Anyone ever thought about trying this? I’ll admit it’s one of those projects I keep kicking around in the back of my head. I wonder how much of a low budget build you could do by researching your parts and getting them from used sources (flea markets, junk yards, used appliance stores etc).
I’d want a light shell, but something with a trunk so I could separate the batteries from the passenger compartment (aka, sedan, not hatch). I’d probably want RWD just in case it ever started working well enough to be fast.
This was my plans for the my first 280z. I got as far as knowing everything I need to get, which really isnt that much. 3-Phase AC motor, controller, and a shit load of batteries. The motor can be mounted directly to the existing trans with an adapter plate. the controller is $1k, the motor is $1k, and the batteries are variable (feasibly $1k & up for Li-ions)
You and the 2350-pound White Zombie inch forward in line, straight-pipe gas burners blapping all around you. Zombie makes only a faint steel-to-steel grumble, its final drive gnawing on itself. You roll out of staging toward the lights, and in the other lane is a pristine 351-cubic-inch ’72 Mustang Mach 1 — stock horsepower, 275. Its burnout is a fog bank of tire smoke like a NASCAR victory celebration.
This is gonna be terrible. The Ford’s a beast, and you only have two puny electric motors — and no noise.
Feeling like a drag-strip cross-dresser, you do your silent burnout anyway. The Datsun bucks and rumbles under you, emitting a respectable fog bank of its own.
You inch into the lights, the Mustang bellowing. You hear every muscle-bound power stroke of its Cleveland 351.
This is — is the word “silly”?
The Christmas tree ticks down.
You tromp on the (un)loud pedal.
Suddenly, you’re looking straight down the length of your nose at the drag strip ahead, your helmet pinned back against the headrest so hard you can’t pull down your chin. The rear tires yaiiiieeeee-yipe! The nose lifts. Your front wheels are stationary (you’re told later), while you positively devour asphalt. The drivetrain makes violent mechanical juddering. Which gets worse. And as hard as you try, you can’t lower your chin. Far in the distance behind you: one really pissed Mach 1.
Obviously something like that is going be neither cheap, nor a good commuter vehicle.
It’s a neat idea that I’d like to try someday. The DC motor and Curtis controller is probably the simplest way to do it. I was a forklift mechanic and so was my pappy and I have friends at the hyster dealer where I used to work so that’s a big advantage.
I think the easiset thing to do would be to buy an electric forklift. They are usually pretty cheap if they don’t have a battery since a battery costs like $5000. Just beware that another reason for an electric forklift to be real cheap is a bad controller - controllers are very expensive. I think a new Curtis is about $1300.
If you buy a lift truck then you’ll get a motor and controller as well as a main contactor, direction switch, and so forth. In fact if it were me I’d even take the power steering motor and pump from the forklift and use them for power steering on the car.
From what I’ve heard, the $/mile is about half or better on a standard car (elec/mile vs gas/mile).
I’ve been thinking about this for shits and gigles. The gf wants an elec car, and drives nothing just in the city so it’d be fine. I’d prefer to convert something rather than buy some POS from china.
AC is the ticket for efficiency, but AC controllers cost thousands of dollars. The auto-decel features of an AC controller would be great for brake life as well. Of course you could do that with a DC controller, just “plug it” where you flip the motor in reverse and the controller will slowly slow it down and then go the other direction.
