EVER wondered what happens when you put an electric motorcycle motor into a rat rod? Well, one car fanatic has the answer. Rich Benoit, a YouTuber from Gloucester, Massachusetts, has created something that he says has never been done before. Rich told R.Rides: “No one has ever taken an electric motorcycle motor and put it in a car - it’s beautiful.” Rich spent six weeks building his “work of art”, weighing between 12 and 1300 lbs and measuring 11ft long. At the heart of the 1930s Ford Model A is an electric motor from a wrecked motorcycle, complete with a custom made transmission adapter and a multi gear transmission from an old Chevy. Rich grafted the electronics on the bike and then put them on the rat rod, completing the interior with third row seats from an old dodge caravan. The acceleration enables the car to go up to 80mph, something Rich isn’t sure is the best idea. Part of the thrill for Rich is never knowing what will happen when taking the rat rod out for a spin: “Is something going to fall off or blow up? I really have no idea!” Rich enjoys proving the naysayers wrong who believe a small engine wouldn’t be able to pull the car. “My favourite thing about this is definitely the look you get from people who expect a big honking engine to be in front,” he said. “I feel like it really captures the spirit of hot rodding.”
00:00No one's ever taken an electric motorcycle motor and put it in a car before.
00:08This thing will do 80, no problem, all day long, but do you really want to do 80 in this?
00:12Am I scared driving it? Yeah, you just never know what's going to happen.
00:16My name is Rich and I run a YouTube channel called Rich Rebuilds and this is my 1930s
00:27Rat Rod Ford Model A. If I can describe it in three words, I'd say it's a work of art.
00:32I mean, just look at it. It's just beautiful. It's about 11 feet long, about 5 feet wide.
00:38It weighs about, I would say between 12 and like 1,300 pounds or so.
00:43And what powers this thing, the heart of it is an electric motor out of an electric motorcycle that got wrecked.
00:50And I figured as much, you know what, why not throw in the Rat Rod and see what I can do.
00:53So right here we have the motor itself. I had a custom made transmission adapter.
00:59This is actually battery pack itself. It looks like a computer case. Everyone gets super confused over it.
01:04This is actually a transmission out of an old 60s Chevy. It's a 3-speed manual. That's how it gets up to speed so fast.
01:11Because it's a multi-gear transmission, it accelerates pretty quickly for that small baby motor.
01:16These seats are actually the third row seats from an old Dodge Caravan minivan.
01:21I have the gauge cluster from the motorcycle. And right here, I have the turn signals.
01:26I have the high beams, speedometer.
01:29So everything that I could, all the electronics were grafted from the bike and it went onto the Rat Rod.
01:34It took about six weeks to build from start to finish.
01:38That's why we have the shield.
01:45Figuring out how to mate the electric motor to the transmission, that was one challenging part.
01:50And the second challenging part was figuring out the accelerator pedal.
01:54On a motorcycle, there's actually a twist throttle.
01:57So I had to figure out how to mount it up front and turn that twist pedal into the stepping motion that you're normally used to in a car.
02:05I actually attached a manual cable.
02:08So whenever I step on the foot pedal, it turns it that way.
02:12The first test ride was interesting because there were a lot of naysayers saying that the small electric motor wouldn't be able to actually move the car.
02:19I was like, is it going to go anywhere? Can't even accelerate? And it sure did.
02:24The acceleration is surprisingly good. What I do is I put it in first gear and I just jam the accelerator pedal and it actually goes really, really well.
02:44The transmission allows me to work with a much smaller motor and the torque hit is pretty instant.
02:51Am I scared driving it? Yeah. You just never know what's going to happen.
03:05Is something going to fall off? Is it going to blow up? I really have no idea.
03:08I really have no idea.
03:10See, there you go. It's a grind right there.
03:13So you can see why you could do 80, but do you really want to do 80 in this?
03:22My favorite thing about this is definitely the look that you get from people that expect a big honking engine to be in the front.
03:29It looks like it's not supposed to move at all. There's like nothing up front.
03:34It just looks like a bunch of computer equipment slapped together.
03:41Why the electric hot rod? I want to do it. It just had to get done at some point.
03:44I feel like it really captures the spirit of hot rodding.
