>For those EV owners that do and get away with it, it's due to safe >driving habits and luck. If there was a panic stop, forget it.
Uh-oh, gotta comment here. My commercial Rabbit conversion came with Dasher rear drums, so the factory clearly attempted to upgrade the brakes, but stopped too soon (is that a pun?) I finished the job by adding vented front rotors from a GTI, rear disc brakes from a GLI, and teflon/stainless steel braid flexible brake lines. Braking performance is quite satisfactory now, even when towing the 1,200 Pusher trailer in addition to the 3,100 pounds the conversion weighs. If I wanted more braking performance, I could go to a 22mm master cylinder. Right now the car is full manual power (no vacuum assist), and my eventual plan is to install an ABS hydraulic modulator to give me power assist without the vacuum pump. The point of all of this is that choosing a conversion platform is, as we all know, important. Choosing a vehicle that has interchangeable parts with other model of the same make that support heavier GVW's allows one to upgrade systems (suspension, brakes, etc.) without as much guesswork and custom fabrication. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the VW Rabbit (or any other VW platform) for this reason. There are literally warehouses full of aftermarket performance parts available for these cars, and "fits-one-fits-all" is about the best way to describe factory parts interchangeability. Stray outside the gamut of recognized manufacturers of auto brands/models, and you are pretty much on your own, as some of the list members can testify. -S
