All-Electric AC Cobra Is Being Developed By An Irish Entrepreneur

The Cobra on axle stands is currently a dismal, boring grey, with only spots of rubbed-down filler to break up the monotony. What used to be openings for a fuel filler and exhaust exits have been covered up by those patches. These are no longer required by this Cobra, which is built on a Dax-bodied replica.

4.0-liter Rover V8 that previously powered it sleeps on the ground of AVA Electrifi's Wicklow workshop. Norman Crowley, a Cork native who made his wealth inventing low-carbon management and logistics systems for huge companies, founded AVA Electrifi.

Crowley's home-grown automobile company is pushing the low-carbon fantasy to its boundaries, not only by transforming the existing classic cars into EVs, but also by designing his own retro-styled, 2000 bhp electrified hyper classic car.

“When we first started this in 2019, no one wanted to talk to you if you claimed you wanted to install electric motors in historic automobiles at a dinner party,” Crowley explains.

“We had done some automobile conversions before, like putting a Tesla engine and batteries into a Ferrari 308 that had destroyed its motor, but Ava is the next step, a vehicle that has been entirely reconstructed from the bottom up, with every nasty item that was in it fixed.”

Unfortunately, the electric Cobra isn't yet part of that rightness. Under the skin, there's a almost 500 bhp electric engine controlling the rear differential and enough battery storage under that seductive snout to operate for roughly 20 minutes at racing track speeds, and it's sitting tantalizingly in the pitlane at Mondello Park, just outside Dublin. 

It isn't, however, functioning. Its battery was delayed for nearly two weeks at borders, so the Ava team is rushing to make it ready to send to Salon Privé, and they're taking too long. It will be auctioned there, with a part of the money going to climate-change NGOs.

The offices of Ava Electrifi are located at Powerscourt House, a former stately home just south of Dublin that was once held by the Guinness family. Tara Browne, a descendant of the Porter family, was famed for owning a Cobra in the 1960s and having it painted in a psychedelic color palette by artists Douglas Binder and Dudley Edwards.

Browne, Binder, and Edwards were in the epicenter of the victorian age, and they were almost inextricably linked to The Beatles. People queued across the block to see the colorful Cobra, which was on display at the Robert Fraser Gallery in Mayfair.

Browne was then tragically died in a crash in another of his sports vehicles, a Lotus Elan. Browne's life and untimely death were the inspiration for McCartney and Lennon's song A Day In The Life. The original Cobra still exists (it's taxed and MOT'd), but it was restored in a more somber color scheme at the Guinness family's request.

“We tried to find the actual car,” Crowley adds. “We did find it, but we didn't think it was ethical to remove the engine from that one. It should be left in Tara's hands.”

The electric Cobra isn't going to be grey for long. Edwards, who colored both Browne's original automobile and more recently Paul McCartney's piano, will decorate Crowley's electric reproduction, and it will be the paint schemes, not the car itself, that will draw the most attention during the Salon. 

Crowley openly admits that he has no desire to develop an Irish Tesla. His following project is a 2000 hp Stingray modeled on a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette, with a new body designed by Peter Brock (the original Stingray's designer) and Ian Callum (ex-Jaguar designer).

Only a few of the hyper classic cars will be manufactured, and Crowley teases another Brock-designed classic coupé that will be electricized. He's also working on several reinvented Land Rover Defenders, complete with an enormous battery for long-range travel.

“It's not about volume; it's about making cars,” Crowley explains. “It's about motivating and assisting the rest of the company, which is focused on energy efficiency, renewable energy, and global cooling.