Electric conversion shops like EV West are the future of Southern California hot rodding. Just like racers in the 1950s used surplus wartime stuff and flathead V8s they had laying around to make their shitboxes go really fast, electric tuners are grabbing Tesla motors out of wrecked cars and stuffing them into lighter and more capable chassis to pump them up. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

In this video from the EV gearheads at Fully Charged, the EV West Pikes Peak M3 goes for a lovely jaunt about town. When you feel like it, you can press down on the throttle and fling the whole car sideways in a great ball of vaporized tire. But, if you’re so inclined, you can just putter along in the slow lane with the ease of a brand new Toyota.

Unlike the hot rods of old, today’s EV monsters aren’t a pain in the ass to drive around town as were the old noisy, smelly bucking broncos of camshaft chop and massive displacement. The EVs have a duality that can be exploited for speed and for daily drivability. This EV M3 can be taken to do the shopping or taken to dominate a hillclimb.

Don’t sleep on electric swaps. Though they may be quiet, they are mighty.