Driving Charge Cars' ''67'. You May Think It Looks Like A...

Forbes

3 days ago

"You may well think that, but I couldn't possibly comment" is perhaps not the first phrase that comes to mind when reviewing Charge Cars' the "'67".
The phrase was first deployed by a fictional British politician, Francis Urquhart, in the original 1990s UK version of political drama "House of Cards"..
I'm thinking it because every time I mention what the car looks like, Charge Cars' rescuer-in-chief, Paul Abercrombie, says I can't call it that.
It's an EV; 1967-lookalike, 2025 tech, updated from the 2016 tech of the original pre-company-collapse car. It's also a pre-production prototype of a vehicle Abercrombie and his team of six evolved from the design and product of the formerly West London-based company that collapsed in 2024.
I'm wary of pre-production prototypes; they're usually accompanied by a rehearsed series of responses for when something falls off, stops working, or bursts into flames. And they rattle, and make those prototype-sort-of-noises. They're often cars a company can't wait to share, or which journalists relentlessly ask to drive first, but just illustrate the car isn't quite ready.
Then you're given "guidance" as to what not to do when driving them, which is usually, well, "enthusiastically".
Recognizable From A Certain Steve McQueen Car Chase?
Not the "'67".
Most motor-heads will recognise its look from a certain car chase involving Steve McQueen. Looking round it at Charge Cars' new base at the former Upper Heyford RAF base, in Oxfordshire, England, the beauty and proportion of the car chase car comes to mind.
External enhancements give it more menace and muscle in a 2025 sort of way.
But if I follow Abercrombie's directive I can't tell you what it obviously is. Ford has licensed the silhouette to Charge Cars, permitting use of "heritage" panels, providing no reference is made to the you-know-what driven by McQueen.
But you don't want to know about licensing and trademarks; you want to know if this car will turn you into Steve McQueen.
The answer, if it was a silent movie version of Bullitt, is yes. No way would the baddies and their Dodge Charger R/T get anywhere near this 2025 version of the icon (although, to be accurate, Frank Bullitt's motor is a '68).
While the former RAF base doesn't have any hills or mountain twisties, it does have a snaking perimeter road. And a big, wide, runway with a lot of run-off. Party time. I hope.
Under The Right Foot Lurks 550bhp And 1,000Nm Of Torque
Abercrombie walks me round the car, talking through its features: 'It weighs about 2,050 kilos (4,500lbs), and the motors produce around 550bhp and 1,000Nm of torque. It has four-wheel-drive, a motor at each corner.'
That torque level is about the same as a Bentley Continental Speed; some of us know just how effective such grunt is at propelling a lot of car towards the horizon.
Taking the passenger seat so Abercrombie can run me round "to get the idea", the interior is minimalistic, well-finished and comfortable. It has little if anything that references the Ford you-know-what.
He asks me not to use the electric window because it needs some fine-tuning in its last half-inch of travel, where a frameless door closes and the window lifts to seal the cabin.
I await the list of doesn't-work and don't-dos, but none. and we move off. In EVs, it's always a surprise when they ease forward in silence, especially one in which you're expecting a big V8 to spike the hairs on the back of your neck.
Shocking Acceleration, Even More Shocking Outright Grip
We enter the snaky perimeter road, and Abercrombie, an occasional race driver, floors it towards a slightly uphill S-bend. Acceleration is shocking, but what's more-so is that as we enter that S-bend Abercombie keeps his foot pinned, and, for a moment, I think something's wrong, the e-throttle has stuck wide open, and we're about to clear the airfield fence.
Instead, the '67 charges through right and then left, glued to the road. We must have entered the S at around 50mph, Heaven knows exit velocity. This car is fast. And goes round corners.
"The suspension is probably on the firm side at the moment, but we'll fine tune it for a better on-road drive," says Abercrombie, in that matter-of-fact race driver tone that suggests nothing unusual has just happened.
Back at Charge HQ we swap seats. The seating position is just right, relationship between steering wheel, pedals and seat bang on. In front of me is a Charge Cars-developed digital-dials dash, everything you need to know clearly visible. There's something of an analogue feel in some places, with buttons and just one central screen.
Trickling on to the perimeter road I decide not to do the immediate pedal-flooring, instead build speed over a few runs getting the feeling this car has a very high grip limit, although, with high grip limits and big tyres, it's in the mind that when it lets go, it'll probably be uncatchable.
So, instead, it's to the runway, and the test of any prototype. Only after about 20 minutes of donuts, attempted drifting, and general oh-the limit brutality did a warning message finally flash up on the dash. Being a prototype, it was in engineering-speak gobbledegook, but clearly not critical as Abercrombie then took the wheel for some more attempted donuts and drifting.
This is going to be a lot of fun for its owners.
On that subject, Charge Cars is tempering its expectations and looking at potentially double-digit annual deliveries of what will be a £350,000 ($474,000) car. The now-defunct original company was perhaps a little volume-ambitious, but Abercrombie and team are cautious, operating within means and investment levels. There's a small fleet of demonstrators in the UK, USA and Middle East.
It'll be around 12 weeks from commission to completion for each car, which will be assembled in a small neighbouring in-construction factory.
Cars will be bespoke, and, asked about who's buying them it's clearly all about people who know cool when they see it. The order book is healthy, with "at least ten well-known names" having put down deposits and commissioned cars, deliveries beginning in the first half of 2026.
I wonder what they'll call them when they tell their friends.
There: I didn't say Mustang once.
Ah.