Electric Hot Rod

[Richard Bartrop]

While his elders are busy crying in their beers about how it isn't 1973 anymore, here's a guy embracing the new technology.  Good for him.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a28215254/teslonda-tesla-powered-honda-drive-interview/

[oldnslow]

now that's cool .

[THarrison351]

That's awesome! Embrace the future!

[Scott Colmer]

This is cool. I would like to do something similar with a Sprite. I wish they would show the battery and motor installation.

[Joe Handley]

These will be happening more as more EVs hit the streets, then get totalled and the tech gets cheaper. I'd love to see some sort of Show Rod with a fully polished and/or chromed Tesla  gearbox out back Jag Rear end style

[Ace-Garageguy]

22 hours ago, Scott Colmer said:

... I would like to do something similar with a Sprite. I wish they would show the battery and motor installation.

No shortage of hard info out there for anyone who's serious about doing it.

               

                Much of it has been around for many years...  

[Brian Austin]

The Hemmings Blog has been running articles on classic Jaguars and Aston Martins that are being built with modern RV drivetrains.

Sadly the Hemmings Blog commenters tend to be mostly negative in those posts.

[peter31a]

8 hours ago, Brian Austin said:

The Hemmings Blog has been running articles on classic Jaguars and Aston Martins that are being built with modern RV drivetrains.

Sadly the Hemmings Blog commenters tend to be mostly negative in those posts.

Why "sadly"? So much of what makes a classic car is its engine. The sound of an air cooled VW or puckata, puckata, sound of a Model A or the sweet sound of a Ferrari. You take that away and you've lost the soul of the car. So much of an old Jaguar or Aston is their engine. You may as well go buy a Tesla and bury the poor antique in the ground. I'm not anti electric car as a modern vehicle. I"m considering at least a Hybrid for my next vehicle (too far from the city in a cold country to go full EV at this time). But I hate seeing it done to classic cars.

[Tom Geiger]

The future.. embrace it!  LOL

The parking lot at a tech company I visited this past week!

[Brian Austin]

I said "sadly" because the Blog reports on a variety of topics relating to the hobby, and the complaining relating to stories that don't involve internal combustion power gets a little old.  The small number of EV-converted classics described in the articles won't replace all classics.

I like the variety of topics presented on the Hemmings Blog.  There's more to life than muscle cars!  :-)

Edited July 12, 2019 by Brian Austin

[JohnU]

1 hour ago, Brian Austin said:

There's more to life than muscle cars!  :-)

WHAT!!! BLASPHEMY!!!!???

[Scott Colmer]

23 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

No shortage of hard info out there for anyone who's serious about doing it.

               

                Much of it has been around for many years...  

Thanks for the info, Ace. I caught most of those on amazon. I also have an engineer friend who used to work at a conversion shop. I figure I have two years before I can start. Right now, I have a body and fiberglass hood waiting in a shed.

I've been pro E-car ever since we got out Bolt. So fast. 

A friend of ours almost talked me out of e-power because of the missing sound. We tooled around you tube listening to some bridgeport rotary engines. They sound awesome. Maybe I can fake the sound and keep the e-power. Range is the only issues then.

Here is the current body waiting for me. Hood not shown.

Here is the rotary powered version from high school before a failed rebuild. After this pic, I added flares and an air dam. 

After a wreck that evaporated the fiberglass hood, I started a full chassis rebuild. I got this far and stalled. My dad said to get it out of his shop. I gave it away. Bye bye. 

[Richard Bartrop]

2 hours ago, Brian Austin said:

I said "sadly" because the Blog reports on a variety of topics relating to the hobby, and the complaining relating to stories that don't involve internal combustion power gets a little old.  The small number of EV-converted classics described in the articles won't replace all classics.

I like the variety of topics presented on the Hemmings Blog.  There's more to life than muscle cars!  :-)

What's really crazy is that articles about old cars that were originally electric seems to trigger rage too.

[Ace-Garageguy]

12 hours ago, peter31a said:

Why "sadly"? So much of what makes a classic car is its engine. The sound of an air cooled VW or puckata, puckata, sound of a Model A or the sweet sound of a Ferrari. You take that away and you've lost the soul of the car. So much of an old Jaguar or Aston is their engine. You may as well go buy a Tesla and bury the poor antique in the ground. I'm not anti electric car as a modern vehicle. I"m considering at least a Hybrid for my next vehicle (too far from the city in a cold country to go full EV at this time). But I hate seeing it done to classic cars.

Agreed. Exactly.

There's nothing wrong with electrics used intelligently in roles they're suited for. But they don't do much for me. I'll never enjoy silent acceleration, even if it pins me to the seatback, as much as I enjoy rowing through the gears on a stinky, smelly, exhaust-belching anti-social internal-combustion-engined death machine...preferably with no onboard computers, air bags, backup cameras and beepers, or crumple zones.

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, Scott Colmer said:

Thanks for the info, Ace. I caught most of those on amazon. I also have an engineer friend who used to work at a conversion shop. I figure I have two years before I can start. Right now, I have a body and fiberglass hood waiting in a shed.

Should be a cool little car. The conversion game has changed dramatically since the '70s, when all we had was lead-acid batteries, big rheostats, and industrial DC motors to work with. Control systems weren't generally very sophisticated and the weight of the batteries required turned nimble little cars (I was involved with VW Bug and Fiat 128 conversions) into evil handling pigs with short ranges...very much like big golf carts.

The availability of some reasonably well-engineered EV and hybrid componentry...and vastly improved batteries...on the wreck market makes it possible to build something that can actually be used as a reasonable car, within limits.

But for me, I'd really rather go the other direction. I think a highly-tuned V6 or V8 sitting sideways in the middle of a Honda CR-Z just might end up in my shed if I live long enough.

[Tom Geiger]

We live in interesting times. I can see all sides of this discussion.  I'm a died in the wool old car guy.  I love the feel, the sounds and everything about old cars.  But time does march on, and sometimes our opinions of the future are based on the existing within our experience.   For instance, for many years people swore that electric vehicles would never trump the internal combustion engine!  The cars were small, slow and had a range of less than 100 miles. 

Tesla enters the market! Suddenly we have an electric sedan that's FASTER than nearly any muscle car!  Game changed!   I was a naysayer until I actually got to drive a Tesla.  My cousin is an early adapter, and had one of the first ones.  He put me  behind the wheel at a local restaurant.  I drove through the 25mph road around the restaurant.... ok, no big deal.  Then he told me to go up on the highway.  I stopped at the first light and he told me to floor it.  OMG!  Pinned back in the seats.  I hadn't felt that since I drove my buddy's '68 GTO!    I was suddenly a convert.  I'd like to put all of you guys in that drivers seat and see your take on it.

As far as the shortcomings of range,  Tesla is working feverishly at improving the batteries. In the meantime, their onboard computer calculates your range and tells you where the charging stations are along your route.  My cousin has taken a Tesla from Florida to Michigan,  and said the computer found them places to eat meals and the charges took no longer than that.  He said there was no inconvenience.  Tesla constantly improves their software and updates everything out to the cars overnight.  

I remember back to when my buddy and I got our first PCs. He was rather stuck in the present.  As I talked about streaming whole movies, he held up a phone wire and told me there was only so much room inside that wire.  I told him they would find a way to transmit greater data.  Guess what happened?  He was also quite impressed with his 100 CD changer.  I told him that someday the device would download all those CDs to a single hard drive.  He couldn't conceive that large a hard drive!   Guess what?   So my point is,  they will figure out shortcomings of  our technologies!

A couple of years ago I went to a tour of the company PJM Interconnection, who runs the eastern power grid in the USA.  They showed their futures, and it involved cars that would automatically charge themselves both by solar and electric transmitted through air waves.  They also talked about how all of these cars would be used as small electrical reserves that they could tap during peak times.  The system would know your schedule and wouldn't tap your car during your usage periods, only when idle.  And ya know,  I believe them!  

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2019 by Tom Geiger

[charlie8575]

One thing absent from all discussion from all corners: hydrogen power.

It may be a way off yet, but not that far, either. What people seem to overlook is that with some modification, any internal-combustion engine can run on hydrogren, and the modifications aren't real expensive, either.

Might be the best way to have it all.

Charlie Larkin

[Ace-Garageguy]

16 hours ago, charlie8575 said:

One thing absent from all discussion from all corners: hydrogen power.

It may be a way off yet, but not that far, either. What people seem to overlook is that with some modification, any internal-combustion engine can run on hydrogren, and the modifications aren't real expensive, either.

Might be the best way to have it all.

Charlie Larkin

GLAD TO SEE YOU AGAIN, MR. LARKIN !!

Anyway, I've been harping on hydrogen as a fuel for IC engines for decades (along with compressed natural gas). With a home-sized rooftop solar photovoltaic array, hydrogen gas can be produced and compressed in quantities sufficient for the "average" commute (according to Honda's numbers, not just mine) in a day. And...it can be made from graywater, which is simply water that's been used but has no fecal matter in it.

There are European engine manufacturers getting MORE POWER from hydrogen IC engines than they get from similar fossil-fueled engines, once the engines are optimized for hydrogen.

Burning hydrogen as an IC fuel has other advantages too. The obvious one is that the major exhaust component is water vapor (burning hydrogen in air also produces oxides of nitrogen, unfortunately). Another one is extended lubricating oil life because a gaseous fuel doesn't dilute engine oil. And the fact that gaseous fuels don't wash the fine film of lubricant off of cylinder walls like liquid fuels can also contributes to vastly improved engine longevity. 200,000 miles of operation with NO MEASURABLE WEAR is a reality.

The downside, of course, is the typical high cost of hydrogen (at the moment) and the difficulty of storing enough of the stuff to get decent range (at the moment).

Edited July 14, 2019 by Ace-Garageguy

[Modelbuilder Mark]

10 hours ago, charlie8575 said:

One thing absent from all discussion from all corners: hydrogen power.

It may be a way off yet, but not that far, either. What people seem to overlook is that with some modification, any internal-combustion engine can run on hydrogren, and the modifications aren't real expensive, either.

Might be the best way to have it all.

Charlie Larkin

Toyota has one, called the Mirai, sold in CA to the general public. It is a test market. In MY opinion, its looks hold it back

[Ace-Garageguy]

5 hours ago, Modelbuilder Mark said:

Toyota has one, called the Mirai, sold in CA to the general public. It is a test market. In MY opinion, its looks hold it back

The Mirai is a fuel-cell vehicle. The conversation had turned to hydrogen-burning internal-combustion engines, which are entirely different from fuel-cells.

BMW offered a version of the 2005-2007 BMW 7-Series, called the Hydrogen 7, with a 6.0-liter V-12 that could run on gasoline or hydrogen.

But the engineering wasn't at the point where it is today, and as a dual-fuel engine, the design was NOT optimized for hydrogen and its efficiency on hydrogen was low compared to gasoline.

Here's a recent article (April 2019) about the reality of hydrogen today, from a reasonably reputable source:

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1122364_is-hydrogen-internal-combustion-a-better-idea-than-fuel-cells-engineering-explained

Running IC engines on hydrogen at the moment really only makes sense if you're particularly in love with internal-combustion, like me, and want the sound and feel of a mechanical engine without the environmental guilt certain quarters would like to make you feel. Some drawbacks are addressed in this video:

 

Edited July 14, 2019 by Ace-Garageguy

[Ace-Garageguy]

The Difference Between Gasoline And Hydrogen Engines

 

 

[goldfinger]

I just cant warm up to Electric vehicles. Quote me all the horsepower and torque numbers you want, there is nothing like the feeling you get when an internal combustion engine that you have built , modified or maybe just dragged out of a barn fires up and comes to life. Think about it this way , in 2055 will some guy pull a dusty Tesla out of a shed and be thrilled and surprised when it fires up? Nah. Electric cars have a valuable place in the world , that is leaving the gas for us real car guys! 

[misterNNL]

I see a time in the not too distant future when some people will not know what an internal combustion engine powered automobile actually sounds like. In an age where people are oblivious to changes in everyday things around them the eventual demise of the ICE will go unnoticed by the average citizen. Young people Will walk through car shows with their grandfathers,look under the hood of a gasoline powered vehicle,point to the engine,look to his grandfather and ask "what is that?". It Will happen.

,

[Cpt Tuttle]

I have some kind of urge to convert an early SAAB. They must be quite easy to power with their low drag, low weight and narrow tyres. The two stroke engines held the fuel economy back though....

[Richard Bartrop]

Battery advocates claim something like 90-95% efficiency, and of course, they have their own issues with charging times, and capacity.

Electrification I think will ultimately prove to be a benefit for gas engine enthusiasts as it takes the pressure off them.  When was the last time you heard anyone complain about the enviromental impact of steam engines?

And yes, high performance gas engines sound wonderful, but really, how many Ferraris and Lambos do you com across in your daily routine?  I somehow doubt that too many people are going to wax nostalgic over the throaty purr of a Ford Focus.