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New project time
- Thread starter Sam_C
- Start date
SeanDezart
Well-Known Forum User
......unloved, unwanted and ugly ?
SeanDezart
Well-Known Forum User
Maybe a Smart or Atoms' new ecological version 
? But this looks better and no doubt cheaper:
http://kidselectriccars.co.uk/12v-r...-spyder-12v-ride-on-car-with-doors-p-107.html
? But this looks better and no doubt cheaper:http://kidselectriccars.co.uk/12v-r...-spyder-12v-ride-on-car-with-doors-p-107.html
SeanDezart
Well-Known Forum User
I love the new Frisker - a kind of cross between a Mazda RX-8 and a Lamborghini Marzal.
Act
uallyMaybe a Smart or Atoms' new ecological version
http://kidselectriccars.co.uk/12v-r...-spyder-12v-ride-on-car-with-doors-p-107.html
Actually...that looks quite good. Maybe I should chop the roof off mine. Cheaper... yes by about €29000 It’s a K200 built by an Italian company called SLC (Superlightcars). It was intended to be used as a “tender” on super-yachts. Arrived in Monte Carlo, crane it off and voila!! Off you go. Originally it had a 350cc engine in it with auto trans and flappy paddle gearchange. Why so expensive you may ask? I think the words “carbon fibre monocoque” may go some way to explaining it...Maybe a Smart or Atoms' new ecological version
http://kidselectriccars.co.uk/12v-r...-spyder-12v-ride-on-car-with-doors-p-107.html
SeanDezart
Well-Known Forum User
Another toy to induce rich people to spend money they can afford - love it. What's the plan then, a Hayabusa engine ?
Well some rich bloke decided he would start an electric car company and called it NICE (no internal combustion engine). He bought this car to use as a prototype to test the electrical
systems. The conversion work was undertaken by Cranfield University and it cost a fortune. ( Example - it uses 4 Li-Ion DC batteries each of which originally cost $2800). Twin pancake AC motors (one driving each rear wheel) twin controllers, inverters, power shunts and god knows how many man hours to design and build. When finished it was exhibited at some large UK motor industry show.
NICE ran out of money so sold the car/technology to the company who eventually put into production the Mega City electric vehicle.
Future plans...initially see what still works in the power train. Currently won’t take a charge so the batteries may be goosed. If so, the price of new batteries will dictate.
I also got the original engine / gearbox so a return to original spec may be the best way. The engine is quite cool, 350cc twin cylinder aluminium with multi-point fuel injection. Again it depends on how much of the original wiring/components are still attached.
If all else fails, I see a high pressure air tank and a couple of air powered motors !!
First job to get it in the workshop and have a poke around.
There weren’t too many of the original cars built -mine is #16 - probably the only one in the UK and almost certainly the only electric one on the planet!
So ugly it may be, but pretty cool little project which probably cost Mr. NICE in excess of £50K but only cost me £500
systems. The conversion work was undertaken by Cranfield University and it cost a fortune. ( Example - it uses 4 Li-Ion DC batteries each of which originally cost $2800). Twin pancake AC motors (one driving each rear wheel) twin controllers, inverters, power shunts and god knows how many man hours to design and build. When finished it was exhibited at some large UK motor industry show.
NICE ran out of money so sold the car/technology to the company who eventually put into production the Mega City electric vehicle.
Future plans...initially see what still works in the power train. Currently won’t take a charge so the batteries may be goosed. If so, the price of new batteries will dictate.
I also got the original engine / gearbox so a return to original spec may be the best way. The engine is quite cool, 350cc twin cylinder aluminium with multi-point fuel injection. Again it depends on how much of the original wiring/components are still attached.
If all else fails, I see a high pressure air tank and a couple of air powered motors !!
First job to get it in the workshop and have a poke around.
There weren’t too many of the original cars built -mine is #16 - probably the only one in the UK and almost certainly the only electric one on the planet!
So ugly it may be, but pretty cool little project which probably cost Mr. NICE in excess of £50K but only cost me £500
SeanDezart
Well-Known Forum User
So, how did you source it - looking for it or it fell in your lap ?
A friend of my became the UK importer for Aixam, the French micro-car company. They are owned by the same people who own Mega (and Polaris who do dune buggies). Aixam used to have their own U.K. import department where they kept all their spare parts. When my friend went to pick them up, this car was in the warehouse. He asked them what to do with it and they told him to get rid of it.
As he already had two Mega City electric cars to play about with, and he knew I was er...”between projects” he passed it on to me.
So I guess that falls into the category of “fell into my lap”.
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SeanDezart
Well-Known Forum User
Aixams and the like - one of the banes of my life on the roads here : 'voitures sans-permis'....driven by people the least competent on the road !
What is the market for them in the UK - camping-car extras ?
What is the market for them in the UK - camping-car extras ?
Almost entirely old folk who “progress” - if that’s the correct word! - from a Reliant 3-wheeler because they can drive them on a motorcycle licence. It’s a dying market - literally!
They do a 2-seat coupe version that 16 year olds can drive, restricted to 30 mph - the idea being that rich folk who don’t want their brats racing about on motorbikes at 16 buy this as a stop-gap. Trouble was, by the time the kids had done all the bike riding and theory test required, they were nearly 17 anyway, so financially it was a bit of a non-starter as they are a ridiculously expensive option for just a few months.
Happily for my mate, most parents didn’t realise this until it was too late, so he made more money from the non-returnable deposits when they cancelled their orders than he did from selling the cars.
My brother bought one for my nephew as he was adamant he wasn’t having a bike and he went all over the place in it (after a visit to the “de-restricter” which gave him another 15mph.
Still sounded like a piece of plant on a building site, due to the Kubota “power plant”!
SeanDezart
Well-Known Forum User
They race them here. Also used by those who've lost their licence and hence (grouping with the frail and easily-confused oldsters) me stating them to be the least competent on the road...just marginally in front of the camping-car brigade who wave to each other when crossing on the road like m-bikes do.
These are (mostly) oldies who've never driving anything bigger than a hire van who suddenly leap into some of the largest non HGV/PSV vehicles on the road with no training and no need of any extra tuition/licence who failing eyesight and reactions, never in a rush to 'get there' and frequently pointing out sights to each other and convince me that their passengers, frequently their grandchildren, in the back wear seat-belts !
Rant almost off but these plus the 'sans-permis' really pssi me off !
So, here, very old people, alcoholics and others who've lost their licence or who'll never get one all drive these cars - big market, big prices !
These are (mostly) oldies who've never driving anything bigger than a hire van who suddenly leap into some of the largest non HGV/PSV vehicles on the road with no training and no need of any extra tuition/licence who failing eyesight and reactions, never in a rush to 'get there' and frequently pointing out sights to each other and convince me that their passengers, frequently their grandchildren, in the back wear seat-belts !
Rant almost off but these plus the 'sans-permis' really pssi me off !
So, here, very old people, alcoholics and others who've lost their licence or who'll never get one all drive these cars - big market, big prices !
SeanDezart
Well-Known Forum User
That's just for the stereo - right ?