2008 Mini Cooper clubman s conversion

Got the motor in and spinning!

I have an hpevs ac50 with matching Curtis controller.
I have 10 optima yellow tops that I got for cheap. I’ll be testing with those for awhile.
if I get it Driving and I like it, then I’ll invest in lithium batteries. Probably salvaged from a wrecked ev.
Bolt, model s or leaf batteries would fit in the battery boxes I made.

Got good start on the rear battery tray today.
lots of room for for Tesla modules or whatever I can get my hands on.
getting excited to take this thing out for a spin.

Those are the e brake cables and further up the tunnel are the shifter cables. Next I’ll bolt the batteries to the tray, run pvc conduit to the front and make some sort of plastic cover plates for the battery trays.
my ev west order came today!
Wrx pedal, fuses, relays etc.
gave up on the mini pedal. I’d love to get to power steering rack working at some point. if anyone knows how to trick the computer into thinking it’s running that would be awesome!

Got the motor spinning again. This time with the the Subaru wrx sti pedal. Seems to have way better response than the pot it came with. Made a bracket, mounted the pedal. Next I’m going to mount and wire the vacuum pump.

Took it out for a spin in the parking lot today. Should be pretty fun car. Hopefully the default parameters are set low. I’m only reading 120amps on acceleration should be closer to 500. Or could be the max pedal setting.
sure is nice to finally drive it!

Bumped up the controller to 100%. Still not tire smoking power, but it’s got some pretty decent pull. I had 650 amps this time but the voltage dropped from 130 to 88.
I guess lithium batteries would help solve that.
got vacuum going on the brakes too Now I see why people go to the effort of putting in an electric booster. So noisy!!
I’ll get the regents going before I tackle that one

I thought lithium batteries generally would have less voltage drop.
would it be in the wire?

I have run 2/0 cables from the rear pack to the front. about 7’
Controller to motor 2/0
2’ long

I see,
Thanks for the lesson
I’m new to this.
I’m planning to replace those batteries when I find a deal on something.
so far I’ve only invested $6000 into this project including the cost of the car.
Hopefully I can find something for around $4000 my goal is to finish it for $10000

I’ve been driving it around for a few weeks now. It’s really fun to drive. Handles like a go kart. I’m only getting 25km range though. Enough to get to work and back at least.
hopefully I can squeeze a bit more range out of it when I set up the brake transducer tomorrow.
Still looking for a deal on batteries or a wrecked ev.

I finally got some batteries. I bought 6 just in case I want to upgrade to an ac-51 or hyper 9.
now I need to find a bms, charger, dc/dc converter and a cooling system. I’m thinking of going with the Orion bms but only because if it’s compatibility with the Curtis controller.

I was thinking of putting 3 modules on top of the motor and 2 where the gas tank was. Not sure if that’s a bad idea. I heard that splitting the pack uneven can cause problems but I’ve seen it done before. I’ll do some more research on that. If it’s true I’ll have to find a way to stuff 5 modules up front.

Too bad my controller can’t handle all 6.
3 up front and 3 in the back would be nice.

130v max
It’s a Curtis ac-50 system from HPEV

Yes I would like to upgrade the controller but it’s really starting to add up in cost.
i think I’m going togo with the 5 modules and use the spare for my travel trailer.
would it be a bad idea to split the pack uneven?
3 in the front and 2 where the tank was.
I could fit them all in the front if I make a battery box to stand them on edge.