1967 Triumph Spitfire EV Conversion - Student Project

[powellsmith702]

what an inspiration! Great job folks on pulling a beautiful work of art out of the scrapyard and putting it back on the road with a true multi-fuel vehicle. (coal, natural gas, nuclear, solar, wind, geothermal, take your pick depending on where you live)

[baconsplace]

inspiring, a great job . I imagine two things... First that there will be a rush for beautiful ( uneconomically thirsty) vintage cars to upgrade as EV's. Secondly, as LiFeP04 batteries become less expensive you could massively extend the range and longevity of these car projects

[Upub2]

It would have been better to explain with the human voice what was going on instead of that awful music. Yuck!

[jmadd9000]

how do you change gears? just let off the electricty and shift? how many rpms will the motor turn? max out put under load? does the motor have enough torque to start off in say 2nd, 3rd or 4th? 40 mile range? all highway? at what speed? flat ground? hills? very cool!

[sugarsmax]

Is it for sale?

[herbienbrian2]

yay Rustoleum paint jobs!

I did one on my beetle.

[goodfun101]

I used to have a 1966 Triumph Spitfire and rebuilt the engine twice (first time after doing 98 mph, then bang).

It looks really good and 40 mile range is great. Is it still running?

[MrJwild05]

How much did this all cost?

[therotaryrocket]

awesome project, you guys work fast! 8 weeks?!! I'm going to the University of North Carolina Charlotte and when I get to my senior project I want to join the SAE Formula team....but I want to work on the hybrid electric car. Thanks for the inspiration!

[blanders72]

I wish our ME department would let us do something like this. Awesome job guys.

[shauntvr]

put a v8 in it

[watcher1727]

Hope you're going to upgrade battery with Lipo's. What's lipo? look at the rc modeling industry. They got it right, and soon LG electronics(south korea) will be leading once the lithium ion dinosaur technology runs it's course. There's too much lithium ion mfg infrastructure at the moment.

[pastryhat]

It's more expensive, but if your replaced the lead acid batteries with lithium-ion batteries, you would get a much better range than 40 miles.

[kpbarrow]

Cool. Did you have to change the front springs, or did the batteries & electrics weigh about the same as the engine?

You'd have also got a better top speed with a rag-top roof, it really effects the aerodynamics. Really nice job though!

[Shooter066]

SWEET Nice job guys!!! I've got a classic mini that wants to be still going another 50 years can we make it electric???

[sario22152]

wow good job>>>>75miles that fast.

[curtispan]

A great motivation for students to really put a lot of effort into it is to have a random team member's name drawn out of a hat, and they get to keep it. I know this seems somewhat unrealistic, but if the university would fund it, I'm sure it wouldn't be too crazy of an idea.

[kirkis9]

that was awesome! keep up the good work.

[schicktd]

Awesome!!!...and a classic... it needs some Lithium-ion polymer batteries...

[LiiMuRi]

Very nice. Good looking car, good conversion.

[cogzoid]

Fantastic conversion! I have converted a Spitfire as well (a 1964). Although I didn't do it nearly as quickly.  Congratulations and great documentation!

[JeffMcNeal]

Great job, but please paint the dashboard and let some air out of those rear shocks. You have too much positive camber. You really should have just a couple of degrees of negative camber back there. And add a camber compensator while you're at it. Early roundtail Spits are notorious for oversteer and wheel tuck. And with that positive camber already, you're flirting with disaster. But again, very impressed and very cool!

[sglusman]

excellent job from a long time spitfire guy!

[nvrdrty]

In the opening credits they spelled unnecessary wrong.

[TheTriumphkid]

it already was pretty fuel efficiant! why do people have to alter the classics!

[TakayaFreeman]

Because now it's more than just "fuel efficient." It's no longer dependent on fuel. And based on the pictures in the video, the motor is no more. Not very efficient if it's dead.

[TheTriumphkid]

@TheTriumphkid  then take a class, find out how to fix it then find a better solution to another vehicle that needs better gas mileage....say a hummer

[josephdupont]

Great.. can you extend your range by coasting in Neutral ..?Rev up to say 30 and coast to 20. on level of course..

[TakayaFreeman]

With regenative braking, yes. Regenative braking doesn't mean you break. It means you coast to a stop while the motor is spun by the wheels, thus generating power to slowly recharge the batteries, thus increasing the range of the vehicle.

[josephdupont]

hello..... if you are extracting usable energy while coasting you are breaking. Not hard breaking but breaking non the less ,unless you have discovered perpetual motion once and for all.

[TakayaFreeman]

Good point. You are drawing the energy from it, thus causing braking. Good catch.

And when I discover perpetual motion, I'll be sure to inform you asap. :)

[josephdupont]

lol!

[GegoXaren]

*fap fap fap*

gr8 work!

I which i had the money to make one of these /cry...

[FreiherrvonWeilberg]

ery well done!

[musclekid13]

Those things have enough room under the hood for an LS1 you were aware of that right?

[TakayaFreeman]

So?

[musclekid13]

So they didn't have to take such an awesome car just to put a tiny ass engine in it. That car could have been one sick hotrod.

[TakayaFreeman]

That's the thing; Just because it's electric doesn't meant it can't be as fast (or faster than) hotrods. If you look up "White Zombie Electric Car," you'll get results of an electric-powered Datsun that's held its ground against muscle cars left and right. Who's to say that this one can't be like it or better in the future?

[musclekid13]

Thats one car though!!!!

[TakayaFreeman]

There's others. You just have to look around. I've heard of an electric pickup truck that's faster then the White Zombie. That's the beauty of these electric cars. You can't tell them apart from gasoline cars.

[rcoleman2007]

¡Buen trabajo! Good work!

Enhrabuena desde Europa (Spain) Congratulations!!

[sildenefil]

Sweet Car!!!

[atgmam]

Nice job! What type and hp of motor did you use?

[kdredman844]

very nice, i have a 72 mgb maybe someday ill do that to one, the next step would be to figure out how you could trickle charge the batteries while running. they treid that with a gen set locomotive but didint have good results, your on the cutting edge.

[bowrooco]

Awesome job.. great donor:)

I had a 1974 1500.

very inspiring!

[akgregor]

lead acid batteries?

[smelsener]

Yes, 120 Volt System

[mathghamain]

@smelsener Great work, inspiring.

@akgregor

they can always upgrade the batteries later when the prices come down.

[Conrad1147]

excellent job everybody!! Its great to see an old car be refreshed with new technology. you are very lucky to find a spitfire in that good of shape if it sat outside without a roof or anything.

[pipersall]

Great job guys! I hope this experience will inspire you and your friends to convert your own rides over time and to continue to pass on your pioneer spirit!!!! The oil companies need to feel a bit nervous. You have given birth to the future NOW!!! Congratulations!

[smelsener]

Thank You!

[KBendix]

@pipersall I would like to see more peoples like them. I want to do similar thing but it is very hard to convince peoples that this is good idea.

[mydejavooo1]

How long does it take to fully re-charge the batteries after it has been drained? That would be my only concern with an electric car. Also, do you use any generators on the wheels or driveline in order to capitalize on the "free" energy produced there? Could mean an extra few miles, who knows?! Great work, BTW! Cheers!!

[smelsener]

It was set up for an overnight trickle charge. Roughly 8-10 hours. So its not a distance driver but works great for a daily commuter to and from work with maybe a grocery stop on the way. We didn't set up any regenerative braking or anything to keep the cost lower. But you could take advantage of that and increase the range by some.

[smelsener]

Conversion cost was about $7500. This did not include restoration costs. The total man hours including partial restoration was around 250 hours.

[joepah51]

Great work guys. Nice summer project and you finished what you started... Would like to know what the material costs were and approximate man hours.

[paulb4uk]

Superb work

[JonDraeger]

If you traded that heavy nose for a fiberglass one and replaced the steel wheels with minilites you would probably save a good 20-30 lbs of additional weight ...

[smelsener]

Yes but the entire car weighs about 2,300 lbs so it would be hardly noticeable. We have about 800 lbs in the batteries alone, and another 120 lbs in the motor.

[edstar83]

GREAT WORK GUYS!!!

[mpgomatic]

75 MPH and a 40 mile range ... Wicked cool!