An electric Alfa Romeo
Brian Sutin ended up with an electric Alfa Romeo spider. Knowing how much fun these cars are and the adoration of their fans, we felt it was interesting who would convert one and drive it.
Here is an interview we had: Brian, what drove you to finding an electric car?
When I moved to Claremont, CA, we had just refinanced and had a false sense of being flush with cash. I was looking for a green hobby. My boss was an electric vehicle, EV nut, so an EV seemed appropriate. Since I have lot of experience with electronics but not with welding, I decided that I would rather find an already converted car, so I could skip the heavier work. I wanted something with at least some elan, and a search through the for-sale ads revealed the red Alfa I ended up with. I was about $2000, give or take.
Once I got the car, I replaced the lead-acid batteries with flooded NiCd Marathon BB600′s, put in a new 144V controller, power breaks, a decent accelerator pedal, low-drag tires, decent charger, and so forth. The car went from a golf cart to something that could go out a play on the freeway. I had never driven an Alfa before, so I don’t know how the handling was with a ton of lead in it, or after my changes, when it was lighter than the original gas car.
At this point the greatest improvement that could be made was to add a intelligent battery-monitor/balancer system. Flooded NiCd’s have the nice quality that they will produce good voltage right up to the moment they get (harmlessly) discharged. This unfortunately means that there is no decent way to figure out how much charge is in the system except by over-charging and then counting amperes and hoping for the best. Since I could come up with no good way to monitor 150-odd 1.5-volt batteries to reasonable cost (at least, nothing that wouldn’t get destroyed by 3000V of static zap), I decided that the project was finished, and sold it off.
Someday I might do another EV and would definitely use a kit car since they are good platforms for such projects.
This is what was used:
- Advanced DC X91-4001 series motor, 6.7″ diameter, 10 HP continuous, 40 HP peak, 72-144 VDC, reversible
- Curtis Instruments PMC #1231C-8601 motor controller 96-144 VDC, 500 A max, with mondo heatsink
- Curtis Instruments FP-6 footpedal and pot box
- 118 Marathon Norco Aerospace 36H120 (BB600) flooded nicad batteries, 40 Ah, for a total pack voltage of 142 VDC
- Manzanita Micro PFC20 Charger
- Zivan NG1-DC AC-DC/DC-DC converter, 108-168 VDC to 13.8 VDC @ 55A 900W continuous
- KTA Services Power Brake System
- Bridgestone Potenza RE92 165/65/R14 Tires — very low rolling resistance
- Kidde Auto 5B-C Fire extinguisher
To read more about this particular project, go to Brian’s page here.
One thing we are happy to recognize from the picture is that this particular Spider is from the early 1980′s when the DOT was strangling foreign competition with pollution regulation. The original Alfa Romeo engine was but a shadow of itself. Good platform to use.
So if you feel the urge to tinker with an oldy and replace its fuely with an electric motor, drop us a comment and we will feature you.
Thanks Brian.