FTO AUSTRALIA

I posted this in Jibberish forums on the second page of a dead thread as a response but I think something as cool as this deserves it's own thread... so I know this is probably not allowed but I'm just so excited about it I just can't let the topic fade into obscurity... please don't yell at me!!! Maybe some of you FTO technical boffins can give some insight into the practicality / impracticality of such an idea...

Ok. I’ve been doing some research and found out that converting a conventional petrol engine to electric/petrol hi bred or even completely electric is more common place in Australia then I thought. There are many companies specializing in these conversions for both private and fleet vehicles and provisions under RTA modification guidelines that allow for cars and motorbikes to be 100% street legal and insurable now the big question.... how much? That depends on what you want. Lets say you want the same performance as an fto you will pay 15 to 25 grand with a range of 100km per charge that’s 0 to 100 in 8 seconds. The electric motors are 144 volts 100hp 14000rpm with boocoo torque delivered through out the rev range and the beauty of this system is that it’s expandable if you want another 100 ponies add another motor for $2900au
if you wont more range add more batteries but my favorite idea and also the cheapest could be a viable option for those of us thinking of turbo charging and that is the
hi bred… keep your existing engine and bolt up a 100hp electric engine to the back wheels via some kind of diff and then wired to a go fast button fastened on or near the steering wheel like a nitrous setup or maybe you could use the w.o.t switch (wide open throttle switch hmmmm and lets say you put 2 motors on the back combined with the 190hp or so on the front that’s a 390hp awd hibred fto for 15 or so grand. Just a thought… Any way here’s some links…

http://www.aeva.asn.au/Default.htm
http://www.evmotors.com.au/vehicles/index.html

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33

Question is, does anyone on this forum have the know-how and/or contacts to go through with it? Or will this just be another 3 page conversation.....

In theory it sounds good but the weight of the batteries would make your car as slow as a Prius

Here is some food for thought though, shamlessly stolen from another forum

http://greenflightev.blogspot.com/
http://www.electric-echo.com/
http://www.ev-power.com.au/IMG/pdf/elec ... _renew.pdf
http://www.bev.com.au/

"Hybrid"

I honestly dont see the point...at the end you say it would cost 15k....thats enough for ...i dunno...a year of fuel ? 2 years of fuel ? maybe more...or just getting a sweet system/doing up the entire car ! Sorry to disagree, but given that amount of money, i would not even think about hybrid ing the fto ! maybe i misunderstood what is trying to be said here ?

oodLes wrote:"Hybrid"

Advantage of Electric Cars:
-Acceleration
- Quiet
- No Polution (sort of)
- Unique
- Less parts (see maintainence)

Disadvantages
- Expensive to start off...
- All sorts of teething problems
- Low Range
- etc


If money wasnt an issue i'd do it for sh*ts and giggles.... And just whack 4x 125kw motors in it for an instant 500kw AWD... not to mention an absolutely stupid amount of torque from 0rpm....

FtoSam wrote:Advantage of Electric Cars:
-Acceleration
- Quiet
- No Polution (sort of)
- Unique
- Less parts (see maintainence)

Disadvantages
- Expensive to start off...
- All sorts of teething problems
- Low Range
- etc


If money wasnt an issue i'd do it for sh*ts and giggles.... And just whack 4x 125kw motors in it for an instant 500kw AWD... not to mention an absolutely stupid amount of torque from 0rpm....

The advantages are disadvantages really comparing to a standard fto...
1. for less you could prob put a turbo/ engine mods to make acceleration just as good as a hybrid.
2.i wouldnt want an fto to be quiet....would you ?
3.pollution (sort of)...speaks for itself.
4.unique ..how often do you open your engine bay whilst driving ? therefore no one will see/care
5. less parts - probably more expensive then normal fto parts anyway.(which are very expensive)

i understand you were using those adv's as general amongst all hybrid cars, but i just compared it to an fto - it would not be worthwhile ! just what i think

Supplanter wrote:In theory it sounds good but the weight of the batteries would make your car as slow as a Prius

Here is some food for thought though, shamlessly stolen from another forum

http://greenflightev.blogspot.com/
http://www.electric-echo.com/
http://www.ev-power.com.au/IMG/pdf/elec ... _renew.pdf
http://www.bev.com.au/

Thanks for those links they were a great read and I’ve thought about the power to weight ratio and for the system I’m thinking of the weight would be about 100kg. That’s 40kg for the motor and 60kg for the batts that a power to weight ratio of 1000hp per ton.
Now I’ll only have 30 minutes runtime but that’s still more then I need if I’m only using it for a quicker 0 to 60. After all 5 seconds goes into 30 minutes 360 times.. at $2 a charge it’s heaps cheaper to run then a 100hp nitrous set up.
I think Prius are slow because they use low voltage motors to cut down on production cost as veritable speed motor controllers get really expensive over 75volts. A 144volt motor controller is a serious piece of kit. But I’m hoping to do without a veritable speed motor controller altogether and just get bigger back tires as I wont be using it for parking or reversing.. grip is my only issue.

harry90 wrote:

FtoSam wrote:Advantage of Electric Cars:
-Acceleration
- Quiet
- No Polution (sort of)
- Unique
- Less parts (see maintainence)

Disadvantages
- Expensive to start off...
- All sorts of teething problems
- Low Range
- etc


If money wasnt an issue i'd do it for sh*ts and giggles.... And just whack 4x 125kw motors in it for an instant 500kw AWD... not to mention an absolutely stupid amount of torque from 0rpm....

The advantages are disadvantages really comparing to a standard fto...
1. for less you could prob put a turbo/ engine mods to make acceleration just as good as a hybrid.
2.i wouldnt want an fto to be quiet....would you ?
3.pollution (sort of)...speaks for itself.
4.unique ..how often do you open your engine bay whilst driving ? therefore no one will see/care
5. less parts - probably more expensive then normal fto parts anyway.(which are very expensive)

I don’t want to build a replacement for my beautiful sounding Mivec but I do get beaten at the traffic lights from time to time and find myself thinking I need a turbo but after reading all the turbo / super charging posts I can’t justify the expense and find it funny that people are ok spending 10k for a turbo witch considering that’s as much as I paid for my car is a lot.

By the way the $15k to $25k I mentioned is for a complete conversion done by a specialist company not a DIY job and I don’t wont a complete conversion anyway because as you said it wouldn’t be as good as what I have now.. and if I do this performance would be my primary concern not the planet (sorry earth but a girl’s got to win at traffic light grand prix) so if I do this (though it wont be soon because my next mod is a flashy new paint job)

My shopping list will look like this
144v electric engines………….... $2900
12x deep cycle lead acid batteries …$2400
Some kind of diff ……..………$?
All the little stuff ………………$?
Someone to chop up my rear end and put all this stuff in …..?
Bigger rear tires
Have I missed anything ?

All I'm seeing here is a lot of extra weight going into the car. 12 batteries isn't going to make her very light.

oodLes wrote:All I'm seeing here is a lot of extra weight going into the car. 12 batteries isn't going to make her very light.

Yes.. it will be heavier so i'll be sacrifising some handling but a standard fto has a power to weight ratio of 153hp per ton. The same fto with this setup will have a power to weight ratio of 214hp per ton.

ROFL @ 1/2 ELECTRIC FTO

would be cheeper and lighter to slap on a turbo, twin turbo or supercharger setup

or heres a nother silly idea, why not go buy one of those electric superchargers that fit in your intake pipe

FtoSam: that concept you speak of has kind of been done by Mitsubishi using the 2005 Lancer - it was called the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MIEV. It had four 50kw electric motors, one mounted in each wheel. Max speed 180km/h with a cruising range of about 250km. Weighed in at about 1600kg. I dont know much more about it, but it would be cool if it had an electronic version of the Super AYC where normally it would only be 2WD and the other wheels only came on if it lost traction and the power was given to the wheels with the most grip.

To be honest, I kinda like this idea. Who really cares if it only ends up being a three page thread - its good for us to think outside the box + this is a forum after all. I actually think alekazam's idea is kind of feasible. I have just done a 4WD conversion in my CE Lancer Coupe and believe there is enough room in the back to fit a electric motor/gearbox setup but am not so sure on the Hybrid part. Just the idea of a RWD FTO EV sounds cool to me

Apparently there's a cool DVD floating around called 'Who killed the electric car?' about how oil companies pretty much bought out all the innovators of technology then just stopped development. Havent seen it personally but got told it was well worth the watch