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Ian James Corlett is Taking Charge
“If you get a vintage car, it’s frozen in time. It’s only getting cooler,” Ian James Corlett tells us near his home in Atwater Village, before we see his very special Porsche 912.
The 1966 coupe was the Candian-born voice actor’s solve for what he described as a cycle of addiction, leasing brand-new Porsches every three years. They got plenty of use— both as daily drivers and on the track— but to Corlett, the modern models started feeling quickly dated in their design and features. “Give me the next one, give me the next one, give me the next one,” he says, describing the feeling.
Instead of constantly looking forward to the next release, the husband and father of two decided to look to the past— creating a one-of-a-kind electric conversion he knew he would keep for a very long time.
The inspiration came about fifteen years ago via an unreliable old Vespa as, while living in Vancouver, the weather afforded very few days to enjoy his scooter. Corlett stumbled across an electric conversion kit, which improved the drive greatly, and he never had to worry about engine trouble again.
Applying the same transformation to a Porsche started with finding the right body. Selecting a 912 gave Corlett relief that he wouldn’t get struck by lighting for bastardizing a 911, and the car paid for itself when he was able to resell the engine on eBay for about his total out-of-pocket.
The coupe got restored in Phoenix by AZ Street Custom: new brakes, suspension, paint, every piece of chrome re-plated, and all new rubber— before being passed to Todd Barlow of Green Motors Inc. in 2013 for initial electrification. That first round was “good but not great,” with early technology leading to a few gremlins, while it was happily driven back in Vancouver. That is, until Corlett failed to shut the car’s main breaker during a four month trip, returning home to a totally unsalvageable battery pack.
Everything happens for a reason. Corlett remembers having a “talk with God” at this point, knowing the battery replacement would be a major— and costly— job. He had been following a firm in San Marcos, EV West, at that point making a name for putting killer electrical systems into BMW 3-series bodies. They were (and are, he says) “the gold standard,” so in 2017 the 912 was sent to California for a total rebuild.
They started with about a third of a battery pack taken from a Tesla Model S, which now resides in a black box in the front trunk of the 912, paired to a single HPEVS 9” AC motor— producing the equivalent of 118 horsepower and 120 lb-ft of torque, with a range of about 100 miles per charge. The build is scalable to accommodate a second motor and additional batteries.
The motor is mated to the original clutch and transmission, which is almost always driven in 3rd but can be geared down for a tight merge or to show off.
Showing off happens less and less. “I wasn’t after a race car,” Corlett says, “just a quick little sports cars.” The car is plenty quick, though its Gattaca-like electric silence is slightly unnerving as the Porsche drives past you.
Yes, there are other electric sports cars with better range and more powerful engines, and they represent the cutting edge of the technology. The 912 EV represents something completely different— a bit of evolution applied to a classic, for a driver seeking something eternally cool and outside the mainstream: we think he succeeded.
