Project Overview

A Spitfire Body on GT6 Bones

The Triumph Spitfire was built from 1962 to 1980 — one of the quintessential British sports cars. Its Michelotti-designed body sits low and wide, with a long bonnet and compact cockpit that still turns heads today. But for this conversion we wanted something stronger underneath.

We mated the Spitfire body to a 1971 GT6 chassis — the GT6 shares the same basic platform but came with a stiffer frame, stronger front and rear springs, and a more robust differential. This gives the EV conversion a much better foundation for handling the extra torque and weight of the electric drivetrain.

2020 Nissan Leaf S — The Complete Stack

Rather than sourcing individual components, we acquired a wrecked 2020 Nissan Leaf S with the complete drivetrain intact. This approach — known in the conversion community as using the Leaf

ZombieVerter VCU

The Leaf motor and inverter speak their own proprietary language. To make them work outside a Nissan, we’re using the ZombieVerter VCU — an open-source Vehicle Control Unit developed by the OpenInverter community. It translates throttle input, regenerative braking requests, and CAN bus signals into commands the Leaf inverter understands.

Being open-source means every parameter is tunable, from throttle response curves to regen braking strength.

1.9:1 TorqueBox + GT6 Differential

Between the motor and the driveshaft sits a TorqueBox EV reduction gearbox at a 1.9:1 ratio — this multiplies torque and brings the motor’s output shaft speed down to a range the GT6’s 3.63:1 rear differential can work with efficiently.

The effective final drive ratio is approximately 6.9:1. The rear suspension currently runs the original Triumph donut rubber coupling joints, with a future upgrade to CV joints planned.