[MetroMPG]

Someone suggested SW should consider converting a car... he has a vintage Austin Healey...

I've thought of that. In fact I think it would be too cool to convert one of the AHs I've seen with blown engines (though most of them end up modified with V8s).

I also know the racing history of Donald Healey's cars, and how successful of a roadster icon it became in America. I see both sides of it. I think I'd end up trading my time off between swapping in new running hardware into very very old rolling hardware vs. updating everything between the frame and the pavement. Even a GT6 is atleast a decade more advanced than the Healey whose running gear was designed in the early 1950s.

I'd actually rather send the Healey off to a good home and use it's accrued value to hack up something much easier to provision with parts and will handle as if it was made closer to this century. Maybe a Miata or Z3. I've gotten very spoiled with the handling and reliability of modern cars. Then the biggest limiting factor is battery technology, as it has been for the past 150 years.

I know what you mean about that Siemens AC drive system: the ProEV Impreza has 2 of them in it for 270hp 4wd plus 35+ kW worth of Kokam Li-Ions.