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hey Fellas,

i been wanting to share with you folk for a while....eh.. 9months, give or take.

 

done right with LiFe battery pack...very snappy car, super fun to drive, climbs up the hills like you wouldnt believe.

should go 100miles, but my heavy foot never allows me

 

Jeff 

 

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Last edited by jc
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Robert, i was referring to range.

but it should also will go 100mph speed wise.

i have gotten it into the low 90's and a whistling sound starts to come from the front wiper windshield area, if i went any faster i will lose my jacket/etc... will just fly away  get scary too as things start to feel different at those speeds compared to 65-70.

even at that speed, i still feel acceleration and can go quicker.

maybe i will try to get a top speed when i get an opportunity on a closed circuit.

Last edited by jc

2200lbs, give or take a few.

 

battery packs up front and rear added total about 400lbs.

the new electric motor and controller/chill plate/charger/etc all added together is about the weight of the old gas motor/exhaust/gas tank/gas/lead battery/etc.

 

battery packs are designed to be corner balanced, so the car is not rear heavy. 

Last edited by jc

Thanks Robert...no offense to the other electric speedster

I am pretty happy with the results.

all I do is take a 4" wide painters brush and brush off the engine compartment when it gets dusty, no oil, NO CARBS to adjust!!!!!

the noise, or lack of does taking some time getting used to, but you still hear the winding of the electric motor and tires screeching

Lane, Charge time from empty should be 6.5hrs on 220v, and 13hrs on 110v.

its never a good idea to drain the battery pack down to 0%, and i never do, most of my charging take no more than 4 hours...i usually run it down to 35% remaining. I will get those number is i can get this on a scale again. Honestly, i cant recall if it handled the same prior to the conversion...but since then I've changed the shocks and camber compensator/etc...so it should handle better

 

DannyP, Thanks! I will take Clean over Sanitary

I hear ya, with the conversion, you win some, you lose some.

i do miss the rumble sound of the motor...sometimes

 

 

Sassy, Thanks!

 

 

Ron, thanks, range is a relative thing, one can say there is never enough range, even in a tesla that goes 300+miles. It one is looking for a longer range in an ev conversion, its possible, your just carrying around a lot more weight. performance decreases.

 

WOLFGANG, the shifter is as your know it, its not a direct drive setup. going thru the gears are still required, but i find myself never really needing to start in first, or using first unless i want to peal out or go up a very very steep hill. you can start in 4th, but its kinda slow, 3rd is ok, 2nd is my favorite, again 1st is just too short, when you punch the throttle, your basicly passing the range of 1st gear in 1 sec.

i still use the clutch, never tried not using it...i guess it theoretically should work if your going slow enough without something going CLUNK!

 

Edsnova, here are some specs.

 

AC motor with regen...regen has switch that toggles to aggressive and less agressive.

battery pack: 

160Ah x 38cells
3.6V

LiFePO4

650amp 121 volt controller

DC/DC converter 400 Watt 

Xantrex Pro Link monitor

Liquid cooled chill plate to cool controller

 

Yes, still uses clutch and the 4 speed transmission that come with the car.

 

MusbJim, thanks man. I should take you for a ride...but not too far maybe around 90mile drive, cause i need to charge it after that

 

 

Last edited by jc

There are many things about electronic drivetrains that I like such as lots of torque, smooth operation, cleanliness, low maintenance, etc., and I would be definitely interested if the charging time issue could be solved.  A range of 200 miles is about what I currently have with my Speedster, so that is acceptable, but the several hours to charge up again are an issue.  So far I am unconvinced that batteries will be able to get over that hump, so they will need much longer range to equal the convenience of an ICE drivetrain.  Now if some of the recent work with fuel cells comes to fruition, we might have a winner.  I often drive my car quite a bit on weekends, and a sub-100 mile realistic range won't work for me.

 

I tend to measure realistic range this way:  I live in Charleston, SC and my in-laws live in Asheville, NC.  I can do the 280-ish mile portal-to-portal trip in about 4 hours.  In my DD that's non-stop.  In the Speedster it requires one 5-minute gas stop.  When I can do that with an electric car I'll be interested myself.

 

That doesn't mean I don't really like what JC's done.  That's a gorgeous car that works well for him and under the same circumstances I'd be proud of it as well.

 

I am curious if you've had the car corner weighed.  With the correct placement of batteries and controller you could significantly improve the weight distribution over a regular Speedster.  With sway bars and sticky tires you could make that puppy handle really well.

Last edited by Lane Anderson

Lane, what your looking for is very very possible, longer range, just like with any car, that has a gas combustion engine...bigger gas tank will get you further, but performance obviously would take a hit. same deal when you go electric.

 

As far as charge time,

there are quick chargers out there which will bring charge times down to minutes vs. hours.

similiar to the tesla super charging station, but there is always a price tag attached to it.

also, there are higher density batteries available(lithium cobalt) that will give you more range.

not only the price tag attached to these, but also less stable. 

got deep pockets? hey way not, right?

 

WOLFGANG, i need ot show you a pic of whats behind the lic. plate...i got a very similar port for a wind up key...sorta.

 

 

 

 

 

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