Tony Hawk just posted a video to his Instagram about his beautiful 1964 Corvette Stingray whose original 327 V8 was yanked out and replaced with an electric motor. Naturally, the comments are filled with Corvette lovers — old and young, and old — shouting in disbelief that America’s skateboarding hero desecrated such a piece of classic sports car iron. Here are some of the most outraged commenters, and why they need to relax.
Tony Hawk’s EV-converted C2 Corvette really isn’t anything new. He gave Jay Leno a ride back in 2022. But yesterday Hawk published an Instagram video with the somewhat bait-y title “Dear Detroit: we good?”
It turns out, “we” are not good.
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Here are the most liked comments on Instagram. With 3,238 likes as of this writing, commenter fk8.e30 writes:
Damn the one tony hawk post I hate
With 2,078 likes we have this from someone named tingey:
Ruined a stingray bruh ????
With 1,947 like, we have this one from spiff_d:
Cool, I fucking hate it.
filipecouto88 sums up my feelings, and those of apparently 877 others:
I feel really uncomfortable.
With 770 likes, camdenblast wrote:
You ruined that car????♂️
Those are the most popular comments, and though there are plenty of positive ones as well, many of those 1,400 comments on that reel read similarly. Here are a few cherry-picked ones:
Are fucking kidding me Tony with your money you could’ve put an ls7 in it???? I pray a v8 finds its way back into this car jus genuinely a shameDefeated the purpose by making it electricIt’s OK to drive an electric car, but please stop ruining all the nice and rare classic cars!!I wanna see how long those electric motors last compared to that small block 327.Yeah sorry man this is a bit of an L. Love you Tony you can do no wrong but this…this is wrong ????Dude, but why.. the whole charm is gone. If you want electric then buy electric. Don’t desecrate history ????I’m gonna go vomit now. I’d never have thought I’d ever tell Tony Hawk that I was disappointed in him.Tony you are on of my hero’s, but bro, you ruined this classic. Just buy a Tesla and convert it to a convertible. I still love you Tony!Even the coolest guy ever did one thing that fucking sucks lolTony noooooooooooo ????????????This is a sin against that carTony bro I love you but for this you need to go
I could go on and on.
Really, none of this should be a surprise. The Corvette is typically beloved by older folks, and many of the Instagram comments came through Facebook, which is also beloved by older folks.
Still, to all you Corvette purists, I have good news. Back in February of 2022, I visited EV West and saw them dismantling Tony Hawk’s 1964 Corvette (see the original fuel tank, rear differential, and 327 V8 in the photo above). While receiving a tour of the facility, I was told by CEO Michael Bream something that made the car enthusiast inside me happy: All of EV West’s conversions are reversible.
Though we saw this Corvette on Jay Leno’s Garage years ago, it appears that perhaps it wasn’t complete, because Tony Hawk apparently just received the finished vehicle, over four years after I visited EV West. Here’s EV West’s recent writeup from LinkedIn:
This week we handed Tony Hawk the keys to his 1964 Corvette Stingray, the final delivery on one of the longest builds we have had on the board. The technical summary: the original 327 V8 and manual transmission came out, a Tesla small drive unit went in – roughly 300 horsepower through a single-speed rear-mounted setup, with a 41.6 kWh battery pack relocated to the front engine bay for around 120-140 miles of range depending on how heavy your right foot is. No body modification. Every original drivetrain component was boxed up and returned to the owner, so the car is fully reversible.
I texted Bream about the Corvette, and he made it clear: “We’re car fans, so the chassis is the most important thing.” This was extremely apparent when I visited EV West. The place is filled with car geeks, so they’re not the enemy, they’re friends.
Does it really matter that the build is reversible? I don’t know. Maybe after Tony Hawk kickflips into the next realm, the next person will prefer the car the way it came from the plant in St. Louis, with a V8 and stick. So at least they’ll have that option.
While I find celebrities who turn their car collections into EVs under the pretense that somehow it’s going to help the environment to be rather tiring, this doesn’t seem like that. This seems like Tony Hawk, a guy who likes the look of Corvettes but doesn’t like to wrench and doesn’t seem to care that much about engine sound or stickshifts, just making a car he loves a bit easier to live with on a day-to-day basis. I can respect that. And given its reversible nature, hopefully some of the outraged folks in the comments can, too.
Cool, I love it
I’m OK with this. My gut feeling on builds like this is usually disappointment, but honestly I’d rather this than another LS restomod which is the way these celeb builds always go… I honestly think this is the best of both worlds; simple modern EV powertrain + simple old school chassis. I’ve driven a handful of EVs and the worst part of them is not the powertrain, its all the unnecessary electronic crap, and too much weight. I don’t know how much this build weighs but its probably lighter and definitely simpler than most if not all modern EVs. Its probably a blast to drive too! It would be cool with the original 327 in it, sure but my first car was a C20 truck with an sbc and yeah the v8 sounds and pretending I was a drag racer was fun for teenage/early 20s me but it also had random fueling and ignition related issues in addition to the typical carb tuning needs along with cold start and dieseling issues with old motors like that. I don’t blame people for not wanting to mess with that crap on their old cars.
Teenaged, motorhead me would have hated this, but adult me digs it. It’s reversible, so no harm, no foul, and it’s arguable now a more practical daily driver than the original drivetrain. Plus, it’s his car, he can do what he chooses with it.
Robert Downy Jr had a TV series where he did a few similar conversions, some of those were arguably worse because he did some questionable paint and body mods as well.
I’ve always said the perfect EVs are big 60s american sedans, coupes and verts. A mk4 continental convertible is awesome but the engine is the worst part about it
I could see doing this on something prewar that isnt worth a ton of $$$ Or something like a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud. Once again something they made a lot of, so it wont be like defacing a rembrant.
Makes it a hell of a lot more usable/reliable. But the Corvette?? A lot of the appeal is the v8 rumble and that 327 SBC is one of the best ones ever made. Aftermarket is limitless if you want more power. If all you want to do is cruise and not fiddle with a carburator there are several kits to convert it to multipoint efi so it drives/starts like a modern car.
its no worse than finding a low mile survivor and cutting it up so you can race it.
“Why you ruin classics” Jay Lamm.
An old Corvette without engine noise is just going to sound like a garbage can rolling down your driveway. The engine was the only thing that hid all the creaks and rattles.
The video of him driving it with Leno, and this current video, have won me over to this making a lot of sense if you want to do it. It looks amazing, and appears to drive really nice, and much more dependably now, too.
In the end it’s his car to do with what he wants.
Would I do this to a classic car, even with virtually unlimited money? Probably not. I’d just buy a modern EV.
I couldn’t disagree more. There is nothing about a modern ev making it more appealing than putting electricity in a vintage car. One can argue all day long about whether this was the “right” car, but as a concept, vintage swap is far superior to modern EV.
“I wanna see how long those electric motors last compared to that small block 327”
who’s gonna tell them…
I’ve at least ridden in an EV before, and gotten to feel the butterflies in the stomach and surreal smoothness that comes with the acceleration, so my contrarian take from my experience is that EVs do have character actually. They have a very different and unique character from any other drivetrain, which is worth experiencing. I see it as no different than a rotary engine compared to a piston engine – just another way of moving a car along, with its own unique feel. I wouldn’t want all cars to be EVs, in the same way I wouldn’t want all cars to have rotaries or V8s – I like variety – but I think there’s absolutely a place for EVs in the lives of car enthusiasts as long as they’re AN option but not the only option. I would also argue that EVs feeling numb and lacking personality is merely a symptom of how all modern cars are built, they’ve all got some degree of numbness and isolation because of the NVH expectations the majority of consumers today have. EVs just make even fewer noises and vibrations, but the specific way they accelerate is still a unique feeling that other drivetrains can’t offer.
I’ve also somewhat made peace with classic car EV conversions, especially reversible ones, as I can respect that a lot of the people buying/building them specifically want an EV that’s as analog as possible – no unnecessary computers or modern numbness, and far less planned obsolescence. It’s an effort to have the best of both worlds, and build an EV with more character and style while you’re at it. And if it’s a car that looks neat but didn’t have a particularly notable drivetrain or driving experience to begin with, then it’s no big loss.
That said, in this case, IMO that Corvette should’ve retained the 327 and manual transmission. Not a unique driving experience, but a notable one. There is something magical about a classic American V8, and it is not hard to make them reliable and efficient with modern updates while retaining 90% of the original experience. Also a lot cheaper than an EV conversion, not that any celebrity would be worried about that. But it is a reversible conversion, so the only thing being lost here is however many miles of V8 manual driving Tony Hawk could’ve experienced otherwise, and that’s his choice which affects nobody else, so why should we care? It’s not what I would’ve done, but I’m not Tony Hawk.
I would love to have an architecture that is a drop in replacement for common engines (like the LS in the US). Battery compartment on the engine bay, electric motors in place of prop shaft and rear diff, and SWAPPABLE batteries. Bonus points if it is in Duracell livery.
Maybe, since I’m no engineer and my dreams aren’t bound by reality, a small and efficient self-contained generator sipping from where the fuel tank would be. Drop in plug in hybrid!
Pretty sure someone makes a Jag v12- shaped Thingummy that does exactly that.
That’s nothing. Today I saw a FWD Beetle that had been dune buggy modded. Not that factory trim mods, every bit of front and rear bumper under the midpoint of the lights gone and thin nerf bars, headlights on stalks. Looked like pretty good approach and departure angles, but near zero break over or clearance between wheels on either axel. Both an abomination and awesome.
Think of it as preserving the original drive train while enjoying the chassis.
I wish I had FU money. I’d buy a bunch of old classic cars. Mod em all with EV conversions, diesels, donked out, the works. Of course faithfully recorded for posterity and publish it on social media. Like young Tony here, they’d me mine to do as I wished. Screw the idiots every one of them.
It’s his toy, let him play with it the way he wants.
The real crime here are those ugly af wheels.
Eh, I’m for it. Before trading to something more modern for safety concerns after having kids, I was seriously trying to figure out how to EV convert my XJ Cherokee. The two main things I couldn’t quite sort was 1: I couldn’t get enough batteries into the thing to make it somewhat ok to still use on the trail and 2: thermal management for the electric system was a nightmare to try and figure out
would I turn any classic into a microwave? nah.
his car though, so whatever.
Angry that he modified his personal car? Why do people give a shit? It’s a Corvette, not some sacred, one-of- a-kind, irreplaceable car that will never be seen again. The people who care aren’t worth listening to and probably on more subjects than just cars.
but this was one of only twenty black convertibles that were produced on a Thursday in September…
/s
I thought about doing that with my classic, but I see no real point. Couldn’t care less about the speed increase and there is just something very exciting about a V8 rumble.
I don’t think too many real car guys have an issue with EV conversions – its his car after all. Maybe some light-hearted ribbing, but true car guys know keeping old cars on the road can be a pain in the butt, so just seeing one being driven is better than some ultra rich guy keeping it in a garage and never putting miles on it.
Cool, that car looks just like a Corvette!
I remember when people would get all upset about the SBC conversions being done to Jaguars back in the day. “OMG, you rooont the car!”. As if any of those people actually owned a Jaguar, or would buy one. In the end, a lot of those cars got second lives on the roads because other, not so lucky ones, never got repaired due to the cost of replacing a Jaguar engine, and/or the reliability factor. I don’t have an issue with him doing this; heck, I’d do it to my TR-7 if I had the funds. It isn’t the last Corvette in the world, and even amongst them, it isn’t a particulary rare edition, so have at it Tony!
Swapping out Jag engines was the result of a knowledge gap. Mechanics had no idea how to handle Jaguar fuel and ignition systems, and the internal engine workings, especially of the V-12, were solid. How many actual Jaguar trained and certified mechanics existed in the United States in the Seventies and Eighties? A mechanic who only knew how to service engines with one downdraft carburetor and a distributor with no more than eight plug wires would puke on his shoes when he saw twin side draft carbs and a distributor with 12 plug wires. Lucas electricals? Forget it. These guys and the service writers would throw up their hands and declare the engine dead.
So you’re say that Lucas electrics are fine, provided it’s not some dumb yank working on them?
😉