EV fanatics and the muscle car crowd don't agree on anything, and this 1968 Mustang fastback isn't going to help matters. It's not here to save the world, but it will drill down to the Earth's core with a claimed 1,800 pound-feet of torque. That's not a typo.
John Wayland has been blending the disparate worlds of classic cars and electric drivetrains for years. You're probably familiar with his 10-second Datsun 1200 drag car – dubbed the White Zombie – fitted with two 9-inch electric motors outputting 538 hp. It's insane. Here's proof:
And it inspired this Mustang build, the Black Zombie, although Wayland admits it wasn't his idea.
Texas-based tech CEO Mitch Medford reached out to Wayland after seeing the White Zombie in action, and decided he wanted a classic EV of his own. Being a muscle car guy, a Datsun wasn't going to cut it, so he found this cherry 1968 fastback with a 289 cu.-in. small-block. And then had Wayland rip it out.
"The car was immaculate when we found it," Medford tells Hemmings. "All my friends thought I was crazy for doing this to it."
His friends aren't alone, but the resulting build might shut them up.
With not one, but two, 11-inch electric motors, a pair of Zilla controllers, and a 40 kWh battery pack, the Mustang now puts out 750 horsepower and that unbelievable torque figure. Even with an additional 600 pounds worth of batteries, they're calculating a range of 120 miles and an estimated 0 to 60 run of around 3 seconds.
But... why?
"It's for the guy who might want to buy or already owns a Tesla but misses his big bad muscle car," says Medford. That's a venn diagram we've never seen, but maybe the Black Zombie will change that.