Now THAT'S an electric car

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HackaDay said: [Juan] dropped us a note to let us know about a little project he’s working on. A few years ago, he bought a Honda S2000. It served him well, but now he’s converting it to electric power, and it’s going to be a beast. [Juan] is using 104 battery packs each containing 4 cells in parallel. The total output of his battery assemblage is 686 kilowatts, or 920 horsepower. [Juan] is assuming his drive train will be 85% efficient, meaning his wheels will be getting 782 horsepower and 1500 ft/lbs of torque at 0 rpm. Yes, this thing is going to scream. A project of this caliber is usually undertaken by gear heads with decades of experience, but that’s not the case for [Juan]; he’s still a senior in High School. A build this awesome can only portend a very bright future as an engineer and certainly a few drag race wins. This car is going to be a monster, and we can’t wait to see it on the track.

Following this to see if it actually gets off the ground.

Following this to watch it melt into the ground.

Flight Service wrote: Following this to watch it melt into the ground.

ditto

Say what you want but we all secretly want it to work and would want to own one. LOL

Other current thread on this car: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/700hp-electric-s2k-project/54639/page1/

dean1484 wrote: Say what you want but we all secretly want it to work and would want to own one. LOL

That depends on weather the tires melt into the ground or the car melts into the ground.

Mixed feelings about a rich kid doing something that might end up being a cool project.

Crap did a rudimentary search and came up empty then posted. Oh well.

SnowMongoose wrote: Mixed feelings about a rich kid doing something that might end up being a cool project.

not the kid's fault he's rich, he could aways blow that money on blow and hookers but he builds a car instead he's A-OK by me

Ok, He's rich,

He has a cool little car.

He is now going to do something with no experience or background that multiple people in the industry have tried to do.

I'm not saying he can't, I'm just saying he probably won't, and probably won't will come with a spectacular failure.

I'm going over to check his progress in person on Friday, I'll report back with my findings.

Flight Service wrote: Ok, He's rich, He has a cool little car. He is now going to do something with no experience or background that multiple people in the industry have tried to do. I'm not saying he can't, I'm just saying he probably won't, and probably won't will come with a spectacular failure.

His goal is attainable with current battery, motor, and controller technology. There are multiple cars that have been built with similar setups and produced similarly spectacular results. OEM's don't do it because it isn't economically viable to produce and sell.

and because not many people want to buy an expensive car with only a 100 mile range that will take hours to "fill up".

In reply to MrJoshua:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/13/tesla-supercharger-network-september-24th/

Elon Musk thinks otherwise. As far as eccentric billionaires go, hes ok by me.

In reply to The0retical: Musk is an impressive dreamer who builds lots of cool crap. I hope Tesla eventually gets successful enough to survive and thrive on the sale of their products alone.

In reply to The0retical:

BTW-ck my sig, I have been fascinated with EV's for years and am solidly in the early stages of a build. Consider me a fan who has his eyes wide open.

Electrons aside, how does a high school student afford an S2000? Better question- how does a high school student afford to insure an S2000?

I do not understand the EV hate.. especially when it is something somebody is doing on their own without any OEM support? Seems the definition of Grassroots to me

mad_machine wrote: I do not understand the EV hate.. especially when it is something somebody is doing on their own without any OEM support? Seems the definition of Grassroots to me

Cause it cause more then $2.

Twin_Cam wrote: Electrons aside, how does a high school student afford an S2000? Better question- how does a high school student afford to insure an S2000?

Probably the same way that the kid in the late sixties got a brand new Camaro for his first car.

Expect to find this car of Craigslist in a few months.

In pieces.

No EV hate here, just technical doubts.

It's the energy storage tech I have issues with. Other than that I think EVs are great. I actually want an off grid power system with a grid tie-in in my next house. Let them pay me to generate! When the power lines are down, I still have juice!I still think that the FCX clarity is an awesome and most promising piece of tech right now.

It's not haten on the car... it's haten on the slimy marketing that push EVs as the answer to everything. "Goes 100 mile and does 0-60 in 3-sec..." No - it goes 100 miles OR does 0-60 in 3-sec... once. That's a huge difference and they dang well know it, never mind taking hours to recharge.

Remember the Tesla video of their car beating the Ferrari and/or Porsche at a drag race? What they didn't mention was how the Tesla required a 20-minute cool-down period. If I ever end up with a Porsche GT (yeah, right) and a Tesla owner want's to race for pinks, I'll say okay, we'll do three runs back to back within 5 minutes - you know, treating the Tesla as an equal... surprise, I win.

In reply to kb58:

You are using old information. Several EV's just did Pikes Peak and did very well. One was even a small conversion shop entry using off the shelf motors, controller, and batteries that any of us could buy. I believe they placed around 48th overall in an E36 chassis driven by a non pro. Their time was 11:58 and they were running a 700hp setup. Far more capable than one 1/4 mile run. I don't think Tesla's even have that problem any more.

I don't see many people claiming EV's can do everything as well or cheaply as an ICE powered vehicle, just that they can do many things very well.

I'm extremely jealous that he's got that kind of budget to play with and is allowed to dive in head first without having to worry about the costs. With that said, while he's obviously extremely talented, he's also lacking in experience and it shows in a lot of these parts. There are quite a few safety risks going on there (electrically and mechanically) and I really wish he had somebody help him out that knew the safety risks. I know the learning curve was steep for me even when I had access to all sorts of information and experience that most people don't. After years of doing it, I'm still learning, and most home brew EV guys are WAAAAAY too lax on safety to be referencing their work (in my opinion). Referencing OEMs is a heck of a lot better, particularly when you get into the kind of voltage, energy, and power he's working with.

Tom, if you know this guy and he is interested in some tips from somebody with more experience, please let him know I'd be glad to help and he can shoot me a message or something with his contact info if interested. I'll probably sign up for the S2k board to let him know there as well, but hearing it from a friend is usually more impacting that some random dude on the internet. Of course, with a project like this I'm sure he knows a few lessons will have to be learned the hard way, but I'd hate to see somebody get hurt in the learning process.

Oh, and to clarify what some have already said, this car won't be capable of the kind of power he's talking, there's a little bit he's missing in his calculations (particularly inefficiencies). However, it will be VERY fast if he can set it up right and should be capable of driving about the same distance as most modern EVs. When you get to that kind of torque, putting power down becomes a huge challenge and of course things break a lot; reality checks get tougher as power and torque increase. Furthermore, I don't care if you like electric vehicles or not, you'd be crazy if you can't admit that it's very impressive a kid his age is this ambitious, intelligent, and hard working. I'm glad to see another young gearhead getting into EVs, Juan looks like a great addition to the movement.

Bryce