Topic: ~My first hybrid car~

[piersdad]

1976 The petrol crisis was in full swing and as I’m an electrical fitter I thought that an electric car would be the ideal thing to have

Looking around the village I soon located an old Lancaster bombers generator a massive 150 amp machine that would make an ideal motor.
A further search located an old Austin 10 chassis, after removing the motor etc I installed the new electric motor.

The batteries were a problem as I had no idea of how many, a few calculations, and tests with some scrap batteries and some data from the battery makers I was able to assemble some 90 volts lead acid batteries..
The great day came as the batteries arrived and I worked all night assembling them in the back of the car.
Now this car was built in the basement of our house and this night it was outside under the clothes line with a fluorescent tube hung from the line above the car.
Two am and all the batteries were set up and the wiring done.
I touched the accelerator and at that point all hell let loose as the car surged forward and omg the clothes line post.
Well there was a crashing sound as the florescent tubes fell, the clothes line crashed, and the house shook as the other end of the line? came adrift.
A sleepy voice from the wife asked from the top bed room what are you doing or some thing more explicit. and so to bed.
The next day I had to get the car up the steep bank and past the garden terrace and on to the drive some 40 feet above.
I moved the car up to the terraced bank of the garden and tried the accelerator again wanting to get it as close to the terrace as possible and then jack the car up and onto the garden.
Well electric cars I find out have heaps of power at zero speed and in a flash the dam car rose above the 2 foot terrace and climbed easily onto the garden.
Undeterred I planted the foot and over the garden up the concrete steps and onto the drive

So much for the first drive in an electric car.
I used it every day then to go to work some 5 miles away and eventually started to design a faster car.
the car was a bit slow and as the motor was in dire need of a rewind I stripped it and spend some 100 hours laboriously rewinding the 60 odd coils by hand.



   At last it was finished and un known to me a very small mistake in the windings made the motor  a type that was half the voltage it was before and so the 90 volts  I was using  was twice the voltage it would be able to handle.
   I replaced the motor in the car and  when I pressed the accellerator there was a mighty bang as the motor took off  ripping itself from its mountings  and removing itself with some of the driveshaft  attached from the car and landing on the driveway.
      Thats when i decided to  make a really fast car.

   
My goal was to break the world speed record at 110 miles per hour. I was about half way through the chassis of a super stream lined car and the news came that the world record had risen to 170 miles per hour.
O dear a few calculations and a look at a power graph that seemed to go through the roof and the idea was abandoned.
Oh well a good sports car was in the goal now.
A Holden rear window and a lot of steel tube and a VW rear plus a Morris minor front suspension and the car took shape in a few months.
It look really good and when the 1500 lbs of battery were installed in it custom built battery box it was ready to go.
I had invented a devilish switch gear it weighed some 3 pounds and was so tricky it took me two weeks to figure it out.

In first position it would make 3 banks of batteries in parallel and 36 volts. Then 2nd position it would give me 2 banks of 72 volts.
Then in the final position it would give a massive 144 volts to the 36 volt 150 amp motor.

Well the day came to try it out this time I took it to the open road on the 36 volts stage and every thing seemed ok.
Just as I got to a good long straight bit of road I was passed by a group of motor bikes.
I set the switch on full power.
Wow the amp meter shot full scale past the 1000 amp scale, the switch started to smoke
 the car shot forward and I hung on like grim death, as I knew that to open the switch at that current would be like setting off a bomb in the car.
The speed rose rapidly to over 70 mph plus and soon the motor cycles were appearing in the distance.

They did not hear me coming and as I swished past they certainly would not have heard me go.
A mile or so later at full speed the current dropped enough for me to open the switch and drive at a more sedate speed.
And I rested as the cycles caught up and passed again.
I improved the car over the next few months and as the batteries started to wear down I installed a v w motor on the rear as well as an electric motor to make it a hybrid car.
In the mornings I was able to drive quietly up the drive and down the hill and once out on the open road I would engage the clutch and the petrol motor would take over the work..
This enabled me to go great distances and as the petrol tank was small I often ran out of petrol between garages so just cruised on to the next garage on the batteries.
I would comment to the station operator that I had run out of petrol some miles back.
When asked well how did you get here I would point to the huge electric motor and 1500 lbs of batteries and say, ” I just used the starter motor.”
When on a hill and the petrol motor was finding it a bit tough the electric motor would be used to help, much easier than changing gears all the time.
on the down hills the petrol motor would be shut down and the batteries charged in stead of using the brakes.

Move over Toyota prius