| Owner | Roger Daisley | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Pullman, Washington US map | ||||||||
| Web/Email | WebPage | ||||||||
| Vehicle | 1986 Volkswagen Cabriolet Great little car. In the ICE configuration, the car had been previously lowered about two inches. After conversion, I had springs wound that would maintain that ride height. | ||||||||
| Motor | Warfield ImPulse 9 Series Wound DC 9.25"; 129 lbs; 60 ft/lbs torque; | ||||||||
| Drivetrain | Standard VW 5-speed manual transmission. Synthetic gear oil used. | ||||||||
| Controller | Curtis 1231B Works well in this car. Mounted on 1/4" aluminum plate supplied by Electro Automotive. I may later add a 6' DC fan, that I have on-hand, for cooling, if it seems needed. Can't have too much cooling. For now, no problems, even with a heavy foot and 90+ deg. air temp. | ||||||||
| Batteries | 16 Interstate US125, 6.00 Volt, Lead-Acid, Flooded Good reliable reasonably priced batteries. (I would rather have Optima Yellow Tops, but I'd also "rather not" spend the required $4,000!) | ||||||||
| System Voltage | 96 Volts | ||||||||
| Charger | Manzanita Micro PFC20 Good piece of equipment by Rich Rudman. I usually charge from a 120VAC 20-amp outlet I installed. I find that after a 25-mile run, it recharges the pack in about five-six hours, including an hour of low current "balancing" at the end. | ||||||||
| Heater | None yet. I removed and saved all the original VW heater/AC housing and hardware. This fall I will build a 120V electric "quartz type" ceramic heater into the heater box. I will use the original VW heater fan to circulate the heated air. | ||||||||
| DC/DC Converter | CC Power C400 A little "pricey," but looks nice and seems to get the job done. What more can you ask? | ||||||||
| Instrumentation | State-Of-Charge (SOC); Amps 0-500; Volts: 10-15 | ||||||||
| Top Speed | 65 MPH (104 KPH) Maybe higher: Since both the battery pack and motor are new, I haven't pushed it to the limit yet. So far, easily cruises on the nearby state highway at 55 MPH ... even on modest hills. | ||||||||
| Acceleration | Acceptable, but no dragster. I can merge with traffic just fine. Again, with a new motor and battery pack, max. performance is yet to be determined | ||||||||
| Range | 40 Miles (64 Kilometers) So far, runs of 25 miles are easily handled. Upon return, the SOC meter usually reads 50%+ remaining. (I haven't determined if that's a "real" 50% or a "mythical 50%" that evaporates much quicker than the first 50%. Stay tuned. | ||||||||
| Watt Hours/Mile | Using my "Killawatt" and recharging at the limiting 15-amps, I usually put in about 5-7 KWH after a 20-25 mile run. (Our current electric power rate is $.05/KWH. Pretty cheap driving!) Later I will experiment with solar charging. | ||||||||
| EV Miles |
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| Seating Capacity | Four, however because of the increased weight, I try to limit back seat passengers ... very hard to do! | ||||||||
| Curb Weight | 2,939 Pounds (1,335 Kilograms) Left front: 851 Right front: 834 Left rear: 600 Right Rear: 654 (Measured with a Longacre "Accuset" Computer scales.) | ||||||||
| Tires | Goodyear Invicta | ||||||||
| Conversion Time | I bought the car in 2004 and drove as a ICE. The conversion started in April 2007 and was substantially completed in August 2007. The parts were ordered in January 2007, however they didn't start arriving until April. VERY frustrating! | ||||||||
| Conversion Cost | Total cost: About $13,000, including the $900 I paid for the car. (The paint is as I bought it. Someone paid a lot of money for a beautiful deep purple job.) I put about $1,500 into suspension and steering repairs, including custom wound springs. | ||||||||
| Additional Features | I have installed XM Satellite radio. The car had been previously lowered about 2" and I maintained that ... looks very "cool." | ||||||||
| I love the car and the way it ended up. The performance is better than I expected with a 96-volt pack of 6-volt batteries. I think the larger Curtis controller and the new ImPulse 9 motor made the difference. Pulling 500 amps is a piece-of-cake, but I am careful not to exceed the 500 amp/2-min controller limit. I discovered, after conversion, that the vacuum brake booster had a leak, causing the vacuum pump to short cycled ON/OFF. For now, I'm driving with no vacuum boost, but I have ordered a rebuilt booster, as new one's seem no longer to be available. | |||||||||
1986 Volkswagen Cabriolet
“ElectricJet”
Last Updated 08-20-2007
Copyright © 1997-2008 by Mike Chancey