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The Evolv Project: Turning a 1962 P1800 into an electric supercar

What a great project! I have been eyeing the LT-III wheels for a while now for an amazon project and think they look very clean and fitting for these cars even with a bigger rim diameter. I can't wait to see the progress on this.
 
Thanks NonHog and BoostRadley. I toured the AM facility as well while they were building my frame, it is definitely an impressive facility.

My only caution on working with ET wheels is that they don't protect the edges of the wheels in shipping well enough to survive UPS automated handlers. I had two wheels damaged initially and had to file a claim and send them back. The packaging had some small punchers and dents, but didn't appear to have been dropped. ET wheels stood by me and replaced them, but admitted that it happens too frequently (yet they don't change their packing process, go figure). So if you do get a set, upon arrival, be sure to note ANY dents/tears/punchers in the boxes, unpackage them immediately upon arrival and inspect all rim edges and report any damage immediately, just to cover yourself. I do love the way they look though.
 
Mody Mods Part 4: An attempt at improving aerodynamics

These next two mods were for both aesthetics and a real attempt to improve performance through better aero. First since my P1800 is not an ES sportbrake, air coming off the top of the cab will create turbulence behind the rear glass creating drag unless you add a decent rear spoiler. NASCAR figured this out many years ago, and slapping on a simple perpendicular piece of lexan to the trailing edge of the back of your car can do wonders for smoothing the air. Of course it has the visual equivalence of dog crap on a baby blanket, but no one ever confused NASCAR of building pretty cars, just fast ones. So what to do. Most modern sport and supercars today use retractable spoilers (including on the Polestar One) if not full-blown retractable wings (think McClaren or the new Ford GT). In true hotrodder fashion I toured online salvage yards looking for something of suitable size that I could adapt. EFI68 on this forum clued me into the diminutive Chrysler Crossfire. Fortuitously, the convertible version has a trunklid with an integrated retractable spoiler (look it up on you-tube) that is pretty trick. More importantly the curvature of that section of the trunk lid is nearly dead-on for the back of the P1800 trunk lid, so it took only a little massaging to simply patch it in, and it looks dope. Now until I have the car completed and can laser scan it with the spoiler up and down I won't be able to run simulations to find out if I made a significant improvement with this mod, but I can make some distance versus amp load measurements at highway speeds with the spoiler up and down and compare efficiency as a surrogate once the car is running again and will post those when available. The added bonus of using the Crossfire spoiler is that it retains the LED third brake light that runs underneath the entire length of the spoiler. I connected it to a race-brake indicator in my harness that will flash it 3 times before going solid when you press the brake pedal, and will hopefully keep tailgaters off my six.

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The second aero mod, was to install a functioning rear diffuser. If you don't know, a true diffuser increases the volume of air under the rear of the car relative to the front. When you drive at speed this has the effect of making the air traveling under the car move faster than the air traveling over the car, creating a vacuum that sucks the car to the road, effectively adding downforce and making the care more stable and have more grip. Most cars today have cheap decorative pieces of plastic at the bottom of the rear of the vehicle to mimic the look of a diffuser, but don't actually do anything. Mine is designed to have a 7 degree rise into the rear body from the bottom of the rear differential. It is made from aluminum and removable, so if I don't like how the first version performs I can change it. When I get the car back from high-voltage integration, I will also be installing panels across the frame rails beneath the car to flatten and smooth the bottom of the car. This will make the diffuser more efficient. You can see the same principles applied to the bottom of any modern Ferrari just look up a picture of one on a lift.

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Body Mods 5: Interior

To update the interior design, I wanted to incorporate a waterfall dash somewhat similar to what I have in my XC60 while retaining the 2 large + 3 small gauge layout. I'm working with Dakota Digital on a custom set of HDX gauges that can accommodate the CAN signals coming from the electric drive drain components and have build in LCD screens in the larger gauges that can display extra information that is unique to this system. Since the new gauges with bezels are slightly larger than the original gauge cluster, and the original dash was a little worse for wear, we decided to just rebuild a whole new dash, which was then painted with the Ford Magnetic metallic paint and a gloss clear coat.

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In the picture above you can also see the MasterShift adapter that converts the manual shifter on my Tremec TKO600 to cable operation which in turn are controlled by electric solenoids and the paddle shifters behind the steering wheel. The rectangular cut-out is for the double dim 7? touchscreen stereo receiver with Bluetooth, Android Auto and Apple Car play. It will also serve as the display screen for navigation and dual-view (front and back) cameras. Below is the layout for the new gauges. I had considered going full digital display, but I still prefer the look and operation of an analogue needle gauge for speedometer. Although a traditional tach is not formally necessary, the shift point with a 400V battery pack and my motor will be very similar to a traditional American V8, so I thought it would be interesting to observe.

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Next up was building racks to hold all the battery modules from the Tesla P90D battery pack I bought salvage from a 2016 car. I first made wooden mockups of the battery modules. Each module is ~27?X11.75?X3? and weighs 55 lbs. I used 2X4s and 0.75? MDF to make the boxes and filled them with playground sand, in order to match the size and increase the weight (although they are not nearly 55 lbs).

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To keep the weight of the pack as low in the car as possible and improve traction and handling, the majority of the battery modules will be mounted where the rear seats used to be. First we fabricated a set of racks to support the battery modules between the rear wheel wells and they were test fit. A secondary rack was also made to fit low and behind the rear differential and recessed below the trunk floor. This will allow us to place 11 modules in the rear seat area, 3 modules behind the differential and the remaining 2 modules will be placed in the engine bay to balance the weight front to back.

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Nice to see such a well thought out and beautifully constructed P1800 project car here on the fourm. Looking forward to seeing the finished car and learning all about how it performs.
 
Mechanical components: Part 1

Thanks vintagewrench.

Here is the last of the catch up posts to bring the forum current with the website.

The most important initial mechanical decision I had to make in the build of this car was the electric drive train. Many hobbyists and electric drag race teams use DC electric motors because they are cheaper; however, ALL OEM automotive manufacturers use AC electric motors because they are more reliable and require less maintenance. The motor I am using is the P115R dual core electric motor from AM Racing. This is an oil-cooled 3 phase AC electric motor. I am controlling the motor using two liquid-cooled Rinehart PM250DZ 3-phase controllers. This is the same motor and controller configuration used in the 220 mph Genovation GXE GrandSport Corvette (https://genovationcars.com/) and was the original motor used in the Rimac One electric hypercar prototype (http://www.rimac-automobili.com/en/). The combination is capable of sending 600 Amps at 350-800V to each motor core, giving a lot of flexibility in design. The power is limited only by the battery pack chosen. I chose this drive train for its durability, performance and ability to adjust HP by increasing the voltage in subsequent evolutions once solid state battery modules become available to the conversion market (maybe 5-10 years out), without having to change hardware.

Motor
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Controller
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In order to power everything in the initial build of the car I am using 400V liquid-cooled battery modules salvaged from a 2016 Tesla model S P90D, which at the time of its accident had only driven 6000 miles. With this configuration the motor is estimated to generate ~810 Nm (~600 ft*lb) of torque from 0-5000 rpm and peak output of ~400 kW (~600 HP). I will be dyno-testing the car for actual numbers at the wheels once the car is completed. The downside, is that at 55 lbs a piece these things are heavy and I need to fit 16 of them into the relatively tiny 1800.

Tesla P90D modules
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To transfer this power to the rear Dana60, I had Liberty Gears improve a Tremec TKO600 5-speed manual transmission through synchronizing, cryogenically and surface enhancement processing, shot peening and thermal stabilization. This increases the strength and durable operation of the gears at the higher rpm that the electric motor can generate. There is a QuickTime LS1 clutch bellhousing between the transmission and a custom machined aluminum adapter plate, which matches up the bellhousing to the bolt pattern on the motor. Although many electric vehicles do not utilize a transmission, I wanted the versatility of maximum lower gear torque with high top end speed, and I wasn’t sure what overall gear ratio would work best for my diverse applications. Including the manual gives me the flexibility to change my final gear ratio to suit a given track condition. However, I fully expect most driving will be conducted in a single gear, more or less a "set it and forget it".

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Even though the majority of the time the car will be driven in a single gear, I also incorporated MasterShift paddle shift controls for the TKO600 for several reasons. First, to allow for better control on track and a cleaner cabin layout. Second, I needed room for cup holders and putting those behind the steering wheel would be awkward. Third, they are drop-dead gorgeous and concept supercars have paddle shifters, duh :).

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I love it.

What do those parts (motor, controller and batteries) cost if you don't mind me asking?
 
I love the build. Are the guys at StealthEV going to be doing the calibration? I’m definitely interested to see your pack configuration come together. I really like what Stealth EV and Icon did with theirs Merc, but weight management for a pro-touring or road car is a whole different story.
 
Thanks everyone for the support and comments. This is not a cheap build, but then most passion projects aren't. That said, I do expect to complete the car with less out of pocket than it would cost to purchase the new Tesla roadster, yet I'll be done at least a year earlier and will have a one of a kind car that I was fortunate enough to design myself. And, yes you can buy a lot of 240s for the cost of a new Tesla roadster, and a proper turbobrick can be one heck of a great car. There are also many ways to achieve high performance at a lower cost using traditional ICE technologies. I simply wanted to go another way.
The only point of this build was to pursue a personal passion and see if I could push the boundaries of traditional hotrodding to achieve something even marginally close to electric supercar standards. I will grind no axes and simply wish everyone with a similar passion for their builds the best of success. Time will still tell if I can make mine a reality, but I'm a lot closer today than I was when I started 4 years ago, and I'm very excited to share it with you.

CW, yes Matt at StealthEV is conducting the calibration and final tuning of the high voltage electronics. The car is currently in his shop being worked as we speak. I agree, final weight and its distribution are my biggest concerns and I won't really know how well the car can do until I can wring it out. My best current estimate is that I'll end up with final weight of 3500-3800 lbs, and a front to back distribution of 40/60. This is obviously a lot more than the ~2450 lbs of a stock 1800, hence the need for a stronger chassis. However, this weight and balance is very similar to an new Audi R8 RWS, compared to which I'll have slightly lower HP but more torque. I'm hoping that will compensate. The ICON Merc in contrast started out 1000 lbs heavier than the 1800 before conversion, has a higher cg, lower output controllers (less HP) and direct drive with a lower final ratio (3.73 vs my 4.11). It is going to be interesting, but you can believe that as soon as battery packs with better power-to-weight are available, I'll be swapping out the heavy Tesla modules for an upgrade.

All the best.
 
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Interesting. I thought that icon was using the new rm300 inverters. Either way, that motor is nuts! I love testing them and seeing what people put them into is fascinating.
 
Matt told me he used the Rinehardt PM150s on the Merc build. They put out 150 KW each. My PM250s put out 250 KW each and can handle a much higher constant Amp load. However, we are both limited ultimately by what the battery packs can deliver and the system will de-tune when the battery pack get's too hot before controller limits are reached. Fortunately my pack came out of a newer P90D, which has a better fuse system than some of the earlier P85 packs and can handle short bursts at up to 1500 amps. The P250DXs will pull a max of 1200 amps, so I should be able to pull max power for longer. Since we are both using 400V packs the real advantage of the PM250s over the PM150s is durability at high loads and how long you can maintain peak power. I'm still hoping I can jump to higher voltage (650-800) once higher density packs are available and the charging infrastructure is in place. Porsche and Audi are sharing an 800V platform in their EVs, so charging stations will be upgraded to handle it over the next few years.

Sorry if I'm getting into the minutiae of the electrical side of things.
 
No worries. I’m the guy at AMR that gets to build these things. It’s really fun seeing one of these make it into a Volvo. Really blends my passions. Keep it up.
 
Oh, that's great. I'll definitely have to stop by after the car is complete. BTW, when are you guys going to put the motors back up for sale outside B2B? I noticed the products page is no longer linked from the main website.
 
Right now I’m not certain, there’s some prototypes of the next generation in early stage of manufacturing. I’ll be seeing the parts mid January but I have some special projects that I need to complete first. But the new year is going to be busy! Lots of exciting stuff so 1st quarter will be full of development for the next generations of universal application stuff and some crazy dev projects. I wish I could share more.
 
Sounds exciting. Have you guys ever thought of engineering a two speed wide-ratio electric shift transmission or high torque capable CVT to match with the electric motors. IMO, that is still a desirable missing component in the performance conversion market. If we had something like a GearVendors overdrive but with wider ratio of 1:0.5 to 1:0.3, it would open up the performance of using single core motors by a large margin, particularly if they could be run in pairs to make a three speed if needed. We could then run taller rear ratios for extra grunt without sacrificing top end speed and reasonable highway cruising rpm.
 
This is something that I’ve looked into. There are 2 speed rear axles available off the shelf but as you know these make well enough power and have the rev capability to overcome the general limitations of a single reduction. A 4.2:1 reduction has the ability to push a 3200lb car with a 25” tire to nearly 180 mph. Utilizing 4 single reduction gearbox’s and 4 115p motors can easily net over 1300hp and over 4000ftlbs. And if you look at Formula E, they’re running 6:1 gearing and 10k rev limits netting 160+ top speed and 40-100 mph gaps in pretty dang short order. For me the abuse that a single reduction can take is way worth the trade off of limits over a complex gear train that has wear items and significant losses.

At these power levels, aero is your biggest limitation.
 
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