Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

I'm still deciding what I want to do with my '68 1600 project car. Has anyone done an EV conversion? Ford is offering this beast that has piqued my interest:

https://www.fordracingbyspeedshopdirect ... -MACHE.htm

A question, in general, about ev resto-mods. Do any of them incorporate regenerative braking?

racsys wrote: Tue Nov 02, 2021 4:04 pm I'm still deciding what I want to do with my '68 1600 project car. Has anyone done an EV conversion? Ford is offering this beast that has piqued my interest:

https://www.fordracingbyspeedshopdirect ... -MACHE.htm

And the huge battery pack goes where?, and what about the trans axle and the various other electronics to control and get the power to the wheels? I guess if there is a will there is a way, but why?

Haven’t seen one before - You’d probably be the first here to do it. However, bigger cost question is: What do you plan to run it on? The cost of that engine is peanuts compared to any quality battery pack … unless you are only looking for something with a 25(ish) mile range. Add in the cost of the extensive customization required and you’re looking at some serious time & coin - Not undoable for sure, but it would really need to be planned out it great detail before going on a shopping spree.

If you do the EV conversion, please post the project details, progress photos and give lots of updates … I think a lot here would follow the build.

Closest I’ve seen so far on YouTube is a company out of the UK doing Miata kits. He demonstrated the prototype and the review was pretty good.


The review I saw mentioned great adherence to the original weight and balance…. Range for me and probably most North Americans is still a bit low
RP
Found the review

2Check Plasma Boy Racing. The White Zombie is a Datsun 1200 EV that routinely destroys muscle cars, Vettes and so on.
No trans, Ford diff, motor is in the front, batteries in the back. Nicely done nut nothing radical.
I talked to the owner a few years ago about something similar on one of our roadsters. He thought it would be pretty easy because the 1200 is similar to the roadsters.
Have you seen a modern battery pack? Not a 5 year old pack ut a modern one. They are getting smaller and more powerful all the time.
Lots to think about, for example, you'd be moving about half the weight so if the same performance is desired, the Mach E pack should yield better range.
, especially since there's not as much accessory load
I'd bet Spriso could do a hell of a job on an EV roafster.
Dan

Id bet no company will REALLY insure it
Theres a new Chinese pick up elect truck on youtube $2000. It's interest ing and funny

I think it's a cool idea and would love to follow you. I thought there are companies (maybe even the Ford version) designed to "drop in" as replacements for the purpose of conversions from ICE to EV. I think it's probably pretty doable.

This comes up 2-3 times a year.
The only EV Datsun roadster I've seen is this one:




http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/save-th ... -sr311-ev/



I just got back from SEMA and there are TONS of EV converted classic sports cars from Jags to 914s. ANYTHING is possible!

Alvin wrote: Wed Nov 03, 2021 4:35 am This comes up 2-3 times a year.
The only EV Datsun roadster I've seen is this one:

Very cool! Haven’t seen that before. There is a lot of $$$ sunk into that one!

DAC21 wrote: Tue Nov 02, 2021 5:43 pm

racsys wrote: Tue Nov 02, 2021 4:04 pm I'm still deciding what I want to do with my '68 1600 project car. Has anyone done an EV conversion? Ford is offering this beast that has piqued my interest:

https://www.fordracingbyspeedshopdirect ... -MACHE.htm

And the huge battery pack goes where?, and what about the trans axle and the various other electronics to control and get the power to the wheels? I guess if there is a will there is a way, but why?

Because I can (well, maybe). And because 281 HP.

And thanks all for the replies. I'm sure this would be more expensive and involved than an ICE project. The batteries would be heavy, no doubt, and would probably go in the trunk and gas tank space. Lots of good reasons not to do it, but if I wanted to save time and money I would not have bought a 50 year old project car .

That said, I think the best thing to do is wait until Ford comes out with a complete kit that includes a controller and anything else needed. I don't see myself successfully navigating all the high tech bits, but I sure can bolt stuff in.

My engine is in need of a rebuilt anyway, so I have been thinking about going EV lately. The Nissan Leaf system seems to be the most plentiful (and cost efficient) from crashed cars. It seems the way to go would be to utilize the existing roadster transmission and mate it to the electric motor. I found the CAD model of Leaf on a2mac1 and the ev stack is a bit tall but very close to the roadster engines size wise - I’m still trying to figure out exactly how it would slide in. As for the batteries there are 24 modules roughly the size of cereal boxes that weight about 19 lbs each to deal with. From 2018 the leaf has the option of a larger 214 hp motor which would be the minimum power acceptable due to the increased weight. Packaging aside the challenge of course is to get everything electric communicating!

Crazy that we can even consider converting to an electric engine!

With all that battery power, is roadster hopping in SoCal next?

Is that a mega-usb connector going into that Roadster?