hello!
I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Joe (hence the alias). I'm 15 years old and lets just say have some prior experience of EV's
I partake in the greenpower challenge (
www.greenpower.co.uk). I helped design, build and race 4 EV's (3 endurance racers and a drag racer).
the endurance racers are powered by 2 70ah lead acids in series and a 240w wheelchair motor (!). our F24+ car (named Y-Pod?.) can go for around 50 miles on a charge with a top speed of about 40mph (I've had it to 36mph but ran out of gears. the current draw was below 20amps too, and to finish a 1.5 hour race it needs to be around 27.)
our other car that currently races in formula 24 is called R-PodS. It's got the same motor and batteries, but is a completely different shape. Infact, a rather radical shape. see, it was designed to fit me (I was over 6 foot then, I'm now 6'7" and too tall to drive, so have moved onto Y-Pod?.), and the maximum length was less than the length of me and 2 batteries, not to mention the motor and drivetrain too.
so, we designed around that for the smallest frontal area possible, and came up with this:
sorry it's not the best photo, but the greenpower photographers never seem to get a good shot in the FOUR HOURS we race for. this car will go just over 50 miles on a charge, but with a top speed of about 35mph. The cars in this formula use 2 sets of batteries, and have some pretty interesting battery changing strategies.
we have 2 other cars, R-Pod and C-Pod, but both have been retired. R-Pod raced in F24, but was superseeded by R-PodS. C-Pod was a drag racer, but we only raced once before the formula was cancelled. it was powered by a series wound starter motor and 1 70ah lead acid, and would hit 50-55mph tops (if it was geared right. we burnt out our motor because we had the wrong RPM spec). the top car in the formula would do 250m in 16s, which works out as a quarter mile in about 20-25s.
We are currently national level competitors, and Y-Pod is 3rd in the country (beating a car built by bentley, that, if they paid for the materials their car is made of it would have cost £80,000! ours is made of old school tables and plywood.) R-PodS is 5th in the country, and is the second highest placed single geared car. the top placed single geared car is also from my school, but another team.
I also race RC cars reasonably well on a small budget compared to the other competitors.
so, here I am. I'm pursuing a career in electromechanical engineering, and hope to work for some automotive company on, you guessed it, EV's.
WOW that was a welcome and a half. well, I hope I see you around!
Joe
P.S
I want to build my own road legal EV. I have a near unlimited supply of 70ah lead acids, some experience and a welder