Electric cars will be the Savior of classic V8's

[Chuffer]

Pacifica minivan?

They do that at Silverstone classic as well do they, like Goodwood except they use Rolls for obvious reasons.

Silverstone have selected a different brand at the Classic for some years now . As for me , I prefer to hop on an ex London Transport Route Master double decker with the rest of the plebs . I find it keeps me in touch with reality !

 

[Stingray]

If anyone's thinking about an electric conversion take a look at the chargeheads.co.uk website. It's pretty new and the conversion technology is in its relative infancy but worth keeping an eye on.

Electrified ICE Cars | Chargeheads

Home page for the UK's EV ICE website and forum, electrify your petrol car, the greener way to an electric car. Chargeheads. Discussions, help and advice on how to electrify your ICE car. ICE EV's for sale and parts for EV ICE Cars

www.chargeheads.co.uk

 

[Derek Nicol]

If anyone's thinking about an electric conversion take a look at the chargeheads.co.uk website. It's pretty new and the conversion technology is in its relative infancy but worth keeping an eye on.

Electrified ICE Cars | Chargeheads

Home page for the UK's EV ICE website and forum, electrify your petrol car, the greener way to an electric car. Chargeheads. Discussions, help and advice on how to electrify your ICE car. ICE EV's for sale and parts for EV ICE Cars

www.chargeheads.co.uk

Not for me thanks.. my Vette was born with a V8 and thats the way it should be.. plus, while i know you have to die of something, 400 volts isnt top of my list.

 

[Roscobbc]

Horses for courses - the three hybrid vehicles I've used have given very different experiences and each strangely has been very flawed in very opposite and different ways to the other vehicles yet superb in others.

 

[Chuffer]

My only experience of driving an EV was during several years spent volunteering for the National Trust . For years they used Kubota ATV`s with 3 cylinder diesel engines . A couple of gallons of diesel and they would run all day long coping with anything you threw at them and carry a decent payload in the small flat bed at their governed max of 25mph . My duties took me all over a 1000 acres of landscape gardens and deer park and come rain , sun or snow never let me down once . Then the NT went all `Green` and replaced them with John Deere E - Gators ! Absolute crap ! They had to be on charge all night long and were still hard pushed to get a full days work out of them , especially in cold weather ! With the same payload as a Kubota they were so slow on even moderate inclines you could have got and walked round them and got back in the other side without getting left behind . On more than one occasion I had to return to the maintenance yard for a partial recharge during lunch hour just to keep the damned thing going !

 

[Chuffer]

And now for something completely different , a proper old school hybrid ! A British Railways Class 08 diesel - electric shunter D3586 that I drove many times . A 6 cylinder diesel of 350 bhp drove English Electric traction motors to give a tractive effort of 35,000 lbs at the driving wheels .

 

[Roscobbc]

The most economic hybrid I had (with conversely the largest engine 2.4 ltr 4 cylinder) and the shortest battery range (1 mile) was a Lexus IS300H. 42mpg minimum even in city driving - 50+ mpg was perfectly feasible at 55 mph. Did 80K miles in this.
Quickest (at sub 70mph speeds) was BMW225XE mini suv. 1.5ltr 3cyl turbo. 18 - 25 miles battery range. Typical urban fuel economy 35 - 38 mpg. 45mpg at 55 mph. Did 60K mile in that - wolf in sheeps clothing with 6.5 seconds 0-60's.
Also did a couple of thousand miles in a Kia Niro hybrid. Oddly the tackiest interior and the slowest performance with a 1.6 petrol engine for main propulsion this did an amazing 48 - 55 mpg on urban use. A strangely compelling car to use.

 

[Derek Nicol]

Ive never driven a hybrid. I have two fully electric vehicles, my first being a Nissan eNV200 combi van (windows & seats in the back). Its an early one and uses an early Nissan Leafs 24kwh battery and motor etc and was optioned in base specs with no fast or rapid charging capability.. dead slow overnight charging only. Its great for local running around and has done many a trip to Northampton University and Luton Airport but a radius of about 25 miles from where you live is its max usefull range. Its done 33,000 miles and still has its max twelve bars showing on the battery health indicator. My long distance car at that time was a Cadillac CTS.
I then very nearly bought one of the first MG ZS EVs in the country (i was no.8 on the reservations list) but i made the 'mistake' of test driving the Tesla Model 3 and immediately ordered one and cancelled the MG. Its a base model single motor rear wheel drive variant with a slow 0-60mph of just over 5 seconds and a top speed of only 140mph. I changed my energy supplier to one that gives me charging at night (set by timer) at just five pence per kilowatt hour which means it costs me about £2-50 (yes, two pounds fifty pence) to fill up the Teslas approx 50kwh battery. It does about 250 miles driving range on a full battery (depends a bit on weather and driving style).
The family went on holiday in south Wales in it.. stopped at a Tesla Supercharger at Bristol, we went to Pizza Hut while it charged and then onto the destination where it sat parked not charging for a week (we were on a canal boat). Return journey home required a 10 minute partial top up charge to be on the safe side at the Oxford Services Tesla Supercharger. I drive at 85 mph ish on Motorways, i would get better range if i slowed down a bit but old habits die hard.

 

[Derek Nicol]

Coincidentally the owner of a C7 i was parked next to for a while on the Saturday at the CCCUK Nats also drives and commutes in an MG ZS EV and thinks its great.

 

[Derek Nicol]

Then the NT went all `Green` and replaced them with John Deere E - Gators ! Absolute crap ! They had to be on charge all night long and were still hard pushed to get a full days work out of them , especially in cold weather ! With the same payload as a Kubota they were so slow on even moderate inclines you could have got and walked round them and got back in the other side without getting left behind . On more than one occasion I had to return to the maintenance yard for a partial recharge during lunch hour just to keep the damned thing going !

Did they really use 12 volt lead acid batteries?.. no wonder they were crap.
The afore mentioned holiday canal boat was electric and ran on a bank of 12v lead acid batteries but i think the speed limit is something like 4mph on the canal so no problem. The company had strategically placed overnight charging posts along the edge of the canal.

 

[Chuffer]

Fastest all electric vehicle I have driven was a Class 319 Electric Multiple Unit . That was 100 mph on the Midland Main Line between London and Bedford . Powered switchable dual power source of either 25 KV overhead supply or 750 Volt third rail supply . A mate who was a Driver for Thames Link arranged it as thank you for me taking him with me on the footplate of steam loco . We did Bedford - London - Brighton - London - Bedford . It actually quite boring at times just sitting in the cab watching things flash hypnotically by the window !

 

[Chuffer]

Did they really use 12 volt lead acid batteries?.. no wonder they were crap.
The afore mentioned holiday canal boat was electric and ran on a bank of 12v lead acid batteries but i think the speed limit is something like 4mph on the canal so no problem. The company had strategically placed overnight charging posts along the edge of the canal.

Yep ! 12 volt batteries . An electric canal boat ??? How dull ! You cannot beat the slow rythmic chug chug of a good old twin cylinder air cooled Lister diesel like the old narrow boat `Sculptor` that I worked on for a few years on the Grand Union Canal .

 

[Derek Nicol]

Yep ! 12 volt batteries . An electric canal boat ??? How dull ! You cannot beat the slow rythmic chug chug of a good old twin cylinder air cooled Lister diesel like the old narrow boat `Sculptor` that I worked on for a few years on the Grand Union Canal .

I would say different rather than dull.. ive been on various canal boats. I love the sound of a vintage chugger but only hearing the water on the hull and the birds in the trees is something different as well.

 

[Chuffer]

I would say different rather than dull.. ive been on various canal boats. I love the sound of a vintage chugger but only hearing the water on the hull and the birds in the trees is something different as well.

Aaaaah ! sylvan sound of tinkling water and mother nature . An idyll worthy of a poem methinks .

 

[Derek Nicol]

Aaaaah ! sylvan sound of tinkling water and mother nature . An idyll worthy of a poem methinks .

The Mon Brec canal is very leafy and has great views.
Lots of weed hatch action though.

 

[Chuffer]

Never boated on the Mon & Brec but know it to be a beautiful waterway with stunning scenery .

 

[CaptainK]

I'm late to the party with this post. Noticed a few pages back about electric lorries and stuff. I read an article recently that the UK government is going to be doing a trial with electric lorries that get charged up / powered by overhead lines fitted above a chosen motorway for a section of the trial. I forget the details now, but it was interesting thing about powering the lorries via the overhead wires on the motorway. That way it keeps the weight of the lorry down as less batteries, and thus more goods can be taken on the lorry (as someone else also pointed out a few pages back).

I also read an article about electrifying classic cars - I should point out I'm hugely against this myself - but perfectly happy with new electric "daily driver cars" as they make sense. The article agreed, purely because of the cost of electric conversion for a starter, and also the "manufacturing and labouring" CO2 costs of making all the electric stuff for your car and modifying it etc. That's a huge CO2 burden, unlikely to ever re-coop in a classic car because the average classic does bugger all miles a year. Amusingly, they also went on to comment that apparently the yearly CO2 burden of owning a large dog is 5 times more than the yearly CO2 burden of owning the average classic car (obviously our V8s will be more of a burden though). Golly knows if any of it is true, it is the internet after all.

 

[Derek Nicol]

I forget the details now, but it was interesting thing about powering the lorries via the overhead wires on the motorway. That way it keeps the weight of the lorry down as less batteries, and thus more goods can be taken on the lorry (as someone else also pointed out a few pages back).

..and also the "manufacturing and labouring" CO2 costs of making all the electric stuff for your car and modifying it etc. That's a huge CO2 burden, unlikely to ever re-coop in a classic car because the average classic does bugger all miles a year. Golly knows if any of it is true, it is the internet after all.

I had seen that about pantograph trucks, interesting idea, like trams but with the independence to break away from a set route... could work on a small island like ours.

Im a bit puzzled by the CO2 argument, there are several cottage industry companies doing classic car EV conversions mostly using battery packs, inverters, controllers and motors from wrecked written off Teslas, Nissans etc. I cant see much CO2 coming from them, its a form of recycling.
I really dont care if they convert Beetles, 911s, MGBs, MX5s, Landrovers etc, but a Corvette?.. hmm, im not so sure how i feel about that.. a Vette without a genuine V8 rumble isnt really a Vette anymore is it.

 

[Roscobbc]

powering the lorries via the overhead wires on the motorway. That way it keeps the weight of the lorry down as less batteries, and thus more goods can be taken on the lorry

Sounds like a modern 'take' on the old trolley bus network that London and other major UK cities used successfully up to the late 50's. I'm old enough to remember these as a kid, similar size to the much loved Routemaster bus but with double rear wheels.

 

[Daytona Vette]

What happened to the last Ice age - it melted - why, because of Global warming - Guess which vehicle cave man was driving?, or which incorrect Light Bulb he was using - Kill all C02 and we are all dead, we will have no vegetables, no meat and no fish - we will not be able to grow anything from which we can get food