[electricmini]

Hi everyone,

I can't believe I've been into EVs for years, but have only just found this forum! Loads of good discussions & info...

Anyway, a bit of introduction is in order:

I'm Richard Bebbington, I'm an electronics/mechanical design engineer working for a design house here the UK and am in the middle of converting my old Toyota Supra Turbo to electric power!

The engine's already out, a Zilla Z2K is on order from CafeElectric (got my order in just in time!) and a big bad Netgain Warp11 motor is sitting in my garage...

There are several reasons I'm doing the Supra (besides the fact that there's one sitting on my driveway)

1. It's a strong, comfortable car, great to drive
2. The electronic systems don't talk to each other with CANbus or anything like that, so it'll be easier to make them play ball with the new electric powertrain
3. There's tons of room in the engine bay for stuff!

Ok, some more details:

I've already mocked up the Warp11, and it just fits in, in fact the Supra looks like it could have been designed to take it. I should be able to get 14, maybe 15 Exide Maxxima's / Optimas in the engine bay (maybe more if I lose the aircon stuff), and probably 9 batteries in the trunk, without losing the rear seats.

The adaptor plate is turning out to be pretty easy, the bellhousing is almost circular where it bolts to the engine block. A simple 1/2inch plate and a Taperlock coupling will be about it.

What is unusual is I'm using an automatic gearbox - and there's a good reason behind my madness:

1. First, the Supra box is the best auto I've ever driven - really smooth but also tough as nails.
2. It's electronically controlled, and the torque converter can be locked solid electronically as well, so you only have the hydraulic pump losses.
3. Lastly, I have an aftermarket shifting computer, so I'll be able to tweak the shift tables to make better use of the electric motor's torque whilst keeping the revs up and the amps down.

Anyway, that's a brief summary of where I'm at right now - currently waiting to finish the adaptor plate, then I can start playing with the auto gearbox and get other stuff like battery boxes and the high-current cabling.

There are some photos up on evalbum.com, and I'm just starting to cobble together a website for the project but I'm in the middle of changing ISPs, so let's just say that's a bit low down on the priority list...

Richard

P.S. Some of you might remember me from the EVDL, and yes, I did have an electric Mini. I've since taken the electric stuff out of the Mini and sold it on, so now the Supra is gonna be my electric fix!

I'm open to suggestions about lithium/lead hybrid packs, but cash (or lack of it) might dictate lead for now...

[ddmcse]

Outstanding ! Richard great to see you on the forum . I'm new here myself but let me be the first to Welcome you to this forum .
As you know I'm a huge Supra fan myself ,mind if I follow along as you convert your Supra ?
My 1st supra was a maroon one inside and out . had the Targa top and leather seats .. true love
1986.5

[brent.massey]

Thats a sharp looking supra Richard. Its gonna make for a sweet conversion. Sounds like you're busy working, but take some pics man! We want to follow your progress!

[electricmini]

Originally Posted by ddmcse

Outstanding ! Richard great to see you on the forum . I'm new here myself but let me be the first to Welcome you to this forum .
As you know I'm a huge Supra fan myself ,mind if I follow along as you convert your Supra ?
My 1st supra was a maroon one inside and out . had the Targa top and leather seats .. true love
1986.5

Thanks for the welcome, no probs about following how it goes - that's sort of why I posted about it! ;-) Nice.... was it one of the digi-dash ones?

[electricmini]

Originally Posted by brent.massey

Thats a sharp looking supra Richard. Its gonna make for a sweet conversion. Sounds like you're busy working, but take some pics man! We want to follow your progress!

Ok, ok, I hear you :-) I have got quite a few pics already, just haven't gotten around to building a decent website for it yet (don't worry, that's coming!)
Anyone know of a decent open-source WYSIWYG html editor that'll do frames?
Years back I used dreamweaver for the Mini pickup's website, but that PC died and the old license probably won't work on my nice shiny Vista PC (ugh) Richard

[electricmini]

I've added a couple more pages to the website, more will come soon!

Finally got Taperlock bushes that fit the Warp11 shafts
( UK ones have different width keyways from the US ones )

Richard

[TheSGC]

How is your transmission functioning with the engine gone? I am in the middle of my Civic EV and the transmission computer is being a real pain. I have to hook up the old Throttle Position Sensor tomorrow and see if it will even let me get out of Park, not to mention in gear. I can override the Park setting, but the PCM will not engage into any gear (which may be because the TPS was missing)

What aftermarket PCM are you using?

[waldoz]

Originally Posted by electricmini

Finally got Taperlock bushes that fit the Warp11 shafts
( UK ones have different width keyways from the US ones )

Richard

Nice room you got in front for the battries, Is the motor under batterie rack? How many bat you plan on running?
Chris

[electricmini]

Originally Posted by waldoz

Nice room you got in front for the battries, Is the motor under batterie rack? How many bat you plan on running?
Chris

Yep, the motor is underneath the battery tray. I'm planning on 24 maybe 26 batteries if I can squeeze the extra 2 in (2 parallel strings of 13, so system voltage is 156V)


As far as the tranny's concerned, I don't know yet!
That's partly why I've bought a SupraStick v4 tranny computer from Latent Solutions - it will happily accept a normal throttle pot input, wheras the Toyota engine ECU turns the voltage from the pot into a 3-bit binary code and feeds that to the tranny computer.

I don't think it'll be a major problem - what's more annoying is the tranny needs a physical cable connection to the throttle, to work the line pressure control. So I can't use the nice HEPI pedal that you can get for the Zilla - there's nowhere to attach a cable to it!

I guess I should be using the tranny from a MkIV Supra Twin-turbo, that has electronic line pressure control..... maybe a future upgrade!

Richard

[electricmini]

A little bit of progress on the Supra:

My friend in work finished machining out the centre of my adaptor plate -
- it now has a nice 4 inch hole, which drops neatly over the centring spigot on the face of the Warp11. He also drilled the 8 bolt holes so I can bolt it up tight to the motor, when I find the correct size bolts here in the UK! (not really a problem, I just don't like having to buy a box of 100 and only use 8.... oh well I guess that's what Ebay is for...)

I've also got a pair of 400A 160Vdc Heinemann breakers coming (Ebay again!), should be just right for the two parallel battery strings.

Lastly, I've got the first generation of the main motor mounts designed up, I'm thinking 3/16 inch steel wrapping around the motor (kind of a clam-shell mount), but with a twist - I'm gonna bolt it hard to the motor case using the two 1/2 UNC lifting eye bolt holes. No way is this motor gonna twist around inside the mount - even when it has to react the full gearbox output torque.... (gulp!)

Pics going up on the website soon - if I ever get around to editing the code & uploading it (yes, it's hand-coded at the moment, quicker than trying to learn a new WYSIWYG html package that can also do frames)

Richard (electricmini)