Everrati's Electric Porsche 911 RSR Has Me Driving Into The Future With Open Arms

I live close by to Mulholland Drive, specifically some of the best twistiest sections that have been revered by car enthusiasts for decades, so often in the afternoon or evening I'll head up into the canyons for a brain-clearing rip (or leisurely drive, depending on what I'm in). But often on these drives I run into a huge problem: Los Angeles traffic. Whether it be because of people commuting up and over the mountain, picking up their kids from one of the fancy schools along the crest, or just tourists going for a scenic drive, sometimes a jaunt along Mulholland ends up being a couple hours of maddening single-lane stop-and-go movement.

It's even worse if you're in a sports car, something classic, or both. On this uncharacteristically sunny winter afternoon, as I'm behind the wheel of a 964-generation Porsche 911 with a huge wing on the back, heading down Benedict Canyon where I haven't gone faster than 5 mph in about half an hour, you'd expect that I'm pretty miserable. It's probably hot inside, my left leg is sore, my ears are ringing, my butt hurts, the car is unhappy. Right?

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Not today. No, this time I'm calm, comfortable and not even sweaty, and the car is just as composed. That's not just because this 964 has been fitted with a new air conditioning system, but because it has been given a fully electric conversion by UK-based outfit Everrati. There's no old engine to overheat, no manual clutch to worry about, no gas and oil to burn. There's no constant vibrations, no loud noises. The car ahead of me moves forward a few meters, and I silently creep ahead with nary a jerky movement. I've been sitting in a traffic jam in a thirty-year-old sports car, and I haven't once needed to complain to my passenger, Everrati founder and CEO Justin Lunny.

Blasphemy, you're saying. I can't possibly be genuinely enjoying a Porsche that's had its mechanical heart ripped out and replaced by a soulless electric motor, you're commenting. OK, maybe it's kinda nice around town, but surely before I got stuck in traffic this thing wasn't enjoyable at all on James Dean's old stomping grounds, you're thinking. Wrong, wrong, wrong again, baby. Everrati's electric 911 is a joy to drive when the going gets fast and twisty, both in the same ways as a normal 964 and in totally new ones, while being as easy around town as a modern EV. This is the classic car future I've been waiting for.

Full disclosure: Everrati CEO Justin Lunny met up with me in West Hollywood and handed me the keys for a couple hours of driving around the city.

Called the Evergreen Commission, this particular Everrati 964 was built for Steve Rimmer, founder of the DirtFish Rally School. Rimmer went with the race-ready 964 RSR as inspiration for his build, but don't worry, the donor car was a normal Carrera, not one of the 51 real RSRs out there. The wider bodywork was custom-made from carbon fiber, even including a new carbon roof panel, and the RSR-style wing is impossible to miss. I think the 18-inch gold wheels look horrible, though the stance is great, and the Oak Green Metallic is an excellent choice. Apart from the lack of exhaust tips, nothing about the Everrati's styling belie its lack of an engine.

You'd never guess the powertrain by sitting in the cabin, either. Almost every surface, including the roll cage, is covered in bio-based leather from Bridge of Weir that feels appropriately nice. Porsche's factory upfit radio is present in the dashboard, and Everrati designed a new center console with an integrated touchscreen to control vehicle functions. The gauges look just like old Porsche dials, but they're new units that show things like battery and motor temperatures, and a small digital readout tells you range and battery percentage. It even has a normal physical key that you insert into a slot on the left side of the steering wheel and twist to turn the car on, a feature that Lunny says they didn't want to get rid of — even if Porsche itself has in new 911s.

Pop the rear engine cover, though, and you're sure to provoke intense conversations at any car show. 70 percent of the battery pack is found underneath that decklid, along with the electric motor and transmission, and the remainder of the battery cells are under the hood. (A lot of frunk space is taken up, but there's still enough room for small bags.) This 964 has 62 kWh of total battery capacity, which is good for a range of more than 200 miles. Given that the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N only gets an EPA-rated 221 miles out of an 84-kWh battery pack, that's not bad at all. The J1772 port is behind the 911's signature fuel-filler door on the front fender for 6.6-kW AC charging, but if you want to fast-charge the Everrati you've gotta open up the rear decklid, as that port is found next to the battery pack. Parking a vintage 911 with the engine cover up at a public fast-charger is an amusing sight. It has 70-kW DC fast-charging capability — better than a Chevy Bolt — and plugging in for about 40 minutes will take you from 20 to 80 percent charge.

Back at the rear axle is a single permanent-magnet electric motor that puts out 500 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels through a Quaife mechanical limited-slip differential and single-speed transmission. That's 253 hp and 140 lb-ft more than the 964 Carrera's standard flat-6 engine, and it's good enough to send the Everrati from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.7 seconds, quicker than a new 992 Carrera with a PDK dual-clutch. For today's drive its peak power has been turned down by about 20 percent, but the car is still mighty quick. Everrati has tuned the electric motor not for instant punch-you-in-the-gut acceleration but a torque curve more akin to that of the original car, and it's quite satisfying.

Splitting the batteries into two packs and using that carbon-fiber body means the Everrati 964 RSR has the same 40/60 weight distribution as a gas 964, and it weighs 40 pounds less than a 964 Turbo. All of the same handling characteristics as a normal 911 are present, from the way weight transfers to the way it acts when I lift off the throttle to the way it sharply darts into corners. Power steering has been fitted, but it's also been tuned to behave like the unassisted rack of an original 964; it's heavy at low speeds, lightening up and becoming delightful and chatty as speeds increase. Electronically controlled active dampers have multiple stiffness settings controlled through that 'lil touchscreen, and the ride is pretty nice even over the roughest pavement. The wider staggered tire setup makes the car tramline a bit, but that's a fair tradeoff for a huge leap forward in grip and handling capability.

Everrati also gave the 964 a regenerative braking system along with larger physical brakes. For today's drive the regen is dialed down in a way that mimics lifting off the throttle in a gas car, so for most deceleration I'm still pressing the left pedal, which has great feel and linear progression. Everrati is able to crank up the regen to give a legit one-pedal setting if the customer wishes, with the regen settings also controlled through the screen. Driving an EV hard and relying completely (or almost completely) on regen for deceleration is a unique experience, one that would add another dimension to a car like this, so I hope some customers go for it. Still, even in this car's current setup, the softer regen is nice to have.

Do I miss the signature sounds of a half-dozen cylinders singing behind me? Honestly, not really. Don't get me wrong, I love the sound of a good engine, but the fact that Lunny and I are able to hold a conversation at a normal volume, even when I'm really wheeling, is wonderful. I'm usually listening to music in the car anyway (especially when I'm driving fast), and if you do want some aural engineering excitement, the electric motor makes a fairly distinct whine. With the windows down, hearing birds chirping, rubber squealing, rocks pinging against the underbody all while near-silently zipping along at a nice rate of speed is just plain nice.

A major part of the appeal of a classic car is the analog experience; this I totally understand and appreciate. But that experience is achieved through more than just the powertrain. The Everrati 964 drives like an old car in the way it handles, the way it steers, the way it accelerates, the way it brakes. Drive it blindfolded, and you'd easily know you're in an old 911 — just one that doesn't shift or make noise. And it feels like an old car, because it's still just a 964 after all. The visibility, the driving position, the buttons and knobs and other interior accoutrements, the way the door feels to slam. A brand new 992-gen 911 might be a fantastic car that's easy to daily, but it's not nearly as special as something like this.

And, of course, it looks like an old car. Cruising down Rodeo Drive it turns heads like any green 911 with a big wing would. Are peoples' stares lingering because they've noticed it's not making any noise, or just because they like the gold wheels and big wing? Do the people on the TMZ tour bus know or care that my 911 is powered by electrons or are they just excited to see a cool sports car? I pull up next to a Taycan at a light. We're both saving the planet with our electric Porsches, but only one of us can run collector car plates and really fit in at our favorite local car show.

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For some people, putting up with all of a classic car's downsides around town is just the price you have to pay to have a fantastic time on your favorite back road. Maybe you genuinely enjoy doing everyday stuff in your old sports car, no matter how annoying it can be. Or, if you're lucky, you have a whole stable of cars to choose from, so something like a 964 could be restricted to only your Sunday canyon runs. That would be a shame, though. Cars deserve to be driven, especially old ones, and the more time that goes on, the fewer classics that are still out there on the roads. New rules and regulations around emissions and safety threaten how easily we can keep our favorite older models around, as do things like taxes, maintenance costs and parts availability.

This is a classic sports car that I would want to drive all of the time, and would be unafraid to do so. Gotta run errands? Have a dinner date across the city? Heading up the coast for a long weekend with friends? Going to a fancy event where people will judge you in the valet? Just want to go for a fun weekend drive? Everrati's electric conversion makes saying "let's take the 964" a no-brainer. Not having to worry about nearly as many mechanical problems is a bonus. An even bigger bonus still is the thought of waking up every morning to a fully charged 911, ready for whatever sort of day I want to have. Not needing to stop at a gas station where your green Porsche will get bombarded with nerdy questions, and getting to use EV-only parking spots? Those are some cherries on top.

If you want an Everrati 964 you'll have to shell out at least $450,000, which covers the conversion along with a full restoration and styling overhaul. If you want the RSR, tack on another fifty large. That's pretty in line with other high-end 911 restomods these days. Everrati will dial in the chassis and powertrain tuning exactly how you want, and of course the sky is basically the limit when it comes to your spec. Oh, and before you start complaining in the comments, the conversion is fully reversible, so if you ever want to stick your 911's engine back in, you can.

Everrati's other offerings include EV conversions for the Land Rover Series II, Mercedes-Benz Pagoda SL, and Superformance Ford GT40, but the company is also open to custom commissions. Lunny says they're currently working on EV swapping a Lamborghini LM002 for a Middle Eastern customer (more than a ton of weight has already been removed), and Everrati might do a couple more of them if there's interest. One of Lunny's favorite customers is a woman in London who uses her EV-swapped Landie to pick up the kids from school in the city's EV-only congestion zone, another example of an electric powertrain broadening your classic car horizons.

Daniel Golson / Jalopnik

As for what Porsche could be next, Lunny said Everrati has considered the 993 generation of 911 that followed the 964, also an extremely popular platform for restomodders. While the 993 is probably the 911 for Porsche fans, that also means it has the most fervent fans. Lunny isn't really concerned with the online haters — the people who buy these EV conversions love them anyway — but the 993's popularity make it a less interesting choice. What he's leaning more toward, and what I encouraged, is to develop an electric conversion for the controversial 996 generation. There's so many of them out there to use as a baseline, they're much less precious to enthusiasts, and the blobby styling could lend itself well to some modern enhancements.

For the extent of my drive in the Everrati 964 RSR, I'm smiling. Smiling because the car is so good in the canyons, smiling because it's relaxing in the city, smiling because no matter what online commenters tell you, EV acceleration never gets old. The reason my grin is lasting, though, is because of how this electric 911 has me excited to keep being an enthusiast. I can think of so many classic cars that could benefit from a swap like this, across all sorts of segments and price points. If the most iconic sports car of them all works this well with an electric heart transplant, and in the relative infancy of this technology, I say bring on the future.

Daniel Golson / Jalopnik

Daniel Golson / Jalopnik

Daniel Golson / Jalopnik