ooohhhh, electric :-)
 

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.)

http://www.greenpower.co.uk/uploads/IMG_8677.1.jpg

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:

http://www.greenpower.co.uk/uploads/IMG_1727.1.jpg

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 :)

Welcome to the site Joe. Sounds like you've been having some fun. :)

Welcome to EcoModder Joe,

Great stuff! Do you have drawings and/or photos of the chassis, and details of the drive system?

Joe of Loath -

Welcome to EM! You've been doing amazing work. Assuming you weren't ready to start building the EV when you were 2 years old, I can only imagine how far you'll get in the next 15 years!!!!!!!!!!!!

CarloSW2

That's hilarious... you'll fit in here.

Welcome to the site!

Welcome on-board Joe.

Having build and drive an EV at 15 before having a driving license, ie having burnt fossil fuel, is so cool :cool: :thumbup:

Do you have an official web site describing all these cars ?
If no then do not hesitate to use the "Fossil Fuel Free" forum to open some great description threads.

Is there only speed races, or is there also some fuel efficiency races ?

Denis.

Hey Joe,

Is your motor generating 250w the way you run it, or is it being overdriven? Because if it's giving its rated output, 35mph on just 250w is really good.

I don't have an engine in my possession that can efficiently crank out a mere 250w of power. Imagine if we could make ourselves get by with just 35mph. Shoot, on average that's faster than most of go when you take stop-and-go traffic into account. Now just figure how much farther you could go on a gallon of fuel if you didn't ever bother with that extra 15-25mph of speed.

MMmm, nice.

sorry I haven't got any drawings, I didn't do the CAD (planning suxx!).

the drive system is a regular bike chain in both, but Y-Pod has 8 gears on a derailleur with a layshaft.

lol, I hope so :)

lol, I'm like that all the time :) some engineers plan things, others bodge it. guess which one I am :)

yes, http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...eenpower.co.uk has loads of info including race reports, results, specifications and a forum, and our school greenpower page has some info: Chipping Sodbury School Greenpower Challenge: Home Page

the races we have are a mix of efficiency and speed. you have to gear the car to run for the 1.5 or 4 hours (depending on the formula) on 1 or 2 sets of 2 batteries, and be the fastest one out there (hopefully!)

there is also another race series called the shell eco marathon in which you enter and race for the highest fuel economy. an F24+ car like Y-Pod? raced with the only addition being a brushless motor and a small solar panel, and managed about 4100MPG! although in theory a top ranking car like both of ours runs at 1500mpg.

the motor is rated to 250w, but we usually drive it between 250-350w (350 is pushing it!). as it's a brushed motor, it's only about 60% efficient. we could easily go half as fast again with a small brushless motor.

the thing that makes these cars unsuitable for the road is that they can't accelerate from a dead stop. as they are endurance racers, we push start them, and they wind up to about 30mph over the course of a half mile or so, and carry on until you have to pit.

stop go traffic would burn a motor out in no time. It's made to carry a fat old lady round town, remember ;)

sorry about all the posts, multiquote only wanted 2 quotes per post!