Re: Souped up CitiCar?

[Eric Jelinski <jelinski@idirect.com>]

At 07:37 AM 29/01/99 -0700, you wrote:
>>With my souped up CitiCar (a mere 72 volts); there's been a few 
>>Corvette drivers say'n    " what the..........."
>   Tell us more about this!
>See Ya.........John Wayland
> 
Bowmanville is your typical small town population about 25,000.   Main
street is only two lanes (one each way) with parallel parking in front of
all the little stores.   Finding a spot to park the Citicar is real easy.
I haven't had any parking tickets yet; but there have been occasions where
two other small cars were parked in their respective spots but with enough
room between them to put the Citicar, just to run in for a jug of milk and
get back out quick enough before one of the other car drivers comes along
as he might get pissed off being squeezed in a bit.  I can also pull in
behind the last car in a row and still be within the limit for the sign
that says, no parking from here to the next block.    So much for parking.
At the edge of town, main street goes from 2 lanes to four or five with
left turn and right turn lanes just where it goes from 4 to 2. There is
always a little jostling for position as nobody wants to be stuck behind a
slow truck or anything especially that doesn't look like it belongs on the
road.   
Enter the Citicar.... The mere shape of it and the ugly yellow colour at
first had everybody confused. (there must have been a few fenderbenders
from just people gawking.  At that time the Citicar only had 36 volts.  It
was too slow for my liking, but I never got in enybody's way.  always
checking my rearview mirror. As soon as somebody was behind me, I turned
off onto a side street. Took longer to get where I was going, but there was
lots of Ah to go a long ways.  I got to see more of the scenery.   The
thing about turns too was, that I never had to slow down for turns.  With
the weight of the battery, it stuck to the road pretty good and you could
do a turn at a good clip.  An in fact, that was the way to squeal the
tires.   After a while, I got tired of always going around the block, and I
decided the Citicar needed some get up and go.   I decided on 72 volts.
Why 72?   In this Citicar, the batteries are all under the seat.  I put in
6 of the group 31 marine batteries, and a 72 volt Curtis.  I left the
original motor on the basis that there is no need to fix something that
ain't broke.  I'll find out first if the original 36 volt motor can handle
double the amps and almost triple the volts, because with the battery fully
charged and with the hammer down, the motor will see close to 90 volts !
Wow !   With this little change, this car could fly it had wings. Actually
there were a few times, it did fly, actually airborne at 80 kliks over some
uneven road.   It was at this time that I thought I'd better cool it on the
speed, unless of course I installed wings, ailerons and a tail fin with a
rudder. 

Now Bowmanville is next to Oshawa, and Oshawa is where General Motors
builds cars and trucks, and with everybody here in cartown; this area has
also got to be the hotrod capital of Canada.   When I got the Citicar up to
the 72 volts nominal, I decided that if I felt like it, then I would drive
in the center lane too.  When I come along the 4 lane highway to the lights
where the 2 east bound lanes goes to 1 lane, you either go left or right or
through the middle.  Occaisionally there is somebody using the turn lane as
a passing lane.  The only problem is the turn lane must turn because you
have a row of parked cars on the other side of the lights.   So.... the odd
guy has tried to pass me on the right, but with my invincible new found
torque I'm through the lights and up the road ( it is also uphill in this
direction) in a fraction of a second.  They end up having to put on the
binders and pull in behind me; if the guy behind me will let them, or
sometimes they have to sit there  looking dumb waiting for the whole row go
through the lights.   Going back the other way, I go through these same
lights into the four lane part and make left turn one block further on. So
to make my left, I stay in the center lane, except that I take off like a
bat and I see guy's who had started out on my right figuring they could get
ahead of me in that block, but they have to pull in behind me to make the
left turn.  There's also guy's with big engines but not really idling
right; as I can tell when they're behind me.  I take off, and they try to
follow me, but their engine stumbles and stalls because when they stomped
on it, they flooded it. 
 I always meet people at the beer store, bank, work  or wherever, and they
say.... " S...   your little car really goes....wad ya got under the
hood....."  And I just say,  yup,  grinning ear to ear , its got a two and
a half horsepower motor.   (No joking that's what the nameplate says  :-))
.... more small talk... and then we switch to the fact that it's an
electric car. and they want to know how an electric car works, and I tell
them, well you have a battery and a starter motor.  Well, you just throw
away the engine and get a bigger battery  (technically correct because
that's what the Citicar motor is) .   That gets 'em thinking real quick.
Now we're into talking conversions and dollars and cents.   Of course it's
the dollars for a full blown conversion that turns them off a bit... but it
gets them thinking.   Everybody also knows the 84 Datsun, but that's
another story.  I've had a lot of offers for the Citicar, but it ain't for
sale.  Like somebody said, It's almost too much fun. :-)
regards,  
Eric Jelinski
Durham Electric Wheels
# 2 Waverley Road
Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, L1C 1k7
phone  905-623-6653   fax 905-623-7530
e-mail  jelinski@idirect.com
web    http://www.electricwheels.com
Electric Vehicle Products and Services