(c) The Verge
There are muscle cars, and there are exotic super cars. The Zombie 222 is a 1968 Mustang that was converted by Mitch Medford and his team at Bloodshed Motors into a high speed electric muscle car.
The 1968 Ford Mustang comes from a line of muscle cars. The Shelby V8 version does 0-60 mph (0 to 96.6 kph) in 5.5 seconds and a quarter mile (400 meters) in 13.7 seconds. Those numbers are nothing to sneeze at. Today’s muscle cars are much more zippier, the Lamborghini Huracán with a 602-horsepower V-10 engine has reportedly been able to do 0 to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds. The Zombie 222 could do the same in 2.4 seconds, not bad for an old bucket of bolts, electric albeit with electric motors and batteries. Yup, pretty much like Frankenstein, except that they weren’t sticking out of the car.
But then the Mustang is the stuff of legends, and there was a legend to live up to. Back in 1967, Carroll Shelby took a Ford Mustang and refitted it with a 427 big block engine and christened it as the Super Snake. It had run for 500 miles (805 kilometers) at an average speed of 142 mph (228.5 kph), and at one point, according to legend, hit 170 mph (273.6 kph). This was the magic figure that the guys at Bloodshed Motors were aiming for.
And so after much preparation, reconfiguration and fine tuning, the team was ready to put the pedal to the metal at the Texas Mile and shatter Shelby’s 48 year old record. On the first try, the Zombie did 154.9 mph (249 kph), just a tad shy of the Texas Mile official record of 155 mph set by John Metric back in 2012 on board a tricked out Pontiac Fiero. On the second attempt, they broke that record clocking 166.6 mph (268 kph). They were ready to call it a day, but the Bloodshed Motors team was all pumped up. So the Zombie 222 went out again for another try.
Medford put the pedal flat on the floor and held on to the wheel as the Zombie 222 at 156.2 mph (251 kph) at the quarter mile. As it reached the end of the Texas mile, Zombie had created a new legend and clocked 174.2 mph (280 kph).
The Zombie 222 is now officially fastest Ford Mustang around, electric or non-electric, and now the stuff of legend. Not bad for an old, new car.
