Hey Guys - Quick Question.

[GimmeMy1985]

Long time no see, happy holidays, they have been hectic for me:

Just wondering, I was reading off about Neil Young´s Hybrid Continental, and how he took it to some dude out in Wichita to convert it. Interesting stuff (though I DO NOT think that Neil Young needs 10 million dollars).

Ya´ll know how much he paid to get that done?

Not that I mind paying on my M7, Capri or Cont, as far as I am concerned my MPG is nothing to be scared of, and often it is comparable, but after college I was thinking about taking up a few (hundred) project cars and am wondering about the cost of a conversion from regular gas/diesel to electric/hybrid.

So... Anyone have an idea?

Thanks~

 

[HOTLNC]

I never read about that Hybrid Continental, but as an electrical engineer, I've been thinking a lot about an hybrid/electric car.

There is two basic problems with a do it yourself, hybrid electric car, as I see it. #1 the battery or energy storage. #2 is recovering braking energy. All the other components can be bought directly off the shelf. The electric motor, the gas motor, the generator, speed control, etc. all could be purchased. It might be tough for Joe SixPack to integrate the electric and gas motor that is coupled to the drive train into a nice compact package, but it could be done.

The energy storage system is a monster of a problem. Pound per watt, current battery technology sucks big time. The best we have right now is lithium. Pound per watt, maybe fly wheel technology is the way to go. But then again, that technology has other problems. A flywheel will have to operate at extremely high RPMs. They will need to be encased with the spinning part in a vacuum – or as close to a vacuum that we can pull. Bearing friction is an enemy that needs to be overcome, probably with magnetic bearings. For safety, the flywheel would need to be encased in a shatter proof container and it must be able withstand the multi-G forces of an collision with an unmovable object and all parts that break stay in one spot – inside the case. Maybe we could combine the generator/electric motor with the fly wheel's mass....

Solving the regenerative braking problem has to be done without the use of friction materials. You can’t have an efficient braking system that won’t stop the car in time and yet, you can’t have one converting forward motion into heat either. I figure maybe a combination braking system and a generator. Whether you press the brake pedal softly or in a panic stop, the forward motion of the car is converted into electrical energy (for battery) or mechanical energy (for flywheel) storage.

Maybe some one needs to do a turbine/electric power train, with flywheel brake regeneration.

 

[GimmeMy1985]

Yeah, Neil Young´s hybrid conti gets some 100 MPG.

I would definitely NOT do it myself. I would surely bring it to someone, or at least buy whatever Hybrid Kit is out there and take it to an actual mechanic to install. Have you heard about these Hybrid Kits? They cost something like 17-30k and they make hybrid conversions easy.

But for me, I would never touch something like that, it would go straight to the mechanic.

I did see something that gave me a tad of inspiration. Some dude took a regular car and built a lightweight classic body over it, really it was only for the look. Think someone could do that by building a Lincoln-Style body and building it into the hybrid?