$2000 Challenge EV Car?

In reply to rich911s :

Right. But how many under $2000?

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

So, right now I'm thinking buying (2) auction Leafs, combine the drivetrains, exocart one of them and sell off the remainder as recoup.   

MrJoshua said:

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

Uuuuhhhhmmmmm, link to copart sales of evs that go for less than 2k? 

I was looking before pandemic used-car-flation and couldn't even find wrecked leafs less than $2k.

I have the rest of a car ready to go if I could find the donor leaf!

Looks like a lot of GEM cars might go under $2k. 

Please  clarify,  "GEM" in this context.

In reply to Indy - Guy :

Pretty sure a Gem car is an enclosed golf cart

SV reX said:

In reply to Indy - Guy :

Pretty sure a Gem car is an enclosed golf cart

Sort of enclosed, often by plastic.

Edit-and only a few are still listed on Copart. Anyone want to try their luck on a saltwater soaked electric fancy golf cart?

MrJoshua said:

If you want really high power and low weight batteries you look to the EV drag race world. They are using low capacity/high discharge cells that are really really power dense. A 600hp pack can be built to around 100lbs. They are intolerant of neglect and have a low cycle lifespan, but wow they are powerful.

If I wanted to poke around for info on those setups... what's a good place to start at?  Looks like the nedra site is 5-ish years out of date?

edit:   
I'm guessing those are ~30C cells?  Or is it higher than that?

MrJoshua said:

SV reX said:

In reply to Indy - Guy :

Pretty sure a Gem car is an enclosed golf cart

Sort of enclosed, often by plastic.

Edit-and only a few are still listed on Copart. Anyone want to try their luck on a saltwater soaked electric fancy golf cart?

I've seen more GEM karts on GovDeals, particularly out of Florida. There's always a golf cart coming out of the state government offices in Florida.

sleepyhead the buffalo said:

MrJoshua said:

If you want really high power and low weight batteries you look to the EV drag race world. They are using low capacity/high discharge cells that are really really power dense. A 600hp pack can be built to around 100lbs. They are intolerant of neglect and have a low cycle lifespan, but wow they are powerful.

If I wanted to poke around for info on those setups... what's a good place to start at?  Looks like the nedra site is 5-ish years out of date?

edit:   
I'm guessing those are ~30C cells?  Or is it higher than that?

I've been trying to gather and collate info about pouch cells from Endless Sphere for awhile but it's all fragmented through several pages of threads. There, the accepted method across the board seems to be drilling holes into the anodes/cathodes to securely bolt the positives/negatives together to busbars and coating them in a thick layer of anti-corrosives. They don't seem that dangerous, but every one of them makes a jig to do the work just in case.

Once again, Aging Wheels has a video about doing something with these:

rich911s said:

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

So, right now I'm thinking buying (2) auction Leafs, combine the drivetrains, exocart one of them and sell off the remainder as recoup.   

Sounds like a good plan  Just watch out for the recoup limit rules, IIRC there are some changes for next year and they could affect your plans to buy 2 cars that collectively or even individually exceed the cap and then recoup your way back under.

In reply to GameboyRMH :

Yep. 
 

Im not seeing the math. 

In reply to SV reX :

You never know till you sit there and watch them cross the block.  That's one disadvantage to copart, not easy to see what something sold for like ebay.  There are paid services for that, but I'm too cheap.  

In reply to rich911s :

Dealer auction?

All I'm saying is there are a LOT of people on this forum who have been actively watching for years. Finding a decent one under $2K is a rare unicorn. Finding one for $2K and a 2nd one under $1K will be very impressive. 
 

I applaud the lofty goal. 

Hey, most mortals can't do what Andy does either :) I once bought a 50-mile crate LS3 for $1500. Unicorns exist.

Battery capacity is definitely the issue. As someone else noted earlier, that capacity also adds to the amount of potential power output, it's not merely motor capacity. 

In reply to Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) :

Oh damn! That's one of those late 70s Lynx/Escorts that are EVs right? Is that at your shop?

Found that goofy Classifieds site for EVs before Tesla was a thing. It's a relic of early geocities pages- but it is still VERY Active, somehow!

The DIY Electric car forum's classifieds are probably better.

sleepyhead the buffalo said:

MrJoshua said:

If you want really high power and low weight batteries you look to the EV drag race world. They are using low capacity/high discharge cells that are really really power dense. A 600hp pack can be built to around 100lbs. They are intolerant of neglect and have a low cycle lifespan, but wow they are powerful.

If I wanted to poke around for info on those setups... what's a good place to start at?  Looks like the nedra site is 5-ish years out of date?

edit:   
I'm guessing those are ~30C cells?  Or is it higher than that?

Much higher: http://www.ampahaulic.com/

In reply to MrJoshua :

Holy $$ batman!  Those packs are no joke.  Not gonna even come close to budget!

Yup. 

So, um, what safety measures are being taken here?

Evs carry some concerns that have differences to traditional ICE cars. 

Apexcarver said:

So, um, what safety measures are being taken here?

Evs carry some concerns that have differences to traditional ICE cars. 

Water em! If for some reason the electricity tries to get out in a way it wasn't supposed to you water it until its cool enough to stop setting things on fire. Then you really should either stop the electricity from escaping, or reduce how much electricity there is to escape. Otherwise it will just set itself on fire again. 

Since the new EVs seemingly don't follow the same laws of physics that I learned in the '70s, water and high levels of electrical energy may be ok. Remembering a small bit of what I learned, (water is not safe for electrical fires) I personally could not recommend it... 

The dangers of water in DC vs. AC electrical fires are very different, and unless you have exotic firefighting equipment just watering the cells long-term is the best way to fight a modern EV battery fire.

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

It's at a client's, hopefully by the end of the winter it will be tire limited with regards to forward thrust. 

Idly wondering what would be the best vehicle to convert into an EV for challenge duties; on one hand, I feel like somehow the Midlana could be converted into having a really high aero, or even something wacky like a trike. On the other hand old CRXes have a Cd of 0.29 and 80s RX-7s are 0.31; probably a lot could be done to drop it further and they used to be super-common so there's likely someone that's attempted it. Do we have to have side mirrors for the challenge, or would cameras do?

Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :

It's at a client's, hopefully by the end of the winter it will be tire limited with regards to forward thrust. 

Oh that's neat! I always liked these things, though they all are VERY much a single step up from garage-built DIY conversions, like a wacky version of Mad Max. Always made me wonder if they could have had more viability, if they had attempted to purpose-build a lead acid battery for car use instead of daisy-chaining 12 together like they always did, with wiring losses and all.