DAMARISCOTTA, Maine — The old BMW looks shiny and new, despite its 47 years. And as Keith Warren stepped on the accelerator, the car jumped to life.
"Does it drive better than it did when the car ran on gas?" I asked.
“100 percent,” he replied with a smile.
Keith Warren is an engineer who loves old, classic cars, but he also really likes modern electric vehicle technology. So, he decided to start a business, called Nomad Motors, to convert old cars from gas to electric. He quit his job as manager of a boat-building company and started work. The BMW, which he already owned, was the first project and, after a lot of design work and research, he began rebuilding that car.
We first visited in March when the BMW was still waiting for one more component to arrive. It finally came but needed rebuilding, which Keith did himself. Finally, by late June, the car was, at last, running and on the road, and Keith took us for a test drive.
“When you first headed out the driveway,” I asked, "was there a part of you that thought, 'My God, it works?'”
Keith laughed and said that he waited until he was about 500 feet farther down the road THEN thought to himself, “It works”.
Then, he said, he turned around and drove it back home to his garage.
“I didn’t want to press my luck,” he explained.
Now the BMW is bring driven often, its old-style round headlights very noticeable on the town’s busy Main Street. Keith kept the original manual transmission—not something you normally see in EVs—because, he admits, it's fun to drive. The car can operate with no difficulty in just second gear and never shift, but Keith said he enjoys working the gears. He also believes it helps reduce the load on the battery when driving at highway speed.
Because of that, and road noise and the hum of the engine, the BMW is not silent. It is, however, much quieter than a gasoline-powered version would be.
Battery range, he estimates, will be about 140 miles on a change. The small car has the battery pack in the trunk, leaving, as Keith describes it, “about enough space for a set of golf clubs.”
His next projects will have more space.
A 1969 Land Rover is already down to the framer and will soon have a used Tesla motor installed. The British-made battery package, weighing more than 700 pounds, had just arrived and was sitting in a big shipping crate in the back of Keith's wife Shannon’s old Chevy pickup.
But Keith admits a real test for the new company may come with vehicle number three: a red, 1967 Camaro convertible. A classic American muscle car.
“My parents bought me this car when I was 17,” Warren said.
It used to have a powerful V8 engine. But now, when he opens the hood, there is only the car’s frame. Engine, transmission, radiator, exhaust—all of it is gone. That wide open space is waiting for an electric motor and the other components to make the Camaro all-electric.
Warren admits some other classic car lovers recoil at the thought of removing the V8 powerplant that makes a muscle car what it has always been. But he believes the smooth and powerful electric motors now on the market will actually make the car better to drive.
This one will be a chance to prove his theory, he says, and potentially open the door to other owners of Camaros and Mustangs to make the conversion as well.
As for the BMW, it appears to be headed for life as a summertime daily driver. Keith Warren said if this first conversion is any indicator—and he thinks it is—the next two should make him just as happy behind the wheel.