Mountain Pass Performance is well known in the Tesla community for their modifications of their all-electric powertrains. And while these products are popular, in 2017 the company carried out its first hybrid conversion of a Lotus Evora. It had 500 horsepower thanks to a Tesla drive unit, and was named Blue Lightning to accentuate its electric performance.
Now, the company has done the same, but this time it’s a little more up our street here at Sung’s Garage. This time they’ve found themselves a willing Nissan 350Z to work on. Its 3.5-litre V6 has been bored out to a ridiculously large 4.2-litres, and this has been matched with a Phi-Power racing-spec e-motor.
The electric motor adds 200 horsepower to the internal combustion engine, which in itself produces 600 horsepower. Yep, that totals 800 horsepower… this is one fast Datsun. Mountain Pass Performance guess that this is one of, if not the most powerful naturally-aspirated 350Zs in the world. As someone who keeps an eye on these things, I’d agree… You’ll see in the video below that I quite like mine…
The electric motor comes from a BMW i8, and it’s been mated to a KERS (kinetic energy recovery system), which is pushed towards the front of the car to make the weight distribution as even as possible. According to the company, it’s a 51/49 distribution.
Inside the car, the driver has three modes to play with: EV, Gasoline, and Hybrid. Like the BMW i8, it can’t move far under only electric power, but the system acts more like a torque filll system over anything else. Watch the car in action in the video below at Canada’s Mosport Circuit. It’s quick, and oh does it sound so so good!
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