When you see Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa on or in a vehicle, it’s usually an old classic that was built at a time when people’s environmental awareness was growing, to say the least. “I have a truck – gas and oil,” he explains in a trailer for the sixth episode of his new HBO series “On the Roam.”
But he now wants to polish up his ecological balance with a project – and had an old Rolls-Royce Phantom II converted. The in-line six-cylinder engine with 7.7 liters had to make way for an electric motor and battery. “It was already so quiet,” Momoa consoles himself about saying goodbye to the combustion engine.
The British company Electrogenic took over the conversion. It says: “The Rolls Royce Phantom II was the crowning achievement of the 40/50 hp series. It had a lowered frame to improve handling, power assistance when braking over 20 km/h and a central lubrication system. The 7.7 Liter OHV tappet engine gave this car relatively lively performance, and synchronization in third and fourth gears made high-speed driving easier.”
Jason Momoa apparently already bought the car with the intention of converting it. Instead of a tank, the vehicle now relies on a 93-kilowatt-hour battery. According to Electrogenic, this was specially adapted to the car’s body and did not require any changes to the car’s original structure. The team chose an engine with around 200 hp (150 kilowatts) as the drive, quadrupling the original output. The range should be around 240 kilometers.
The car is charged via a CCS fast charging port, and there are also a few digital displays and a modern sound system.
When it comes to electronics, Electrogenic didn’t just stuff the freed-up engine compartment with cables. “The result is a fusion of high-tech computer-aided imaging and laser-cut precision with hand-crafted panels, 1060 hand-pressed rivets and hand-polished high-gloss finish,” it says.
The resulting assumption that company founder Henry Royce would have built the car like this himself in 1929 if the technology had been available at the time is not at all wrong. In an interview with Stern, Rolls-Royce recently explained that founder Charles Rolls – not Henry Royce – was actually toying with electric drives at the time. Last but not least, that is why there is now the Rolls-Royce Specter.
However, when it came to the Phantom II from 1929, the mechanics faced a number of challenges. Not only was maintaining and converting the lubrication system for the old car a challenge, but also “redesigning the original cable-controlled braking system so that it works seamlessly with the updated EV architecture,” explain the professionals.
Unsurprisingly, Electrogenic concludes that the Phantom II now drives like a better version of itself. At least when it comes to the new braking system and performance, no one will disagree.
