[dimitri]

As some of you may know my first EV build was 2001 Mazda Miata, it’s still in the Garage here and on EVAlbum, but it has found a new owner. It was a lot of fun to build and drive, but it did not serve my primary goal - become a gas independent family. Since my wife does more driving than I do, and our family consists of more than 2 people, the 2 seater Roadster was not up to the challenge. It was heartbreaking to let it go, so much love and dedication went into that car, but on the bright side it has better future as an EV than any stock Miata could ever hope for. OK, enough sentiments….
After much research and planning I found the donor that would fit all my family needs, yet still sporty and pretty cool looking, high quality and in great mechanical shape, 2002 Mazda Protégé5.
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While working on Miata I fell in love with Mazda’s engineering, its simple, elegant, well thought out design, high quality parts, and reasonable cost. Protégé gets highest reviews all over the Internet, there are specialized forums, tons of technical info, upgrades, etc. I found complete workshop manual, schematics, everything I would need to take it apart and put it back together.
My main technical goals for this EV are – automatic transmission and LiFePo4 battery pack. The rest is pretty standard DC conversion, Warp9 motor, etc. I am hoping to become one of the first customers for not yet existent but already so popular DC controller designed by Tesseract and Qer from this forum, keep up the good work guys, customers are waiting in line.
Before I get flamed for automatic transmission, let me just say up front, I have read every single word on every single EV forum and mailing list regarding auto tranny conversions, so its unlikely that you will tell me something I don’t already know. I am inspired by couple of successful auto conversions, by SGC and couple of other folks. I am convinced that it will turn out very nice, plus I have no choice in the matter, because primary driver of this EV refuses to learn the stick, so there you go…
Interestingly enough, this particular Protégé came with sport auto tranny, so it can be put in semi-manual mode, very much resembling clutchless manual conversions. But, again, main goal is to make auto tranny work just like OEM, truly automatic and as efficient as possible. More on that later…
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So far I already have Warp9 sitting in my garage, batteries have been ordered, but will take 6-8 weeks to deliver, all small parts have been ordered thru Ebay and various EV suppliers. I hope to get motor in and most of the work done to get ready for controller and batteries. Then I will be at the mercy of Tesseract and Qer to finish the controller ( hurry up guys ) and Elite Power to get my batteries.