It seems there’s a large number of petrolheads that see electrification as the devil. While we’ll never claim a bank of batteries and a motor will top a howling V12 for emotional power, we are here to hypothesise how in the current world, electrification, or hybridisation, could facilitate the revival of some incredible names from the past, if only the right decisions were made by those with the power. Let’s get into it.
Seven cars we’d revive as hybrids
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Pagani Zonda
Good grief, wouldn’t you just love to see it? A new plug-in-hybrid Pagani Zonda could see the return of those elegant lines and a howling V12, as an answer to the classically-beautiful Koenigsegg CC850. We reckon a development of the Huayra R’s V12 with a plug-in hybrid system would be passable in terms of emissions too. Performance-wise it’d be perfect, with the electrical element filling from a standstill, before the screaming V12 really comes on song. Then, for pootling up and down Sloane Street with its new arsenal of noise cameras, around 50 miles of electric driving range. Does around 700PS (515kW) from the V12 and another 100PS from the hybrid boost sound good to you?
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Mazda RX-7
The same can be said for Mazda’s long-extinct line of RX sportscars. Emissions regs killed them and the used market is telling of how much we miss them, especially the beautiful old FD RX-7. We reckon Mazda should get a new rotary on the cook with around 280PS (206kW), slap a 30kWh battery and an 80PS motor on the back of it and send it on its way. Like the high-revving Zonda, the electric power would be the perfect filler for the famously peaky rotary power band. Okay, it might not be super light, but what is these days? Surely around 1,400kg is possible with the right development.
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RenaultSport Megane
Is this the unlikeliest to actually become a thing? Considering Renault just killed RenaultSport, yes. We’d have loved to have seen a last-hurrah Focus RS-style hyper hatch from Renault before the final nail went into the ICE coffin. Yes, there are all-electric Alpine-badged sporty Renaults coming, but we reckon they’ve thrown in the towel on internal combustion just a bit too soon.
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Nissan GT-R
And the above Renault would have been possible financially, with electric bits developed in tandem for a next-gen GT-R PHEV, remembering Nissan and Renault are in somewhat of an alliance. Imagine a development of the Nissan Z’s 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 paired with a hybrid system and electric motors – the torque vectoring possibilities are tantalising. It’d be awesome and you know it. Okay, this one technically doesn’t need to be revived yet, but the current car is pushing 16 years old. What more need we say?
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Mitsubishi Evo
As would a Mitsubishi Evo 11 hybrid, again using the same hybrid bits given the marque also falls under the Nissan-Renault umbrella. Imagine all of the all-wheel-drive on-a-dime skids. Quite how we’ve managed to make a good business case for the revival of the RenaultSport Megane, Nissan GT-R and Mitsubishi Evo all in one, we have no idea but if the execs see this, they’ll have to admit, a modular performance PHEV system for this trio sounds good.
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BMW M1
As one of the great engine masters, we feel M gmbh owes us a naturally-aspirated BMW M1 successor, hybridised or otherwise, before combustion engines are regulated out of existence. S54? S65? Something brand new? We don’t care! Just get a screamer in the middle of a new beemer, hybridise it if you have to – good for down-low punch – and give it to us. Please.
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Shelby Cobra
Here’s a wild card. Could a new Shelby Cobra exist in 2023? With a 7.0-litre V8 on its own, probably not. With the 5.2-litre flat-plane crank Voodoo V8 from the Mustang GT350, in tandem with a hybrid system? Maybe… That sounds like such a lot of fun to us, although quite how a modernised Cobra would look or be positioned in the market is a curious one.
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