My First Street Legal Electric Car
VW Electric Conversion Project
I consider this to be my first "real" electric car. It was, by definition, still a conversion, since it was built on an unmodified VW chassis. It had a custom built plywood body, that purposely left the motor exposed. I was proud of the car and how it was different!
Certainly, it was unique and distinctive. At one point it caught the attention of a local newspaper reporter. She copied down my tag number, contacted the police, and called. A couple of weeks later, the Maryville-Alcoa Times published a very nice article about the car.
Some say that the little electric looked somewhat like the "VW Thing". Perhaps it did, but that was not my intention.
And of course, no sports car would be complete without an 8 track stereo, clearly visible in the center of the dashboard. Also visible is the volt meter just to the right of the steering wheel and the amp meter on the left side of the wheel.
As I said, I was proud of the fact that this car was powered by batteries and an electric motor. This was a very large and heavy motor and weighted about 150 pounds!
Lifting the rear deck allowed easy access to the battery pack; composed of eight, six volt, golf cart batteries. They were connected in series and provided 48 volts to the motor. The speed of the motor was controlled by using resistance coils.
