EV project - 1975 Spitfire

Drphilwv

10 µW
Joined
Jun 8, 2022
Messages
5
Ok
Well, here’s the project. 1975 Triumph Spitfire with absent drivetrain. Was going to be a Ford 2.3T conversion but decided this might be a cool EV conversion. Anyway it’s behind my first planned project: EV Honda Dream. Going to sort out how it all works with smaller projects while I restore the body and chassis of the triumph. Anyway hello folks. Any help appreciated.
Doc Phil

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/u133/wvcruffler/3DEDB947-95F7-47B4-9E8C-E3326415EAAF.jpeg

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/u133/wvcruffler/11CF6EA6-06BE-4FD3-B693-8ACD5BDC16C9.jpeg

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/u133/wvcruffler/762D3C54-AF80-4295-A689-112C7FB1ED2C.jpeg
 
If you have enough volts/amps plus a motor that is big enough to handle high amps, then a transmission is un-necessary.

That being said, if you desire to keep the gears (4-speed?) Then a Zero motorcycle drivetrain might work, since this car is very light.

Be aware it takes 28S / 102V nominal to operate, and at full charge, 4.2V x 28 = 117V
 
I do not plan to use any of the original drivetrain if it can be avoided. Don’t know if anyone has used the axle/motor assemblies from greenmotortech dot com (China). I’m getting some infor from them. Would be a fairly simple swap out. My experience with direct shipping from China has been OK so far with different things (the biggest being a portable sawmill and trailer). But the leaf and other stateside EV options are a possibility. My next 12 months will be reading and sorting out the Honda Dream EV project first.

Phil
 
I think one of those old spitfires would make an excellent EV. Keep the batteries low and balanced front to rear and you'll end up with a road gobbling monster. :bolt: :bolt: :bolt:

If you spend your time wisely when researching which motor\controller to use maybe you can take the power direct from motor to the original differential. But you'll most likely need some kind of mechanical overdrive to achieve freeway speeds.
 
nicobie said:
maybe you can take the power direct from motor to the original differential. But you'll most likely need some kind of mechanical overdrive to achieve freeway speeds.
Why ?, all you need is a motor that can turn 5k rpm direct to the diff and you can match the original ICE speeds(100+ mph)
 
I built an electric GT6.

This Spitfire will be a 240 Wh/mile EV if you keep the body stock and the weight below the GVWR value. Do not exceed GVWR, or rolling resistance will greatly increase due to the added weight adversely effecting the alignment/suspension. After stripping the Spitfire down to a glider, you could easily fit 700 lbs of EV parts without exceeding GVWR on a Spitfire. My GT6 could fit even more weight.

Stock, your Spitfire has a drag coefficient of 0.42 and a frontal area of 15.2 sq ft. This is better overall drag than most modern EVs, plus it's a much lighter chassis too. The drag coefficient is not good, but the frontal area is so low it more than makes up for it.

Because of its low frontal area, I recommend you make a custom aerodynamic hard top. You could double its efficiency with aeromods. Reverend Gadget's GT6-bodied Spitfire cruises 60 mph on flat ground @ 100 Wh/mile. It has Kumo low rolling resistance tires, a GT6 MkIII body over the Spitfire chassis, a full belly pan, partial grill block, and a rear wing designed not to add downforce but to act as a sort of vortex generator to lessen the rear turbulence generated by the GT6 bodies' rear slope being less than ideal. And it used a crappy ADC 6.7" motor, not nearly as efficient as modern EV drive systems, and is getting HALF the consumption of a Tesla Model S. This 180V conversion used a 1000A Zilla controller, and could do 0-60 mph in 6 seconds and top out at 120 mph.

Depending upon the condition of the body, especially the floorboards, you could have a lot of welding ahead of you. These cars are highly rust-prone. And it won't be a reliable car either, unless you change out most of its mechanical components to those from newer vehicles(especially the differential) and install a GM wiring harness(or similar). Vintage British car enthusiasts call Lucas "The Prince of Darkness" for a reason.

Good luck with this project. There's a lot of potential there.
 
The Toecutter said:
I built an electric GT6.

This Spitfire will be a 240 Wh/mile EV if you keep the body stock and the weight below the GVWR value. Do not exceed GVWR, or rolling resistance will greatly increase due to the added weight adversely effecting the alignment/suspension. After stripping the Spitfire down to a glider, you could easily fit 700 lbs of EV parts without exceeding GVWR on a Spitfire. My GT6 could fit even more weight.

Stock, your Spitfire has a drag coefficient of 0.42 and a frontal area of 15.2 sq ft. This is better overall drag than most modern EVs, plus it's a much lighter chassis too. The drag coefficient is not good, but the frontal area is so low it more than makes up for it.

Because of its low frontal area, I recommend you make a custom aerodynamic hard top. You could double its efficiency with aeromods. Reverend Gadget's GT6-bodied Spitfire cruises 60 mph on flat ground @ 100 Wh/mile. It has Kumo low rolling resistance tires, a GT6 MkIII body over the Spitfire chassis, a full belly pan, partial grill block, and a rear wing designed not to add downforce but to act as a sort of vortex generator to lessen the rear turbulence generated by the GT6 bodies' rear slope being less than ideal. And it used a crappy ADC 6.7" motor, not nearly as efficient as modern EV drive systems, and is getting HALF the consumption of a Tesla Model S. This 180V conversion used a 1000A Zilla controller, and could do 0-60 mph in 6 seconds and top out at 120 mph.

Depending upon the condition of the body, especially the floorboards, you could have a lot of welding ahead of you. These cars are highly rust-prone. And it won't be a reliable car either, unless you change out most of its mechanical components to those from newer vehicles(especially the differential) and install a GM wiring harness(or similar). Vintage British car enthusiasts call Lucas "The Prince of Darkness" for a reason.

Good luck with this project. There's a lot of potential there.
So - I’m considering using a Leaf front drive unit as a mid-engine drive in place of the rear diff of the Spit. The body and frame are very good - no holes at all. I am going to do a body off resto prior to EV. At least part of the battery will be under the bonnet. This is going to be a car show car so range isn’t super important to be honest. Hoping for 30mi range to keep the battery weight low. The body/frame job may include improved master cylinder and brakes. Not sure how the rotoflex in the rear and a leaf drive will play together until I get them side by side. The charger and inverter will probably be removed from the drive and mounted in the boot.

Anyway, don’t know if I even posted pics here but I have the GT6 bonnet on right now but I have the original spitfire one that has an 8” hole in it that used to have an air cleaner sticking out of it at one time. I may try to fix this as part of my “learn on the fly welder and body work”.

Wish me luck.


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Drphilwv said:
So - I’m considering using a Leaf front drive unit as a mid-engine drive in place of the rear diff of the Spit. The body and frame are very good - no holes at all. I am going to do a body off resto prior to EV. At least part of the battery will be under the bonnet. This is going to be a car show car so range isn’t super important to be honest. Hoping for 30mi range to keep the battery weight low. The body/frame job may include improved master cylinder and brakes. Not sure how the rotoflex in the rear and a leaf drive will play together until I get them side by side. The charger and inverter will probably be removed from the drive and mounted in the boot.

The inverter on the Leaf drive unit is basically integrated into the motor itself to cut down on transmission losses; you can totally separate them, but they share coolant and frankly, you might easily get away with canting the motor backwards/forwards instead. It's got liquid pumps and stuff integrated into it too.

Are you intending to attach the output of the motor to the rear diff? Or replace the rear diff entirely?
 
Replace the diff totally. Either graft the Spit axles into the leaf axles or have custom ones made. Could just leave the leaf stack complete and open up the body to fit it. I haven’t had the body off the frame yet so not sure where this is going up into the body itself. Lots of stuff to work out. Been watching the close leaf iaai and copart auctions and have located 4 of them in east coast yards that could be pulled. Will bench the motor first to get controller, battery management, and charging sorted prior to fitting it into the car. Also have a Bradley GT that I could EV but I’m a little obsessed with the spit project.

Phil
 
Drphilwv said:
Replace the diff totally. Either graft the Spit axles into the leaf axles or have custom ones made. Could just leave the leaf stack complete and open up the body to fit it. I haven’t had the body off the frame yet so not sure where this is going up into the body itself. Lots of stuff to work out. Been watching the close leaf iaai and copart auctions and have located 4 of them in east coast yards that could be pulled. Will bench the motor first to get controller, battery management, and charging sorted prior to fitting it into the car. Also have a Bradley GT that I could EV but I’m a little obsessed with the spit project.

Phil
You might as well grab one that still has intact parts; I know the Leaf's stock controller can be hacked via a Lebowski brain and it's running ~2010 OBD II tech, so it's actually not very complicated at all versus modern cars with lane assist stuff. The charger... I'm not sure to be frank, might wanna search the DIY Electric Car forum to see if it can be modified or if you should wait until you begin statting out the battery pack to decide. Either way, you'll want a J1772 instead of that ChaDEMO plug.
 
Sounds awesome I'll be following along. I'm going to be doing something similar in 72 MGB. The problem I'm running into right now in my planning phase is the cost of pretty degraded leaf battery packs is too high currently. The Leaf pack has the BMS that will work with the leaf charger/inverter when coupled with a resolve vcu (also currently not in stock). The other vcu you can use is from thunderstruck but I'm not sure about a BMS solution for that one.
 
DansEVhobby said:
Sounds awesome I'll be following along. I'm going to be doing something similar in 72 MGB. The problem I'm running into right now in my planning phase is the cost of pretty degraded leaf battery packs is too high currently. The Leaf pack has the BMS that will work with the leaf charger/inverter when coupled with a resolve vcu (also currently not in stock). The other vcu you can use is from thunderstruck but I'm not sure about a BMS solution for that one.
The upside for me is I’m on a 2 year timeline. The body is coming off the frame for a strip down and repaint. Going to convert as much as I can to LED but try to keep housings original. Then there is the sourcing of the leaf donor at either auction or from a wrecker yard. So it’s going to be a bit. My work schedule is nice because I work 7 on, 7 off and now my kids have gone off to college so increased hobby time.


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Lovely car. Saw a few with engine swaps on shows already.

I'd go OEM. Get a rear differential off a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV from a scrap yard, together with the matching rear inverter, wires, rear axles and maybe heater and charger. Relatively easy to control them with CAN bus signals. https://openinverter.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Outlander_Rear_Drive_Unit

You might even start with the 10-13kWh battery pack, they aren't the most energy dense, though.

Fabrication is then limited to the rear subframe (https://www.ebay.com/itm/291779148718 for anyone who wants a picture) and matching the axles up. Not sure if the space is sufficient or the boot floor might need modification. Original axles look tiny :)

60-70kW in stock form is plenty. Going up to 96S gives you even more.

Tom Cheesewright interviewed a guy who basically shoehorned all that in a a classic Mini. Can't post YT links atm.
You'd have even more space under the bonnet (English car after all :)) for batteries.
 
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