Electric Lotus Elan Conversion. Polarizing? Yep...

As the first line of the ad sez: "This is bound to be polarizing." No doubt. Why in the world would you take a 45k plus classic car and berkeley it up with a conversion that is a less effective car than you would get by selling it as a true classic car and buying an eGolf? Obviously someone didn't take the time to think this through.

Oh and they don't have the original twin-cam engine...

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/d/1972-lotus-elan-s4-sprint/6764597389.html

Excuse me while I go have a good cry in the back...

Well, I don't know about hating it.. at least they didn't go with some chumpy forklift motor and lead acid batteries. 100 mile range is incredible for a retrofit car. But the "high attention to detail" claim is a little hard to swallow when I see a bunch of underhood batteries held down with one cinch strap and one just sort of laying there on its side. Also couple with all the completely unprotected terminals, front and rear, and I think the "emergency shut off" is sort of useless.

I always say "it's your car, do what you want with it" but I agree. You took a car that is centered on one thing, lightness. You went in the opposite direction. The car has been altered in the wrong direction. 

Worst possible choice for electric conversion, the Elan's structure is just adequate for its original weight. And I like the idea of electric conversion when the result is functionally sound, such as the EVSR electric spec racer.

I'd drive the E36 M3 out of that. And at 12.5, seems like a heck of a deal for an elan even if you want to swap back to ice.

Heck, at 12.5 I'm quite tempted...

I don't hate it, but the installation isn't as clean as I'd have liked to see. It looks like it was done at home which is going to hurt selling it.

Los Gatos is a strange and rich town. There is a Lamborghini dealer there. I can see how this happened.

I want to find a field with a ww2-era Willys in it so i can drag it out and EV it. I still have a 50hp DC brushless motor and controller i pulled out of an old converted Mirage i picked up for $900. I have never done anything with it.. 

To be honest if I wasn’t a total zombie right now I’d seriously consider buying that and having it shipped to me. I think it’s a possible money maker with some work or at least a fun commuter for a while. Probably dangerous as heck though. 

Does it have enough brakes to stop all that extra weight?

Look at it this way - a one owner survivor Elan missing its drivetrain with some questionable interior mods and a LiIon based $42k electric car conversion kit from 5 years ago. $12k seems pretty dang cheap for that, to me. I wonder how much it would cost to restore the Elan? I bet you could at the least have a free high performance 100 mile electric car kit out of the deal. OR just have a super cool commuter until something expensive breaks and sell it as-is for the same price.

Too late. Sold...

What's it like to not have a soul?

I hope you put the motor you pulled out in a Cortina

I have thought of dropping an EV conversion into an X1/9

Not too keen on this trend myself:

https://www.conceptcarz.com/a29568/aston-martin-ev-powertrain-concept.aspx

mad_machine said:

I have thought of dropping an EV conversion into an X1/9

I was thinking that or a DIY hybrid with an electric motor, batteries and a 3-cyl Metro drivetrain.

Then again, Prius stuff is more available now, so that might be a better option.

For an in-town runabout, either would be fun enough to drive.

Stefan said:

mad_machine said:

I have thought of dropping an EV conversion into an X1/9

I was thinking that or a DIY hybrid with an electric motor, batteries and a 3-cyl Metro drivetrain.

Then again, Prius stuff is more available now, so that might be a better option.

For an in-town runabout, either would be fun enough to drive.

Best DIY hybrid I think is twin powertrain. Electric up front and gas out back or vice versa. Run together or completely on one or the other. Best cars to start with are the FWD/AWD cars. Basically you just have to put the FWD gas engine in and then bolt an electric motor to the rear diff. 

Would be super fun in an early rav4/crv.

Basically you just have to put the FWD gas engine in and then bolt an electric motor to the rear diff.

I had plans to use my hardware to do something like this by hooking my 50hp motor through a Suzuki Samurai transfer case to the AWD rear axle in my Caravan, which is too early of a model to be AWD but i bought the rear stuff from a later van and mounted some of it. I never followed through. I wanted the Samurai T-case because it is a divorced case (comes with flanges and holds fluid right from the get go) that has a 1.4:1 in 'high range'. I figured with my motor rpm, Tcase ratio, diff ratio, and tire size, that it would do 50mph in low range and ~115mph in high range. The caravan even has an overrunning clutch with a shiftable defeat (which would usually activate in reverse) built into the diff so that i could put in low range, launch it, and then exceed 50mph without overspinning the motor.  But, the overrunning clutch would mean i wouldnt be able to regen, which my motor and controller CAN do. But if you shift it to 'lockup' and high range it would be able to go 110+ with assist and regen before overspeeding the motor. 

I put a lot of thought into it and collected a lot of parts. I would be a cooler person if i had actually done it, but the van got rusty and ugly. After I gave up on the idea i did get my really nice SRT4 swapped van, so potentially if i wanted to i could try again. I just don't know if i like the idea better than doing a pure EV Willys..

I've thought about swapping the Alto Works, if I can't toss the engine back together cheaply.