On 29 Dec 2017 at 10:02, Lee Hart via EV wrote: > Not quite; he kept the Geo transaxle, but "gutted" it so all it had was 2nd > gear. It then ran lighter weight oil (not the usual 90w gear lube).
I take it youi're talking about the Sunrise? I was thinking of the Force. I'd be surprised if Worden used the Geo / Suzuki transaxle in the Sunrise, rather than the more efficient Force transaxle. However, I'm sure you know more about that than I do. Solectria / Brusa designed a least 2 custom transaxles that were used in the Force. The AT1000 was driven by a cogged belt and was used until (IIRC) around 1996. The belt was noisy, so they built the AT600. It was gear driven directly from the motor, and was normally sold as a unit with the motor. In the early 1990s, NPR interviewed a Solectria rep (I don't recall who) for a feature about the Force. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to grab a dub of the program when I heard it, so I have to go on memory. They actually drove the Force. Maybe the interviewer commented on the lack of a gearshift, I don't recall, but I do quite clearly remember the Solectria rep saying "we do remove the [factory] transmission." That said, a small number of early Forces were built using the Geo / Suzuki factory manual gearbox and a rather underpowered BLDC motor. I think that Solectria eventually upgraded most or all of them to induction motors and the in-house transaxles, but there may be a scant few, still scooting around out there on the roads. Regardless, my point stands. James Worden was (probably still is) obsessed with efficiency. Certainly some of his fine-tuning, such as adding flat belly pans to his EVs, was cheap to do and produced outstanding returns. Junking the stock Geo Metro transaxle for a pricey custom-made one might not have been as cost effective, but I still admire him for his focus on efficiency. David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
