Thread: what will happen to hotrods, & the industry

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There is a guy a few miles east of Richmond who specializes in converting cars to electric motors but the straight electric ones have a very short range of maybe 50 miles or so per charge. I chatted with him and he thought removing about 600 pounds of engine and transmission would make a Model-A roadster light enough to put in a Doug Nash five speed and a 100 pound electric motor and then add batteries, but what I did not like was that he said you don't need a clutch, you just feather the electric throttle to shift but I wonder what sort of synchromesh can handle that over many shifts. Then other folks say you just put the transmission in second or third gear on a five speed and just use the rpm range of the electric motor and never shift and just reverse the current in the motor for reverse. I suppose we will each go our own way as either stuck with the old images in our head or adapt what we can. Although the Buick V6 was maybe the answer in the '70s, 28 mpg may not be enough in the future and I really like that Aptera and the three wheeled low drag aerodynamics with plug-in electric power and an auxilliary gas/diesel engine for charging the batteries when away from a power plug, BUT (!) I still like the look of the traditional roadster even though it is an aerodynamic brick. At the moment I do not see any reasonable way to yank out a SBC and replace it with batteries and an electric motor even though I have seen a swift Porsche 911 with electric power on TV, because when you are done the range is too limited and the cost of the transition is too high. Some Hot Rod ingenuity will probably lead some into the low drag Aptera plug-ins but many of us will just drive the traditional rods for good weather weekend events. Actually it is hard to tell what will happen but there will be some changes. The political situation may result in short term increased drilling but I think the point has been made that there will be more electric cars in the future. The political situation is indeed frustrating with a lack of the desired leadership on the one side and the other side saying anything and changing every day or so. Actually I don't think GM will go under and maybe the Cobalt will save GM for a while longer but why oh why can't they build a plug-in hybrid that will justify more electricity from nuclear plants?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder