I made a report on this car after we built it and after 32 years discovered it in my records so I have reproduced it here from the original gestetner stenciled copy
New Zealand built electric car 1976 A great deal of research is going on around the world as the threat of diminishing supply of oil looms in the near future.
In our village were two very talented men on had written a book on fitting people to cars 'ergonomics of cars' by steven black
the book was not available but Steven lent us his last copy.
Steven also was the person who fitted people into the famous mini and determined the positions of seats pedals etc.
the other person had worked on the echo 1 satelight and was now a local maths school teacher.
my other friend Colin was a fitter and electrical fitter and i was an electrician electrical fitter both in the advanced trade category.
Steven even lent his mini car that we could do tests for aerodynamics and road load.
we towed it with a drawbar scales on flat land at 30 mph and again into a 30 mph wind and returned the reverse direction at the same speed as the wind which that day happened to be 30 mph
our mathematical friend helped us with the calculations and we were able to concoct formula and use them.
Stevens help in determining what a practical commuter car would be was very usefull and many a chat over a cuppa resulted.
so we started on a prototype car to evaluate the best features of all this research
Some of the ideas on this car are new and untried while some are well tried and proven systems.
At this time 1976 electric cars are not able to compete directly with petrol cars due to the short range of the present battery cars.
It is in this short range that the electric car petrol cars beaten for efficiency and convenience.
The energy contained in one gallon of petrol could drive an electric car 900 miles or 1440 km if all this energy were to be converted to electricity [900 mpg!]
The following are the features of this car
1 steering column folds out of the way to allow ease of entry and exit
2 steering column also acts as hand brake and power disconnect for the batteries.
3controlls and indicating lights are on the steering wheel.
4 steering wheel has rose colored mirror for the ladies(or anything that might please feminine desires)
5 dash board is of soft alloy to adsorb energy in case of crash
6 when the gull wing door is open it acts as shelter in case of rain.(this was no higher that 5ft.10 in and encroached no more than the width of a human sideways)
(part of the locking mechanics was a strong bar on the bend in the gull wing door that latched in strongly to the roll bar and the front window supports very light and effective
7 high and low speed control as well as an accelerator
8 regenerative braking that charges the battery when slowing down.
9 two motors to eliminate the differential
10 belt and chain drive for efficiency and simplicity.(equivalent of to-days wheel motors)
11 dual motors give the equivalent of 4 wheel drive in slippery conditions.(proved brilliant)
12 separate batteries for lights and motor.
13 swing arm rear suspension.
14 Single shock spring pendulum type of front suspension.(ok up to the 30 mph envisaged very simple system)
15 foam filled crash barrier in front cone
16 semi rigid seat belt supports to reduce de acceleration of passenger in the event of a crash
17 all alloy construction
18 90% New Zealand raw materials.
19 light weight 180 kg with out batteries. All up weight with 150 kg passengers and batteries 480 kg 1080 lbs
20 speed will be 30 40 mph (55- 65 km/h) range 30 miles (50 km)
21 All components are easily repaired by average NZ garage personal.
22 All body parts are flat sheet and can be replicated by any sheet metal work shop.
There are many less important features , a present total of 40 so far.
Mr. K.F.Edgecumbe and Mr. C L Horsfall are the builders of this car.
Our philosophy behind this car is this.
1 we have built a car that is entirely for electric traction and have found that there is very little in the present petrol car technology that is of use to electric cars.
A total approach to lightweight construction results in a car that is just as strong as the heavier car as it does not have the weight behind it to cause the damage.
2 In New Zealand (1976) it is no use importing materials as the government will rightfully claim heavy taxes to try to limit the drain on overseas exchange.
The use of technology in the car is already present in the country means that no imported machines are needed and the components can be manufactured in any engineering shop in New Zealand.
3 the car can be assembled by any one with a bit of mechanical knowledge.
This will mean the car can be sold as complete or kitset.
4 the manufacture of the car can be done by cottage industry type of manufacture where the components for the car are built remotely from the assembly plant and a great many different firms presently in operation will be involved in the car thus using capital investment that is already there.
5 although sophisticated in its concept it is very simple in its design and is nothing that can be taken away from it and yet it is still able to meet its design functions.
We expect a great deal of problems and obstacles as we progress with the car but we hope soon to be able to start on a second prototype car that will have al the major problems ironed out.
In the mean time we will be perfecting the present car and virtually test it to perfection or destruction which ever comes first
http://The above diagram (picture)is a brief description of the special front suspension developed for the car.
The idea behind this system was to eliminate as much as possible the stresses put on the body by the suspension while the car is cornering etc.
All the twisting effort caused by cornering is eliminated, the body and chassis needs only to carry the weight of the payload. This leaves all the forward part of the body free of extra struts to stop twisting, and its only other function is to deflect the stresses of a crash or accident. A very much lighter body can be devised.
In the above diagram a single shock absorber and spring unit is attached to the lowest part of the suspension frame and in the middle of the axel this allows the front axel to pivot in the centre and give the action of an independent suspension.
Without a track rod the car would tip over to one side as the track rod is attached to as higher point as possible, the body is held in place in relation to the suspension.
The centre of gravity is able to be lower than the point of attachment and the front of the car now has the tendency to act as a pendulum when sideways forces are placed on it.
By careful adjusting the final point of attachment of the track rod the forces imposed on the front of the car chassis and the body are downward or side ways, and not twisting.
By putting the batteries as close as possible to the front suspension we also eliminate most of the down ward and side wards bending moments of the chassis and all of the front of the car can now be made lighter with out losing any strength as a unit.
picture of gestetner sketch
(
it took 30 years for cars to get a foot operated hand brake we had a steering collum/foot operated one back then)Folding steering column, hand brake , isolator.
When the driver wants to exit the car he/she raises the steering column upwards and this has the effect of immobilizing the car with one movement.
As the column is moved upwards(A) the lever placed over it (B) is also moved upwards and applies the foot brake (D)
The hinge at © has a Bowden cable attached to it that is pulled when the hinge is operated . this opens the isolating switch (E)
The steering column is also attached to a ratchet system that enables the column to be left in any position.
Once the column is up the bent column is still acting as a tiller steering thus there is no loss of the steering if the hand brake is on
A micro switch is also attached to the foot brake and this brings in the regenerative braking.
The idea behind this system is
Convenience, the action of raising the column is easy and the grouping of all the controls in the one unit means that they can be designed as one unit that can be easily removed for maintenance.
Safety.
The steering column is always held by the driver when the car is in motion and with any sudden stop the natural action is to grip the steering column and brace against it. This will apply the brake and disconnect the batteries as well as get the column away from the driver
just came across this gem.
a sketch of the car with all the measurements on it
so here it is warts and all
Shot at 2008-10-29
all in inches and approximately to scale
another pic befor we dumped it to stop the design falling into the wrong hands (big mistake) would now be in a musem.
the use of a foam filled front and the batteries behind it meant most of the cars weight was in front of the passengers and adsorbed a crash energy
so with a air bag system in a modern version there would be a viable car suitable for to-days traffic
this is an approximate drawing of the layout of the production car chassis
not a very good drawing as made from memory of 30 years ago but the general layout is shown
the batteries in front and the chassis deflects crash from the passenger compartment
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