I rechristen thee....

I only had the car for less than a week when it hit me: I just had to have personalized plates! A great way to hint at the transformative power train conversion without resorting to decals ("This car is electric!") or other badges, that would just detract from those beautiful classic lines of the car.

Add about 150 volts, actually 

So... why "9-VOLT"? Well, the '9' is short for '911', and I guess the 'VOLT' part is pretty obvious, what with this [eventually] being an electric car and all. I remember as a kid, playing with toys that had 9 volt transistor batteries, and to test the level of an old battery found in a drawer I knew I was good to go if I touched the (+) and (-) terminals with my tongue and got a decent ZING. That same feeling is a very close approximation of what it's like to pull through a tight "S" turn in this car. Damned close.

New home. New family.

I must admit that the day I picked up the car was one of the most exciting days I've ever experienced.  It's definitely up there in my top five.  I remember feeling so nervous, yet so thrilled and amazed that it was finally happening.

Pinch me, I'm dreamin'!

 
I knew ahead of time, though, that I sure didn't want this beautiful classic 911 parked outside in the driveway.

Nope.  She deserves a roof over her head.

We have a three-car garage, but over the years that third bay started to collect all sorts of tools, gardening equipment, and other debris.  So it was time to roll up the sleeves and get to work.

This isn't even CLOSE to the "Before" picture

Sweepin' out a space

Finally, home sweet home

Of course, I wasn't the only one that was excited about the new family addition...

My beautiful, smart and totally supportive-in-this-endeavor wife

Teddy and his new mobile den

It's actually a great fit back there for ol' Teddy.  Mom has a great seat, too

Of course, we need to do a lot of "road testing" (*ahem*) prior to the actual conversion...

What's that tugging on my seat-belt?

Two happy guys

Rockin' Roller

It took me the better part of a year (from July '12 to May '13) to find my ultimate EV conversion candidate, but here she is -- a 1989 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe...

Gotta love that classic profile

Paint is in near perfect condition

Tires are in great shape

I'm a big fan of the "Whale Tail"

 

Nice clean interior, especially for a 25 year old car

Love those curves

Can't really mistake this in your rear view mirror

Looks like it's fast even when it is standing still

The soon-to-be-liberated 3.2L

Next... getting to her new home, and some of the happy new drivers and passengers.

So... it begins (finally)

Let me tell you a little bit about me, what is going on here, a little bit of history, and what I hope to accomplish with this project and this blog.  I hope you enjoy it and welcome any feedback, questions, and suggestions.

My lovely (and very supportive of me in this crazy endeavour) wife, 12 year old Rottweiler cross "Teddy" and I currently live in North Vancouver, BC, Canada and I have always lived within about a 25 mile radius from here for about 50 years, and then some.  Not far from home, I own a small company in the systems software business, and from my office I could watch the Olympic flame burning away in downtown Vancouver for the 2010 Olympic Games, and could also hear downtown Vancouver's "Oh Canada" air horns go off whenever "our team" won the gold (which was actually quite often).  I love this town.

It's interesting how I stumbled across the idea to do this project.  Two seemingly unrelated viewing events converged:

1) I watched "Who Killed the Electric Car" when it came out several years ago, back in the mid 2000's.  I was completely impressed and amazed at how viable electric vehicles were, and the many benefits that they offered. I was impressed at how efficient they were, how they ran cleanly and quietly, and the film's message stayed with me for years.

2) I watched "A Car is Born" about 2 years ago now.  I'm not sure if any of you out there are familiar with it, but an employee of mine who was originally from the UK recommended I watched the series, and I was completely hooked.  Here's some countryside veterinarian who could barely change his own oil, using the most beat up and basic hand tools, creating this beautiful AC Cobra in his small shack of a garage.  The end result was nothing short of amazing.

After viewing the latter, I decided that "If he can do it..." and that it would be a great way to use that third bay of our garage, currently filled up with a clutter of tools, compressors, gardening equipment, and other various junk.  I then began my research, Googling about Cobra kit cars, and I somehow stumbled upon this "eCobra" and couple guys in a poorly produced video series talking about how they were attempting to power it with an electric motor and lithium batteries, etc.  

Brian Noto from EVTV, dyno-ing the eCobra

It completely blew my mind.  The twain met.  Electric cars + Electric sports car. Actually cars, plural, after also seeing the bevy of Porsche Speedsters that the pair had also converted. Wow.  My potential pet project just became an obsessive mission.

A mission indeed. I pored over every EVTV blog entry, watched every video, read entry after entry on DIYElectricCar forum, and had bought a quite few books on the subject.  I was soaking up information like a sponge, and while there was a lot of information out there, it was clear that this was a field in its infancy.  A field that seemed to suddenly become a real-world practical option due to the fact that lithium ion batteries that would work in an electric vehicle were finally becoming a reality, in size, availability, performance, and reliability.

I then started thinking about the best "roller" (i.e. electric conversion candidate vehicle), and then that became yet another obsession.  After weighing everything, needs (light weight, easy to work on, seats wife + dog) vs wants (classic, sporty, mid-life-crisis mobile), I decided on a late 80's Porsche 911.

One from 1987-1989 to be exact, to get the strong Getrag G50 transmission that was available in those model years, and still be in that "Classic 911" lineage.   I thought it was very important to have the strongest transmission available, since the torque on these electric motors are incredible.  I don't want to lose anybody here, but for electric motors, maximum torque is at 0 RPM and holds there roughly out to 4000-5000 RPM (or more) before it starts to drop off, unlike gas engines where the torque ramps up in near linear fashion from 0 ft-lbs of torque at 0 RPM, up to maximum torque out at 5000-6000 RPM, give or take.

So… while the header of this blog serves as a nice spoiler, you can imagine where I ended up.  More on my "roller" next time.

In the meantime, let the fun begin!  I'm pumped.