AMPED UP THEN FIRED UP

The Fast & Furious Charger's Electric Detour

- JEROME ANDRE

IT began life not with a roar, but with a whirr. An icon reborn as an illusion—a showstopper designed not to dominate the quarter-mile but to look good doing fake wheelies in front of a live audience. This 1970 Dodge Charger—originally supplied by Dennis McCarthy to Hollywood studios as Dominic Toretto’s iconic muscle car—took the spotlight in Fast & Furious Live, performing nightly throughout 2018, a touring stage spectacle that combined Hollywood drama with practical car stunts, smoke machines, and just enough tech magic to convince a stadium full of fans that they were watching, Live, something fast and maybe, just maybe, a little bit furious.

SAM Hard might be Hard Up by name, but when it comes to storytelling cars, he's rich in ideas. Check him out on Hard Up Garage and on VinWiki on Youtube.

Except it wasn't.

Under the skin, the show car was a fully electric build, fitted by none other than Electric Classic Cars, the renowned Welsh EV conversion specialists. Instead of a big-block V8, it was powered by an electric drivetrain, based on a forklift motor, and a hydraulic lift system, capable of lifting the car’s nose into a theatrical wheelie at a button’s press. Think Vegas magic show, but with faux-rims that spun to simulate speed and a top pace of... 11 miles an hour. It was, as YouTuber Sam Hard would later put it, “all the gear, and no idea.”

But that's not where this story ends—it's where it gets interesting.

A MUSCLE CAR'S SECOND ACT