The Valiant Electric

The Coffee Car

2011-09-27T11:14:00.000-07:00

Maybe an electric powered car is not the most green thing to be aiming for; what about a coffee-powered car? Read here about the success of a British coffee car (I wonder if they tried with tea first?) and here's the site of the coffee car itself. Note that the vehicle is powered with USED coffee, so it's recycling as well! And, they've used a car that has a straight 6 cylinder engine - the same as Lucy ... definitely worth looking into!

2010-12-24T07:43:00.001-08:00

long time no post; that's because the valiant is resting in storage in carterton, having done a 6-month stint in the museum in nz; & i'm resting in snowy munich. i noticed recently that the UK is finally starting to wake up to the idea of electric cars. great!

fuel consumption

2010-06-21T06:05:00.000-07:00

i have worked out that the valiant does 8.6km to the litre; i calculated this by filling the tank then driving from wellington to ashburton (487 km or 303 miles) then filling again - it took 56.5 litres. it's quite difficult finding information on the web about average fuel consumption, but from what i can glean it would seem that 8.6km to the litre is actually pretty good. (& of course while she's tucked up at gasoline heaven, she's not using much at all.)

lucy goes round the clock

2010-04-03T13:01:00.000-07:00

during march, andy & i did a south island road trip in lucy; we took the ferry from wellington to picton on sunday 14 march, and drove to kaikoura (where we hoped to see whales, but the trip was cancelled because the whales weren't around). the next day we drove to christchurch, and the day after that to dunedin. after a few days there visiting family & friends, we headed for karamea - at the top of the west coast. we made this trip in one day, going via arthur's pass. we left dunedin just before 7.30am & arrived in karamea around 8pm. a few days later we drove from karamea to portage in keneperu sound - another long drive - & the day after that a shorter drive through to picton to get the ferry back to wellington.

lucy did all of this driving without missing a beat; much of it was on the narrow windy roads typical of new zealand's geography - lots of one-lane bridges and a few steep inclines as well. particularly challenging for my upper arm muscles (lucy is definitely pre-power steering!) were the karamea bluff, the buller gorge and the road out along keneperu sound (we were in second gear for most of that one). the only problem we had was when we came down the karamea bluff in the gathering dusk and i went to dip my headlights for an approaching car - the headlights went off completely. for several days they would only work on either full beam or park. i knew we'd be arriving back in wellington in the dark & thought we'd have to drive from the ferry to karori with park lights only, but, miraculously, when we drove off the ferry the normal headlights worked again : ) (but the horn seems to have stopped working ... )

on the second last day of this road trip, at about 5 past 4 in the afternoon and just west of nelson, lucy's odometer went round the clock for the first time. we documented this momentous occasion and had a bit of a celebration. it was pretty exciting to watch the numbers roll over from 999999 to 000000 ... like a rebirth!

then, just over a week ago, i drove lucy to carterton and left her in the capable care of bob & georgie at the gasoline heaven car museum. i am going overseas for a while, don't know how long, so lucy is going to have a holiday at the museum. so if you're passing through carterton, look out for gasoline heaven (on the right just as you leave carterton heading north) & pop in to visit lucy.

alternative to heavy batteries?

2010-02-08T16:41:00.000-08:00

Car Bodies Could Store Energy Like Batteries: http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/02/08/car-bodies-store-energy/

"As battery manufacturers race to produce more efficient lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, some scientists are looking to make the cars themselves a power source. Researchers are currently developing a new material that can store and release electrical energy like a battery. Once perfected, scientists hope the substance will replace standard car bodies, making vehicles up to 15 percent lighter and significantly extending the range of electric vehicles."

Tumanako

2010-01-13T13:10:00.000-08:00

Just found this: "The Tumanako Project is an Open Source development effort to produce Open Source hardware and software to drive and recharge electric vehicles. Tu manako is Māori for hope & togetherness."

Tumanako on Sourceforge
Tumanako project blog

i haven't got time to look at it all in depth now (i'm in proposal-writing & deadline mode) but it's exciting to know that there is a local & open source initiative like this happening here in aotearoa : )

there is a talk about it at the linux conference on wednesday 20th, but i'm not sure if i can make it ...

2009-12-05T23:41:00.000-08:00

i was heartened to read in the capital times this week that the wellington city council is planning to support the introduction of electric cars in the city. the article refers to a finish electric car conversion organisation, & after some googling i've found e-Cars - Now! which describes itself as "an open community devoted to develop high quality electric car conversions available for EVeryone." nice : )

roaring back to life

2009-11-22T14:51:00.000-08:00

i got back from my 6 months overseas on friday, & on saturday i opened up the var. this took a while, as i'd put her up on blocks & very securely wrapped her up with a cover & a tarpaulin (because the end of her sticks out of the garage door). i'd had the solar panel putting a trickle charge into the battery, so i was hopeful that she'd start up immediately - but she didn't : ( the neighbours lent me a battery charger & i tried that, but even still she wouldn't start. i knew it was something simple, because the first turn of the key put on the dash lights, so power was getting thru, but when i tried the ignition, it all died.

because i'd put the car in frontwards, it was impossible to open the bonnet more than about a foot, & really difficult to see what was going on inside. so i gave up & this morning called the AA. once the car was out of the garage, he immediately saw that the battery connections needed cleaning, which took about a minute. then i tried the ignition again ... and she roared into life : )

tomorrow she'll get the warrant of fitness, & then i can reregister her, & we'll be back on the road : )

incentive to go electric

2009-07-01T02:43:00.001-07:00

Recently the NZ government announced that electric cars will be exempt from road user charges, in a move to encourage more people to switch to electric powered vehicles. it's effective from october this year & will be reviewed in four years. it's good that this government is doing at least one positive thing, altho the transport minister's rationale for it - that there are very few electric vehicles in nz so the revenue loss will be insignificant - is indicative of their short-sightedness. the motivation for this move is to increase the electric fleet, therefore if it's successful the loss of revenue will be significant ... perhaps that's why they're slashing jobs in the public service now?

road user charges in nz are not too massive, i think for an ordinary car these days it's about NZ$280. if your car is over 40 years old, like mine, then it's only about $80 a year (in australia it's a lot more, because it includes compulsory third party insurance). uvbt it's still some encouragement for the average car user to consider going electric.

tucking her up

2009-05-16T05:20:00.000-07:00

i have been mostly focused on body work over the last few months; i had some rust removed - the worst bit being on the left-hand pillar behind the passenger seat, which was starting to look pretty ugly, and at the bottom of that door & round the wheel arch. that's all been done now, & so i turned my attention to the floor. lifting up the rubber at the front was scary because i know it leaks into the passenger side - & sure enough, there was quite a bit of rust there. also in the spare tyre well in the boot. so i've applied blackguard to those areas & hopefully that will at least slow it down.

& now i'm off to europe for 6 months so she will be garaged again. the solar panel for the battery worked really well last time, which was 5 months, so i'll put that on again. this time i'm also planning to put her on blocks, to relieve the pressure on the tyres sitting in one spot for 6 months.

& no progress at all with electrification. too much else going on!

2008-12-15T22:20:00.000-08:00

i just read in the AA magazine about rex nowland, in nelson, who has converted his 1971 VW beetle to be totally electric. surfing for rex also led me to the DIY electric car site - american of course but looks like lots of useful information & local links as well. rex's conversion cost him over US$11,000 - is not that much more than gav's which came in at just over US$9000. apparently rex's beetle's batteries, which cost around $3000, have a life of 3-5 years - that's quite a big cost every few years. maybe not if you're spending a lot on maintenance of a combustion engine, but the valiant costs me so little to keep on the road that the idea of having to put aside a grand every year towards batteries seems like a lot. anyway, right now i have NO money at all towards it - i'd put aside some to get the rust fixed, but that's all been swallowed up by a rot problem in my house.

first make sure the house won't fall down, then make sure the car won't fall apart, THEN think about converting her to electric (& somewhere in there i'd like to buy a scooter ... )

the valiant rocks

2008-08-11T19:22:00.001-07:00

yesterday i came home after four & a half months overseas. i'd left lucy the valiant tucked up in the garage, under her silver blanket, and with the battery hooked up to a little solar panel that i left in the window of the garage. despite wellington having extremely bad weather during the last couple of months and lots of rain (i.e. very little actual sunshine) the solar panel has done the trick and this morning the car roared into life on the first try : ) i've just gone out to put petrol in the tank and air in the tyres, and it's almost as if i drove her yesterday. tomorrow she goes in for some mechanical loving - a service and lube and whatever she needs for her warrant of fitness, which expired some time ago.

while away, i'd been thinking about the rust which needs to be attended to - the left side is the worst, with spots appearing at the bottom of the rear passenger door, around the rear wheel arch and the rear column which i know is a tricky and crucial place to repair. from a distance (and hearing about the general wetness of wellington) i'd been imagining the rust running rampant, erupting orange through her smooth grey flanks. but today i'm happy to say that it's not as bad as i expected. the boot is starting to bubble a bit so i'll need to look at getting all of it done pretty soon, but generally she looks grand.

for a 44 year old car that's been sitting unused for four and a half months, she's fantastic! : )

2008-02-04T21:27:00.000-08:00

Today I visited the Southward Car Museum; this is a fantastic collection of cars and various other bits & pieces, including some of the NZ's earliest wheeled conveyances and also some special pieces such as a car once owned by Marlene Dietrich, and another that belonged to a gangster (friend of Al Capone), complete with bullet holes. There are a couple of 1970s Valiants - but not one like this one!

The museum is in stark contrast to the old car museum in Havana, perhaps partly because most of Havana's old cars are still on the road but also in terms of restoration, lighting and display. There are about 30 exhibits in the dimly lit space, mostly visible from the street but I wanted to contribute my two convertible pesos - apparently a new improved museum is in the (very long) pipeline.

Traffic fleets of the world #1 - Cuba

2008-02-01T00:03:00.000-08:00

The traffic in Cuba is really great - you can see almost anything on the road, from horse-drawn vehicles, coco-taxis and motorbikes with sidecars to truck buses, tourist buses and late model cars; and yes, there are lots of classic cars. One of the highlights of my trip was a ride in a 1959 Chevrolet Impala. As for the environment, well, I really couldn't comment! But the Solar Taxi, which hails from Switzerland, has recently visited Wellington ... a purpose built solar car driving around the world with no petrol. If he can do it ...

Back to this other life

2007-12-09T19:44:00.000-08:00

I arrived back in Wellington at the weekend, having been away for four & a half months this time. Before I left, I took the battery lead off and covered the Valiant with her silver blanket. Yesterday I uncovered her, put the battery lead back on, & turned on the key ... but no knocking noise from the electric petrol pump told me the battery was flat. With the help of Lilicherie's car, she started easily, however the battery (now 5 years old) was really really dead & as soon as I stopped it there was nothing again. So this morning I called the AA who confirmed that the battery is on its way out. After a charge from the AA & a drive around the beautiful southern bays (unfortunately too overcast to see the Kaikouras looming out of the South Island) there is now enough charge to start her.

I called by my mechanics, the great guys at Newtown Auto Electrical, to book her in for her warrant of fitness & a new battery, and asked them what they thought of my electrifying project. Not surprisingly, Glenn and Rob were horrified. They've worked lovingly on this vehicle for many years now so the idea of tampering with such a classic beauty is sacreligious, scandalous and downright silly, in their eyes. Glenn assured me that it's possible to run a combustion engine on fuels other than petrol, such as water, for example. So I've challenged him to find out how I can do that. He's concerned that anyone who knows how to do it, mysteriously disappears off the face of the earth. Perhaps it will have to be a Secret Project.

Another Kiwi Converter

2007-11-25T22:48:00.000-08:00

My co-conspirator in this project, Peter, has sent me the link of another kiwi converter, Gavin; Gavin's a lot further ahead than me - in fact, he's almost on the road - and his site is a treasure trove of useful information. Thanks, Gavin! It makes the whole idea seem much more doable, knowing that there's someone else out there who's already done it. It's daunting to see how much it's cost, but also good to be prepared; donations are welcome!

Gavin imported his motor (and various other bits) from the USA; I wonder whether there is a manufacturer in New Zealand who is considering building electric vehicle motors?

The Valiant

2007-11-23T18:50:00.000-08:00

In 1993, I bought a 1964 AP5 Chrysler Valiant for NZ$1200. It was rust free, mechanically sound, and I was to be the fourth owner. The seller had used it to tow his boat, but he'd had to sell the boat to pay for his daughter's wedding, so now he had no use for the car.

Fourteen years later, I still own Lucy the Valiant, and in that time we've shared numerous road trips that have taken us just about all over the country. We've had some mishaps but we've never been stranded and often the mishaps have led to more adventures. When I've been overseas, she's sat patiently in the garage under her blanket for months, ready to roar into life the first time I start her on my return. I've had her engine reconditioned and over the years replaced whatever needed replacing, removed rust as it's appeared and given her a fresh coat of paint.

She's a stylish and reliable vehicle and to drive her is a real pleasure - but she's also a fossil-fuel-consuming pollution-emitting dinosaur. As the negative consequences of our dependency on oil have become impossible to ignore, owning and driving this beautiful machine is increasingly problematic. But I'm not ready to let her go.

Hence this project: The Valiant Electric. I'm going to transform her into an electric powered vehicle. I know it won't be easy - she's no lightweight - and it probably won't be cheap. But when the average life of a modern car is only 5 years and mine's done 43 and still going strong, it makes sense to keep her on the road.