We all have our dream cars. It shouldn't surprise anyone who reads my brain droppings here on OS that I'm particularly fascinated with Studebakers. Since at least my college days, I've wanted to get the 1951 Commander Fozzie Bear drives in The Muppet Movie and have it painted the same way Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem paint it later in the movie.

 (Aside: If you want to contribute to the restoration of one of the cars used in the movie, contact The Studebaker National Museum)

Of late, however, the 1957 Golden Hawk has a hold on me. It's a car which satisfies the part of me that loves classic car design with the primitive love of the muscle car that even a non gearhead like myself can't quite resist. It's 5 liter V8 Packard engine is about twice the size of the engine in my Honda Element, in a body lighter than many of the muscle cars that would come after it. Only the Chrysler 300 had better 0-60 acceleration.

Given the rarity of Golden Hawks, however, that dream is likely to remain a dream, unless I sell a novel or hit the lottery.

A more realistic option that I'm currently researching is finding an old Studebaker and making it into an electric car. A Lark would probably be ideal, given its light weight, but Studebaker made a range of light cars of around 3000 pounds or less that might serve nearly as well. The problem would be coming up with the $8-10,000 I would probably need to find a donor car, assure it is safe to drive, and then having an electric conversion done.

As I am finding, gas to electric conversions are something more an more people are starting to do (you can see a wide range of conversions on Mike Chancey's EV Photo Album). Kits are available for those skilled enough to do their own conversions; and there are companies starting to pop up that will do conversions for you if--like me--you lack the requisite mechanical skill.

But cost is always the problem, and here's where I think that federal, state, and local governments can help out. Make grants or tax credits available to people who convert gas cars to electric. Or if, as in Texas, there is an existing vehicle replacement program, extend that program to make EV conversion eligible.

Yes, times and budgets are tight, and I think that as citizens we should be careful with how our tax dollars are spent. However, financial incentives for EV conversions would, I think, offer the following advantages:

1) Get polluting cars off the road, either by turning them into a zero-emission electric vehicle or by replacing them with another conversion.

2) Make it more possible for more consumers to go electric sooner, rather than waiting for production EVs or plug-in hybrids that are still in the future. A typical conversion costs about the same as a decent used car and can be recharged with a household outlet.

3) It can give a boost to entrepreneurs who are either in the business of converting gas cars to electric or who provide kits to DIYers. Creating more demand for such businesses is not a bad thing at all, especially over the long term.

Certainly, an all-electric vehicle is going to have a niche market for the forseeable future but for someone like me, an electric car with a 40-50 mile range would be ideal for the vast majority of the driving I do, and I live in an ideal place to have an EV. For all levels of government to make financial incentives available for something like this makes a lot of sense, and I think the environmental, technological and entrepreneurial benefits would be more than worth it.

And if any of you have experience with converting a car to electric, I'd love to hear your story.