SUCK AMPS RACING ride ground up
The Vehicle started life as a 1983 Grumman-Olson electric postal van. We chose this vehicle because we felt it was the most unassuming and unlikely vehicle for a high performance electric. It was originally set up as a 96 volt system with a Curtis 1221, 400 amp controller. It was a real dog with a 0 to 30 MPH of 13 seconds and a top speed of 55 MPH. For the show we faked pulling out a VW Rabbit engine so that we could show the public how a conversion from gas to electric is done. The front wheel drive was originally Volkswagen Rabbit. We knew that the Rabbit transmission would end up in broken bits if we tried to use it because of the extreme torque we were going to throw at it. We decided to go with a front transaxle from a 1991 VW Corrado G60. We originally used the 9 inch GE but later installed a nine inch Advanced DC motor our item # MT2120 after damaging the GE in Las Vegas. The nine inch ADC was coupled to the VW Corrado transaxle through a racing flywheel from Auto Tech with a Centerforce clutch and pressure plate feeding a Quaiffe spiral gear type positraction differential that also came from Auto Tech. We installed VW Golf front hubs and rotors in order to have larger front brakes and CV joints in addition to having a more usable five bolt pattern. These hubs are sprung by racing McPhearson struts by H & R Springs.
The rear drive is supported by a custom designed aluminum box which ties into the frame in two places and also to the rear roll cage tubes. To this box mounts lower lateral links scavenged from a 19?? Subaru Legacy wagon. We also used the rear trailing arms which we boxed and gusseted. All control arms were made adjustable by welding in nuts and using heim joints so that we could adjust toe and camber. We also had to fabricate aluminum strut towers as the original rear suspension was a straight axle with drum brakes. The rear uses two eight inch Advanced DC motors similar to our item # MT2117. The ones we used were originally designed for the Sparrow EV. Each rear motor drives a single custom axle of heat treated 4340 steel. Each motor had a belt drive which has now been changed to a three row #40 chain which drives a bigger sprocket that drives a primary axle and hub assemble. All the belt drives and chain drives were supplied by Applied Technology. The original primary drives sheared the keys in Las Vegas when we turned the power up. The rear final drive axles are custom made with splines for 100 MM VW Bus CVs on one end and Subaru Legacy on the other. We also used the rear hubs and disc brake assemblies from the Subaru Legacy which have the same bolt pattern for the wheels as the front VW Golf hubs. The axles drive 315 by 35 series 17 inch Nitto Extreme Drag radials with twelve inches of rubber on the road. Can you say traction! These tires are mounted to beautiful Pentangle wheels made by Budnik Wheels. We are running a rear drive ratio of 3. 75 to 1. The new chain drive appears to be able to handle the instant torque but the axles won't. We snapped one in testing getting ready to go racing. We are now going to larger CV joints made of 300M steel by boring and splining our hubs. We are also having custom large axles made of 300M as well. We are shooting for axles that can handle 800 horsepower. We are tired of staying home from the track due to breakage. By the feel of the power of this monster I feel we will be quicker than any production gasoline powered automobile on the planet.
The heart of the electrical system and where all the power comes from is the batteries. We are using Exide’s new XCD (extreme cycle duty) spiral wound lead acid batteries. We have tested these batteries and they have more power density than anything else on the market today. We have tested them to an 1800 amp draw for ten seconds until they started melting the test equipment. You can really suck the amps out of these batteries without damaging them. They are beyond awesome. We use 40 of these batteries in two series strings of 240 volts each. We mounted them low and in the center of the vehicle so that it would handle well. These batteries feed two “Zilla” 2000 amp controllers our item # CT2500 built by team member Otmar Ebenhoech. These in turn take the power from the batteries and feed it to the motors. We have one mounted in the front to feed the front motor and one in the rear to feed the two rear motors with series /parallel switching of the motors which is handled by the “Zilla’s” “Hairball Interface”. The series/parallel switch effectively gives us an electric two speed. When we launch in series both motors see the full maximum controller amperage which we program in. So if we are set at two thousand amps then each motor sees the full two thousand amps but only half the voltage. When battery current equals motor current the “Hairball Interface” switches the motors to parallel. Now the motors see the full voltage and since RPM is related to voltage in a series wound motor the motors try to spin faster causing the vehicle to continue to accelerate. At this time each motor is only seeing half the amps. To keep the batteries happy we charge them with team member “Madman’s” aka Rich Rudman’s power factor corrected charger our item # CH2442. On the rear we run a Bomz Racing rear spoiler which keeps the rear of the 4350 pound “Gone Postal” van planted on the ground at over 100 mph ;-)
Roderick
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