The Superformance MkIII E-Cobra is Electrified Insanity Done Right!

Jeff Glucker

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You take a Superformance MkIII Cobra and you swap the mighty 427 V8 under the hood for some batteries and an electric motor, and what do you get? You get the absolutely wicked and insane E-Cobra. And I’m here to tell you that it’s the wildest thing I’ve driven. Do I prefer the rumble of the big V8? Absolutely. Is this the craziest Cobra I’ve ever driven? No question about it.

The E-Cobra uses the rear motor from a Tesla P100D. It’s been detuned in this application to produce 1,500 lb-ft of torque. And that’s in a car that weighs less than a typical gas-powered Cobra. We’re talking at or just a bit over 2,000 pounds here.

This thing is an absolute monster… and I love it.

About

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff

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25 responses to “The Superformance MkIII E-Cobra is Electrified Insanity Done Right!”

  1. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    Interesting, but the cursing was not necessary.

    Reply
    1. Jeff Glucker Avatar
      Jeff Glucker

      Drive it and you might disagree…

      Reply
    2. Zentropy Avatar
      Zentropy

      If we omitted everything that wasn’t necessary, Superformance wouldn’t exist to put cars like this on the road, and we wouldn’t be talking about it.

      I get what you’re saying, but I don’t see the point of complaining about it. I tend to curse with restraint, reserving it for comments requiring strong emphasis, but ultimately words are just words, and this isn’t sesamestreet.com.

      Reply
  2. Zentropy Avatar
    Zentropy

    I can’t decide if I want to love this but can’t bring myself to do so, or if I love it and regret feeling that way because I’m an ICE-loving grease monkey at heart. Honestly, I think the best thing about owning a Cobra would be experiencing the wonderful V8 sounds it makes, and the electric motor essentially sterilizes that aspect. Regardless, it’s damned impressive for those that want the gut-sloshing torque without burning dinosaurs.

    Reply
    1. OA5599 Avatar
      OA5599

      I agree. I like the concept, but the packaging is wrong. I’d be happy with the same driveline in, say, an Ariel Atom, but something that looks like a Cobra needs to sound like one, vibrate the passengers when it’s idling, and not have any digital display in the console.

      Reply
  3. Lokki Avatar
    Lokki

    Is it really a Cobra, or is just it an electric car with a “Cobra” body? After all, even if it had an IC engine it wouldn’t actually BE a Cobra but a reasonable facsimile of one. Now it’s two steps removed from the original, and one of those steps is substantially away from the original.

    For me it falls into the same place as the 4wd pickup truck I read about recently which was passing itself off as a Tesla because it sported a Tesla Model S body.

    If you argue that the powertrain is not decisive in defining the car, could I put a kiddy-car pedal system and call that a Cobra?

    Reply
    1. Zentropy Avatar
      Zentropy

      Most Cobras aren’t “real” Cobras. Weren’t there less than 1000 made? Everything else is either a kit car or a knock-off.

      Reply
      1. crank_case Avatar
        crank_case

        Cobras are like Se7ens, sure a Caterham/Westfield/Dax/Stryker isn’t a “real” Lotus 7 (Caterham excepted), but the concept is so straightforward that it doesn’t matter too much, it’s pretty hard to mess it up. Most are arguably better than the original.

        Reply
        1. OA5599 Avatar
          OA5599

          Also, Shelby still makes continuation cars, which are closer in spirit to a Caterham than to a kit car. If you count continuation cars as “real” Cobras, then the total production numbers do exceed 1,000, although not by a huge amount.

          Reply
          1. Zentropy Avatar
            Zentropy

            Yeah, I forgot about the continuation cars. I just remember growing up attending car shows with my dad and asking “is THAT a real Cobra?” and he would always reply “no” before we even got close enough to inspect it.

          2. Salguod Avatar
            Salguod

            I believe that Superformance makes the continuation cars or at least is licensed to use the Shelby name.

      2. Avatar
        Anonymous

        So…. by the logic here

        Reply
    2. Maymar Avatar
      Maymar

      Would you prefer we call it an AC Ace replica? Given the Tesla power, AC would be more fitting anyhow.

      I do think though, the V8 engine is only part of the car because that’s how you made big cheap semi-reliable power back in the day. If it looks like a Cobra and wants you dead, it’s at least a little bit a proper Cobra.

      Reply
      1. Zentropy Avatar
        Zentropy

        Haha! Good point regarding AC being an appropriate name. I hadn’t considered that.

        Which brings up the question: if the drive motor in a Tesla is AC, do the accessories also run on AC, or are they DC like in all other cars?

        Reply
        1. Maymar Avatar
          Maymar

          I would assume so, although it even looks like the Model 3 is DC powertrain as well (poor Topsy the elephant must be rolling in her grave).

          Reply
  4. crank_case Avatar
    crank_case

    The 150 miles of range is fine for Sunday spins I guess, but here’s the thing – what about track use? Could you realistically get your moneys worth of laps at a track day in terms of laps to charge time or do you end up going home early?

    I mean ICE cars have downtime at track days too, you need to come in every 5 or so laps and have a bit of a cooldown usually, so what’s the story here? We need to know, for science like…

    Reply
    1. outback_ute Avatar
      outback_ute

      That is a good point – ICE cars usually would need a top-up if you are doing a full day’s worth of laps/sessions even if to avoid fuel surge when the tank gets low, and increase consumption by at least 3 times.

      Perhaps EVs might be better, as in have less of an increase, but it will still be there. High-voltage systems and fast chargers would be fine provided the infrastructure is there – fast chargers need a lot of power.

      Reply
      1. Avatar
        Anonymous

        Generally, ICE cars will need to re-fill the tank once (or more) per day of HPDE, which is usually 4 or 5 nominally 20 min sessions, but with EV’s it will tend to be more severe. While the motors don’t lose as much efficiency operating at high speeds & WOT relative to most ICEs, EVs are ultimately are storing much less energy for the range that they have because they are limited by battery chemistry, size & weight. Therefore, any reduction in efficiency hurts more.

        More significantly is the vehicle’s heat rejection. For track use most EVs just don’t have the cooling capacity required – the total amount of heat rejection for an ICE vs an EV (from the pack, motors, invertor all combined) when running flat-out can be similar, but because the EV battery can only tolerate coolant T’s up to 40-45C because of the cell temperature limitations (before they start to lose lifetime capacity or approach thermal runaway), you only have 20-30C of temperature difference to ambient vs 80C or more for an ICE. Therefore, any radiators must be 3X as big since they’re working with 1/3 the temperature difference. You can help improve this with heat-pump systems, but that doesn’t get close to closing this gap. Add to this the fact that part of an EV’s range is due to regen-braking, but for track use this is almost negligible since the battery can’t tolerate the additional heating beyond propulsion, so range suffers more because on the track you really can’t regen.

        Lastly, putting fuel in an ICE allows the engine to cool off, since its off. Charging an EV does the opposite (especially charging quickly enough to add enough energy for the next lapping session), since current is still flowing, just in to the battery instead of out of it, generating heat and keeping everything hot.

        Reply
        1. outback_ute Avatar
          outback_ute

          Do they really have the battery coolant at 40-45°C? I wonder what happens when the ambient temp gets that high?!?

          Reply
    2. Avatar
      Anonymous

      Well, if you empty the battery on-track, I’m not sure you’ll actually make it home early unless you trailered it there

      Reply
  5. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    One time I saw a Cobra at a car show with a Chevy engine in it. Compared to that this thing seems far more palatable.

    Reply
    1. outback_ute Avatar
      outback_ute

      That’s been a thing forever (just like 32 Ford hot rods), but since the LS & mod/Coyote engines there would have to be lots of Chevys and hardly any Ford engines going into Cobras plus also Daytonas and even GT40s. If you’re not hardcore Ford the GM is smaller, lighter and cheaper.

      Reply
      1. Batshitbox Avatar
        Batshitbox

        Full Disclosure: I showed up at that car show to help my ol’ pal Bob and his ’41 Ford with the Oldsmobile engine in it.

        A couple people at that show remarked that high performance Ford parts and period correct motor blocks are just plain hard to get, as you said. There are more replica Cobras than there are 289s and 427s, plain and simple.

        Reply
    2. Salguod Avatar
      Salguod

      Most Factory Fives get Ford power, either crate small blocks or crate Coyotes. It’s actually more work to put an LS in one, though it is done.

      Reply
  6. Salguod Avatar
    Salguod

    I’ve not driven a Superformance but I have driven a well built Factory Five. I imagine they are comparable in terms of build quality, the FFR that I drove was very solid, impressively so. The difference is that the Superformance is essentially a factory built car minus drivetrain, the FFR is completely DIY so build quality varies.

    Reply