RE: my very heavy and lossy EV LandCruiser idea... :-)

["Byars, William" <wbyars@MPCProducts.com>]

Roger,
	Interesting numbers. The '78 LandCruiser is essentially similar to
my '79 LandCruiser, if both are SWB, though I've got 3.73's and it has
4.11's. 12.7hp might push it to 50mph... In a vacuum! (yeah, I know, the EPA
numbers are off a road dyno in a closed room with a fan for the engine
cooling air) The aerodynamics of this truck are absolutely HORRID. The
windshield is flat and near vertical, it has a 3" "lip" on top to keep air
from escaping over the top, the fenders grab air and shove it down, the
engine compartment sucks up huge amounts, confuses it, heats it and shoves
it down and out around the fenders, the tires have almost their full frontal
area exposed, the axles as well, and there's tons of stuff under it to
confuse the air as well. Then take the hardtop and doors off and you get one
heck of a vortex in there. Driving with the top off, at 65mph, I can reach
out almost a foot outside the door behind the windshield before I hit the
separated stream of air past the vehicle. Huge boundary layer! Add that mine
is rather bent and twisted and rusty and whatnot and the air just gets even
more confused. Truly a worst-case scenario for conversion. :-) And I'm going
to add bigger, less aerodynamic and higher rolling resistance tires, etc. as
well as sticking the axles out into the wind more and whatnot with the lift.

	Only information I have on Electric LandCruisers is from the starter
already in the vehicle. On a mid-70's FJ-40, if you take the spark plugs out
and drop in a nicely charged ICE starting battery, you can get it up to
about 15mph in 4th gear. :-) Buddy of mine in Ohio has to move around a few
carcasses once and a while, so he learned that trick one day... 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Roger Stockton [mailto:stockton@racalcanada.com]

> Hi Will,
> 
> I still doubt that your LandCruiser really requires that much HP
> on the flat and level.  Here's some numbers I dug up on the EPA
> site:
> 
> '78 LandCruiser (258cu.in./6cyl/125hp/4.11 final/4500lbs): 
> 12.7hp@50mph
> '87 LandCruiser (same as '78 except 3.70 final): 18.5hp@50mph 
> (with A/C on)