At first glance it looks a little scary, for sure. Pictures on the internet can only tell part of the story. I know I’ve seen some builds on the internet that look terrible, but if I’m lucky enough to see them in person and meet the builder, I often change my mind. I’d be happy to show it off to ya if you are ever in…

Nice flares!

I’m actually going for a more 80s theme. Something very “period correct” that would look good at Radwood. It’s going in for some artwork next week. I’ll post the results on my YouTube channel.

An 81 Accord EV Donk would be pretty rad. Especially if it could beat Ferraris haha.

Wheelies are the goal. I think once the weather warms up the Mickey Thompsons will be able to hook better and pull the front end up. Right now it just skips along about 1/2" off the ground haha.

I did the same math and came to the same conclusion. It’s way better to buy a salvage pack than a bunch of RC car batteries. If you don’t want to worry about cooling, you could try a Leaf pack. Those are passive cooled. They don’t like 1,000 amp pulls though.

Check out HSRmotors.com (where I bought my drive unit and controller), or keep an eye on Copart for a salvage Tesla. I initially considered buying a salvage Tesla and recouping some money by selling the batteries and onboard charger. The batteries alone make up about 40% of salvage value.

Flatheads are very cool.

Using Leaf guts is doable, but you have to try really hard to keep the entire CAN bus together. If the system thinks that a part is missing (gauge cluster, HVAC, ABS etc) it’ll go into limp and stay there. The best way to use a Leaf motor is to build your own inverter to run it. My buddy @gotgraham is building one…

I have a really understanding wife. And my shop is connected to my office, so I sneak down there at lunch :)

I’m expecting about 50-70 miles if I’m not pushing it too hard. It’s a light chassis. I’ll do some testing when the snow melts.

I would love to. Do you think they’d let me have generator and umbilical connection on my trailer? Stopping every 70 miles to charge for an hour might slow us down a bit haha

I still have to cool the motor and inverter, they generate a significant amount of heat under heavy load (1,000 amps or more).

It’s really hard to fit normal suspension when the battery is taking most of the front end and engine bay. I tried, I promise.