Chevrolet's Most Famous Car ‘1957 Project X’ Is Now Electric

The automaker, Chevrolet has teamed up with Cagnazzi Racing and Hot Rod publisher MotorTrend to electrify the 1957 Chevy Project X vehicle one of the most famous cars Chevrolet ever built.

MotorTrend's defunct Popular Hot Rodding magazine bought the Project X car for $250 in 1965. Over the decades, it has been used to test a range of power technologies. Before the electric system, it had a Chevy LSX V-8 engine.

The car now has a 400-volt electric powertrain with an estimated 340 horsepower and 330 pound-feet of torque — those are very similar numbers to Cadillac's Lyriq EV. Chevrolet says the battery can store 30 kilowatt-hours of electricity. The range depends on the quick-change differential that's fitted, which can be swapped to optimize the car for acceleration or range. Still, Chevy claims the now-EV has "enough range for weekend cruising."

Cagnazzi Racing swapped the car to an electric brake booster and electrohydraulic power steering pump but it still maintained the front suspension that was installed in 2007. Project X now has the same push-button gear selector as the 2021 Chevrolet Corvette as well.

Chevrolet has converted a classic car into an EV for SEMA three times straight in a year in order to show off the capabilities of the eCrate Connect and Cruise system, as Autoblog points out.