The ability to hold a constant 40-45 is something that I REALLY want it to do, and the top speed of 80 would be something cool, but not a necessity...and definately not something worth flipping the car over about
. Going down those huge hills that, when going up, get you going incredibly slow gets you up to what my father and I both agree on being around 45-50...before we hit the brakes so as to not overspeed the motor, and neither of us were scared at all...well then again, we never get scared with things like that...
When I clicked your link to whatever TomEV did, I got a page that said:
Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.
Was it the field weakening thing? If so, he said that it gave him 2 mph, not really what I'm looking for, also just to be clear, 40-45 speed going up the hill is what I would be looking for, not just on flats. Otherwise you must be talking about the overvolt to 64 volts...and he said that the motor can't really handle the extra voltage. So I'm still looking for something else.
Given a lithium kit costing $3,000 (middle of your suggested cost range) for 100ah, that would yield around a 20 mile range (wasn't the original around 200ah of lead giving 40 miles...?). Obviously if the wh is cut in half and the weight dropped 1/3, you would be using less energy to go the same distance, but it definately won 't cut the wh/m in half to maintain the same range, AND I would still be using contactors rather than a solid state controller. What would be needed for a motor change to something with more power...able to climb hills around 45mph or faster (maybe a new differential
)? The reason I haven't replaced his contactors yet is I don't know what my options would be in terms of ac vs. dc and the power requirement.
The measurement for amperage is a small ammeter that the former owner installed himself and the numbers are written on a paper that is taped on it. Underneath where the paper sits, there are the original numbers and it seems that it would be about 250 amps in that spot...hmmm
Also, under acceleration, we get around the 800 or 900...is that reasonable? I wouldn't think so...
Finally in my lithium batteries vs motor upgrade is the batteries in it are supposedly 3 years old, but only 50-100 miles on them, and they seem to work fine even for a 30 mile trip...
Also, whatever I do to the car, I don't really want to spend more than $2000, but I definately don't want to (or rather really can't) spend more than $3000....soooo....what's everybody's suggestions?