Electric Miata/MX5.

[Miles]

Miles did look a bit white faced and squirmy at one point - does that count as a reccomendation?

I've lead a sheltered life

[Ypedal]

Damn.. i just found this thread !!!!

thats is a load of lipo man ... holy crap.. only bigger pack i can recall seeing was on a glider ( if you can call it that ) ..

How do you get HK to ship you that many packs ?..

[grindz145]

Wow. Jozz, I hate cars, but that thing is very much exciting to me WOW.

I'm taking notes on your bussbar lipo assembly technique.

300kW....

If you ever feel like firing up Skype and doing a podcast with us, the offer is always open!

[Jay64]

Nice!

[Cyclebutt]

Now THATS battery technology!

[oatnet]

Nice build and an Impressive amount of power. Any idea what it's as-built weight is?

-JD

[Jozzer]

Thanks guys.

Final weight of the car is around 1050kg. Still going strong after a year of abuse..

[grindz145]

Awesome man!

How many miles/k s, How many cycles?

[Jozzer]

Approx 4000 miles and 80 cycles so far..

[kfong]

Nice work Jozzer, is there anything you would do differently for those of us contemplating of doing a similar conversion. I know of a garage kept Miata with a blown engine. Where did you source the motor? Sounded like you had very little issues with the install. Did you have a custom motor mount made. More details!

[Jozzer]

Nice work Jozzer, is there anything you would do differently for those of us contemplating of doing a similar conversion. I know of a garage kept Miata with a blown engine. Where did you source the motor? Sounded like you had very little issues with the install. Did you have a custom motor mount made. More details!

Thanks. Made everything in house, I'm lucky enough to have a fully equiped machine shop these days. The adapter plate was easy, but the mounting is much more complex. We didn't want to go with the usual method (strap around the motor bolted too the original engine mounts), instead we made a bracket to bolt the adapter plate securely to the chassis.

The motor came direct from Kostov in Europe.

If I were to do it again I would lose the gearbox and make it direct drive. It's useless using anything less than 4th gear (wheelspins at half throttle). I wouldn't like to have reverse wired up through contactors (since it would have to take 1000A when driving forward too), but the weight saving would be nice - not to mention space for another 8kW/h of Turnigy. The 11" motor would slide right up the gearbox tunnel..
I'd also use a newer model with upgraded brakes - this poor old chassis is getting a bit of a beating:) I've never got the motor close to overheating yet, but the brakes are often smoking! It looks very tatty for a £15000+ car too:)

[kfong]

Pics of the motor mounts would be cool and anything else you custom fabricated. Direct drive, wow sounds like that motor has tons of torque. Would overheating become a concern such as long climbs?

[Jozzer]

The longest climb we have round here it can manage easily within it's continuous power limit - in the summer motor got to 60C by the top.


I've not got any pics of the mounting, but next time I put the car on the ramp I'll take a couple..

[Ypedal]

do you have a youtube vid of this thing running ?..

[Jozzer]

Afraid not - I did get a cameraman down to take some film, we tried with camera in and on the car, but the video didn't do it any justice at all - just looked like a car driving (quietly) up the street.
If he ever edits the film and gets it back to me I'll get it online..

Wish I had a video of Mile's face whilst he was in the car;)

Any UK'ers are welcome to visit for a ride though.

[neptronix]

Any vids yet?
I have been speccing out electric drive bits for the past few days and am looking at an $800 white '94 miata tonight, coincidentally.

[neptronix]

crud, i don't fit in one at all. 6 ft tall with long legs seems a bit much for this car. Left arm bangs up against the door too. The interior of this car is certainly a torture chamber. Bummer

[Jeremy Harris]

crud, i don't fit in one at all. 6 ft tall with long legs seems a bit much for this car. Left arm bangs up against the door too. The interior of this car is certainly a torture chamber. Bummer

Yep, not for big people at all! My wife had one for a couple of years (loved it) but even at 5' 10" (with long legs) I found it a bit cramped.

[Spacey]

I'm 6ft tall and drive the newer model MR2, it's a little 1.8 litre engine rear wheel drive rear engined pocket rocket. Would make a great doner for e car.

[rjoe]

I love my miata (it's also white). I'm 6', but all torso.

If I recall, the miata has a pretty bad Cd, right?

[neptronix]

I heard that the NA miata had something like a 0.38 cD..

Anyway yea, i fit in a MR2 just fine, so i might go with a generation 2 model. The gen 3 model is nicer in every way, but a little more cramped and with worse visibility.

[Hillhater]

If I recall, the miata has a pretty bad Cd, right?

I suspect any soft top will have a "less than optimum" .. Cd ...especially with the top down !

[jonescg]

I've been helping a friend with his Toyota MR2, http://www.evalbum.com/3229
It's a good car but the battery space is seriously limited. He's running 45s LiFePO4, 70 Ah CALBs. The only way to fit enough cells was to place them under the car where the exhaust used to be.

With the best cells money can buy, you might have a good conversion, but for affordable lithium, you'd be quite limited for range.

[neptronix]

Thanks for the heads up, Jones. I didn't consider that at all. I guess i don't have any conception of how big those ~100whr/kg lifepo4's are. Maybe i'll go back to my Tercel idea