Instructable of the day: build and race your own electric car
According to this Instructable, anyone can build their very own electric car in little more than a long weekend. Of course, we wouldn't recommend driving this car on the street with any real traffic, but as a learning tool or for a fun family project, this seems hard to beat!
Starting with some aluminum square section tubing and pop rivets, a ladder-type chassis is made. Wheelchair wheels and tires are then added, followed up by a disk brake from a mountain bike. A wheelchair motor operating at 20 amps at 2000 RPM uses two lead acid batteries giving 24 volts. A simple chain drive mechanism is used for reliability and nothing more than an on/off switch is used for the throttle. With the setup described in the linked article, the peak speed attained was 26.5 miles per hour with 67.5 miles on a single charge. More would be available in the tank, so to speak, with some better batteries and a real motor controller. Isn't cool to see what some ingenuity can do?
[Source: Instructables]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
David Lockie 10:45AM (1/18/2008)
Check out Green Power at the link below. They are a great UK organisation that runs electric car races for schools. The schools build their own cars and then race them. Such a brilliant idea:
http://www.greenpower.co.uk/
Reply