Mark's Electric Car (Bugeye Sprite) Test Drive

This is a quick tour of my Austin Healey "Bugeye" Sprite which I am rebuilding as a "Plug In" EV (electric vehicle)in its prototype stage, and some shots of my test drives.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• electric
• car
• EV
• conversion
• austin
• healey
• bug
• eye
• sprite
• mark
• plug
• in
• green
• MPG
• alternate
• fuel
• vehicle
• test
• drive
• bugeye
• sexy
• home
• built

[redandgearhead]

Do you have an estimate on the mileage you will obtain in the car? I"m thinking you will make it past 50 miles on a charge with that many batteries.

[klmhayes]

I am currently using only 9 of the 12V batteries, even though I have room for one more. I can get about 40 miles per charge which is a little low due to that I live up in the hills and climbing the hill to get home uses quite a lot of power. With all 10 batteries, 50 miles would be no problem for basicly flat land driving.

[drumsrule55]

this is real cool...im working on a 74 MGB at the moment and im also wanting to get into electric conversions. Sorry if youve already answered this but im curious as to how many HP that motor has

[klmhayes]

The motor is an 8" Advance DC (203-06-4001). It is rated at 21.7 hp (16.3 kw) for continuous running and 83.0 hp (62 kw) peak power. The big thing is that the torque is about 100 ft lb. I can start in 4th gear going up hill and still accelerate from a complete stop. That is more HP than the original 948cc engine and nearly twice the torque.

[muddmuller]

Nice job with the gizmos to make it work. All a bit beyond my level of comprehension as I got lost at "plug it in here at the back"! I had a '60 bugeye for 6 years when I was in my 20's. Bit sad to see the old girl chopped up like that but hey, you might start a whole new trend to bygeye body shapes! Like to see it when its all done. G'day, Vic from Oz

[klmhayes]

Hi Vic. I just did the first test drive of the nearly finished car last Monday. I will be posting an update video sometime in the next week or so. In that video I will include some "before" pictures and you will see that there was not much to start with so chopping her up was not too painful. I could not have done it if the orginal car had any reall value to it. Thanks for your comments!

[oldtilter]

Great Work there..too bad the Government is dragging its feet

[josephdupont]

a beautiful conversion. Congrats..

[MrDannidy]

love that car post another vid when you get done

[71spaceman]

never seen a frogeye with a boot, is it a mk2 with the bonnet added somehow

[saintellins]

remember you can move the standard gas powered sprite by electricity in an emergency say if you break down and need to move it to the roadside. just put it in second gear and work the starter motor the car moves slowly!. it works better if you drop the compresion and remove the spark plugs

[SendinK9]

I own a 1969 Sprite MKIV and they are great little cars. I have owned mine for the past 20 years and now am fully restoring it. I worked for an Austin Healey restoration shop years ago where I bought it from. I have to say I see nothing but excellent craftsmanship on your Bugeye. There is a lot of work involved with this project and it is very impressive. How you got the electric motor to mate with the tranny is something else. The whole project is a beautiful feat of engineering, very cool!.

[drumsrule55]

oh DC? ive heard alot have people have converted using AC, DC seems smarter though because its simpler and has just as great of performance...so is accelerating from 4th any different than starting in 1st and shifting?