Lovely forum here - delighted I've discovered it. I've got a Vintage Speedster that I've imported to the UK and then converted to an EV with a Hyper9 motor and Tesla battery packs. Becoming slightly obsessed with tinkering it.
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Welcome to the Speedster Madness and VERY nice conversion!
Does it still use the VW transaxle for a pseudo high/low range or something different?
Are you also running a chill plate with it?
Inquiring minds wish to know!
The Speedstah Guy from Massachusetts
While many of us prefer our old-tech oil burners, the engineering in that looks first rate. Have you compiled any performance or range data yet?
Driving video please!!!
Can you drive it in London without the daily congestion fee ?
I’m following this. Would love to see a video.
Can I ask how long the conversion took, and how she’s performing (e.g. 0-60 rough times, range, KW of battery?)
I’d done some back of the napkin thinking around something similar, and came up with needing around 7 of the 6.4KWh modules off a plaid 100 S. Hyper9 looked good, maybe equivalent of around 140 hp?
Congratulations, I’m sure she gets plenty of stares.
Beautiful conversion. Welcome to the madness!
I'd love to hear your impressions of how the car drives
Tell us everything you tease!!!!!!
-=theron
@Gordon Nichols posted:Welcome to the Speedster Madness and VERY nice conversion!
Does it still use the VW transaxle for a pseudo high/low range or something different?
Are you also running a chill plate with it?
Inquiring minds wish to know!
The Speedstah Guy from Massachusetts
It uses a VW standard drive mated to a special clutch plate - so you can use it as you would a petrol engine with clutch and gears. I tend to drive it in 3rd gear all the time like an auto.
No idea what a chill plate is I am afraid?!
@Michael Pickett posted:Beautiful conversion. Welcome to the madness!
I'd love to hear your impressions of how the car drives
Firstly, it is a lot, lot quicker. You dare not start off in 1st gear as you would leave the tires on the road. If you start in 2nd it will get you very quickly up the road. I haven't done a 0-60 test but it feels very spirited! Suspension is uprated all round with spax adjustables and I have it set close to the softest but it still handles way better than before (mostly due to almost perfect weight distribution spread between the batteries in the rear seat and where the petrol tank was). With regen braking set to its lowest setting, range is about 140 to 150 miles. You could probably eke out a few more miles but I'm not really bothered as it only is used for local drives. CanBus system was installed recently so all gauges are now calibrated with the system (I can see revs, fuel now shows battery percentage, etc.).
@Mark Jensen posted:Can I ask how long the conversion took, and how she’s performing (e.g. 0-60 rough times, range, KW of battery?)
I’d done some back of the napkin thinking around something similar, and came up with needing around 7 of the 6.4KWh modules off a plaid 100 S. Hyper9 looked good, maybe equivalent of around 140 hp?
Congratulations, I’m sure she gets plenty of stares.
I've been told that it is closer to 180hp because of the way that it is set up. Range is approximately 150 miles.
Those are very respectable numbers. Nice job!
A “chill plate” is a hollow plate fastened to the drive end of the motor to help cool it. They typically have liquid coolant (anti-freeze) running through them.
Beautifully done conversion. Around 2010 I looked at electrifying my MGTD replica (VW-based, so same under the skin as your car). At the time it would have had to be lead acid and even then the cost to convert (Warp-9 motor, big Zilla controller, etc.) was going to run over $10k and the range would have been ~30 miles, so I held off.
These new style batteries really make it work.
@Dommo5000 posted:Yes.
Not having to pay the congestion fee is probably worth the conversion cost !
what year is it registered as for Road Tax ?
@Gordon Nichols posted:A “chill plate” is a hollow plate fastened to the drive end of the motor to help cool it. They typically have liquid coolant (anti-freeze) running through them.
Yup - it has two radiators (one for battery in the front and one for motor) and a reservoir - so an air-cooled has become water-cooled!
Conversion was by RetroElectric in the UK and took approx 6 months. I'll post more photos when I get some time as I've since done a few more mods to it.
I have a nephew living in Raleigh, North Carolina USA who has spent his career building a contract engineering and manufacturing company, making things like LED fixtures and computer cabinets. He was on the team that designed the "Butterfly Keyboard" for early IBM laptops. He and his partners are about to sell out and retire and he's talking about starting an EV conversion business for classic cars and trucks with one of his sons. I'm looking forward to seeing how this might develop.
In the meantime, Your conversion, @Dommo5000 looks like a Porsche Factory Install!
Thanks v much - appreciate your kind words. I know there's loads of programs in the US on TV about car modding and restoration (I think I've watched most of them here in the UK!) but there's a show in the UK that might be of interest to your nephew: https://www.vintagevoltage.tv/
They developed a 356 based on a Chesil speedster (which are fine but nowhere near as good as the Vintage Speedsters from the US IMHO) and now the company is marketing a fully electric EV 356: https://chesil.co.uk/electric-chesil-e/
Claims to do under 5 seconds 0-60 and 200 mile range. Not bad.
@Dommo5000 posted:Firstly, it is a lot, lot quicker. You dare not start off in 1st gear as you would leave the tires on the road. If you start in 2nd it will get you very quickly up the road. I haven't done a 0-60 test but it feels very spirited! Suspension is uprated all round with spax adjustables and I have it set close to the softest but it still handles way better than before (mostly due to almost perfect weight distribution spread between the batteries in the rear seat and where the petrol tank was). With regen braking set to its lowest setting, range is about 140 to 150 miles. You could probably eke out a few more miles but I'm not really bothered as it only is used for local drives. CanBus system was installed recently so all gauges are now calibrated with the system (I can see revs, fuel now shows battery percentage, etc.).
That CanBus system sounds slick! I was thinking that the weight distribution might improve handling by splitting battery packs, but figured have to jerry rig something above the hyper9 assembly itself. Clever about putting batteries in the rear seat, that far forward of the rear axle probably really helps.
Love that!
One point of clarification to a comment above, a chill plate cools the motor controller, not the motor. You see most of them mounted on top of the motor, but in the case of this build it is offset to the left.
How many batteries to get 150 mile range? I'm guessing 7? I squeezed 110 mile range out of 5 6.4KWh batteries, but it took a 60% reduction in torque (still VERY fast) and "one foot driving" regeneration. We achieved a 51/49 weight balance at a 1980lb total weight with all 5 batteries up front.
With regen we had to add a clutch switch to keep the motor free spinning while shifting, otherwise the regen pulls the motor to an instant dead stop when you push in the clutch. Fortunately for us, Hunter (owner of Netgain US) lives about 40 miles from the factory so he came down and helped with writing all the software for the things we wanted to do.