Electric Elan

[DJW]

Re how enjoyable EV’s are thought I would share my experience today. My wife loves her modern minis having had about 10 to date, with the last being a JCW auto,

Today we test drove the Mini Electric. What a great car. 50/50 weight distribution, instant torque, 0-60 in 7.3s. Missus loved it, and I have to admit I thought it was great fun to drive. So order is in for one. Happy wife equals happy life.

Re EV conversions for classics such as our cars, I can see both sides of the argument. For those that start with a good car, love to tinker with their engines, good with their hands, not worried of the occasional breakdown or problem then yes stick with it. However for those that may need an expensive engine rebuild, don’t like the hassle of maintenance, don’t have the time and dread the thought of breakdowns then an EV conversion seems a viable option to allow them to continue using their car.

Swings and roundabouts

[Slowtus]

Following with interest as I may go down this road with my '54 Sunbeam Talbot 90.

[DJW]

I don’t mean to wee on anyones fire, but my recent electrification of a 1960 mini seems to have been taken by the dvla as a test case.
And it has set a dangerous precedent that I hope you will be reading about through as many forums and websites asap.
Basically I fitted a nicely engineered EV conversion against which the DVLA had no objection, apart from the fact I drilled a few bracket mounting holes in the boot. This they claim as a major radical chassis modification, so my monocoque got zero out of 5 points.
As a result they insist the mini has to have an IVA which it cannot possibly pass.
As a warning, if you wish to be above board (which I cannot recommend) you must now ensure that any EV conversion does not entail drilling any mounting holes. If it does then from here on in be prepared to scrap it.
If anyone wishes for details such as photos of the conversion or copies of the correspondence from the DVLA please just ask, but please no more aggressive suggestions on how to sort out. This case has already been elevated by one Lee Davis and the appeal has found that drilled holes are a major modification so unless a 1960 car was designed to pass an IVA, be prepared to weigh it in.
Genuinely, this new implementation of their rules is the death of a new carbon friendly industry.
This is no joke, my car’s identity and registration has been confiscated and deleted. And they refused to allow me to weld up the holes or reverse the conversion so as to prevent the death of a beautiful classic.
Regards
Ed keane BSc BEng.

Reckon the likes of PetrolPed or Late Brake Show would be interested doing a YouTube video on this. You should reach out to them if you want to spread the word.

[rgh0]

I don’t mean to wee on anyones fire, but my recent electrification of a 1960 mini seems to have been taken by the dvla as a test case.
And it has set a dangerous precedent that I hope you will be reading about through as many forums and websites asap.
Basically I fitted a nicely engineered EV conversion against which the DVLA had no objection, apart from the fact I drilled a few bracket mounting holes in the boot. This they claim as a major radical chassis modification, so my monocoque got zero out of 5 points.
As a result they insist the mini has to have an IVA which it cannot possibly pass.
As a warning, if you wish to be above board (which I cannot recommend) you must now ensure that any EV conversion does not entail drilling any mounting holes. If it does then from here on in be prepared to scrap it.
If anyone wishes for details such as photos of the conversion or copies of the correspondence from the DVLA please just ask, but please no more aggressive suggestions on how to sort out. This case has already been elevated by one Lee Davis and the appeal has found that drilled holes are a major modification so unless a 1960 car was designed to pass an IVA, be prepared to weigh it in.
Genuinely, this new implementation of their rules is the death of a new carbon friendly industry.
This is no joke, my car’s identity and registration has been confiscated and deleted. And they refused to allow me to weld up the holes or reverse the conversion so as to prevent the death of a beautiful classic.
Regards
Ed keane BSc BEng.

Unfortunately your DVLA seems to have lost its collective mind. To say that bracket holes constitute a major chassis modification is total nonsense and even if you accepted that doubtful premise, to then say they cannot be repaired even more nonsense. Almost every 30+ year old monocoque car in the UK will have had parts of the body work cut out and rewelded and that is accepted practice so why can holes in the boot not be rewelded?

What they are trying to achieve in this case escapes me
cheers
Rohan

[h20hamelan]

In Canada, you seem to be able to drill as many holes as you want. As long as they are bolted, stamped with studs etc.
No welding.
Sorry to hear of your troubles.

Wonder if France or somewhere would cert it, then import as a divverent vin?

[SimonH]

A few holes drilled causing issues is daft. I can see you might have to have some testing done if the vehicle mass goes up significantly to prove its all god enough stopping wise and where the mass is added is safe.
As for that lot in Wales on the tv, a lot of their conversions are terrible mechanically and installation wise and they definitely should have to IVA a lot of them. This is my observation as a 30 plus year automotive development engineer and what is deemed acceptable for a production road car. They take scrapyard Tesla bits and bodge them into whatever somehow it appears.

[LotusElon]

Streaming Wet Thruxton, and did NOT get electrocuted in lotus Elon

Fun (and scary) keeping the tiny tyres, 650kg and 235Nm torque on 'the lake'.
70mph 'tank slapper' at Allard on the edge of the lake (and the edge of fear/excitement/browntrousers )

[DJW]

So cool !

[LotusElon]

Update - utter reliability and daily use means not much more to share.
A few more pix added to gpix https://photos.app.goo.gl/1WLpG7WpFkSZQQqT and insta
Eg hardTop and new Electric Ultralight Aircraft projects - next challenge

I’m looking after the 5 tesla modules with SimpBMS snd keeping in Soc range 20% to 85% which gives an easy 100 to 120 mile range (ie enjoying the performance ). With Storage around 60% Soc. Still V V impressed with both simpBMB and TAU software. Switchable regen (with / without brakes / and off for gear changes) works great . And useful when in lower gears (eg with more available regen).

Only problem I’ve yet to fix is the Lotus heater fan has packed up. It’s a pig of a job to get to - dash and wiring out to get to . Wearing a hat and coat in winter is the not so temporary fix. I’ll probably update the heater when I get round to this. A 2kW Water heater has advantage of pre warming battery pack in winter, but not optimal as battery motor circuits are 20 to 40c so hotter heater water needs to be cooled a bit in the radiator to balance - BUT there again this is not an issue in winter. Just more complex. I may go for a PCT Heater core which is simpler and better, BUT makes car less reversible back to ICE ( but who would ever want to do that ???? )

[h20hamelan]

Short URL (https://photos.app.goo.gl/1WLpG7WpFkSZQQqT?_imcp=1) not found

If you are the developer of this app, ensure that your Dynamic Links domain is correctly configured and that the path component of this URL is valid.

[LotusElon]

Sorry - forum URL skills lacking 2nd try > https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOG6rKw2NyV95Sikf2O7GTYYyP-SBNu2smjBMLRPDdV_avhilci2sOd0O1Rz-KOVQ?key=RXFZUF9uM0h5SWRlSW91ZHhNdmkyUlQ4ZHc2NHBR

[berni29]

Hi

"I may go for a PCT Heater core"

I have added an electric core from a mk7 Fiesta (I think it was). It's an 800w, 66.7A unit that sits below the replacement aluminium core all inside the standard enclosure. It's not wired up as yet, but no reason why it should not give the instant heat I want in winter ahead of the water based core reaching temperature.

All the best

Berni

[LotusElon]

Hi

"I may go for a PCT Heater core"

I have added an electric core from a mk7 Fiesta (I think it was). It's an 800w, 66.7A unit that sits below the replacement aluminium core all inside the standard enclosure. It's not wired up as yet, but no reason why it should not give the instant heat I want in winter ahead of the water based core reaching temperature.

All the best

Berni

Thanks GREAT tip - I’ll check it out.

[berni29]

Hi

I managed to find some photos of what the heater ensemble looks like in case it helps......

All the best

Berni

[Spunagain]

Hi
I have converter my heater box to be powered from the traction battery:

I disassembled the heater box which was full of crud and the heat exchanger also showed signs of leakage.


I drilled out the rivets holding the slow speed resistor and gave it a couple of coats of high temperature paint. The fan motor spewed out large lumps of rust, and I have decided to abandon it for a more modern version - a 7 inch modular fan from Car Builder Solutions. By trimming the spare reinforcing webbing on the outside of the fan housing, it fits snugly into the heater box. The slow speed on the new fan also works well with the original resistor and starts easily in slow speed mode.

I found a pair of 1kW 110V PTC heater modules which will fit in the space left by the old heat exchangers. These are quite clever in that the resistance increases as they get hotter which limits the max temperature. They also have over temperature thermostats fitted which I will experiment to get a safe max operating temperature. This means they only draw enough power to maintain temperature so the max drawn power is proportional to the blower fan speed. Here you can see the fan and a rough idea of where the PTC heaters will be mounted.


I have also found some high temperature adhesive foam to fill the gap between the heater and the box lid from Advanced Seals and Gaskets Limited called EDPM which is rated to 150°C which gives a nice safety margin as I plan to run the heater at around 100°C - close to the original engine coolant temperature.


I built up the heater with the freshly powder coated parts and wired the heater elements in series so I could test it using the mains to power the heaters. (In theory dropping 120V across each) I used a DC-DC converter to power the fan and found I needed to reverse the 12V power to get the fan pushing the right directions. I will drive the fan through relays so it should not be a problem in the car.


I was a bit worried about repositioning the dropper resistor as it was not in the direct airflow, but it worked fine. Here you can see the fan warming up using a thermal imaging camera:


Here you can see a bit closer on one side



I was getting air coming out at 60°C on one side and a little cooler on the other. This was because the elements were not identical so one was dropping more volts than the other, this was fine as it created a worse case (hottest) condition and the max the hottest element got to was 102C (looking at the element using the thermal camera, and after 10 minutes the temperature held there.

I ran the heater for an hour with the flaps closed and cool air vent unblocked with slow fan speed to create the hottest case condition for the elements with slowest air flow through and all held steady and no smoke escaped!

I then stripped it down and checked for any evidence of heat damage but it all looked great so I rewired the elements in parallel ready for 120V supply and put it all back together again.

HTH!