# Customers car



## welder4u (Nov 30, 2010)

I built this car for one of my customers. Its a 1989 Blakely Bernardi kitcar. The car is about 95 % complete. I thought those interested might like to take a look. Tell me what you think, or ask if you have questions. 

http://www.evalbum.com/3953

http://youtu.be/c9CzQDJUR58

http://gillwelding.com/


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## dtbaker (Jan 5, 2008)

very cool... tell a little more about the kit costs! did the kit include frame and running gear, or is it basically everything off a mustang II except the body? Wondering why you chose two speed rather than keeping the tranny?


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## welder4u (Nov 30, 2010)

dtbaker said:


> very cool... tell a little more about the kit costs! did the kit include frame and running gear, or is it basically everything off a mustang II except the body? Wondering why you chose two speed rather than keeping the tranny?



My customer bought the car used, then we sold the Mustang II ICE and trans. to make room for the Transwarp 9 and the Lenco. The rearend is a 8.8 out of a Mustang GT, and I set up the 4.88 gear and posi. The Lenco has a 1.48 first and a 1.1 sec. The Lenco is a very good trans for an electric motor as you don't need a clutch to upshift or downshift. Its a blast to drive!


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## major (Apr 4, 2008)

welder4u said:


> My customer bought the car used, then we sold the Mustang II ICE and trans. to make room for the Transwarp 9 and the Lenco. The rearend is a 8.8 out of a Mustang GT, and I set up the 4.88 gear and posi. The Lenco has a 1.48 first and a 1.1 sec. The Lenco is a very good trans for an electric motor as you don't need a clutch to upshift or downshift. Its a blast to drive!


Hi weld,

It looks nice. Your inserts don't show up in this post. I am very interested in the use of the Lenco. I would like to see video of you shifting at speed  Also, can you provide details about the parts and cost of the Lemco installation? Can you offer the adaptors? IMO, a 2-speed EV tranny is a nice solution 

Regards,

major


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## dimitri (May 16, 2008)

Sorry if this sounds really dumb, I am not a mechanic or transmission expert, but why there are 2 levers on the transmission and how are they used? Also, as major said, how smooth does it shift while driving and where can it be purchased?


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## welder4u (Nov 30, 2010)

major said:


> Hi weld,
> 
> It looks nice. Your inserts don't show up in this post. I am very interested in the use of the Lenco. I would like to see video of you shifting at speed  Also, can you provide details about the parts and cost of the Lemco installation? Can you offer the adaptors? IMO, a 2-speed EV tranny is a nice solution
> 
> ...


Thanks for all the compliments. I'll work on the picture inserts thing. The Lenco is a ST1200 2spd and comes with reverser and shifters also your choice of input shaft. The one in this project is custom to my adapter setup. I will be selling the adapter very soon, as a matter of fact I have two ready to go right now, but were still testing it to make sure its a good product. I'm going to try to keep the adapter price as low as I can so as to keep people happy but still make a profit. Last year a Lenco ST1200 2spd with reverser and shifters was $3100 shipped to your door. 

I will offer the adapter/coupler package on my website very soon. Ill send yall some pictures when I figure how to navigate this site.


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## welder4u (Nov 30, 2010)

dimitri said:


> Sorry if this sounds really dumb, I am not a mechanic or transmission expert, but why there are 2 levers on the transmission and how are they used? Also, as major said, how smooth does it shift while driving and where can it be purchased?


No Dimitri it does not sound dumb at all. In fact it makes allot of ppl ask the same question. The small shifter is for the reverser section and it controls forward, neutral and reverse. The large shifter controls first to second gear up shift or downshift. It shifts smooth as silk, and the smoothness is adjustable. You can add sections to have a 3, 4 or 5spd. Also airshifted as triggered by a solenoid.

One more thing...the reason we went with the Transwarp is that splines are superior to key ways in terms of strength. 

http://www.lencoracing.com/


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## GerhardRP (Nov 17, 2009)

welder4u said:


> No Dimitri it does not sound dumb at all. In fact it makes allot of ppl ask the same question. The small shifter is for the reverser section and it controls forward, neutral and reverse. The large shifter controls first to second gear up shift or downshift. It shifts smooth as silk, and the smoothness is adjustable. You can add sections to have a 3, 4 or 5spd. Also airshifted as triggered by a solenoid.
> 
> One more thing...the reason we went with the Transwarp is that splines are superior to key ways in terms of strength.
> 
> http://www.lencoracing.com/


Hi,
The unit has a sprag clutch. Does that mean you cannot transmit torque in reverse in low gear? That would preclude regen or electric reverse.
Gerhard


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## welder4u (Nov 30, 2010)

GerhardRP said:


> Hi,
> The unit has a sprag clutch. Does that mean you cannot transmit torque in reverse in low gear? That would preclude regen or electric reverse.
> Gerhard


I called Lenco and ask them some questions, because I wondered the same thing. They said as long as your in final drive the motor in regen will act just like compression braking on a ICE. When we tested the Bernardi the first time I noticed that if you let off the throttle in first gear the car coasted, and when in final drive if you let off it felt the same. This car does not have regen so there was no load. I think regen will do fine, also the Lenco has a reverse.

more pictures


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## TomA (Mar 26, 2009)

Weld:

That's a really nice setup, and very much what I've been thinking for a couple of years now, and I actually freaked seen the car hit the evalbum. Its great.

I have a question about your ratio selection. Since the 1.48 is the deepest planetary set available, you have a rather narrow spread with two speeds. Compared to a Powerglide with 1.78 to over 2 or so planetaries available, the two speed Lenco is quite a close ratio box.

I can't see what tires Gary has on the car on the evalbum, but figuring them at 205/60R15s, and using a a gear calculator here ( http://www.rocky-road.com/calculator.html ) the motor would be spinning redline 5500rpm at 82mph in top gear, 55mph in low. No doubt it burns rubber, and the deep gearing probably helps keep the amp draw lower on the 100Ah cells, which is also a good thing with a 1000 amp controller.

I'm wondering about the cruise, though, and it would be great if you or Gary could provide some feedback about how the gearing feels. My limited understanding of these Warp9 motors is they have a sweet spot from 2700-2900 rpm, which would be about 29mph in low and 43mph in top with that 4.88 rear and the tires I assumed. It would seem that in a 2200lb car, with 1000 amps available, the car is a very deeply geared indeed.

On paper, if you went with 3.55 rear gears, that Warp9 sweet spot would move up to 40mph and 59mph respectively, which seem like pretty commonly driven speeds. Different tires than what I assumed would move these numbers around a little, but not very much.

Was there some particular reason to go with such a deep rear axle ratio, like acceleration, lower amp draw, intended use, or something else?

I would love to know how the car feels at the various cruising speeds...

Great work, BTW, that adapter is a real time saver and looks pretty light, too. I presume it has front and rear bearings and a custom propshaft. What does it weigh full-up?

TomA


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## welder4u (Nov 30, 2010)

TomA said:


> Weld:
> 
> That's a really nice setup, and very much what I've been thinking for a couple of years now, and I actually freaked seen the car hit the evalbum. Its great.
> 
> ...



Hi TomA, Let me see if I can answer some of your questions. To start with the Bernardi was going to be direct drive, and we bought a 5.72 gear for the 8.8, so no trans at that point. I had tried to talk my customer into buying Transwarp 11 because of better torque vs weight of the car (we had not decided agm or lithium yet) and less heating problems if to much weight, but he had settled on the Transwarp 9. We had talked to George Hamstra, and he was concerned about overload also. At this point my customer started thinking maybe he needed a trans, that's when I said" Lenco". The efficiency sweet spot on the Transwarp 9 is 3147 rpm , so we changed to 4.88 and that put us where we wanted to be on the street at cruise. My customer was interested in acceleration and not top end. When I watch the I.M. under a little more than normal acceleration, I see the controller register 650 to 750 amps and it feels good! I can't remember the tire size. All I can say is the car feels awesome at all speeds.



http://gillwelding.com/


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## TomA (Mar 26, 2009)

Very cool, thanks for the info.

The Warp9 sweet spot I was talking about is operational, not necessarily efficiency. These motors, as geared in the two cars I've driven and several that I've talked about with people, seem to like to run around 2900, being particularly smooth, quiet, and with great roll-on power from there. Since all my information about it is anecdotal, variable with gearing, and subjective, I'm just not sure if its true or not...

As for your adapter, is there a reason why it is so long? for my purposes, the shorter the drivetrain stack the better (and lighter.) Also, what is the configuration and composition of the adapter shaft and any bearings supporting it. I'm guessing steel, splined on both ends to match the Transwarp and Lenco patterns, on single or dual roller or needle bearings in the adapter sleeve, but it would be great to know.

And what does your complete adapter assembly weigh?

Given that Lenco apparently has the ability to make custom input shafts for their transmissions, (at least they did when I talked with them two years ago,) did you or Gary give any thought to asking them to put a TH400 32-spline input shaft on the ST1200 at just the right length to fit into the motor, after accounting for a flat 1/2" or 5/8" billet adapter plate? Depending on what such a custom ST1200 input shaft would cost, that would be a simpler, lighter and shorter solution, and it might even work out to be less money.

Thanks again for the info, and the Mark Williams gear calculator. That's one of the best I've seen.

TomA


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## BernardiEV (Oct 3, 2011)

Welder4u forgot to mention that the car had an automatic tranny. Initially we were going to do direct drive and a 5.71 rear end, but I decided to add the Lenco to improve both low end and high end. Now that I've got it on the road I think it would have worked as a direct drive, but I'm very happy with the two speeds. Shifting is very smooth, don't miss the clutch.


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## BernardiEV (Oct 3, 2011)

TomA said:


> Very cool, thanks for the info.
> 
> The Warp9 sweet spot I was talking about is operational, not necessarily efficiency. These motors, as geared in the two cars I've driven and several that I've talked about with people, seem to like to run around 2900, being particularly smooth, quiet, and with great roll-on power from there. Since all my information about it is anecdotal, variable with gearing, and subjective, I'm just not sure if its true or not...
> 
> ...


I know what you mean about shortening the adapter. The cool thing about his design is that you can change out any section to mate it to something else or change the length. The reason mine is this way is that I had the room, so we simply coupled the standard output shaft to a standard input shaft. Ideally, the TransWarP9 output shaft would fit directly into the Lenco as the input shaft. Maybe we could get George Hamstra to talk to Lenco about that. In the meantime you could look at a shorter input shaft mated to a custom coupler that takes the keyed shaft from a WarP9. The Lenco is a great choice for an EV. I'm glad I went with.


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## BernardiEV (Oct 3, 2011)

TomA said:


> Weld:
> 
> That's a really nice setup, and very much what I've been thinking for a couple of years now, and I actually freaked seen the car hit the evalbum. Its great.
> 
> ...


My tires are P185/65R15 with a rollout of 74.875. I got that wrong in an earlier post. As far as the sweet spot, I keep finding myself shooting for 2500 - 3000 rpm.


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## BernardiEV (Oct 3, 2011)

TomA said:


> Weld:
> 
> That's a really nice setup, and very much what I've been thinking for a couple of years now, and I actually freaked seen the car hit the evalbum. Its great.
> 
> ...


Sorry its taken several posts to answer all your questions. The diff ratio was selected to stay as low as possible and give a top speed of around 75 mph, but keeping to a 2-speed tranny. The car takes off like a rocket. It handles around town driving very well, which is what it was designed for. It also handles the freeway well. I've had it up to 65 mph and it performed very well. I tend to keep it in low speed up to about 35 or 40 mph. I shift up at 4000 rpm on a sustained acceleration, which is right around 40 mph.


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## TomA (Mar 26, 2009)

BernardiEV said:


> The cool thing about his design is that you can change out any section to mate it to something else or change the length.


That is cool...



> Ideally, the TransWarP9 output shaft would fit directly into the Lenco as the input shaft. Maybe we could get George Hamstra to talk to Lenco about that.


That's exactly what I was suggesting with a custom input shaft for the Lenco, using the TH400 32-spline pattern, at the correct length given the adapter plate thickness. 

George has already done his part with the involute spline on the Transwarp, but if he really wanted to do something great, he'd make that spline pattern the same as a common clutch spline, like the heavy duty GM 26-spline pattern. Then you can slide a wide variety of gearboxes directly into it, from a Tremec 5 speed to a Hewland transaxle to the Lenco and Jericho racing transmissions. Make up your adapter plate, trim the tranmission input shaft to length, and Bob's your uncle...



> The Lenco is a great choice for an EV. I'm glad I went with it.


No doubt. Thanks for taking the plunge...


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## welder4u (Nov 30, 2010)

> And what does your complete adapter assembly weigh?


The adapter weighs 13lbs. without the coupler.


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## TomA (Mar 26, 2009)

welder4u said:


> The adapter weighs 13lbs. without the coupler.


Nice. That makes it much clearer, thank you.


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