I think this has been done in VW buses, sand rails, and a Cobra - could be neat in a 914. And it would likely be a massive improvement over the rear suspension geometry as well.

Rear Track of a Model S is 67", Factory 914 is 55" - nothing some wide flares can't accommodate.

-Steve

photo

914

Wow! What is the piece in front that looks like a transfer-case? Does that need to go in?

Where are the dampers? I'm not seeing anything to control suspension motion?

Or some high offset wheels.

The model 3 rear end will probably be considerably narrower and cheaper in a couple of years when the market is flooded with them. NOT a bad idea! Looks like it'll fit under the rear trunk and there will be lots of space in the engine bay for a couple racks of capacitors or llithium batteries and the rest of the hardware and have room for storage on top of it.

That is the rear of car and Tesla motors have individual electric motors for rear wheels. So in Tesla cars there is no differential, but an electronic controller recognize that the vehicle is turning and adjust the speed of the electric motor.

I had a Tesla model S very early on was on the list for a long time as number 125 got my car in Jan 2014.
Eric and the boys from PMB got a ride in it when they picked up my 6 to go to Utah.
A bunch of guys going wee! and big smiles as well. Very impressive car, massive torque for days.

So this would take massive battery storage as you would need to go with a custom set up in the 914 Eng. area and up front to get any life out of it and what would you do for the power mamagement. You would need some real electrical talent to get it to run.
It could be done. Weight really does not mean anything to an electrical motor.

An early Tesla sport car that was a Motor in a Lotus with battery may be a better fit for 914s but where would you get one. I guess there have been some totaled Tesla's

Sounds fun but not an easy job to build. Did I say you need to be brilliant to work out the electrical part of this conversation? I have seen things from our member that is unreal as far as their talent.

Bob B

> What is the piece in front that looks like a transfer-case? Does that need to go in?

That's the "transmission". Just a single speed "direct drive" to reduce the motor speed.

> Where are the dampers?

No shocks pictured. Easy to see where they would attach though.

-Steve

> Did I say you need to be brilliant to work out the electrical part of this conversation?

AFAIK that has been solved now and there are controllers available to talk to the Tesla electronics now.

http://www.evwest.com/catalog/product_info...products_id=476

> This kit includes the Tesla motor, inverter, gear box, dash display and control unit (EV Controls), throttle pedal, and 2 axles.

-Steve

Here

Bob BClick to view attachment

Well F me. Money is all you need I guess

Bob B

I wouldn't even try to. Just mount the motors in a cradle >> hybrid CV axles >> stock 914.

Probably need the Tesla ecu to run the dual motors correctly.

Lots of space for Li battery packs since you won't have a stock trans and huge Mach9? motor taking up space.

Thank you. I was looking at those pictures for a while and never saw it.

OK how much more for the batteries and the rest if you have a perfect 74 body reinforced for the torque?

I may be a player!

Bob B

Looks heavy

Cheaper than a 3.6 conversion, hahaha


I still have not gone for a ride in any model Tesla

I did get a ride in Otmars killer 914 electric conversion. Lot's of smiles in that car.

I can't really imagine 4000 lbs of motor, drive, batteries etc stuck on a 500 lb 914 chassis. I am sure those numbers are off, but still... doesn't seems like a good match.

But if somebody builds it, I wouldn't say no to a ride!

IIRC up until a few years ago an electric 914 held some speed record

1/4 mile. Like a rocket

Bob B

http://evcl.com/914/

Interesting reading for EV's

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772

If it were me I would not bother with trying to reinvent the rear of the 914. Using the tesla motor and trans would be small enough to fit in the 914 under the trunk. Some custom axles and away you go.

Would be a very simple mechanical swap, then your just left with a standard run of then mill EV swap and mounting as many batteries as you can afford (the real hinderance here).

Probably easily spend 30k on this conversion, but hey you would have a pretty decent EV 914 that could run for likely hundreds of miles and be as fast as the fastest 914s out there.

Im a little confused
I know the 1st telsa was a little ,lite weight
Sports car

But thats the only lightweight electric car i know of

I just do not understand why someone would want
To make a electric car that is so heavy


And a 914 that weighs 4000 lbs , just doesn't seem smart

No reason for it to weigh that much, the Roadster you mentioned is listed at 2800 pounds.

I think he was just throwing numbers out there. Of course weight to range ratio can be made higher or lower,

I am technician class certified on Tesla vehicles.

A lot of electronics needed to make this work. You will first need to come up with a 12 volt low voltage system. You will need to have both DC and AC sides for the 12 volt trunk. You will then need to come up with a 400 volt (high) system that is isolated from the 12 volt branch entirely. The 400 volt side will need to have an inverter which you have on the right side of the differential for the AC motor which requires 386 volts. Then the battery storage comes into play with enough to supply consistent 100 amps. Then the small stuff like the drive by wire to modulate the amperage to throttle the drive motor.

I think this is a great idea and with a minimalist approach could be done but it would take a lot of work and engineering ingenuity. Battery storage size can be reduced significantly with all the deletes of the bells and whistles that are not needed that would normally fall under a complete T vehicle. Based on what I know the 100 amp requirement should be able to be brought down to 50 amps and still work for 2wd.

On the flip side a small gas powered engine say a V Twin 22 HP (700 cc) industrial motor driving a generator could be used which we still weight less than a battery bank. I would look at turbine powered APU's from jet aircraft. They are pretty compact such as a The Tiernay TT10. 24 volts and 300 amps!!! The sound would be wicked.

You say the small Eng. could put out 300 amps. Even my Lexus RX400H hybrid has massive torque with it Prius like drive in it. Punch it and it lays rubber in the front tires and pulls and pulls.
So if you had no batteries would this still work?
If you run a Prius almost out of gas it goes into a super slow crawl to try to find a gas station. Tesla only with battery tells you to get power. Mable something in-between

Bob B

Hey Jeff, thanks for those images.

I've been reading up on how the chargers interact with vehicles for the last few days.

We have just installed 2 solar powered chargers at work and nobody in our group knows anything about them such as are they AC or DC output and what handshaking protocol is used in case someone wanted to plug in a home built EV into it. (I do now, not a expert just a little more educated on the subject)

This document has some great information which you might already be aware of:
http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/tidub87/tidub87.pdf

While the Tesla would be the ultimate, there are some other crazy cool conversions going on, with my favorite on the DIY EV forum being a Lexus hybrid SUV transaxle into a BMW 3-series sedan. The SUV transaxle has two electric motors inside it, similar to but stronger than the Prius set-up, and can turn the driveshaft without an IC engine on the other end.

The Telsla motor is the perfect layout for the 914
There was a guy trying it, who started over a year ago, in Sacramento I think....
It's here on 914World somewhere....

The now discontinued Chevy Spark had an EV motor that put out 400 ft/lb torque. That would be an awesome junk-yard DIY budget hot-rod.