’m talking about it’s something that people are prepared to pay perhaps a couple of thousand pounds or even more for it.  Then it’ll be well worth it as a business case. Absolutely.  

“And you know, the whole notion of personalisation of cars is becoming more and more important to people.  There are so many cars on the road and they’re ending up a little bit like cookie-cutters as they say.  They’re all looking very similar and people want personalisation, individual design on their products. 

“So I absolutely believe that with the right investment, the right pricing, there is definitely a business case for these individual paint designs.”

Could you use something like ABB’s paint system?

Ian Callum: “Yes. Everybody that we deal with – we’re doing very individual cars and they do have their own requirements.  I think there is an opportunity to put some of this – these ideas – onto our products.  Absolutely.   Depending what the customer wants.

“I would probably design something sympathetic to the car but it’s still a paint job, so to speak.  It would probably have a kind of empathetic line to how the car is shaped.  However, that’s not necessary. If somebody wants a fairly random piece of art applied to it, in three dimensions, then that’s clearly quite applicable.”

Interview by Jeremy Hart

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The post Car designer Ian Callum on customisations, autonomous vehicles and cars all looking the same appeared first on Driving.co.uk from The Sunday Times.

Air Race E is the brainchild of Jeff Zaltman, an American businessman with a proven track record in bringing the excitement of air racing to the masses. He’s the CEO of Air Race 1 World Cup and Air Race Events, representing the pinnacle of wing-to-wing air racing around the globe. Now he wants to use that experience to pioneer electric air racing, which, just like electric car racing, will feed into the development of mass-electrification of aeroplanes.

“Our vision for the series is that we’re trying to take aviation into the future, trying to advance the whole aerospace industry. We’re doing that by enabling it to use electrification and taking it forward on the platform of motor sport,” says the tanned 50-year-old from his home office in Barcelona.

“Motor sport is regularly used as a platform for development of technology, innovation and, of course, taking products to market, ultimately. We expect to be the motor sport platform for the aviation industry.”

Competitors in Air Race 1 fly oval courses at more than 200mph over eight laps

Indeed, while existing air racing, especially Air Race 1, is undoubtedly a thrilling spectacle, it hasn’t influenced wider aerospace industry technology for quite some time. Zaltman readily admits that, but points to the heyday of air racing for inspiration.

“By the 1920s, air racing was actually one of the most popular sports in the world, attracting the biggest audiences. Of course, it was for the amusement of fans, most of which hadn’t even seen an aeroplane, but a lot of technology came out of the early days of air racing.

“It was quite a lot of technology, especially on the aerodynamics and also, how to make aircraft more lightweight, etcetera. The Supermarine Spitfire was one example, which came about due to experience in the Schneider Trophy race, so there’s a real proven legacy there of air racing bringing technologies that can be put to use.”

Air Race E: How it works

The top rung of the international air racing scene runs to an established format, with eight aircraft flying laps of a circuit together at speeds of up to 250mph and sometimes no more than ten metres from the ground. It’s exhilarating to watch. Zaltman’s firm has so far organised races in the States, Spain, Tunisia, Thailand and China – and there’s much more to come. However, now that the format has been developed, he sees an opportunity to repeat the success of the likes of Formula E. In fact, he even spent some time working with the Virgin Racing Formula E team in 2016.

“We have an opportunity to change because we already have this platform. So why not use this motor sport environment, as it’s perfect for testing and proving new concepts. It’s a playground for the future.”

According to Zaltman, he can put together air racing events “in his sleep”, so the major missing piece in the puzzle to bring Air Race E to reality is electric racing planes.

There are two different classes under development. The regulations for the open class were requested by 17 different teams around the world, setting out the rules for the construction of the aircraft, with a maximum electrical power output of up to 150kW – or 201bhp.

There’s massive freedom in the rules for the powertrain, however, encouraging innovation in terms of the battery, electric motor and cooling systems.

Meanwhile, Zaltman’s company is developing its own aircraft for the ‘performance class’, with up to 100kW (134bhp). It plans to have eight of these ready to race and, presumably, buy.

He’s quick to point out that, while the performance-class planes will all be manufactured equally, aiming for simplicity and safety, he does not expect them to remain the same, as teams will be allowed some freedom to operate them in terms of the aerodynamics, cooling and even recharging the battery.

Challenges of electric aircraft

Unsurprisingly, one of the biggest hurdles for the project is the weight of the electrical components. Zaltman estimates the increase to be between 50 and 100kg, which doesn’t sound crippling until you realise that the Air Race 1 planes weigh just 250kg.

“If you put a big battery in a car, it’s going to go; it might go slow, but it will go and it’s just a question of optimisation. Put a big battery in a plane and it won’t get off the ground – it simply won’t fly. And it could certainly be very unbalanced and even dangerous. It’s all much more weight sensitive.

“And that’s what’s held the industry back, the laws of physics. Aerospace is way behind automotive, certainly in adoption of electric technology.”

Electric planes are a challenge in terms of design, technology and safety

Other than weight, the biggest challenges facing electric air racing are governmental approval of the aircraft, and safety. There have been several high-profile electric car battery fires that burn much longer and are much more difficult to put out, and that issue is potentially even more catastrophic in an airplane.

“When you’re in an aircraft, it’s not like a car, where you obviously can park, step out and run away. You’ve got to control the aircraft all the way to landing. So we have to go through a lot of extra rigorous testing and making sure that any fire can be contained within the battery.

“Then we also need to think about gliding stability when it’s not under power. Like, can the plane actually glide to a safe landing without any power?”

One of the criticisms of electric car racing has been the lack of exciting noise, but Zaltman reckons that shouldn’t be a major challenge for Air Race E. Most of the noise comes from the air going through the propellor, he claims, not the combustion engine that turns it.

That speed will be reduced for the electric racing planes due to the different characteristics of an electric motor — down from about 4,200rpm to 2,700rpm — so the racing should be a little quieter. Of course, the wider aerospace industry will see quieter operation as a major plus point.

On the flipside, the high torque output of the electric motors from low revs should make the race starts even more exciting to watch. The pilots normally hold the plane on the brakes on the starting grid with the throttle fully open and then release the brakes when the green flag is waved, but there may be changes to the design of the propellors required to accommodate the electric motor’s performance.

Will electric aircraft really take off?

While there’s no date set for the first electric air race, that time is getting closer, Zaltman says, and the engineers have made the technology work. For races that are only five minutes long, anyway.

In terms of this technology’s possibility for wider aerospace use, there’s an enormous gap between a five-minute race in a lightweight racing plane and transporting a few hundred holidaymakers hundreds or thousands of miles, but Zaltman is quite pragmatic about Air Race E’s influence.

“For an aircraft to have a purpose in commercial airfare, you’ve got to be able to carry 100, 200 passengers a meaningful distance, from London to Berlin, etc. But you don’t just start by building something like that. That’s not the first step. It has to start on this very small scale.

“But you know, we are actually the cutting edge of the progression of this technology, and we are directly on that evolutionary path to those large aircraft.”

Air racing is a popular sport with online audiences of 1.2m viewers

He’s not the only one that believes that, as Airbus signed up to be part of the project at an early stage – one among many industry supporters. It takes a hands-off approach, encouraging innovation to thrive and allowing access to its vast experience when required.

There’s a link to the project closer to home, too. The University of Nottingham was given a current racing plane to convert to electric power and research the various sub-systems in the process. Word is that its effort is close to being ready for testing.

Zaltman wouldn’t be drawn on when the first electric air racing event will take place, as that will depend on enough teams and planes being ready to compete. He did hint at an imminent historic first test of a racing plane, though.

Once the aircraft is proven, it must be passed by the relevant authorities for flying and then racing. Dozens of cities around the world have already expressed an interest in hosting a round of the inaugural Air Race E, Zaltman says.

In parallel with the efforts to bring electric air racing to the masses, the aerospace industry will be closely looking at the lessons learned during its development.

Development continues ahead of the first race

A lot can happen in a short space of time. After all, it has only been just over a decade since Nissan released the first-generation Leaf electric car, and Tesla – now the world’s most valuable car company – was fighting for its financial life.

If you look at where the electric car industry is now, with the likes of the Lotus Evija, Porsche Taycan and new Mercedes EQE all leading the way, we can only wonder where light aircraft will be in 10 years, and perhaps larger passenger planes not too much after that.

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• If you enjoyed the interview with Jeff Zaltman, the founder of Air Race E, you may enjoy this interview with Alejandro Agag, creator of the Extreme E off-road racing series
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• Goodwood says it will ‘carefully consider’ future flying car demonstrations after Airspeeder crash

The post Air Race E: We meet the man bringing electric motor sport to the skies appeared first on Driving.co.uk from The Sunday Times.

Enter and you will discover all manner of timeless classic cars in various states of repair. Our visit revealed a Series II Land Rover, TVR Cerbera, Porsche 356 coupé, Citroën DS and, nearest the shutters, a 1957 Morgan 4/4. But here’s where the toes of classic car enthusiasts might begin to curl: all of the cars within are being converted to run on electric power.

A client’s TVR Cerbera with its engine removed. It’s likely the battery modules will be place along the central transmission tunnel.

Ripping out a 356’s four-cylinder air-cooled engine, or the Cerbera’s 4.2-litre V8, and replacing it with an electric motor and lithium-ion battery packs – that’s the stuff of nightmares for some enthusiasts. The engine is often thought of as the heart and soul of a car; is it not seen as sacrilege in the classic car community?

“We’ve never had anybody come up to us and say that,” says Steve Drummond, co-founder and director of Electrogenic. “There’s a big online community of enthusiasts and our profile is widening now, and so we’re getting noticed by people who aren’t conversion [to electric] enthusiasts. You get some trolling but the answer is, you don’t know what it’s like until you’ve driven it.”

Why convert to electric? 

There are multiple reasons for swapping out petrol for electric power, Drummond says, but primarily he claims it makes the cars “better” to drive – when looked at without rose-tinted spectacles.

He cites the example of the Triumph Stag owned by business partner and Electrogenic co-founder Ian Newstead: “It’s the immediacy [of the acceleration]. You’ve got all the torque there – much more than it had originally, in fact, and it’s immediately available to you. It’s quick and responsive, it’s light on its feet; it’s a joy to drive.”

Will Dron tries out Ian Newstead’s electric Triumph Stag – believed to be the first of its kind to be converted.

Another advantage is reducing the chances of mechanical failure. “The Stag is a classic example; it had a notoriously unreliable engine,” he says. “It sounded beautiful, yes, but was well known for its unreliability.”

By replacing the engine with an electric motor, which has just one moving part, you dramatically reduce the chances that you’ll end up standing by the side of the road waiting for a breakdown truck.

“People talk about ‘range’ with electric cars but what’s the range of a classic? The end of the street?”

Newstead has clearly been let down by a classic car or two: “Try explaining to the wife [before a journey] that you’re going in the classic car, and it might make it wherever you’re going but then again it might not.”

“With classic cars you don’t always know if you’re getting home again,” adds Drummond. “People talk about ‘range’ with electric cars [how far you can travel per charge of the battery] but what’s the range of a classic? The end of the street? To quote a number of our customers, it gives a car whole new lease of life. Everything we put in the cars is good for 200,000 miles, 50 years.”

Isn’t that part of the romance of owning a classic car? Their idiosyncrasies; the fact that they’re inherently tricky to drive (or, at least, drive well) and the care that goes into keeping them running, are part of the appeal.

Newstead (left) and Drummond (centre) explain to Dron why customers choose to convert classic cars to electric power.

“It is, but it also makes it inaccessible,” counters Drummond. “You have to keep it going, so you either have to employ a mechanic or you have to do it all yourself, which is hard, hard yards.

“I had an old Beetle that I could drive because I loved it, but nobody else in my family could even start it. After an electric conversion, the whole family was zipping around in it. They used to fight over it, in fact. It was such fun.”

Newstead reckons conversion is especially suited to households that have a car each for the two adult partners plus a prized classic car for occasional use. By converting the classic to electric it would be possible to get rid of the one of the other cars, he argues, because they’re so easy to drive and won’t leave you stranded.

What about the noise, I ask. The music of a classic engine is very much part of the intoxicating effect. The reply suggests the other benefits outweigh the charm of a sonorous exhaust: “It means I’m able to turn the radio down a bit,” smiles Newstead.

“Roll forward 15 years and there will be fewer petrol cars. Then there are fewer economic incentives for petrol stations to exist”

Another possible benefit springs to mind: given the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 amid increasing animosity towards vehicle emissions, and calls for combustion engine cars to be banned from city centres, is electric conversion future-proofing your classic car?

“Totally,” says Drummond. “And not just in terms of being allowed to drive on certain roads. Roll forward 15 years and there will be fewer and fewer petrol cars. Then there are fewer and fewer economic incentives for petrol stations to exist. And then you will find that range anxiety [the fear of running out of fuel] is not about electric cars anymore but the other way around.”

A final reason one might decide to replace the engine with an electric motor is simply that it’s in such poor health that an intervention of some kind is needed. An extreme example would be a barn find, which might have an engine that is completely seized and can’t be saved, though there may be many more much-loved runners that reach an age at which an engine rebuild or replacement is the only way to keep it running.

“At that point, you might think this is the time to do it,” says Drummond. “A friend of mine with an E-type (Jaguar) just paid £50,000 to have his engine rebuilt. That’s not small money.”

A Porsche 911 engine rebuild would cost up to £65,000, adds Newstead.

Amazingly, the owner of the Porsche 356 undergoing conversion at Electrogenic at the time of our visit recently paid £40,000 to have it rebuilt. Despite only having covered 600 miles since then, the owner wants to install an electric motor, which is incomprehensible until you realise that the pristine engine could now be stored as a museum piece at the owner’s home – a reminder of how we used to drive. The mind wanders to images of future generations asking their parents what on earth is that shiny metal thing with pistons and valves.

The birth of Electrogenic

Electrogenic was founded about three and a half years ago. Drummond has a background in environmental engineering and designed power stations for a living (“Coal, oil, gas, nuclear, solar, wind… you name it”). He also launched the first ever online carbon trading platform and was involved in the first plans for the Severn Estuary tidal generator in the 1980s.

The Morgan is a trickier car to convert than the Stag, as space in the engine bay is more restricted.

Newstead, meanwhile, comes from a very different background. A traditional car mechanic by trade, he took some convincing about the benefits of electric cars. He had in mind milk floats and couldn’t understand the appeal. It was his 16-year-old daughter who opened his eyes to the potential of electric power by showing him some drag racing videos on YouTube.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he says.

The pair’s first project together involved converting Drummond’s own split-screen VW Campervan.

“The campervan’s natural environment is the beach but we couldn’t take it down the hill to get there as it didn’t have the power to get back.” The electric motor allowed it to scale the hill with ease, he says.

“My petrol campervan couldn’t get back up the hill from the beach”

That first project was stolen and never recovered, sadly, but the premise seemed like a sound one and, following further research and a trip to America to check out the latest developments in classic car electric vehicle (EV) conversion over there, Drummond realised there was a business case and the two men formed Electrogenic in late 2017.

“It seemed to me that the tech was at a point, or was just coming to a point, where you could make an electric version of a classic car that was worth owning,” Drummond tells me. “Before that, probably not – you’d have to have been a real enthusiast. You could see that it was becoming possible to do it well.”

Electric car conversions: How to convert a classic car to electric

Electrogenic’s first official conversion was Drummond’s own VW Beetle. Over a number of additional projects they honed their conversion skills. The company found that off-the-shelf components often weren’t up to the task so they started making their own parts, which turned into making their own electronics.

“If you buy a charging system and a battery management system and a motor, and they’re all from different manufacturers, they’re not designed to talk to each other,” says Drummond.

“It’s ‘bitsa’,” chimes in Newstead. “Bitsa this, bitsa that.”

“You get a Microsoft instead of an Apple Mac,” continues Drummond. “You have to stitch them together, with compromises to make everything talk properly to each other. You’re not getting a unified whole. These days [with their own kit] we have control over the entire electronic environment.”

Drummond shows Dron a consignment of Tesla battery modules, ready for installation.

They do buy in battery packs, of course. The supplier depends on the job, as different packs come in different shapes, and one might be more suited to a particular classic car, in terms of packaging, than another. I’m shown a consignment of Tesla-supplied battery modules (yes, they do that), which look as simple as hundreds of AA batteries joined together in a clear plastic case. Interestingly, the Tesla packs are more affordable than the others used by Electrogenic.

Each car presents its own challenges during conversion and the cost of classic car electric conversion varies.

“It really depends,” says Drummond. “It starts around just under £30,000 plus VAT and goes up to whatever you want. They’re all bespoke conversions, and that’s the joy of it.”

Newstead’s 1976 Stag – the first to receive an electric conversion according to the Triumph Stag Owners’ Club – has had its 3.0-litre V8 engine removed but in its place are battery packs mounted in a 90-degree V formation as an homage to the original powerplant.

“Beetles and early Porsches were back-end heavy, front end light, and don’t steer so well. We can improve the handling”

More battery modules are mounted where the fuel tank and spare wheel would normally be located, adding 37kWh of total energy storage for a claimed range of around 150 miles. Neat touches include positioning the 50kW Type 2 charging socket under the original fuel filler cap and keeping the cockpit looking largely original, so to a casual observer the only clue that it’s not petrol-powered is when it Newstead climbs in and drives away in near silence.

Although overall weight is the same, the placement of the battery modules results in 50:50 weight distribution, Drummond claims, though its configuration means that the front end is actually lighter that it was before conversion. To compensate, Newstead swapped out the springs for more pliant ones, which ensures the ride height remains the same. In other projects, the suspension will often remain original, though in a recent Morris Minor project the clever Issigonis-designed suspension system proved a challenge, so the torsion bar was adjusted to suit the new running gear.

Each car sent to Electrogenic goes through a “reception process” that includes driving on track to get a feel for the brakes, handling, performance and ride quality. Then Drummond and Newstead will talk to the customer about the possibility of improving the car through conversion.

“This is another good thing about it,” says Drummond. “For example, Beetles and early Porsches were back-end heavy, front end light, and don’t steer so well. We can put weight in the front that actually helps the handling of the car.”

Start off in first, second or third — the instant torque of the electric motor means any gear will do

The Stag’s ‘Hyper9’ high-voltage brushless electric motor sits underneath the battery V, delivering 80kW of power (107hp) and 173 lb-ft of torque, which compares favourably with the original V8’s 145bhp and 170 lb-ft.

Also under the bonnet are the original power steering pump and vacuum pump for the brake servo, though a new electric heater has been added to compensate for the fact that heating can’t come from the V8 engine. A new kill switch is also added to enable the high voltage system to be disconnected in the event of a crash.

The challenges of bespoke conversions

Amazingly, power is sent to the rear wheels via the Stag’s original four-speed manual transmission, as Electrogenic often retains the manual gearboxes during the conversion. To drive, you still use the clutch to change gears but setting off and coming to a halt involves not using the clutch at all, which feels thoroughly odd during a first drive. What’s more, when setting off you can simply pick a gear — first, second or third, the instant torque of the electric motor means any of them will do.

“You tend to drive around in third if you’re feeling relaxed, fourth on the motorway,” explains Drummond. “Second, if you want to squeal the tyres and first if you want to destroy them.”

A Jaguar E-type and Land Rover Series II. The Land Rover my or may not end up with its original transmission.

Not all owners want to keep the gearbox, though. The Porsche 356 will have its transmission removed (“The old ratios are quite close which means you have to change gear a lot”), and Drummond and Newstead are still debating whether or not to remove the ‘box in the Series II Land Rover. They might ditch it, they tell me, but still send power through the transfer box, allowing high and low range for off-roading. Of course, ultimately it’s up to the client.

The 1957 Morgan 4/4 was another challenge, as the car had a non-standard gearbox that the owner wanted to keep but a tricky reverse gear that he wanted to bypass. So while the finished car retains all the forward gears, engaging reverse involves flicking a switch.

Of course, the Morgan’s packaging differs significantly from the Stag’s. While it received the same electric motor and 37kWh battery capacity as found in the Triumph (the Morgan’s owner wanted a larger battery, in fact, for increased range, but Electrogenic convinced him that less weight would result in a more satisfying driving experience), the engine bay is more restricted, with the passenger footwell and steering column encroaching on the available space, so the front battery modules are mounted towards the top of the bay. Five Tesla modules are mounted at the front of the car and two are positioned at the rear, where the fuel tank was.

The cockpits are largely original, but fully working.

“There’s not a lot of space to play with,” says Drummond. “It’s a lot of problem solving all the time.”

Perhaps the biggest challenge for the team during my visit was the Citroën DS, which is famous for its hydropneumatic suspension system, powered by a seven-piston hydraulic pump run off the engine. The same hydraulics system is linked to the power steering, brakes, gearbox and clutch assembly.

But without an engine, Electrogenic needed to find a new way to power it all electrically, and the solution was a new mechanical pump with pressure switches, connected to the 12-volt battery (which even modern electric cars retain to power the lights, heating and infotainment systems).

The Morgan and Triumph are crude to drive by modern standards — just like the petrol versions.

“It actually drives better than the original,” reckons Drummond. “We hooked it up to the 12-volt before we removed the engine, to test it, and the ride is actually firmer. It’s nicer.”

The cabins are largely kept original, though instruments will be made to work with the new drivetrains, including the rev meter. And of course a battery gauge is added. All the electrics are stripped out during a conversion as old wiring looms are often unreliable; it’s simpler and more robust to start again from scratch with modern kit.

Some things can’t — and perhaps shouldn’t — be changed

There are certain aspects that remain thoroughly un-modern in an electric conversion, though. The layout of the cockpit, for example. As a taller driver, ergonomics is not a plus point of either the Morgan or the Triumph, and squeezing my legs under the steering wheel required the skills of a contortionist.

Ergonomics is not a strong suit of classic cars and that doesn’t change when they’re converted to electric.

And to drive, while the power delivery is smooth and punchy, there is still plenty of tyre noise and the rudimentary aerodynamics of the Morgan results in significant buffeting from the wind – at speed you struggle to hear the person sitting right next to you and breathing becomes difficult as air is forced into your lungs.

What’s more, by keeping the original suspension largely intact the ride is incredibly soft by modern standards, and cornering at pace results in significant body roll. The steering is heavy, the seats offer very little side support and the brakes are authentically crude, requiring significant pressure to bring the cars to a halt.

In short, this is still very much classic motoring – eccentric, uncomfortable but engaging, technical and terrifically old-school. It just comes with improved eco-credentials.

The growth of classic car electric conversion

Most experts agree that this is a burgeoning industry though data to back that up is hard to come by at present. Driving.co.uk has contacted the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders for any information on the scale of the market in the UK, and how it has changed over time, though there had been no response at the time of publication.

Drummond and Newstead say counting the number of firms converting classic cars to electric is difficult (“We make a distinction between people who have actually delivered a car to a customer and people who are talking about it”) but manage to reel off five well-established UK operators based in the UK, aside from themselves (see below). Each seems to have a different specialism, suggesting there are niches within this niche.

“Our first paying customer arrived a month before Covid lockdown”

It seems that there’s no shortage of demand from customers, both private and corporate (the Glastonbury music festival has commissioned three Land Rover Defenders for use on the estate, for example). The profile of classic car conversions also got a royal shot in the arm when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex climbed into an electric Jaguar E-type following their wedding in 2018.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding car was an electric Jaguar E-type.

But although this is clearly a market with huge potential, of course the last 12 months have been tough for Electrogenic.

“Our first paying customer arrived a month before Covid lockdown,” says Drummond. “We got a big order; a whole bunch of corporate customers, actually. And we expanded our team from three people up to a dozen. But we didn’t submit the PAYE documents in until the end of March 2020 and that meant we missed the cut-off for furlough. So we paid the salaries all the way through first lockdown. It was all a bit scary.”

Even worse, all the corporate customers cancelled their orders in the first week of lockdown in 2020. Drummond says he didn’t have to take out any loans because “we’re just very efficient” and now that lockdown has eased, it’s full steam ahead once more.

“All bar one of the corporate clients have now returned, including Glastonbury,” he says, “And we’ve got another three starters joining this month.”

To the casual observer the electric conversions look identical to the originals.

Not only that but on the day of our visit last month, Electrogenic had picked up the keys to a new 9,000 square-foot premises next door to the existing workshop as part of its expansion. The firm also managed to retain a deal with Bicester Heritage for a marketing office and use of the track, which the company uses for testing vehicles.

How does electric conversion affect classic car values?

There’s not a great deal of information available in the public domain about how much an electrified classic car is worth. Even a leading car valuation expert wasn’t able to help in my quest, and one of the leading motor insurers — the first to offer dedicated electric car policies — said it doesn’t cover classic cars converted to run on electric power (even though it covers regular classic cars).

Fortunately, classic car specialist insurer Adrian Flux was much more helpful, providing values and policy costs before and after conversion for three of the classics I found in Electrogenic’s workshop. It’s pretty good news for the owner of the Porsche 356, as a 1964 Cabriolet valued at £80,000 in its original state would be worth £130,000-£140,000 after a £75,000 turnkey conversion by a specialist. Electrogenic might be able to do it for less than that, which would mean breaking even, or actually adding value.

Similarly, a Land Rover Series II worth £16,000 before conversion would be valued at £50,000-£60,000 if converted by a specialist for £45,000,  which means it could make good financial sense.

But it’s not so smart for less valuable cars, it seems. A 1957 Morgan 4/4 is valued by Adrian Flux at £20,000 but after a basic conversion would be worth £30,000. The insurer said that doing the conversion yourself (assuming you have the skills), using quality parts, might cost £18,000, which would mean you’d lose both time and money in the process.

It’s also worth noting that insurance premiums go up after conversion. Assuming the cars are in good working condition when bought, that they’re used as a second vehicle by a driver in their 50s with a clean licence and secure private parking, and based on a limit of 3,000 miles per year, the Morgan’s annual insurance premium would rise from £105 to £195, the Land Rover’s from £96 to £245 and the Porsche’s from £280 to £580.

The future of electric classic car conversions

What does the future hold for Electrogenic, I ask. “The future is electric,” quips Drummond with a smile.

But can they see a time when all classic cars will be converted to electric, due to increasingly stringent emissions regulations?

“Not all of them, I don’t think,” says Newstead. “Some of them will. Some people will want to keep them classic, but I don’t think they’ll be allowed on the road.

“Bicester Heritage is future-proofing right now and one of their thoughts is that it’s likely that to drive an internal combustion engine car, you’re going to have to have a licence and it’s going to be a constrained activity allowing you to drive it in a specific place and maybe not anywhere else. Race tracks probably. Silverstone, that sort of thing.”

Such an eventuality would mean that companies like Electrogenic are likely to have a very bright future indeed, though it will undoubtedly be an uncomfortable thought for some classic car owners.

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Classic car electric conversion firms in the UK

• Electrogenic: Established at the end of 2017, Oxfordshire-based Electrogenic will convert almost any classic car to electric power, and have developed a lot of their own parts and electronics. Although they offer a bespoke service according to the customer’s instructions, the exact specification of the conversion is a “conversation”, with guidance offered by the experts. Costs start at around £30,000 but will go much higher, depending on the job. https://www.electrogenic.co.uk/
• London Electric Cars: Based in Elephant and Castle, south east London, this company specialises in classic Minis, Land Rovers, Morris Minors, Morris Travellers and Vans. Costs start at £22,000 for the most basic conversion but again, this is a bespoke service so costs vary depending on specification. A budget of £25,000 “for an appropriate conversion and other sympathetic upgrades” is recommended. https://www.londonelectriccars.com/
• Electric Classic Cars: The oldest one classic car electric conversion specialist in the UK is based in Powys, Wales. The company has an activate YouTube channel and is known for exciting conversions such as a ludicrously-fast Tesla-powered VW Beetle, though a wide range of vehicles have been converted, from a Ferrari 308 to a Fiat 500. If you don’t have your own classic car, one can be sourced for you. The firm will also happily supply you with parts for your own home-made conversion. https://www.electricclassiccars.co.uk/
• RBW Electric Classic Cars: At the moment RBW specialises in building MGB Roadster and GT lookalikes using classic shells but modern engineering and technology underneath, though other models are now being introduced including electric Jaguar E-types. It has partnered with Continental on the engineering side (tyres are only one part of its business). https://rbwevcars.com/
• Lunaz: Based at Silverstone Circuit, Northamptonshire, Lunaz specialises in high end and luxury classics from the likes of Rolls-Royce, Jaguar, Range Rover and Bentley. The company describes its work as “uncompromised expressions of the original” and as such, prices are thought to be well into six figures. https://lunaz.design/
• Zero EV: This Bristol-based company offers a bespoke high-end conversion service using Tesla-based components with custom-made control systems, but its core business is as a parts supplier, re-manufacturing car maker parts for use in electric vehicle conversions. It also offers training and support for end users. https://zero-ev.co.uk/

Enjoyed reading about classic car electric conversions? Then you might also like to read about EVs with the longest range.
If you’re looking to head out this summer, check out our list of the best classic car shows.
In the market for a new electric car? Read our review of the 2020 Skoda Octavia iV Estate plug in hybrid here.

The post Classic car electric conversion is on the rise – we visit one specialist to find out why appeared first on Driving.co.uk from The Sunday Times.

Ian Plummer (pictured below), commercial director of Auto Trader, said electric vehicles (EVs) bought used but under one year old – former showroom demonstrators, for example – work out £7,000 dearer than petrol or diesel equivalents over three years and 30,000 miles, when the total cost of ownership (TCO) is considered.

A car’s TCO represents the total monthly budget for consumers, including insurance, tax, servicing, fuel (units of electricity in the case of electric cars) and any other running costs.

An electric car between one and two years old is £6,000 more expensive over the same period than one with an internal combustion engine, according to the research, while a two-year-old electric car will sting buyers to the tune of £4,000.

One in seven Auto Trader users now look at EVs during their search journey

However, electric cars bought new or at three years old are cheaper in terms of TCO than petrol or diesel models over three years and 30,000 miles, with a saving of £1,000. That rises to £1,500 and £2,000 for four- and five-year-old cars, according to the Auto Trader data.

“Nearly new” used EVs work out more expensive due to three things: they miss out on the government plug-in car grant of £2,500; they often don’t receive manufacturer incentives, such as a deposit contribution; and monthly finance deals often have a higher APR because they are not supported by the brand and their finance broker.

“One key message that we at Auto Trader try to convey to customers when they’re thinking about buying an electric vehicle is that they need to factor in the total cost of ownership of their car,” Plummer told journalists at an industry event hosted by Goodwood Motor Circuit in April. “It’s a more complete view [than the retail price].”

“Overall, the TCO of EVs does get nearer to parity with petrol or diesel cars over time, and [savings] are equal for brand new cars and for older used cars.

“But applying the TCO logic to younger used cars doesn’t make a cost equation that stacks up for buyers. Total cost of ownership of one or two year old vehicles is still around 30% higher than their petrol or diesel equivalents.”

Plummer said that demand for EV is growing fast, with views of car adverts on Auto Trader increasing by 50% between September 2020 and March 2021.

One in seven Auto Trader users now look at EVs during their search journey for a new or used car, and almost 50% say that their next purchase, within the next five years, is likely to be an electric vehicle.

But while demand is increasing, used electric cars are also beginning to flood the market, with the number available on Auto Trader tripling over the last 12 months. At the same time, used prices are still higher than equivalent petrol or diesel cars, which means they’re still only attractive to wealthier buyers. This “green premium” means that over-supply of used EVs is now a real concern, according to Plummer, which will seriously hamper the government’s plans to shift the majority of drivers into electric cars.

“Over the longer-term, if this trend continues with no intervention, we will see sales slow, supply increase and ultimately prices will be forced to drop to accelerate demand,” he said.

“While lower prices might seem a good thing in a market where we know price is the major barrier, this is very short sighted.

“Supply exceeding demand leads to retailers finding it hard to sell used EVs, which leads to lower prices which means retailers – who want to run profitable businesses – will not want to stock used EVs.”

Over-supply will result in higher monthly payments for new and used electric cars, making them less attractive than petrol and diesel equivalents

As a result, car dealers will offer lower part exchange rates for used EVs, which in turn impacts both used and new car residual values (the loss in value of a car over the course of the finance term), as the buyer has to fund a larger loss in value, making the monthly payments more expensive.

The issue is more acute for premium models from brands such as Jaguar and BMW, with a 300% increase in used electric vehicle adverts on Auto Trader between February 2020 and February 2021, compared with a 144% increase for volume brands, such as Renault and Nissan. This is against an increase in demand of 48.1% and 18.5% respectively.

“It could stifle the electric car market before it has even begun to make traction,” said Plummer.

“Unless incentives are given to lower that monthly payment, we could end up with a situation whereby once again new and used electric vehicles are looking less attractive than petrol or diesel cars from a cost perspective.”

“You can quite clearly see that our [government] grants don’t sufficiently address the cost problem”

Plummer said part of the solution needs to be increased government incentives for consumers as we approach the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars, from 2030.

“We need something more akin to Germany and Norway than we have in the UK. You can quite clearly see that our [government] grants don’t sufficiently address the cost problem, and do nothing to address the younger used EV issue.

“We need some certainty around government fiscal policy and long-term support in order to ensure consumer confidence. We’ve seen goalposts moving, to be frank, in recent times, but if you want people to base their calculations of affordability of a vehicle on TCO, we need some long term clarity.”

He added that investment in charging infrastructure should also be high up the nation’s priority list.

“We can’t wait for queues at chargepoints. We have to make sure that we’re putting in more; we’re not holding back. Two in three people say that infrastructure is still a barrier to their adoption of EVs.”

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– If you were interested in this story about nearly-new electric cars costing more to run than petrol and diesel equivalents, also take a look at what the car industry had to say about meeting the 2030 deadline for the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars.
– Check out our list of all the car makers’ electric cars available now and coming out over the next few years
– And here are the more affordable electric cars, under £35,000, that are still eligible for the government’s £2,5000 plug-in car grant.

The post Nearly-new electric cars cost more to run than petrol and diesel appeared first on Driving.co.uk from The Sunday Times.