Driven: 1966 Moment Motors E-Type Jaguar EV Swap – Sacrilege Made Sublime

But as of a few days ago, I got to climb behind the wheel of the same Series I Jaguar E-Type that I always said was impossible to drive. In truth, that would've held true if it weren't for an Upstate New York transplant to Austin, Texas, by the name of Marc Davis. After decades in software development, Davis decided to quit the struggle of "normal" employment to begin designing and building some of the most exciting EV-swap restomods on the planet via the business he calls Moment Motors Company.

Though it might sound like sacrilege to the purists who never got to drive a normal straight-six E-Type, let alone one as unique as this one. But I can assure you you'd probably prefer to own this EV swap over a stock example in the long term. If you're still foaming at the mouth that someone EV-Swapped an E-Type, I invite you to set your biases aside just this once. It'll be the best decision you ever made as a petrolhead. Along the highways and backroads of the Texas State Capitol, this electric restomod provided an experience unlike anything else I've ever come across. So please, let me cook, and then you tell me if EVs are always garbage.

On the face of it, you could never tell from the outside that this E-Type is anything more than a typical example. A spectacularly-preserved one, no doubt. But not something that immediately screams, "Holy s***!" It's all just loveable and familiar styling lines and elegant curves that we all know and love, just polished up a bit. If donking out a classic sports car with huge rims and a fart-can exhaust is worse than EV-swapping one, at least that's a sin Moment Motors never committed.

It's only when you grasp at the tiny little door handles and squeeze your way inside that you find clues as to what's lurking under the hood. Though the gauge cluster might look stock before your eyes focus on the dials, you'll find they display charge levels and kilowatts rather than RPMs and fuel levels. Designed to look exactly like the stock cluster, it's the first clue that what we have on our hands here is way beyond the ordinary. It's a point furthered even more when you press your foot on the brake pedal and turn the car on to the chorus of complete silence.

But no, the car isn't broken, which is surprising for a vintage English sports car. But the Cascadia SS-250 3-phase AC electric motor that powers this E-Type is so quiet on startup that the average person would assume the car doesn't crank at all. With 300 horsepower and 375 lb-ft of torque at its disposal, that's 35 more than you would've found in a stock Series I E-Type from the factory. Better still, all that power is available the second you stomp on the accelerator. No delay, no fuss, just constant acceleration whenever you may need it.

With an accompanying Cascadia CM200 Inverter, this electric motor changes its speed of rotation so effortlessly that you really can't tell it's down there doing all kinds of electromechanical wizardry I'm totally unqualified to explain. But what results in a car this lightweight by nature is a beast that gets off the line in an absolutely savage way. Zero to 60 is taken care of in a respectable 5.9 seconds, or roughly a full second faster than what it would've been out of a 4.2-liter straight six little gremlin. With an in-house-tuned, fully integrated Vehicle Control Unit and Battery Management System, it's all worked out well before the vehicle is delivered.

In short, you're Tesla fast, even beyond the low end. Even so, the drivetrain is geared in a way that won’t roast the tires immediately. It’s eager to plant all its power and torque to the road at just about any point in the power band, but not at the cost of some fairly expensive rubber. But it's not like this old Jag steers with all the effortlessness and grace of a modern EV. It's still a slightly recalcitrant, finicky, and complicated machine to fling around corners. No insanely over-boosted power steering to speak of, just pure brute strength heaving mechanical steering linkages the way all automobiles used to steer. It's actually quite hard to convey exactly how you can feel the grip of the tires coming through the steering wheel when you don't have 1,200 PSI of pressure doing all the work for you.

Once you get the hang of it, the results are nothing short of profound. Of course, without a clutch or a gear stick to speak of, the experience won't quite be a one-to-one comparison between stock and its EV-swapped counterpart. But let's be real; merging the realms of classic and modern with this level of attention to detail comes down to the latest CGI 3D scanning technology and its accompanying CAD software, which maps where EV drivetrain components need to sit before the wrenches come out.

You'll notice by looking at the interior of this E-Type that the firewall hasn't been cut out with reciprocating saws and plasma cutters. Neither has the radiator that cools the 62-kilowatt-hour battery pack appear out of place compared to where it sat in stock variants. Even the passenger side screen on the dashboard looks like it belongs there. Add on the fact that the weather stripping on the passenger side gets a little sticky in the absurd Texas heat, and it really does feel as properly English as the real thing. Also, why did Jaguar design door handles for elves? My hands aren't that big and it was still hard to wrap my fingers around them.

But the fact the door handles are how they were when this car was new gives a layer of authenticity that you need to preserve when toeing the line between modern tech and classic road feel and design cues. With an electric vacuum booster applied to the disk brakes and stock suspension at all four corners, this Jag still carves corners like the good old days. Best of all, you still have all that quintessential essence of what makes an E-Type, or really any classic English sports car, special.

That includes all the squeaks and rattles that came with the car new, by the way. But what you also get for your money is quite a lot of attention from passers-by. For instance, when we stopped at a convenience store to pick up some energy drinks, we had no less than two different people walk up to the car and strike up a conversation with Marc about how nice the period-correct Opalescent Silver Gray paint and the red leather interior looked. Only for their jaws to practically hit the floor when they were told what powers this thing. Better yet, we were clearly getting some eyeballs cruising down I-35 heading into Downtown Austin.

It was there that we noticed a late 2010s Dodge Challenger HEMI, possibly a 392 of some sort, on the verge of tailgating behind us. Clearly, the driver was trying to get a better look at what we were driving. Of course, this was a real kick for us, too. But when the roadway cleared up ahead, I turned to Marc and, without having to say a word, he signaled the all-clear to floor it and leave this Challenger in the dust. With no weight to hold it back, he was out of the rear-view mirror by the time I slowed back down to see what this guy's reaction would be.

Would he take it on the chin, slackjawed by what just happened, or would he race right up my backside, even more curious to see what the hell just roasted him? Sure enough, all I had to do was lower the window and hear the obligatory HEMI noises roaring at me to know what choice he made. We can only imagine what he felt when he saw us drive off with almost no noise whatsoever. As soon as an open left lane presented itself, Challenger man roared off so aggressively he chirped the tires a bit, clearly emasculated by what'd just taken place, and probably off to go tell his friends about it. But you know what? If that's not the ultimate sales pitch, I don't know what is.

That said, the cost of the conversion process is bound to be worth as much as a genuine stock E-Type. At least $140,000 or so by Marc's own estimation, depending on if you want extras like DC fast charging installed. Is it worth it? Come on now, is it even in question? This is a sublime vehicle. It is one of the most clever, innovative, and exciting restomods built this decade so far. Moment Motors has truly added another chapter to its timeless story in the annals of a car lauded as one of the best ever. For that, we owe them our thanks.