# The Electric Car LIVES!



## Ioku (Sep 27, 2007)

Very cool, glad to see you got it running, and it looks rather fast too.


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## Greenflight (Sep 13, 2007)

WAY TO GO!!!!!!!  That really rocks. It's great to see all that hard work pay off. That's the one thing I always tell people who look at my car: it might not be the fastest car I've driven, but it's by far the most fun.

My truck does something funny with the contactors that may or may not be related to your issue- after turning off the ignition, my contactors stay closed for about a second, and then open. I've always assumed it was something to do with capacitance inside the controller, but now I'm not so sure. My controller's a Raptor 600.

And it took me a second to figure out why you were sitting in the right seat...


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## pandaran (Nov 13, 2007)

That's amazing! Congratulations! And it sorta answers one of my questions, too! I've read people saying they drive mostly in 2nd and 3rd gears, but I wasn't sure if they meant they started off in 1st and then spent the rest of their time in those gears, or what. How does skipping 1st gear entirely not hurt anything? And how are you switching gears without a clutch pedal?


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## Mr. Sharkey (Jul 26, 2007)

Good going, Gav. It's been interesting to watch you gain experience and confidence over the course of building the car!

Make sure to replace the defective battery promptly, it's important to have all of the batteries in your pack have the same discharge experiences, and running with a weak cell will mean that when you do replace the bad battery, the rest of the cells in the pack will have different discharge histories, which will have a ~huge~ impact as the pack ages as a whole.

As for your contactor, are the contacts clean, no oily residue, etc? It would be possible to connect a digital volt meter across the contacts to measure the voltage drop under heavy load and see if there is any resistance showing up that would explain arcing/heating of the contacts. Another problem that is better fixed before it gets chronic

Your'e into the debugging stage now, clean up the fiddly bits and you'll have a reliable daily driver.

I guess you got the heater working? You look nice and warm, and didn't need a heavy coat for the trial run...


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## Greenflight (Sep 13, 2007)

Mr. Sharkey said:


> I guess you got the heater working? You look nice and warm, and didn't need a heavy coat for the trial run...


Well, he does live in New Zealand...  Aren't they in the middle of summer about now?


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## Mr. Sharkey (Jul 26, 2007)

Greenflight said:


> Well, he does live in New Zealand...  Aren't they in the middle of summer about now?


Yes, lucky sods, that's why I made the comment. I almost didn't get a shower this evening because the water line from the spring had just begun to freeze. Flying south for the winter looks better every year.


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## houseoffubar (Nov 18, 2007)

pandaran said:


> That's amazing! Congratulations! And it sorta answers one of my questions, too! I've read people saying they drive mostly in 2nd and 3rd gears, but I wasn't sure if they meant they started off in 1st and then spent the rest of their time in those gears, or what. How does skipping 1st gear entirely not hurt anything? And how are you switching gears without a clutch pedal?


Pandaran, I wouldn't trust his opinion about gear selection, and such, as I don't think he knows what he is doing. After all he clearly put the steering wheel on the wrong side when he re-assembled the car

The car looks great!!! Good luck at Cert. Eric


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## rbgrn (Jul 24, 2007)

Just watched the video. Nice work, Gav!! I'm very excited for you!


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## david85 (Nov 12, 2007)

rbgrn said:


> Just watched the video. Nice work, Gav!! I'm very excited for you!


 
Diddo, You managed to give ME an EV grin just by watching that, see - .

Looks like it has some torque too, I can't wait to see you open that car up on those "proper" roads you mention. Very nicely done.


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## KiwiEV (Jul 26, 2007)

houseoffubar said:


> Pandaran, I wouldn't trust his opinion about gear selection, and such, as I don't think he knows what he is doing. After all he clearly put the steering wheel on the wrong side when he re-assembled the car
> 
> The car looks great!!! Good luck at Cert. Eric


Hey! 

Yes it's getting warmer every day here as summer's almost upon us. Good EVing weather! 
And I'll have you know that I'm not only driving on the left side, but on the RIGHT side! Hehehe


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## houseoffubar (Nov 18, 2007)

I tried driving on the right, on the left during a trip to Japan a few years ago. Tokyo will never look the same!!!! Thanks again for the video, I'm still smiling, fun fun fun!!!


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## KiwiEV (Jul 26, 2007)

I know what you mean. I drove on the right side of the road in Europe in a rental car a few months back. That was the most stressful week of my life. I've never known something as simple as driving to be so complex again. It's like learning to drive all over. When it came time to change gear I kept whacking my left hand into the driver's door panel thinking the gear lever was still on that side!


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## Mannyman (Jul 26, 2007)

Congrats, I'm truly happy for you.


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## Coley (Jul 26, 2007)

Way to go Gav.
Isn't that first trip down the street awesome!!!
My smile was as big as your's, on that first run.


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## ChopperMan (Nov 27, 2007)

Gavin, I have been watching your project with great interest since April. It has been insightful and very informative. It's also convinced me that I will some day soon convert my of vehicle. Thank you, you are an absolute inspiration.

Kind regards,

Ian


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## KiwiEV (Jul 26, 2007)

ChopperMan said:


> Gavin, I have been watching your project with great interest since April. It has been insightful and very informative. It's also convinced me that I will some day soon convert my of vehicle. Thank you, you are an absolute inspiration.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Ian


Hey it's really been my pleasure Ian! I'm just so glad I've inspired others to take the same clean, cheap EV path! 
In less than an hour my EV is going to be on national telly too. The current affairs show "Campbell Live" got wind of the project and we spent yesterday filming on private roads (the only way it was legal to drive it!). Apparently I should be reaching over 300,000 kiwi viewers which is BIG numbers in NZ television! I'm so excited!
I'll record it and put the clip on the website too for the rest of the world to watch!


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