Greenstreak-Andy D Posted April 14, 2008 Posted April 14, 2008 A mate of mine took this photo whilst on the A50 in Staffordshire..... is this the future ?? electric westie Anyone know any more?? Quote
DanB Posted April 14, 2008 Posted April 14, 2008 It was featured in Racecar Engineering recently. It's got a layer of batteries underneath the floor, another load under the bonnet, a motor where the gearbox would be, and a propshaft and diff in the usual places. Seems a rather strange way of going about making an electric vehicle, but there you go... Edited to say: the one in RE must be a different car as it had Li-ion batteries not lead acids... Quote
dombanks Posted April 14, 2008 Posted April 14, 2008 ever since i saw my chassis when i picked it up ive thought the westy/seven would lend itself to electric motors. personally i would have thought you would mount them in the rear hubs one for each wheel (4 wheel drive ) and sack off the whole transmission. i dont really have the engineering knowledge to do this but i remember there being an espace that had this done. but i do know the electric motors you can get have so much torque it went like the preverbial off a shovel. batteries can go where they like then to balance the car. i guess you'd need some complicated control software to control the motors. but if they can do it in robot wars why not in a westy? a big axe to chop at passing cateringham vans would be good too but probably wont get thorugh SVA without a 19mm radius on it Quote
zoso Posted April 14, 2008 Posted April 14, 2008 It was featured in Racecar Engineering recently. It's got a layer of batteries underneath the floor, another load under the bonnet, a motor where the gearbox would be, and a propshaft and diff in the usual places. Seems a rather strange way of going about making an electric vehicle, but there you go... Edited to say: the one in RE must be a different car as it had Li-ion batteries not lead acids... This is not the car that featured in Racecar Engineering recently... That car was westfields own... This is a differnent project, done some years ago. From memory it features some very very trick bits, as you'd expect from this chap. I think it was based on the FW400 carbon chassis, though I could be wrong as it's a while since I read about it... What you doing reading racecar engineering anyway, thought that was only for hardcore motorsports engineering geeks like myself....? Quote
Norman Verona Posted April 14, 2008 Posted April 14, 2008 QUOTE mount them in the rear hubs one for each wheel (4 wheel drive ) and sack off the whole transmission. Ferdinand Porsche did that before WW2. Recent USA legislation will see every major manufacturer developing batter hybrid. Plug in overnight and when they go flat an engine will start to recharge them. GM are well ahead with the development of a 5 door Astra with Li-On battery packs. Elecetric motor driven cars will accelerate very quickly but run out of steam at the top end. This is why you'll see very slippery designs coming from the majors. GM are claiming 0-60 in 8.5 secs and 100 mph top. Also 4 times the duration of the battery pack than others. (Can't you see that I've just read an article about this - Saturdays Telegraph) Quote
zoso Posted April 14, 2008 Posted April 14, 2008 The problem with the electric hybrids is the battery packs... They don't last forever... are very expensive and full or rare metals... Hardly conserving the planet really... Mechanical KERS systems are much more interesting to me, and they have that 1900's engineering principles around them, I just like the idea of having a flywheel! Quote
DanB Posted April 14, 2008 Posted April 14, 2008 QUOTE What you doing reading racecar engineering anyway, thought that was only for hardcore motorsports engineering geeks like myself....? It is - but I aspire to hardcore status as a motorsports engineering geek... In fact, I sometimes read the Racecar Engine magazine, but at 10 quid a go it's a bit of a luxury. Quote
zoso Posted April 14, 2008 Posted April 14, 2008 What you doing reading racecar engineering anyway, thought that was only for hardcore motorsports engineering geeks like myself....? It is - but I aspire to hardcore status as a motorsports engineering geek... In fact, I sometimes read the Racecar Engine magazine, but at 10 quid a go it's a bit of a luxury. Now Race engine tech is a Seriously hardcore geek mag... Thought not as bad as the Aero one, Bernouli... Quote
cast iron Posted April 14, 2008 Posted April 14, 2008 Blimey does no one read Westfield World? it was in there last year Quote
pistonbroke Posted April 14, 2008 Posted April 14, 2008 QUOTE The Westfield based Wisper, built and previously owned by Martin Ogilvie, former Lotus F1 chief designer, incorporates our range of efficient DC motor technologies and DC control systems. A Westfield ! with heratage QUOTE personally i would have thought you would mount them in the rear hubs one for each wheel (4 wheel drive ) and sack off the whole transmission. I think the whisper does just that I saw an all electric go kart at Aintree a couple of years back , used 4 motors in the same way . The guy used to go drag racing with it Lots of problems with battery power yet , though its still in the early days development wise . Quote
Buzz Billsberry Posted April 15, 2008 Posted April 15, 2008 mount them in the rear hubs one for each wheel (4 wheel drive ) and sack off the whole transmission. Ferdinand Porsche did that before WW2. As he did with Disc Brakes before jaguar did at Le-Mans and claimed they'd invented/inovated them. Electric cars will be great for motor racingespecially from the green side,but not for general blatting for reasons rabbited on about for years.As we all know the ‘greenys’ want to ban any form of motorsport but those people should really put their efforts in to persuading China and India doing there bit but they want the easy targets 1st. Buzz Quote
Norman Verona Posted April 15, 2008 Posted April 15, 2008 QUOTE Hardly conserving the planet really Agreed, and nor does electric cars in general, just moves the polution from the car to the power station. Quote
Blatman Posted April 15, 2008 Posted April 15, 2008 So once we have all nuclear power, lecky cars will be pretty good Me, I'm waiting for a proper warp drive. Then we'll see... Nurse... it happened again Quote
Greenstreak-Andy D Posted April 15, 2008 Author Posted April 15, 2008 When will we see a Westie with a fuel cell running on a tank of Hydrogen? Something like the recent motor from Morgan shown at Geneva motorshow! 4WD lightweight, silent-ish would be fantastic....if only we could extract Hydrogen without using megawatt coal fired power stations!!! Quote
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