[Kevin Sharpe]

Still not sure of the direction to go.....

Oh, that's easy... take a look at Damien's Tesla powered BMW 8 Series (here) and the open source inverter controller (here). This will allow you to wring maximum performance out off the Tesla drive units at a fraction of the cost of the 'commercial' vendors

Here are some Tesla projects that will give you some idea of what you can expect from one motor

2014 Lotus Evora - Tesla DU, Time Attack Road Car

Tesla Powered Cobra Race Car

Now imagine what you can achieve with two motors

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

I like the open source idea... I just don't want to get over my head. I'm good with regular 12v stuff....

You can buy fully assembled and tested inverter controllers from Damien which allow you to treat the motor as a stand alone item with just one low voltage connector. It's incredibly simple and does not require any CAN bus communication, just wiring for throttle, brake, start, etc.

Similar open source projects will soon have controllers for the Tesla battery management system ("BMS"), charger, DCDC, Air Con, etc., etc.

So what would you do Kevin? Buy a written off Tesla and use the parts?

That's the cheapest way without a doubt. It might be worth chatting to Rich Benoit ("Car Guru") who setup the FB group (see list here) who could give you some impartial advice on wrecked cars.

Buy from a vendor?

That's an 'easy' option but will typically cost you 3-10x the price and if you're not careful tie you into a closed solution (i.e. where only the vendor knows how the system works ).

Is the Tesla motor and suspension the way to go?

Personally I think that's overkill for many vehicles and most fabricators that I know like the freedom to design their own suspension system. Here are a couple of interesting projects that are just using the Tesla drive unit;

Tesla Powered Nissan 350Z

The TesLorean