Holley High Voltage: Hey Kids, Electricity Won't Kill You!!!
Truth be told, I attended the 2021 Holley High Voltage event but neglected to file a report about it. That said, I’ve regretted that decision ever since. All I can say in defense is that equal parts sloth and COVID fatigue sucked my will to share. What’s worse is that the 2021 event will probably go down in my personal timeline as one of the most significant and formative automotive experiences I’ve ever had. Having now experienced Holley High Voltage 2.0, I feel extra compelled to make things right in 2022.
Like many of you, I have struggled with the thought of an electric future for transportation (I won’t even get started on autonomous vehicles). I’ve thought and espoused a lot of the same feelings as many of you…..here is a list:
Electric cars are ugly, and don’t have any style
Electric Cars can’t be customized
Electric cars don’t deliver the visceral stuff…sounds, smells, nostalgia, etc…
Electric cars aren’t cool
Electric cars look like spacecraft
Electric cars are too expensive
Electric cars don’t have enough range
Well, to some degree, all of those indictments are probably true. I’m not going to try to convince you they’re not. But if you think V12s, supercharged V8s, loud exhausts, bad gas mileage, and forced induction, are going to be with us forever, you’re probably wrong. “Things” have been set in motion that will soon be crushing your preferred automotive future.
I know, I know, this is where things start to get heated. You’re going to make some political statement about this or that…accuse me of being a godless liberal sheep and defiler of all things holy.
If that’s the case, you’re just going to have to do it. I feel bad for you though. You’re fighting a tide you can’t push back.
Had I not attended the Holley High Voltage Experience this year and last I’d probably be, at most, curiousl and melancholy about the future of electric transportation. But since being exposed to to a display of electric car technology at a level much deeper than just driving down the road surrounded by the mindboggling number Model 3s in circulation, I am truly changed. Sure, the price of gas is a significant motivator too, but the ability to attend an event that exposed me to the breadth of technologies, developments, and most importantly, the tuner culture, has my full attention. While I can’t tell you that electric vehicles will be able to completely change your mind about everything listed above, I’ll take this occasion to show you a few things that you might not have seen before.
The delicate sound of thunder….
There was this interesting moment when several of the headlining cars were being staged together for a panoramic photograph by the event promotors. As several cars, some of them purpose built racecars were moving around, a few spectators realized, simultaneously, that the loudest vehicle in jumble was a gas powered golf cart!
Sadly, at this point in time, electric and hybrid vehicles don’t make the same awesome internal combustion noises that we all crave. Of all the conversations I’ve ever had regarding EVs, this might be one of the most contentious issues preventing folks from embracing EVs. The most these things manage is that bizarre pulsing and whirring noise that evokes more images of space craft than Ferrari Testarossas. I wish I could say that things were going to get louder for EVs in the future, but I’m not that optimistic. But let’s not get hung up.
Squeeee!
There is though a vehicle that begins to scratch the auditory itch. This is the Napoleon Motorsports 2019 Camaro EL1 drift car, and thanks to Loud Pedal friend and Formula Drift driver Faruk Kugay, we all got to see it kill a perfectly good set of Nitto tires during an all to brief demo.
This carbon fiber clad Formula Drifter, named appropriately “Freedom One” is based on Tesla motors and tons and tons of other gadgetry and kit from across the EV and aftermarket world. All this tech, plus the brains from Napoleon Motorsports, who normally build cars for the Trans Am series, gave Faruk just over 500 hp and around 800 lb-feet of torque almost instantly. Faruk had been working with the car’s regular driver Travis Reeder, over the weekend, to get acquainted with the car and all the future possibilities of electric power in Formula Drift. Based on the twinkle in Faruk’s eye, I’m going to wager that this isn’t his last weekend in an electric drifter.
Tranquility Base
If the EL1 is too much for you, let’s slow down a little...
Electric or not, you could have heard a pin drop as the LegacyEV 1966 Cadillac Coupe Deville drop top oozed around the event. This thing had all the goods….Style (check), Cool (check), Customization (check), Range (enough), and the most amazing EVOD Industries custom wheels with floating center caps!!!!
The obviously enlightened folks at LegacyEV removed over 2,000 original parts from inside and outside of an original 66 CdV and replaced them with the latest EV tech and products to create this masterwork of innovation and style. Not everyone can afford something like this stunning and powerful, and nearly $290k unicorn, but Legacy is in the business of helping shops and builders adapt the latest EV products to almost any platform, based on every level of need and budget.
I imagine that any EV builder/modder or Caddie-phile (if they could get over the whole internal combustion thing) could appreciate this as the highest expression of customization in the purest sense of craft. Over and above the electric infrastructure a build like this would involve just the same level of creativity, skill, and ingenuity that would go into any medium or high end custom Caddie. When I look at cars like this I see a very probable and imminent future for the beautiful marriage of classic style and technology. I would love to see a car like this at an Autorama event in the very very near future. If an LS swap in an American classic can be acceptable, why can’t an EV swap?
Off The Shelf
Most people’s exposure to electric vehicles is commuting next so so many of them. I’ll be so bold as to guess that most have a pretty one dimensional view of the ever growing cadre of Model whatevers, Leafs, (V/B)olts, and Prius(esses). That makes sense because they’re really good at commuting…..but commuting is boring. I think most people don’t know that a growing number of people are also having unadulterated fun with their bone stock or slightly modified electric vehicles. I’ve now had three separate opportunities to see EVs off the streets and (safely and) properly hooning around on skidpads and on proper race tracks.
Probably one of the most interesting experiences I had at HHV was the opportunity to walk right out on to the drag strip to watch a Rivian truck, a Lucid Motors Air, and a gaggle of Tesla Model Ss and Ts doing pass after pass after pass on the famed Sonoma Raceway dragstrip.
Sooo many shrugged shoulders and head scratching as these fairly mundane and pretty much bone stock grocery and hardware getting EVs were flirting with and undercutting a 10 second quarter mile time. It’s one thing to know that electric cars are instantaneously fast, but trust me, it’s quite another to see it in front of your eyes. It’s also quite odd to realize that the most noise any of these made on the strip was an odd sucking noise as tires met the sticky staging area. After that, brake light flash, whirr of motor, and POOF….gone.
The top one is a Rivian truck and the bottom a Lucid Air….gulp
I don’t know if telling you about this experience will do any thing to convince haters or fence-sitters of the merits and future possibilities of EVs, but I am hopeful that it does. Not just because, like it or not, the near future is electric, but because HHV has convinced me that it’s not a good thing to look at EVs as the proverbial “other.” I have seen people do to EVs exactly the same things that people do to internal combustion vehicles. These are the things that make me love cars (more than most people). Frankly, I think it’s exciting to see how quickly EV technology is evolving at the mass market/retail level, but also from the perspective of tuners, customizers, and builders at a more grassroots level. If this article and the gallery below don’t move your needle on EVs at least a little, I feel bad for you. There’s a whole other world out there. Like the title of this article says, electricity won’t kill you.
And going forward…
Yes, we know some of you out there are thinking, this is all great and everything but if I can get to a charger or have sufficient charging capacity at home, how will I lay down some sweet burnouts on the draft strip? It is a fair point and with the recent record sales of EVs in California, the available charging infrastructure is a serious issue that is coming to the forefront amongst end users, automotive journalists and just people who like to complain on social media. More discussion and examination of this crucial issue is needed to cut through the anecdotal hyperbole and real problems in the charging networks. This isn’t that post. Mark and I are just beginning our deep dive into the EV universe, so stay tuned in the future for further coverage on this issue.
-Andrew
