Hi All -
Here is the promised WPI EV1 update! There is in fact an EV1 here in
Worcester, Mass, which I had a good look at today. Apparently it was
donated to the school last year "For Research Purposes Only" with all
of the design books and drawings. There are entire books on the each
system in the vehicle - very interesting stuff. As for the vehicle,
the VRLA battery pack was removed and the cables cut. I was told that
the controller had been also been removed but it is very much still in
the car. Cosmetically, it is in perfect condition - there is not a
scratch on the plastic body or underbody, the tires are still all
shiny, and the inside is flawless as well. It doesn't look like it was
ever even driven. The 12 volt system is still installed and works.
This car is gorgeous!
As far as I know, there are no major plans for the car yet. There are
3 or 4 seniors this year who are going to be designing (but not
installing) a hybrid system for the EV1 (horrors!). They are going to
consider the usual hybrid fuels - hydrogen, gas, etc, although my first
impression is that they don't know much about this sort of thing - they
were looking through a catalog of cheap homeowner generators. The
comfort is that they won't be doing anything to the actual car anytime
soon, although who knows what will happen to it down the road? I am
going to do my best to keep the car as is until I figure out if there's
any way to get it going again as an EV. I sat in the car and had a
good look at it - what a beatiful piece of engineering! It is so
well-done. It's a crying shame to have such a fantastic car sitting in
a garage one block away from my dorm and not be able to do anything
with it. However, WPI is very open to students proposing and
carrying through on their own projects, so I am going to see what I can
do. There are a lot of motorsports guys here and I know that if I were
to start some EV club or something, as long as whatever we were doing
went fast I would have plenty of interest. The facilities and
available skills here are incredible - students built car engines and
formula racers and everything from scratch. This is going to be a lot
more fun than my garage at home!
Apparently, the designer of the EV1's body is coming to speak here at
the school sometime in the near future, so I'm looking forward to that.
It will be very interesting to talk to him. Anyway, the long and
short of this message is that we do in fact have an EV1, and it is in
gorgeous condition. *At first glance* all it is missing is the
batteries.
-Seth
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QUESTION INTERNAL COMBUSTION
http://members.fortunecity.com/electricityboy
http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/387.html
