[MPaulHolmes]

Hurray. Also, it was getting dark, and I haven't checked the state of charge of the batteries, but we decided to wire them up and see if the dang car works. It was just about dark when we tried it last night. Also, I have it now so that you push a button to use the pre-charge resistor, and then turn the key to shut the contactor. The next moment will live in my memory forever... I was going to keep it a secret until we made a video and it was during the day, but it rained all day today! oh that made me mad.

So, I stepped on the gas pedal and the car strained to go back, and went back like 2 feet. I tried it again and the same thing happened. OOPS, the E-brake was on! So, I took off the e-brake, and it rolled back REALLY silently. Then I put it in 1st gear, and drove down the street. The acceleration was very good. I turned on the volt meter, and could barely read it since there are no lights in the car, but it said 75.6v. I think the ammeter said like 15 (which translates to 15*4 = 60 amps), but it was really hard to read. I drove down the road with my expired tabs from 1994. It was WEIRD... REALLY WEIRD! I came to a stop at the stop sign, and it was like I was sitting in a DEAD car. IT WAS WEIRD! I stepped on the gas, and it accelerated very responsively, just as good as my Kia Spectra.

I forgot that I had unscrewed the speedometer (so I could remove the fuse box) so I don't know how fast I was going. I shifted into 2nd gear, and the car continued to accelerate strongly. Then I slowed down to another stop sign, and some people drove by us (my wife was in the passenger seat) staring since the car was DEAD at the stop sign, even though the headlights were on. I think they were about to stop and help us. haha! It was the most amazing feeling in the world! The weirdest thing was sitting in dead silence and then stepping on the gas and taking off. that was weird!

We went to recharge the car this morning. Oh no! One of the chargers was behaving different from the others. OOH, it was set to the 2 amp charge setting. We let it charge for about an hour in the POURING rain (seems dangerous! haha) and most of the batteries were just about full, except for one, which must have been at a lower state of charge when we bought it. So, they've all been charging all day, and we'll see how things are tomorrow.

I just want to re-iterate that it was the most amazing thing for the car to sit there dead and to race off with a totally foreign faint sound. It was very unnatural.

It felt like the gosh dang bat mobile!