1971 Corvette EV Conversion

[watahyahknow]

i have an allergic reaction to epoxy (getting all sorts of little bumps on my skin that itch like crazy ) so i dont envy the fiberglass work you need to do to get everything right

i think that looking back on the framerepairs it mightve been more economic to use another frame from the wreckingyard

glad to see the project still going after me being away from this forum for so long

looking at the picture of the blown corvette got me thinking : those cmc rootsblowers would make a great enginecooler and make the car look and sound realy nasty when it runs than again it prolly need to be lubed a little while running too

did you knew that the blower on the interceptor from the first mad max movie was driven by an electric motor , it wasnt even hooked up to the engine

[adamj12b]

Well, Im sure many have forgotten about this project, due to how long it has been.

Years back, when a123 fell apart, I lost the ambition to finish the car without a cell that was going to give me the performance I wanted. The car got stored in the shed, and the frame ended up buried under box's in the garage.

Well earlier this year, I found the push to finally get back to it. I found batteries that can do what I want and are affordable enough to beat on and replace every 3-5 years.

SO! EVVETTE is back in business!!

And! I have alot of updates.

I have moved the frame to my house and have collected all of the parts Ive gathered over the years.

For the first time in about 6 years, the body and frame have been back together.

I have also picked up a once in a lifetime deal. A Dennis Berube motor with a race built powerglide transmission. I got this from a good friend that was going back to direct drive with this motors twin. He was not able to keep the pressure high enough with his external pump and didn't have room for anything bigger, and kept burning up bands in the transmission.

Since picking up the motor at the end of July, I have been working hard at getting the car done. Getting this motor and visiting some electric racing events gave me the motivation to finish the Vette!

Ive always wanted to put a powerglide in the car as the gear ratios match my manual transmissions 2-4th gear. This one is a hair different at 1.80:1 1st and 1.0:1 2nd. Once I had the motor/transmission combo in hand, I quickly realized I would need to build a subframe to carry the monster. When I saw monster, this motor has produced, so far, 516HP and 1400ft-lbs of torque at 1900RPMs! I would need something that could handle this power and channel it to the frame. The things I was really happy about is that I am able to put most of the driveline in the tunnel of the car. This keeps the motor only 6" out of the firewall leaving even more room for batteries.

Batteries... I made the decision to go with Chevy Volt batteries. They are cheep enough to run them near their limits and get the performance I am looking for, and easily available so when the time comes, I can easily replace them without rebuilding the car.

I am planing on using 2 full Volt packs, one in the front, and one in the back. These will be set up in their stock configuration 96s3p, and both packs in parallel. Effectively 96s6p. Figuring 900A hard peaks in each pack, I can get 1800A from the batteries. I wanted to be at 2000A with the a123 cells so this is close enough. The 350V nominal voltage will keep the sag away from my motor which will be set for 215V.

As for a controller, That is back in development now, and hopefully done in the next couple months. I have taking my Uprising 1K and turned it into a monster. The Uprising 2.4k. I have doubled all components, upgraded the bus plates to 1/8" copper and added water cooling to all the IGBT's. My cad drawings say I will be close to 20lbs of copper...

Going forward, I plan to post more updates that are smaller.

EDIT - I am having trouble with google sharing pictured directly. Here a re the links and descriptions.

Frame with gathered parts and body on dolly.
https://goo.gl/photos/4QwwZbeCNPZJPbkr9

Dennis Berube motor with Powerglide next to Warp11HV with Muncie M20 4 speed.
https://goo.gl/photos/CnhnUmHWZr5Sttb87

3x2x0.120 box steel sub-frame and Dennis Berube Motor.
Side - https://goo.gl/photos/MrLhwVhRMMGzsxCFA
Front - https://goo.gl/photos/QXCQUbkPw3LQaHYZ6

[Frank]

Looking good Adam! I think you're doing the right thing with batteries and we know the motor/tranny will rock-n-roll. Your skills are evident in the pics. Keep up the good work!

[mrbigh]

Looking forward for new updates!!!

[California98Civic]

Subscribed. (But I cannot see the pictures.)

[adamj12b]

OK, Google is being a PITA... I will figure out how to attach pictures more easily. I'm planing on posting more often now as I am quickly making progress.

-Adam

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by adamj12b

EDIT - I am having trouble with google sharing pictured directly. Here a re the links and descriptions.

Lemme try:

Frame with gathered parts and body on dolly.


Dennis Berube motor with Powerglide next to Warp11HV with Muncie M20 4 speed.


3x2x0.120 box steel sub-frame and Dennis Berube Motor.
Side -

Front -


What I did:
- Ctrl-click on the links to open them in a new tab
- Go to that tab
- Right-click on the image
- Select the 'Open link in a new tab' option
- Go to that tab
- Right-click on the image in the new tab
- Select 'Copy image address' or 'Copy image URL' (mine is Dutch so that wouldn't help you)
- Go to the EcoModder message edit box
- Click in the Image icon ( which is the yellowish rectangle with two small greyish mountains or pyramids and a blob in the upper right corner)
- Paste the copied address/URL in the picture address selection box.
- Preview, correct, repeat etc.

Explanation:
Somehow these image services like Googles put the picture in a frame construct that does not let you copy the image URL directly.
However, by forcing the site to open the picture on a new tab all the code that overlays the actual picture gets stripped and you get the real deal.
I used Chrome btw.

You can use this trick also when you suspect a picture has changed, but buffering prevents you from getting to it. Open in a new tab, Ctrl-F5, new unbuffered image.
There's a cartoon site that uses the same image URLs every week. I need this quite often

HTH and keep up the good work!
Cheers,
Bart

[adamj12b]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

Lemme try:

What I did:
- Ctrl-click on the links to open them in a new tab
- Go to that tab
- Right-click on the image
- Select the 'Open link in a new tab' option
- Go to that tab
- Right-click on the image in the new tab
- Select 'Copy image address' or 'Copy image URL' (mine is Dutch so that wouldn't help you)
- Go to the EcoModder message edit box
- Click in the Image icon ( which is the yellowish rectangle with two small greyish mountains or pyramids and a blob in the upper right corner)
- Paste the copied address/URL in the picture address selection box.
- Preview, correct, repeat etc.

HTH and keep up the good work!
Cheers,
Bart

I wish I could thank you more then once!

I knew I had done it before but couldn't remember how as it has been sooo long!

Im a little ashamed right now being an IT Administrator..


-Adam

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by adamj12b

I wish I could thank you more then once!

I knew I had done it before but couldn't remember how as it has been sooo long!

Im a little ashamed right now being an IT Administrator..


-Adam

IT is way too big to be able to do all.
I am a software developer and pretty lame with 99% of what IT throws at us.
I've been fighting with images... but I guess I got the hang of it

[wheelbender6]

I am enjoying this thread. I drove a 1978 Corvette for over 9 years.