Vintage Voltage

[Neil in Deal]

Evening all,
Was just watching "Vintage Voltage" on Quest.
They were converting a "suicide door" Fiat 500 Nuovo to electric......for a budget of £17 grand !! (I'll check my recording later, just to see if I misheard.....)
They quoted a price of 3p a mile running costs on electric.....so they'll only have to do 5.6 MILLION miles to recoup the cost of conversion.
All well and good, as the car was for use in Central London, so it made sense no ULEZ charges etc, more ecologically friendly...
However, there was also a Gordon Keeble in their workshop - surely to God the owner isn't converting THAT to electric......utter sacrilage if he is !
There was also a Ferrari (308 ?? ) lurking there.....electric....surely not !!!
They did a Karmann Ghia last week, at least the conversion gave the car the performance it's good looks deserved.
Stay safe (and petrol powered !! )

Neil.

[roadster72]

I haven't seen that yet, but other websites say the Ferrari 308 is one of the projects. Thankfully there's no mention of the Gordon Keeble,

I had the impression from what I saw at the NEC that prices would be high.

I wonder whether such conversions are still classed as historic vehicles on the road.

[jbuckl]

Watch for safety concerns following RTA on these highly modified motors.

[Phil S]

also watched with interest, but they spend to much time on fitting things like the charging point, then all of a sudden its finished. they don't want to show the components in case you find its only half what they charge

[Neil in Deal]

Evening all,

Some people have no soul !!
The ONLY electric Ferrari I would want would have to be a GENUINE Ferrari.
And if they do convert the Gordon Keeble, the owner should be bowsprited, keel-hauled, flogged round the fleet, then hung from the highest yardarm. The GK is a a truly beautiful and rare car.
GK Club Members, take up your pitchforks, light your burning torches and head for Wales!
I also noted for the Karmann Ghia they had the gearbox/electric motor mounting spacer machined up in China. Forgive me for being over-patriotic, but surely there's someone in this country more than equal to the task.
I had a look at the MGB which had been electrified at the NEC in 2018. Looked quite well done, conversion price of £12k if I remember correctly ??
I'm certainly NOT "anti-electric" (in fact my little VW Fox might well make a very good "city car") but seriously £17 grand for a conversion ?? Much taking of the mick methinks.
AND, I live in a 1st floor flat with an allocated parking space on the other side of the building. HOW, can I charge an electric vehicle ?? It might be regenerative, but it'll need a full charge quite frequently.
You also might remember that Wheeler Dealers completed the electrifiction of an older Maserati Ghibli....but can't remember the costs of the conversion.
And yes, I reckon uprating brakes, springs and dampers is probably a "must", so there goes another couple of grand...unless it's part of the conversion....(they did uprate the Karmann's front brakes)..
Ah well, "progress".......?
Stay safe,

Neil.

[barkerwilliams]

Can we be honest, if we had to drive 20 miles to work each day in the dark, grey concrete canyons of the city, probably in the rain and wanted a nice temperate, private space to listen to our music in there is nowt wrong with an electric eurobox.

But if we want a little something extra for the weekend, something primeval and dangerous with no airbags, or crumple zones, a primitive fume breathing noisy mistress capable of emptying our wallets at every turn with frequent histrionic breakdowns, something to make us real men; then why would we then want to convert it to an urban commuting car in a role it would not be good at?

What is really sad though is that some cars will be irrevocably stripped and emasculated never to return to the dark side. Still there is light on the horizon, the fewer originals, the higher the price they fetch.

Alan

[Ritchie6]

I also watched this first episode with the Karmann Ghia and as a former engineer I found it interesting enough although the outlay seems far in excess of what the car would actually be worth. The one tonight features a Fiat 500 so heavens knows where they will stow all those batteries!

For me electric cars will never catch on because of the impracticalities, mainly the lack of charging points and range. If we go up to Scotland it's 360 miles each way so would need several charges and it's not like 5 minutes in the petrol station. I guess a full charge would be at least an hour. The other thing of course is where would you put your luggage? I normally have a load of fishing gear as well as clothes etc.Fortunately 'er indoors travels very light so we don't take the kitchen sink!

I think these little cars would be fine for commuting,assuming that there's somewhere handy to re-charge it but for longer trips they aren't much use.Up here in the Yorkshire Dales I don't there are many charging points and even if you found one it might already be in use which would involve a long delay.

Richard

[djtaylor]

360 miles? Two, maybe even one charge along the route.

Electric cars will very much catch on, battery technology changes. An interesting thing about charging points, I'd liken it to asking you where each Shell petrol station is. One of our cars is LPG and has done 2/3rds of its >300,000 miles on LPG. In chatting to a work colleague who knew everything... He proclaimed that it would be no good to him as there were no LPG filling stations along his route.

This was his belief because he had never looked, because he never needed to. Next morning I showed him the options along his route.

Same for electric, if you don't need to use them, typically you don't know where they are.

The problem is with those who own plug in hybrids who seem to use the EV spots at the likes of IKEA to park at for an hour whole they add a couple of miles range, depriving a full EV of useful charge.

[djtaylor]

They quoted a price of 3p a mile running costs on electric.....so they'll only have to do 5.6 MILLION miles to recoup the cost of conversion.

I don't think so!
At today's price of petrol of around £5 per gallon and assuming say 30 mpg for arguments sake, that £17,000 would have bought around 100,000 miles worth of petrol.

To cover the same 100,000 miles at 3p per mile would cost £3000.

Figure is around 120,000 miles

[flying farmer]

I don't think so!
At today's price of petrol of around £5 per gallon and assuming say 30 mpg for arguments sake, that £17,000 would have bought around 100,000 miles worth of petrol.

To cover the same 100,000 miles at 3p per mile would cost £3000.

Figure is around 120,000 miles

560,0000 miles X £0.03=£16,800
The other Neil had a few too many zeros

Neil

[djtaylor]

Yes, but the calculation is still incorrect because it needs to factor the saving of the fuel type change over the mileage.

Change the mpg to 20mpg and gallon of petrol to £6 and you're around 60,000.

However that would take me another 30 to 40 years to achieve in my Stag, I'd likely be dead by then.

[Neil in Deal]

Afternoon all,

I blame my slide rule.....plus Lidl's finest Marlborough red.......
Stay safe,

Neil.

[Ritchie6]

The lady with the Fiat (did they really say these things fetch around 25K??) lives in central London and it seems that she parks her car on the street. Given that the boss, Moggy said a full charge takes around 6 hours does this mean she'd have to have cables draped across the pavement every night? Not very practical or safe. Mind you I wasn't impressed with where they were going to locate the 12v battery-underneath the rear wheel arch. Anybody ever have fun with a Mini electric fuel pump which was in a similar place and used to get full of all sorts of crud.

I'm looking forward to the episode with the MG Midget as I've owned a couple of these in the past.

Richard

[djtaylor]

Moggy said a full charge takes around 6 hours does this mean she'd have to have cables draped across the pavement every night? Not very practical or safe

Possibly, this is why the ideas such as charge point in street lamps would be more practical. I'm not convinced that full EV's are the answer if you don't have off street parking and your own Type 2 charge point which will deliver 7kWh (32A @ 230V) vs trying to do this off an extension lead which will typically delivery only 10A @ 230V thus 2.3kWh and hence 3 times longer charge time.

Either way, stick with the Stag, last time I looked, historic vehicles were exempt from ULEZ charge anyway

[Neil in Deal]

Afternoon all,

It all makes for an interesting debate, doesn't it.
Couple of points:-
I have absolutely NO chance of being able to charge an electric vehicle, as I live in a 1st floor flat which is on the "wrong side" of the building, i.e. nowhere near where a charging point would be.
I don't see the managers of the building stumping up for enough charging points in the allocated spaces - strongly suspect I'd end up footing most of the bill !

I agree about the strange siting of the conventional 12v battery, exposed to weather & road debris. Didn't wish to "knock" them, but sorry, it hardly seems like a suitable location. Were I to be a potential customer I'd be wanting an itemized proposal stating and showing (i.e. in a proper drawing) exactly where each item was going to be fitted......I reckon shelling out £17 grand deserves slightly better.
I have seen a (very expensive) BMW "cafe racer" motor cycle locally which has had a smaller high capacity battery fitted which is right in the firing line of spray and debris from the rear tyre. (The battery case might be quite resilient, but the terminals/wiring are going to suffer.)
I suppose changing from an "as built" configuration to a heavily modified one requires some compromises to be inevitable.
As an aside, I wonder how the electric Stag in Australia is doing ? (It was for sale in either Classic Cars for Sale or Car and Classic about 2 years ago.)
Stay safe,

Neil.