A passion for the past drives innovation for the future in two very different ways
by JAY HARDEN
The SEMA (Specialty Equipment Marketing Association) show, held every autumn in Las Vegas, Nevada, means very different things to different people. The show is full of distractions, such as Bluetooth driveshafts, rhinestone-dazzled engines and drift shows, but there are some incredible products and vehicles on display, too. If you’re willing to put the miles in, you’ll find that innovation abounds at SEMA.
This year, there were two vehicles in particular that stood out. One was a hydrogen-powered Ford Falcon and the other was an all-electric Ford Model A.
Both vehicles embody very powerful messages about the potential future of the collector car world, but the message each delivers seems very much at odds with the other. One is all about the preservation of the internal combustion engine experience, and one eliminates that engine architecture entirely.
These two contrasting efforts to keep the classic car industry alive in the shadow of an uncertain future got me thinking about the people behind them and the motivation that drives their innovation.
Now, we could easily spend hours discussing the technical specifications of these two vehicles with their owners, but there’s a deeper question here that’s just as interesting. Why do this? Why do intelligent people dedicate their time, money and resources to keeping otherwise obsolete vehicles relevant and functional?
It’s a gas
The 1964 Ford Falcon came from Arrington Performance, and it’s powered by a Ford 5.0 Coyote crate engine. Direct and port injection are used to feed hydrogen gas and water into the cylinders.
Astounding as that sounds, the Falcon is actually the second iteration of Arrington’s hydrogen initiative. The first effort was showcased in a 1948 Chevrolet pickup that debuted at SEMA two years ago and is powered by a Magnuson supercharged 6.2-L LS3. With more test miles on the odometer, the truck competed in this year’s Optima Challenge, held in Las Vegas during SEMA week.
The man leading the hydrogen charge at Arrington is CEO Mike Copeland. If his name doesn’t sound familiar, his work certainly will. A man who loves the challenge of “doing what people say can’t be done,” Copeland is an industry stalwart whose reputation precedes him. Before taking over at Arrington Performance, Copeland had a career at GM, was the VP of Operations at Lingenfelter Performance, orchestrated the very first Hellcat swap (see the General Mayhem Charger of “Roadkill” fame), and is likely to go down as the only man both willing and capable of building a Dodge Rampage worthy of a “Hot Rod” magazine cover shoot.
The secret sauce in the recipe for Arrington’s setup is still being kept close to the chest, but the key to making hydrogen power work is in the delivery. Compressed hydrogen gas is stored in custom, DOT-approved spun aluminum tanks that are wrapped in carbon fiber. The hydrogen gas then travels through super-thick, quarter-inch-wall stainless tubing to the engine. The unusually thick lines are a necessity because, according to Mike, “hydrogen is so light it will escape straight through a typical stainless fuel line.”
The truck uses sixteen injectors to feed hydrogen to the overbuilt but otherwise standard-issue LS3, while the Falcon uses a combination of direct injection to feed hydrogen into the cylinders and port injection to supply water to control burn rate. The end results are two very potent V8s that provide driving experiences that Mike says are virtually indistinguishable from their gasoline counterparts. “If no one told you they ran on hydrogen,” Mike says, “you’d never know from behind the wheel.”
Blasphemy, again
On the other side of the coin, the Model A is a Tudor sedan that is the brainchild of Legacy EV’s CEO, Rob Ward. Operating as a prototyping test mule, the chopped, channeled and slammed hot rod is fully electric. It’s an absolute tire slayer that churns out over a thousand pound-feet of torque, which is derived from a Cascadia IM-225 electric motor making 225 kilowatts of power and hooked to 3:1 gear reducer. The power is supplied by 85 kilowatt-hours of batteries that are capable of pushing the fenderless beauty roughly 200 miles between charges.
With the exposed motor, inverter and gearbox at home where a flathead and 3-speed probably would have once lived, the sinister beauty forced more than one onlooker at SEMA into a disbelieving double take.
On the road, Rob says the car is “downright scary to drive.” It’s not the lack of noise that throws most people for a loop when experiencing the magic of the full-tilt electric boogie for the first time, it’s the lack of vibration. The instant power and comparatively silent and vibrationless experience combine for a somewhat surreal driving experience, but the performance capability is pure hot rod.
Ward, a self-professed entrepreneur at heart, grew up around cars and began earning pocket money at his grandfather’s gas station at the age of 12. After college, he moved into the world of electrical automation and complex control systems, but also owned a small restoration shop as well. Soon after his first joy ride in a Tesla P100D a few years ago, Ward was hooked. He was blown away by the performance and, as a car guy, couldn’t shake his excitement. He soon found himself daydreaming about an opportunity where, as he put it, his age, experience, and passion came together. He simply could not put the thought down.
Soon after, in 2019, Legacy EV was born as a full-conversion-capable parts distributor with the intent of becoming “a one-stop shop and trusted resource for electric vehicles.”
Looking ahead, looking back
So what drives these guys to invest their futures into the innovative technologies they displayed at SEMA? Copeland says that challenges facing the automotive aftermarket, such as fuel reserves, energy consumption, resource availability and government regulation forced him to take a hard look at the aftermarket industry as a whole. Reflecting on his time spent at tradeshows such as SEMA, he figures that, “unless (aftermarket/performance) companies redefine their businesses, 70% will be gone in 10 years.”
Working to harness a virtually limitless clean energy source “literally stands to save the world,” according to Copeland, but saving the industry he loves from extinction is also a huge motivator. “I have a 4-year old grandson,” he told me, “and I want him to be able to drive my old cars one day.”
For Copeland, the visceral experience provided by the operation of an internal combustion engine is a fundamental piece of the automotive experience he’s working to preserve.
Interestingly enough, preservation is at the forefront of Ward’s mind as well. So much so that it’s right there in the name — Legacy. Beginning with a simple mission statement to “honor the past, protect the future,” Legacy EV built a database where customers can easily search for electric conversion kits for decades worth of vintage American and foreign autos.
The idea is to take the guesswork out of the equation for enthusiasts interested in converting their classics to electric power, and streamline the process for getting cutting-edge products into the hands of eager consumers.
For Ward, it’s “all about connecting the dots for our clients,” and in turn doing their part to keep classic cars relevant and on the road.
Alternate ways forward
There are plenty of arguments to be made about the infrastructure demands, manufacturing expense and maintenance solutions required for both hydrogen and electricity that have yet to be answered, and both Copeland and Ward are approaching the issues from different angles.
As a man who has dedicated most of his professional life to the advancement and improvement of the internal combustion engine, Mr. Copeland has some very practical assertions that he thinks open the floodgates of opportunity for hydrogen gas conversions.
While discussing existing energy infrastructure, he posed an important question: If manufacturing expense has to be taken into consideration when the total impact of zero-emission vehicles are calculated, “What are we supposed to do with the estimated 200 million internal combustion engines that exist in the U.S? Throw them away?”
For Copeland, the notion of transitioning to an all-electric infrastructure is simply impractical on the scale required to satisfy the basic travel requirements for large swaths of the American population, so the challenge to harness alternative fuel sources for our existing IC engines isn’t just exciting, it’s an absolute necessity.
On the other hand, some might say that when one door closes, another opens. It’s hard to argue that the electric revolution is not already upon us, and Legacy EV is working to save the old car experience by preserving the cars themselves. By embracing consumers’ demands on the cutting edge of electric conversions, Ward and his team are presenting solutions that consumers are already clamoring for. “It’s fun to have a product that people need,” says Ward, and having started the business only in 2019, that the demand for their services is already “everything and more than I expected.”
Critically, and perhaps a bit unexpectedly, Legacy has also recognized and embraced an exploding need for educated technicians capable of installing and maintaining the products they’re selling. As such, they’re in the process of building a nationwide training experience with the intent of establishing themselves as the industry standard for electric technicians.
New horizons
While walking around SEMA this year, it seemed obvious that this may easily be the most exciting, turbulent, and uncertain age for the automobile in a century, and not everything we throw against the wall is going to stick.
However, having people like Mike Copeland and Rob Ward out there poking holes in arguments, pushing back on expectations, and carving out new opportunities where once there were none is exactly what this industry needs right now.
In the end, it’s innovative people and their willingness to throw themselves into the void that will help to keep old cars relevant in a changing world.