Few cars look more alarmingly tall and skinny than the 2005 Commuter Cars Tango. Unbelievably, the car only becomes more alarming when you discover that its electric drivetrain makes up to 800 hp.
To find out what that’s like, Donut Media decided to drive the all-electric Tango T600 around for a day. The results are almost impressively normal, given that the car is just 39-inches (990 mm) wide, which makes it narrower than some motorcycles, and is legally allowed to drive side by side in a lane (in some jurisdictions).
The brainchild of Rick Woodbury and his son Bryan, the idea was to create an American electric car that took up less space on the road, in order to kill two birds with one stone, as it were. Not only would the electric powertrain make it greener, the narrowness would help combat congestion.
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As a result, though, it has a tandem seat configuration, which makes it feel a little bit like a jet fighter. That’s fun and interesting, but does also mean that there’s very little storage in the car.
Despite all of their noble ambitions, the Woodburys weren’t fuddy-duddies. Understanding that they should make a car worth getting excited about, they installed two electric motors that could deliver up to 800 hp (597 kW/811 PS) in the car. That meant a 0-60 mph (0-96 km/h) time of 3.2 seconds and an alleged top speed of 176 mph (283 km/h), if the gearing was correct.
To keep you safe, there’s a roll cage that is designed to meet NASCAR regulations from the era, and Sparco seats with multipoint harnesses. And to keep you from rolling, there are 2,000 lbs (907 kg) of batteries under the car that keep the center of gravity low.
Unfortunately, all of that engineering (and the fact that it never really made it to series production) means that the car is rather expensive. It rings in at $300,000 today, and few were able to afford the car in its time, though George Clooney received the very first example.
According to the crew at Donut, that’s a bit steep for a car that was essentially cobbled together. But the Tango T600 was ahead of its time in a lot of ways, predicting a time when EVs weren’t slow and dreary, but instead alarmingly quick and interesting. And that’s pretty cool.