V2Rocket

do you need a special charging setup or will a 250V dryer outlet work?

SCEV

How much have you spent on your 944 so far?

SCEV

Will be able to charge off a standard 120V outlet, but will most likely install a 240V outlet for faster charging. There is also a new J1772 standard that all the public charging stations use, so I'll have to put a small circuit together in my car that communicates with it...will be pretty awesome to charge for free at a parking garage downtown!

SCEV

Hmmm...yes that is clever. I don't think I'll be trying anything like this though. It will be my daily driver (22 miles round trip to work), and we will use my wife's gas car for long trips.

Brewer944

I was going to do one of these a few years back. It was the reason I originally purchased the 944. I seem to recall that the inverters available at the time allowed throttle-off regen through the reverse current coming out of the ac motor. When accelerating, the battery current drives the motor. When decelerating, the wheels drive the motor, and the motor generates current, which the inverter channels back into the battery pack. I thought this was the solution most EVs use - why would you need to run an alternator off the driveshaft?

Regarding the transaxle, I toyed with the idea of removing it completely to save weight. You only need two gears at most, or you can go direct drive, depending on the motor set up. But then you would need a diff... I thought about putting the motor infront of a diff, but most differentials are bulky anyway... so I ended up with the conclusion that keeping the torque tube and transaxle was a necessary evil to avoid more costliness.

SCEV

True, but I'm going with a DC motor, not AC. AC systems are starting to come down in price, but still aren't comparable with DC systems in my opinion.

I came to the same conclusion...

F18Rep

You should write the white house for "loan." Call your project "Insource." You'll fit right in.

carlege

Nikola Tesla would be very upset that you said that.

SCEV

Haha...

V2Rocket

With the prevalence of junkyards you should be able to find something that works without too much difficulty...and if you had to, you could push the diff back just a little bit (slightly angling the CV joints). Trans and torque tube must be around 200lbs...

This for example doesn't look too big, and has the same axle ratio as a 944T...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-3-38-Rea...2fb484&vxp=mtr

DDP

Will it be remote controlled?

carlege

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Brewer944

Good idea. But that solution would add a lot in costs: to go gearless, you will be forced to compromise between low end acceleration and top speed unless you invested in more batteries and a more expensive motor. Though the motors have a wide rpm band, they don't like spinning too fast or they will overheat. I don't remember the specific numbers as it was 4 years ago, but I do remember there is a trade-off involved if you go gearless, and at the very least you need a more capable motor.

I love the simplicity of direct drive through a diff with the motor in front though. The AC motors will fit inside a backpack and weigh about 70lbs. They are a beautiful and elegant thing next to the monstrosity of hot fluids and moving metal that is an IC engine. Shame about the energy density and weight of batteries next to gasoline though.

SCEV, are you sure that DC is superior? I know it was a bit cheaper, but AC seems to be the way to go. (Caveat: maybe don't listen to me: I abandoned my project because I needed more money than I had to DoItProperly and I would not compromise. After all, it still needed to drive like a Porsche.)

Brewer944

With enough money, you could do the diff and motor mated at the back, and then stuff the torque tube tunnel and engine bay with batteries.... put a few more in the rear quarter panel wells for perfect weight distribution and you are set!

333pg333

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