Added: 4 years ago
From: revgadget
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  • maybe now we can all boycot oil

  • I just saw the revenge of the electric car video yesterday. I want to say thanks for not giving up when your shop was burnt down. Inspiring to say the least. Will you please email me? I have some questions for you as I am beginning my build process. I will get into details when you email me.

    Thanks

  • I have seen and enjoyed your TV programs, hope to see more, they are interesting and informative to say the least. Hope you make some for YouTube the kind that get down to really installing the electric motor and drive line. I recently discovered that 70% of money spent on oil from OPEC is diverted into funds for terrorist. Now for me its time for a total electric car. My next vehicle will be a hybrid and that possibly the Nisan leaf. I will need to convert a small SUV to electric. Thanks

  • The Spitfire has been updated with lithium polymer batteries and now goes about 130 to 140 miles on a charge at freeway speeds.

  • whats your range on the electric spitfire

  • To get the full info on energy and the real numbers on efficiency of power plants and gasoline production, go to my blog musingsofamadman . net and check out the trailer for Revenge of the Electric Car here on you tube.

    Gadget

  • That's a hard one to answer... depends on how fast you want to go. For more info check out my site leftcoastelectric . com

    That conversion is from years ago. I don't use lead acid batteries anymore. I only work with lithium polymer cells. my new cars have ranges of around one hundred to one hundred forty miles.

    Gadget

  • can some please state the power to weight ratio needed to push a car ?

  • Power stations are far less efficient and burn more fossil fuels than your internal combustion does. So electric vehicles are not viable at the moment. Not unless the electricity generated is from either wind,solar or thermal. On top of that is the cost of upgrading the grid if we all switch to electric.

    Iceland is the only Country to come up with a viable alternative so far. Hydrogen

    Oops ! it looks like a posted a different opinion. This post will definately be deleted.

  • @baggie00001 Sorry but you are wrong. The fuel to power efficiency of creating electricity is up around 1000% of the efficiency for doing the same work an electric motor would with said power. If you go to any engineering school and take a class on thermodynamics you will learn this.

    That said, the grids are in no shape to handle EVERYONE converting. However, you will not get everyone switching all at once, there will be a changeover period and this will also help the economy by making jobs!

  • Triumph Spitfire right! I had a yellow one when i was 19.

  • Plug-in cars are great TILL the OLD Power Grid Crashes under summer demand..Build a new grid fast..then intro Plug-ins..

  • Poor Triumph Spitfire.....

  • hello im a hotrodder from california - i currently have designs for a bolt on magnet

    wind and solar conversion kit for a car would like to be linked up with the appropriate

    people to discuss the plans and possible prototyping options - thank you casey

  • Where are the details of the project??

  • so much smug!

  • One word: INSPIRING

  • Nice video.

  • How much money will it cost to do the same on my car.

    Lets say a Honda.

  • @y2kjorgeavila give this a look- ravasity.com

  • well its an awsome thing for sure but how much does it cost to build one with out the cost of the vehicle

  • Where's the follow up? More on the car please.

  • hi, im thinking on converting my 84 oldsmobile cutlass supreme to electric....but after reading all it takes....is it really hard? what do I need to know? also, everyone talks about the warp engine, is it really that good? thank you, awesome video =D!

  • I love you. Do my mustang?

  • how do you get power steering and vacuum for braking?

  • @baldandold with electric compounds that do the job: electric steering pumps, and electric vacuum system =) google it, you'll see

  • can you help me out. I would like to know of some powerfull engines that provide decent torque an hp. I am very much considering of converting the 190E into a electric car instead of rebuilding the engine and then supercharging it.

    Please if you have some time send me some links with powerfull electric engines.

  • but its 1971 triumph spitfire found in UK before it release to USA because u can make it into electric easy way but design is hard(i did use it on GT on psp)

  • The oil industry has got to go down, and electric cars are it. People should just buy car bodies at junkyards, and convert them. Theres got to be some way to get the electrical components for cheaper. The oil spills, and the poisoning of our atmosphere has got to stop.

  • how much did it cost to convert car to electric .....

  • ma da voi ve la fanno omologare? quì da me no.

  • Go fuck yourself with a square dick. Is that the best you can do??

  • sorry I posted the video response twice, I didn't realize you had to approve it.

  • I found an Opel and want to convert it. How did you hook up the drive line is there a kit i can buy? Thanks Stew

  • i like how you take off the exhaust pipe. take it off.

  • It's not that hard. Anyone Machanic can do it with money and time. It's not rocket science. What a silly question

  • Is gas to electric conversions common knowledge? If not then why would you say the question is silly?

  • I'm buying a 94 RX7, 91 240SX, and a 88 RX7 just to convert them all to ALL electric cars.

  • wow, and how do you learn to convert cars?

  • you bastard!

  • Looks great, but what are it's stats?

  • Awesome ride. How many batteries on and what's the range? But very cool idea, I'd love to do it with a mini. Keep up the good job !

  • the minis are being sold 100% electric already!

  • hey i jus wana make an electric car for my younger brother.. but i hav no idea how to build it.. could u plz guide or tell me some websites from where i could get the guidance

  • so how much does it actually cost to do the conversion ?

  • i like your ride a lot better than the goverment motors(GM)chevy volt.who wants to pay 40 grand for something that makes a pinto look like a caddy?your ride is so cool.

    the world needs more people like you and less people that throw sticks at people like you.

    have you seen the lincvolt neil young is working on?its on youtube check it out.

    many thanks to you and people like you for trying to make the world a better cleaner place.

  • actually, the Lincvolt is complete and operational.

  • Yeah, electrics are just awesome..

  • i kinda would do that if i had a car , im only 15 haha

  • It's about time I converted my car to electric with fuel in the uk well over £1 a litre.

  • holy cow GADGET??

    you were on some of the Discovery/TLC shows like BIG and Monster House?

    or am I mistaken

  • I was the head engineer and lead builder on BIG! and was on two episodes of Monster House. I was in Who Killed the Electric Car, The engineer for Smash Lab, as well as doing some on screen time. I also had a pilot called Gadget's Electric Garage. There's more... Check out my IMDB page.

  • Do you have a web site? Is there a place where I can download the whole episode of the 67 camaro you did? Thanks! We should have listening to you a long time ago.

  • do we have to wait for detroit to build us a $45K electric car that wont even be coming until 2 years from now ?

    and guess what that electric car will still be using gasoline

  • Yeah, fuck GM, I want their employees to have jobs but this is just karma. I'm actually shocked we haven't seen any of their board members shot by employees yet, you'd think with all of the shit that people get angry about you'd at least see that happen.

  • Heh-heh. Karma. Get it? Car-ma?  'Cuz kar - KAR - sounds like ca ....

    Forget it.

  • cost...

    where so i get the parts..

    ie motors and controllers

  • He failed to provide some info in the video and he even stated a question which addresses that. Well, how much did it cost???

  • electric is so exhilarating to drive. I drove an electric sports car and it was incredible. I was blacking out when flooring it on a straight. Very, fuggin, fast.

  • -what about the interior heating system, can they get it to work efficiently with electricity only...?

  • Surely they could somehow use the heat generated from the electric motor and battery pack?

  • Well, yes and no.

    The electric motor does get a little warm, but nowhere near enough heat for a Michigan Winter, for example.

    The best solution right now would be to put in a liquid fuel heater where the car's heater core was. With electric ignition, you could start and stop an alcohol burner quickly and get heat fast for defrosters, etc.

    The Aluminum/Gallium/Water reaction produces heat and Hydrogen gas: add a fuel cell and you're done.

  • i hurd one case the use electric power heaters like a base board style in ur house or the kind u plug in fronm the store soemthing like that with a fan to blow the heat around

  • IC engines lose 42% of their energy to exhaust and 28% of their energy to the cooling system.

    So only aprox 30% of the money we spend on fuel for our cars is actually used to move them.

    Electric powered vehicles could very well be the future as they are so efficient and in some cases so quick, or maybe some other new technology. Time will tell.

  • It's actually worse than that... when you consider how much energy is used to move the person from point a to point b it's less than 1%

  • @revgadget sadly I suspect is worse than that even - note @joseico90 said loses "42% of thier energy" - which is to said 42% -of-their-total-conversion-of-­gas-power-, efficient gas to mechanical energy is expensive so they don't even try really.

  • @revgadget Still got to account for coal being burned for power at the power plant.

  • @Cstrife234 as technology increases we will find ways to make electricty naturally in abundance

  • Well, batteries aren't perfect either, nor are battery chargers.

    But with the news about using tailored viruses to self-assemble Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries, maybe we're only a year from having a really good battery alternative.

    And of course, EESTOR has patented a supercapacitor for use in electric cars... we'll see if it works.

  • dont forget the production/disposal

  • @joseico90 the Burke engine is better than that.

  • @joseico90 Yes but you forget that the coal fired generator on the other end of your charging plug is only 33% efficient.

  • Power stations efficiency is another matter, my point being that, as a norm, electric powered vehicles are much more efficient than IC powered ones, not to mention other obvious advantages. Lest hope that in time power stations will improve in all aspects.

    Even with not so efficient power stations I would rather have electric...It would be best to have millions of clean efficient vehicles powered by several power stations than have both, millions of polluting vehicles AND power stations.

  • great question. why aren't we doing it already? thats why i hate GM and the volt with their bull crap about how they don't have the technology yet.

  • GM won't build the Volt. Its just a ploy, and they are hoping gas prices will drop enough so they can continue to make gasoline cars.

  • @monkeyman1140 Things change fast in a year eh? Its debuting in dealers this year!

  • @monkeyman1140 pfft.. gm can just keep dreaming.. gas wont ever go down.. the govorment sets the prices.. didnt you ever notace that all the gas prices at total different stations are exacly the same?! wake up! if an idendent station lowers their price just 5 cents then theyed have lines across town getting their gas. theyed make a killing! but you know why you never see that? the oil company and the govorment are one big monopoly.. :/

  • Nice very nice..

  • Great work, respect!

  • Do a google search for Electricity4Gas

    It shows you how to do your own electric car conversion.

  • ok i need to aply this technology to a swift suzuki a small car somebody can do this or maybe just do it at the moment??

  • need more info,like parts needed also directions

  • I love burning dead dinosaurs as much as the next guy, but with gas prices, I might consider doing something like this. You could EASILY make up the steep prices for batteries, a motor, and a generator with the price of gas.

  • how much approximately would this cost?

  • 5000 including the donar car... if you go with a little less quality batteries and get a free donar you could get this down to about 3000

  • I treid to build a EV, I live in Michigan.Unfortunatley the thing failed, because of the cold would'nt allow the batteries to get a good chage,defrosters dont work very well neither.They're work fine in a warmer climant, but usless in a cold one.

  • Don't know if this would work but did yeah try adding a heater to heat the batteries to a set temp? And run the power of the heater from off the home power or separate battery pack during the cold? If it works better in say 75 and above then set the heater to just that.

  • My 2000 Ford Ranger EV NiMH doesn't have issues in cold....Ford Built, Chevron owns patent of batteries....

    The vehicle Ford wants you to forget they made

  • the oil companies also want you to forget that electric cars existed.

  • That guy kind of acts like a pansy about the chemistry of a gas powered car, you know? I'm not knocking his work or his car though - looks like great stuff.

  • looks awesome ...

    i wish people would talk about engine type, voltage, ampage, alternators on wheels ... info a little more in depth

  • Dude I want one.

  • Hey guys, look an electric car!

  • I want to convert my 1997 t-bird to electric. I would have the energy consumption I prefer and still drive the car I love most.

  • I've got a black on black 1994 Toyota Supra, the Fast 'n Furious one. Need to convert this bad boy to electric. That would be SOOOO friggin' SWEET!!!

  • to Terrorist420x. I have a 1977 Datsun 280z 4speed just sitting ready for an eletric conversion. Have cold winters, need to drive 55mph, flat terrain, and am looking for best batteries for these conditions and a reasonable do it yourself conversion kit - any ideas? Thanks!

  • u might wan to try "Nanowire battery" is a kind of li-ion, but not available in the market at the moment ...

  • These ideas need to go mainstream asap.

  • Fantastic piece. Orale cabrones! jordi

  • USA is the freedom place for more innovation to modify something that is awesome. For my country you might be get confiscation of your vehicles on the road.

  • That guys a good artist, no joke. I thought it was a pretty fancy "Last Gas Ride" thing.

  • how can I convert a vw bug??? I want an electric car please!, they don't stink

  • look on ebay they have a kit that runs about 2000 dollars

  • The cheapest (general use) kits I found run for 4000-5000$, what kind of performance do you get for the 2000 kit?

  • pretty simple but crude parts it gives you everything but the contactor and a relay i believe, i think you might need to buy some wire as well but it comes with the basics. its a 72-96 volt system with the batterys in the front and the electrical in the back. Check it out just type in vw electric conversion in ebay

  • Thanks a million! I know a guy in my neighbourhood with a VW Bug (10,000$ though) so I'll look into it :D Maybe I could convert a more recent bug in exchange for the 10,000$ one. Anyways, I'll have to think about it more....

  • im converting a bug and for 96 volts that would mean i would have to buy 8 batterys! this totalling a 600 dollars! X! so plan it carfully before you start converting.

  • Depends on battery chemistry and voltage (of each). I'll probably go for 6V lead acids for a sensible balance of range, performance, and cost. Maybe we should have a chat sometime :D

  • 8 batterys is lucky, usually you would by about 15-20.

  • ebay has electric cars complete & running. just be patient & keep looking. Electric Ford Rangers pop up on there from time to time. Once you have the vehicle youe could upgrade components as a project. More efficient batteries, motor, etc.

  • You could also look here. Change the , to a .

    Electroauto,com

  • Eu não entendo ingês mas queria saber se a aplicação dessa tecnogia esta ascessível e quanto custa sabendo que tras entre os benefícios a economia?

    grato

    Hiran

  • Não entendo inglês mas eu achei q foi eficiente e queria saber se essa tecnogia esta ascessivel.

    Hiran

  • the reason why everyone is not doing this is because the big bad and i mean bad oil companys dont want us to and it is the same with the very big bad energy companys. THEY RUN these so called governments but the tide is turning as i have just seen back here in england with the biggest power company back here putting there prices up by a masive 27per cent and why simple they are trying to get as much money as possible before there bubble bursts there time is nearly up ANY

  • aww, that old conspiracy theory is still going?

    it's the way our economy is structured, there is no competitive advantage to building electric cars. making your own is relatively easy, kitting out factories and design teams on something that may not sell is a big risk.

    just give it time. as oil prices rise, the public will demand an alternative. the economic risk will lessen and companies will start building these. first one company will be successful and the rest will follow like an avalanche

  • you need a stream lined top like a gt 6 look. for better range. put a plex real window and some solar cells and who knows. great conversion how much were the batteries, motor and controlers.

  • He has a Spitfire with a GT6 body, in fact. One of the Spitfires had lithium ion batteries and 300 miles range.

    The GT6 is my chassis of choice, and will have further mods done to it, including bellypan, grill block, rear wheel skirts, shaved door handles, cameras replacing mirrors, possibly a tapered roof spoiler, shaved rain gutters where feasible. 100 miles range on lead acid batteries with a GT6 is theoretically possible.

  • GR8 project...I would love a 100% EV I hate ICE!!!!

  • Gadget - Please post more videos! You have great information. thanks - Dave

  • Great project!

    Tesla Motors of Oakland, California builds the TESLA Roadster that gets 250 miles between charges (lithium battery pack) and up to 165 miles per hour..you know who Tesla was, right?

  • And how much including batteries, cable, invertors etc did it cost them for the conversion?

  • If I had to take a guess, I'd say about $10,000 for the Spitfire conversion he built that used AGMs, and about $20,000 for the NiMH version. IIRC, both used series DC motors and Zilla controllers, so no inverter!

  • Electric Sedan, SUV, and Truck for about $30-40K. Max tested range 456 miles per charge. Go to Lionev website.

  • FUCK DA GAS

  • I showed this to my Spitfire and it leaked some oil on itself.

  • wow there was no information in this video at all and no substance especially if this is the only video you have someone needs to just make a video on here about how to do things step by step and where they got the parts

  • Toxic everything i like this lol

  • I remember reading a while back someplace that electric cars were capable of going 200-250 miles per charge.

    how much energy does it require to charge an electric car that gives you X amout of miles vs that same milage in a gas engine..

    Seems as tho the electric cars are was expensive for what your able to do with it..

    by all means, don't take this in a negative light, I respect any advancment away from internal combustion.

  • An electric car with similar weight and aerodynamics to a new 4-door Honda Accord sedan will need about 0.25-.3 kWh/mile from the batteries. Small sports cars are around 0.15-.25 kWh/mile from the battery, large pickup trucks and large SUVs(eg. GMC Tahoe) will use about 0.4-.5 kWh/mile from the battery. Charging is generally about 75% efficient, so divide the above by .75.

    Electric cars would be the same as or lower in purchase cost to gasoline cars if produced in the same volume.

  • Zivan charge controllers are 85-90% efficient...

  • PFC chargers by Manzanita Micro fare better, and AC Propulsion's chargers fare better still(95%+). There's not just charger losses, but battery losses. Look at the studies detailing Southern California Edison's RAV4 fleet and 75% is about what they got. Granted, NiMH batteries are one of the least efficient batteries when charging, and > 75% charge efficiency is easily beat. But 75% efficient is currently about the norm. Flooded batteries charge at 80% efficiency, AGMs ~85-90%, Li Ions ~95%.

  • Hmm I've got AGM at 90-95% and Li-ION at 99%... anyways you were talking about charging efficiency in your comment before, if you meant charging and storing efficiency then those are two different things... There's also motor controller and motor loses as well, so might as well quote the tank to driveline efficiency... for modest system it's 62-77%

  • I was trying to differentiate between consumption measured from the batteries(important for calculating range) and consumption measured from the electrical outlet(important for calculating total energy consumed). It's hard to adequately and accurately answer peoples' questions with a 500 character limit per post. Your 'tank to driveline efficiency' is pretty accurate. Way better than an internal combustion engine car.

  • Yes that's true plus the comment system on here is hard to follow who's responding to whom unless you click on view all...

  • hey terrorist if you know so damn much where is your electric car and videos of it

  • My chassis is rusting away in the garage because I have no money to work on it at the moment. If my next interview goes well, I'll be working for a wind power company, and finally be able to buy the appropriate equipment to record videos AND get that damned thing going. I want to soooo bad. I may scrap the idea of AGMs altogether dempending on how much cash I make and possibly go straight to Li Ion...

  • I know what you mean I'm scrounging too and do you know if the site that is converting the probe has finished that project yet and wouldn't you think the probe might be to heavy but I wonder what the curb weight would be without all the petrol parts? Li ion what company are you buying from have you heard anything about thundersky? Have you heard the high pitched sound on gav's car what is that??

  • If I can, I would like to buy from Altair if I ever get the cash! 35 kWh pack of theirs would weigh 1100 lbs, give my proposed conversion a 250+ mile range, a ridiculous amount of battery horsepower, and 20+ years life. I know about Thundersky, but those don't have a high enough specific capacity for the performance I want.

    I think you're referring to the sound from Gav's car that's emitted by some of the infamous Curtis controllers, due to a PWM 'chopping' with an audible frequency.

  • The simple answer is,

    Ev is 1/10th the cost per mile compared to ICE!

    About $0.02 per mile Vs $0.20 with petrol.

    Look at it this way, your monthly gas bill will equal your YEARLY EV power bill.(approx)

  • how many miles can you go on a single charge?

    have there been any innovations for an alternator type setup that replenishes power as you drive?

    If I could pull 400 miles to a charge, depending on price, I'd consider it..

  • An alternator will always generate less energy than energy lost due to internal resistance. Same idea of having a wind turbine on a moving vehicle... if you got more than you put in then that would be better than perpetual motion!

    Oh and show me a gasoline car that can go 400 miles? Electric vehilces can only meet the need of a portion of americans... about 90%

  • There's a lot of gas cars that can go 400 miles. The Prius hybrid can go over 500. However, the lower end of range of gasoline cars is about 300 miles, and with today's technology, electric cars can easily do 200-300 miles per charge.

    All that's needed to make long distance travel by electric car viable is fast charge stations. We've had that technology since the 90s too, and Southern California Edison would have implemented it if it weren't for a few oil lobbyists getting in the way.

  • I was hinting that 'DdgeShelby' doesn't need to wait for an electric car to get 400 miles since most gas cars don't get 400... And yes hybrids get a lot of mileage due to electric motors and batteries...

  • Well, most gas cars currently on the road can't go 400 miles, but if you look at consumer reports and stuff, you'll find that most new cars are now doing > 400 miles per tank.

    whatever the case may be, 150 miles range is certainly enough for a mass market electric car(doable with NiMH batteries in the mid 1990s), and even 80 miles range would be enough range for hundreds of thousands of Americans to switch to an electric car(doable with lead acid batteries for the last century).

  • Perpetual motion my arse! It's called maximum efficiency.

    1) There's Regen (if you us AC and totally forget about DC) which can extend your range by over 60% in stop / start traffic or hilly terain.

    2) Mitsubishi recently showed a concept car that had regenerative fans in the front grill. Wind pressure goes up by the square root of speed so at high speed these could collect quite abit of power. No news on if they were used all the time or just when braking.

  • nice. I thought you faded away because your website went dead a while back. what controller did you use in it?

  • If I had to make an educated guess, he used a Cafe Electric Zilla 1k controller for this particular car. It would seem to fit well with the acceleration specs outlined. A Netgain WarP 9" motor, zilla 1k, and a battery pack powerful enough to maximize their use would be good for ~150 peak horsepower at ~4,000 rpm and ~220 lb-ft of torque at 0 rpm up to peak power.

    Come on Gadget, get that bitch on a dyno! :-)

  • pretty cool, spitfire must be perfect for this (seperate chassis and all).

  • The MkIV model that was converted has a 15.2 square foot frontal area, .42 drag coefficient, ~1,800 pound curb weight, and ~2,300 GVWR. You can fit about 15 Exide Orbital AGMs in one from what I've heard.

    I'm more fond of the GT6 myself. Supposedly, it has a much lower drag coefficient.

  • 100 mile range but what's the recharge time after that? Knowing how poorly US spec Spitfire's performed you've done the car a favour by ripping out its emmision controlled lungs.

  • US spec did 0-60 mph ~13.5 seconds and top speed ~100 mph. Dog slow they were. Good gas mileage though, 40 mpg was attainable at a steady 50 mph. If I weren't concerned about the effects of oil consumption, I'd be shoving a big block V8 in mine, but I'm making an EV of it instead. V8 Spitfires and GT6s can still surpass the 30 mpg mark driven conservatively, and they sure do go like Homer Simpson after an encounter with habanero peppers.

  • we don't do it because they suck, range of 50 miles and the things weight is 3 tons with all the battreys and the stock braking system is unsafe with that much weight, I drove an Electric MGB...what a shame it was

  • We don't do those kind of conversions. That car goes 0 to 60 in 5.5 seconds. And with it's Nimh battery pack goess 100 + miles

  • How is that pack working out? Have any problems with single cells going into thermal runaway yet? I bet that BMS was a total bitch to put together. I'm very impressed.

    I'm amazed that the NiMH you're using can give it that acceleration without any temperature issues. With aeromods, it wouldn't surprise me if you got your range into the 150 mile territory.

  • We also don't ovrload the car, and redistibute the weight. This car stops as well as the original but out corners and out performs it.

  • What about your lead acid conversions? Have you managed to keep those under GVWR, or did you add leaf springs and do chassis reinforcements to accomodate the weight of a lead acid pack along with passengers and gear?

    With NiMH or Li Ion, I could easily see you being under GVWR, and in some cases an electric car could weigh less converted than stock!

  • I have a just like the one in the video. (Triumph Spitfire) how much did it cost and how long did it take to do the conversion?

  • With the Nimh pack it costs about 17 grand. the conversions usually take about 3 days to a week

  • How much of that cost was the pack, and how many nominal kWh? Any expected shelf life or longevity specs, or is it still way too early to tell?

    If it works well, then that's one loophole to Chevron's monopoly and suppression of the large format NiMH.

  • Dude, you put my EV videos to shame! Well done! :)

  • Hot damn that's a good video. I love the Vette race and the music. Great choice of car too. Nothing like a sporty convertable.