After 2,000 miles on my all-electric 1976 Corvette, it's time to upgrade the car for autocross courses with time less than 3 minutes. From 0-1500 rpm I have a pile of torque - 550lb-ft. It has a 4-speed (Borg Warner T10), but 3rd gear has great kick from go. I'm looking for advice and ideas for upgrades on: Steering; suspension; brakes; roll-cage specs. I'm thinking: RideTech TruTurn front; custom 6-link rear; Wilwood brakes; custom roll cage. Ideas?
Do you have a build thread you could link us to?
I would love to see a build thread as well. What are your goals? Can you trailer the car? If so most courses are closer to a minute so the total run time shouldn't be a problem. Personally I would say just get it there and try it out.
If no build thread a rundown of motor, controller, battery, weight, suspension condition, etc, will give us a good start.
I would think that a lot of regen would keep your foot on the throttle and improve your times. are your running an ac or dc system?
What does this car weigh?
In reply to SnowMongoose:
Here's the basic information on the car. My first all-out foot-to-the-floor.
I used half my battery's charge getting to the track. 30 minutes of charging at 120 volts is better than... nothing. 1st run: Launched in 3rd gear and smoked the tires. 2nd run: Another 30 minute charge and started in 4th - I now know not to try that. 3rd run: No time for recharge and again started in 4th - not much left in the batteries.
A lot of fun and nothing broke. Two-thirds of the way home my batteries were dead and I limped into a Nissan dealer at 5mph and used their charging station for a 30 minute shot.
In reply to SnowMongoose: I'm new to Grassroots, is there a specific area for a build thread? Some information can be found at http://www.advanced-ev.com
In reply to MrJoshua: Motor is NetGain DC Series (11"). Batteries: 1,150lbs of lead-acid (23) Odyssey Group 34 PC-1500; 550lbs in front, 600lbs in the rear. Controller is a Zilla HV-2K; 325 volts, 2000 amps. Suspension, brakes, and steering are basically 1982 Corvette (rebuilt).
Corvettes are not stiff and need suspension & steering work. I'm working on a new battery pack that should weigh in around 450lbs.
Josh - Keith is local. I think I've mentioned this build to you. He's had it at the Tioga car show as well. It's a well done build!
Time for lithium ions if you ask me 
.
If you hunt around on the flashlight/e-bicycle message boards there are some deals to be had on them.
A guy from work wanted to hire me to build e-bikes. He backed out but I found a guy in poland that was selling bosch power tool 185650 cells. They were a higher end brand cell for less than whole sale counterfeit junk chinese cells (maybe $2-3 each shipped if buying in bulk).
You probably already know but, for everyone else. Lithium ions will recharge 1000 times or so put out more power and weigh less than the lead acids. Lead acids dont recharge nearly as much, and have a much shorter life span.
As for the autocross like aleeady stated just get out there. After some seat time then find the weakest links to address.
In reply to Ben_Modified: It's a DC system so there is no simple regen. But, I'm working on an hybrid KERS.
That's a nice looking build. What batteries are you going with for the new pack?
kstegath wrote: After 2,000 miles street mile on my all-electric 1976 Corvette, it's time to upgrade the car for autocross courses with time less than 3 minutes. From 0-1500 rpm I have a pile of torque - 550lb-ft. It has a 4-speed (Borg Warner T10), but 3rd gear has great kick from go. I'm looking for advice and ideas for upgrades on: Steering; suspension; brakes; roll-cage specs. I'm thinking: RideTech TruTurn front; custom 6-link rear; Wilwood brakes; custom roll cage. Ideas?
1st post?!? You just went from zero to my hero in one post.
You asked about a place to put build threads. This is it. Maybe someone moved this thread for you? Either way, start a new post in this section and allow us to drool.
In reply to jere: I'm working on a lithium pack. My lead batteries are dying. I've really abused them; one time way past "dead" (9.5V each).
I have some 26650 free samples coming from China. They were going to send some 18650 but after a rep. called me, he said the 26650 at rated at 20C continous. I plan on major abuse before ordering several thousand.
For those wondering: a 18650 cell is one battery that measures 18mm in diameter and 65.0mm in length; a 26650 is... 26mm dia. 65.0mm long.
The 20C rating is the amount of current (amps) the cell can deliver based on its amp-hour rating; a 4800mAh (4.8Ah) cell with a 20C rating, when fully charged, should be able to output 20 times its Ah rating. So that one little battery should be able to output 96 amps, at 3.7volts! It won't do that for long and in theory it won't damage the battery. And that only 3.7 volts.
The trick is that you need a lot of them. So if you take 4,000 cells and make 50 parallel packs, with each pack containing 80 batteries in series you get: 80x3.7volts=296 volts, and 50x96amps=4800 amps. This is its potential (reserve), not what the car can handle.
In case you're wondering, the premium Tesla battery pack uses nearly 7,000 of the 18650 batteries. And the pack costs $50,000 to replace.
In reply to dyintorace: Yup, I've been to Tioga (near Gainesville, FL).
In reply to Woody: The base car weighed 3500lbs. After all the modification it's close to the same weight. The difference is weight distribution. There are 550lbs of batteries in the front, and 600lbs in the rear. I may take it to the local land fill and have them weigh it - front wheels on the scale, then rear wheels!
From what I remember, my local performance shop charges $100 to corner weigh my E36, that could be the going rate at most places.
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