LeCart conversion, part 1

[LEE A HART <XURQ03A@PRODIGY.COM>]

I happen to live in Minnesota, but have spent a lot of time in Seattle on a
job site over the past year. This is a rough commute, but I've still
managed to drive an electric car to work each day.  :-)

I owe this remarkable feat to Olof Sundin of EVsNW. They provide sales,
service and parts for electric vehicles in Seattle WA. With Olof's kind
help, I have been able to borrow and rent several different EVs during my
stays in Seattle. They have included a couple of refurbished "Lectric
Leopards" (Renault LeCars converted around 1980 by US Electricar), as well
as two different "ElectriCity" EVs (EVsNW's excellent conversion of a Geo Metro)
 .

However, I got tired of the usual rental car pick-up/drop-off hassles. The
Seattle job became a longer term project, so I decided to buy an EV that I
could use while in Seattle, then ship (or drive :-) it home to Minnesota
when finished.

The first candidate was Fred Saxby's 1950 Crosley. This is a very
interesting car. 1280 lbs stock, with a 2100 lbs GVWR. Stripped of its ICE
stuff, you have a car that can carry its own weight in batteries and still
be under its GVWR. Ladder frame, massive brakes and suspension. Enough room
under the hood to rent it out as an efficiency apartment. Fred had already
done much of the hard work; he installed a Prestolite 96v motor, Russco
controller, and had it wired up and running as an EV. But a *lot* needed to
be done to make it a daily driver. It had a gaping hole for a roof (hardtop
made into a convertible the easy way), dead batteries, no interior, and no title
 .

John Wayland took a look, and convinced me that the time and money needed
to make the Crosley presentable would put it way over my budget. So we
talked to Olof some more. He said he had one of the terrible US Electricar
Lectric Leopards, with no transaxle, no motor, no controller, and no
batteries. Somehow, John described it as a twin of Lou Tauber's Screaming
Yellow Zonker Renault. "Look, it's only got 8000 miles on it! It has the
good dash, a sunroof, the body's straight, the interior's fine, and the
junk you don't want is already removed. There's a spare transaxle for it,
and here's an 8" XP-1263A motor and E-Car adapter to fit. It's even got
current license plates! How can you go wrong?"

I gave it some thought. The Renault LeCar is, shall we say, a bit peculiar.
Imagine a bunch of French engineers setting out to design a competitor for
the VW Rabbit. Over a 2-hour wine lunch, they say, "Zos Germans, zey no
nossing! Whatever zey do is wrong, so we do it better, no?"

Thus we have the Renault LeCar, or R5 as it was known in Europe. Slightly
smaller than a Rabbit, but the wheels were pushed out farther to the front
and rear to provide more interior room. Front wheel drive, and mid-engined
(the engine completely behind the front axle, in a little "doghouse" that
extends into the passenger compartment). Fully independent, torsion bar
suspension front and rear. Power disk front, drum rear brakes.

The usual French touches: Idiotic 3-bolt rims (voila, we saved 5 cents per
wheel!). Muffler in the front tire wheel well. No control is where you'd
expect it; what looks like the turn signal lever is the wiper control (turn
signals are the second, shorter stalk). Fenders the thickness of Coke can.
Non-stick rear window hinges that fall off if you open them.

On the positive side, the ICE car weighed 1850 lbs, with a 2480 lbs GVWR.
If removing the ICE stuff saved 300 lbs, the motor and batteries can weigh
up to 930 lbs. There is room under the hood, and a nice flat floor between
the rear wheels with no axle in the way. The torsion bar suspension can be
adjusted to correct ride height. There is a self-adjusting front/rear brake
proportioning valve (it adjust as ride height changes in the back). Parts
for the Gordini version can provide bigger brakes.

What about working examples? The Leopard that EVsNW had converted to 96v
ran very well for me. With ten Trojan 8v flooded batteries, Curtis 1221C
controller, and 6.7" 96v Prestolite motor, it was sluggish but had no
problem doing 70 mph and 30+ miles on a charge. I drove Dick Finley's LeCar
with Auburn controller and ten Optimas for two weeks. It had a 20 mile
range, and was a real tire burner. Lou Tauber's Renault with 8" motor,
Auburn controller, and 192v of Optimas is an absolute rocket, and (typical
of all E-Car creations) a real work of art. Tony Ascrizzi has put 110,000
miles on his Lectric Leopard, which goes to show that these cars can be
durable (once you get rid of the French engine :-).

Perhaps the best example of what I am looking for is Victor Munoz's LeCar
with ten Concorde 12105 sealed batteries, Curtis 1231C, and 6.7" motor. It
has the perfect balance of performance, range, economy, and low
maintenance. It has no trouble keeping up with traffic, yet delivers 30-50
miles range. The Concordes provide high performance and low maintenance at
half the cost of Optimas. Victor's craftsmanship is superb, and his
engineering serves as an excellent model of how the parts can be arranged.

So... I bought it. As of September 20 of 1997, I became the proud owner of
an 18-year-old French car with no drive train. I was 2000 miles from home,
with no garage or tools in Seattle to work on it. It looks like I'll be
relying a lot on EVsNW to get it all together.

Next installment: Getting the parts.

PS -- "LeCart" is my feeble attempt to morph "LeCar" into "LeeHart".

Lee Hart                     In Heaven, the cars are German, the chefs
4209 France Ave. N.             are French, and the Policemen are British.
Robbinsdale, MN 55422 USA    In Hell, the cars are French, the chefs are
phone (612) 533-3226            British, and the Policemen are German.
e-mail XURQ03A@prodigy.com              (heard on Car Talk)
LeCart conversion, part 1