EVLN(Chico Ghia EV screeched away leaving a cloud of ... Nothing)

[Bruce EVangel Parmenter <brucedp@yahoo.com>]

EVLN(Chico Ghia EV screeched away leaving a cloud of ... Nothing)
[The Internet Electric Vehicle List News. For Public EV
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 --- {EVangel}
http://www.chicoer.com/archives/index.inn?loc=detail&doc=/2002/July/26-464-news3.txt
July 26, 2002
Chico teens show off electric car they built
By STEVE SCHOONOVER - City Editor
It's not your father's shop class.

Six Chico students didn't make a funky wooden bookholder or
a worthless metal bracket during the two weeks they spent in
shop this summer. Instead, they built a car. An electric
car.

They didn't build the car from scratch. Instead they gutted
an old Karman Ghia gas-powered convertible and dropped an
electric drive system into it.

The students and their teacher brought the car to the Fourth
Street curb in front of the Chico City Council Chambers
Thursday morning to show it off to the Butte County Air
Quality Management District board.

The board was the agency that approved the $20,000 Clean Air
Grant that funded the project, and members wanted to see
what the money had wrought.

Chico City Councilman Rick Keene climbed into the passenger
seat. He wondered aloud why the car hadn't started when Eric
Ryan turned the key.

"It is on," answered Ryan, who had guided the students
through the reconstruction.

"It is?!" Keene exclaimed.

In way of answer, Ryan pressed the accelerator, and the
purple Ghia screeched away from the curb, leaving behind a
cloud of ...

Nothing.

Which was the point. The car not only was quiet - silent
when standing, emitting a quiet whine when moving - it was
also non-polluting.

But more than that, it was an educational tool for the kids
involved and others.

"In school they don't teach you this stuff," observed Chris
Martin, 14, described by others as the chief electrician on
the car project.

He met Ryan when he knocked on his door, wanting to mow his
lawn. "I wanted to start a mowing business," Martin said,
"but I learned something new. Now I'd like to build cars."

"I didn't think electric could do much beyond golf carts,"
observed co-worker Allen Oster, a Pleasant Valley High
School student. This project opened his eyes, as Ryan claims
the Ghia could go 90 mph, although it only has a range of
20-25 miles before it needs to be recharged.

Ryan brought the expertise to build the electric car from
North Carolina, where he'd helped found the EV Challenge, in
which several dozen schools compete to see who can convert
gas-driven cars to electricity the fastest.

The Chico kids smoked the Carolinians. The old record for a
conversion was six weeks. "We built it in two weeks," beamed
Martin, who'll be an eighth- grader in the Center for
Alternative Learning in fall.

The car wasn't constructed from a kit. It was a matter of
buying a number of separate electrical components and wiring
them together in the rear engine compartment. A cluster of
batteries is hidden under the front hood.

"Seeing it run was the coolest part," said Oya Ross-Walcott,
a Marsh Junior High School student and the only girl on the
team. "I'd never seen one; I didn't know anything about
cars."

Others in the group were Solomon Ewing and Raul Rivera of
Chico High School and Felipe Flores of Chico Junior High.
Plaques were prepared for all the students by the air
quality board.

The board wondered why the learning experienced by the kids
couldn't be managed by others, like GM and Ford.

"They can make an electric car," Ryan said. "The automobile
industry just has a mindset toward gas vehicles. That's
their entire business."

He said they haven't had much interest in battery-driven
all-electric cars because of their low range. Instead
they're focusing on gas/electric hybrids that can go several
hundred miles. He described the purple Ghia as a "niche
vehicle," good for around town or trips to the supermarket.

But, "from an educator's perspective, it's great for
introducing kids to the concept."
-




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