Wayland’s Words

It’s Sunday, a week since last week’s EVent packed weekend. I’m trying to get caught up with my writing, but there’s been a lot of activity around here, so bear with me folks It was pretty much three days of total EV stuff that began on Thursday. About that rain-soaked trip to Kingston, Washington four weeks ago, I had written:

Rich had asked me to help out his town’s Earth Day EVent by bringing, as he put it, a ‘quality built’ EV to augment his rough-around-the-edges’ Goldie….When Friday rolled around, the car was still as it had >been, pretty much untouched. Coworker Tim Brehm showed up to help me, but by late Friday night, it was quite obvious we were nowhere close to having the car back together, and in fact, it was torn down further.

As I had posted, Tim Brehm and I had ‘tried’ to get Blue Meanie put back together for that show, but we simply didn’t have time to do it, so the Insight was the stand-in for the Kingston EVent. Following that weekend, a couple of weeks blew by with nothing more done to the car, as other racing EV stuff was being focussed on. Then, last weekend was on the horizon.

Tim’s first ever post to the EVDL pretty much covers things, but I’d like to add my perspective as well. I had written:

To add to all the stuff on my plate, Tim and I will be taking Blue Meanie to a custom street rod show on Saturday, so we’ve got to get the Z1K installed, the four new subs mounted, and the stereo system back on line. Lots to do, but when your having this much EV fun, it’s all worth it.

It wasn’t even close to being show-ready when we started, having been left in a torn down state for about a month or so, as I was working on the sound system, and, had also removed its Raptor controller. So here the car was, no throttle control (the solenoid control went with the Raptor), no controller, high current HV wires hanging here and there, wire harnesses torn open and partially gutted, the interior’s console out of the car and totally disassembled, the glove box gone, and the rear package shelf - subwoofer enclosure minus any woofers because the old ones were given away and the new beefy JL Audio 8W3v2 subs were too deep to drop in…in a nutshell, the car needed a week’s worth of work. I got home from work late Thursday and started on the install of the Zilla, pretty much putting it where the Raptor 1200 had been mounted only minus the extra metal plate that raised the mount base high enough for the large air cooled Raptor controller to clear the motor. Now the area was more compact with a tidier look.

Tim wrote:
…when I showed up he was already installing the new Z1K in the big empty space where the Raptor was. The Zilla is only about half the size, now the 9″ motor just jumps out at you now. John and I were just standing back and admiring the new, even cleaner look under the hood…

As Tim pointed out, minus the larger size of the old controller and with the small profile of the mighty mite water-cooled Zilla taking its place, the under-hood view is more show worthy. The ADC 9 inch motor is now more clearly in view, and even after 11 years of service, it still looks as new. In addition to the obvious performance increase that 176 kw gives over 135 kw….17 Orbitals pulled down to 10.38V per module with a 1000 amp draw (est. voltage sag) vs 13 Optimas pulled down to 10.38V per module with a 1000 amp draw (actual measured voltage sag), and with the resultant range increase that a 680 lb. pack will give over a 585 lb. pack in this light weight car, this latest upgrade to my favorite EV is also my chance to make the presentation of the car even better. So, even with the mods done by Tim and I to get the car ready for the Saturday car show, it’s all going to be redone ‘again’ when the new battery pack is installed. This puts an exclamation mark on the pressure this show put on me, as I did mostly everything knowing it was all for a one day EVent! It was important to do though, for several reasons. It made me get back to the Blue Meanie renovation project, it pleased a very good friend of mine at work, Rick Glover, having the car at this show since he had invited me to bring it, and, it was one of those high profile car shows that attracts huge numbers of folks…a chance to really fly the EV flag. Another cool visual point, is that Rick’s ‘53 Chevy sedan is painted ‘Lemon Ice’, a bright hotrod type yellow and next to Blue Meanie’s Royal Blue with violet pearl, the two cars compliment each other.

Again, as Tim pointed out, we didn’t finish the car before we ran out of time on Thursday night:

We decided to call it a night. 5:30 AM Friday morning I headed back to the Wayland house to get a little more work done on the car before the trip to central Oregon. When I arrived John was just finishing the wiring

Friday, Tim Brehm and I had prearranged to take the day off from wrenching on forklifts. I started early by myself, wanting to be alone to finish up Hairball wiring and other items under the hood. I was starting to relax a bit, because at 8-ish in the morning, I could see the car might just be ready in time for the show, but only if Tim and I could get together early Saturday morning to complete things. Tim arrived, then we were joined by two of our zany EV friends from up north, Rich ‘Madman’ Rudman and Don ‘Father Time’ Crabtree. Blue Meanie time has run out, and it’s now time to shift gears and start Friday’s Redmond trip.

The four of us had the Jeep and trailer ready for our 300+ mile round trip up and over Mt. Hood to the Bend-Redmond central Oregon area and took off after a fun breakfast together. We got back into Portland late Friday night after a long and intense one-dayer…more on this adventure in another post. Rudman departed and headed to his parents house in Newberg, where his dad creates beautiful metal pieces for the PFC line of chargers, Tim left for his drive home, and Father Time crashed on the couch left vulnerable to Clyde the bad cat.

I was up early on Saturday, in a bit of a panic as Blue Meanie had still not been powered up, its interior was still in pieces, the exterior was in need of a wash and polish job, and the car still needed to be loaded onto and secured to the trailer….too much to do! I concentrated on finishing the under hood wiring, and by the time Tim arrived and FT had gotten ready from his cat-disturbed sleep, it was time to test the car.

From Tim:
He took off down the road with tires squealing until we lost sight of him. After about ten minutes came rolling silently up the road. John jumps out of the car “I forgot how much fun this little car is” with the EV grin he lost about a month ago on his face. With the new Zilla working perfect…the car was loaded onto the trailer for the trip to the show.

What more can I say about Otmar’s fantastic controllers, that I haven’t already said? The first time I twisted the key, it worked exactly as designed, did its precharge thing, clicked-in the contactor, and I was off and running. It has a very smooth throttle response, at first giving the impression that the controller ‘might’ be a low powered unit…that is, under you stab the pedal down and suddenly, the tires are squealing and there’s that shove back into the seat! Yeah, my EV grin was back, big time.

In a nicely orchestrated display of teamwork, we swarmed over Blue Meanie and got it pretty much put together. In went the console, even though none of its electronics were hooked up, loose carpet pieces were recemented in place, carpets were vacuumed, and moist bath towels made quick work of the shop dust and brought out the luster of the paint again. A bit of Armoral was sprayed on the tires, and the wheels were spiffed up with the Greek-approved Windex. We got the car onto the trailer and as I was inside putting on more suitable clothes for the show, FT and Tim finished up securing the car to the trailer…whew, we made it!

From Tim:
We arrived at the car show almost on time….and we drove through the gates with all the classic muscle cars. There was a large group of people around the car all day.

Blue Meanie was a big hit, as it usually is, and it delivered what I’ve always referred to as its 1-2-3 punch. Punch 1, is the fact that it’s a clean and straight, gleaming little Datsun 1200 sedan, a nearly forgotten econobox from the early seventies and something that you just don’t see every day. It’s nice paint job, perfect condition alloys, Armoralled black LRR tires, and custom interior touches punctuated by the in your face stereo system, attracts even hard core American iron folks. Next to Rick’s gorgeous bright yellow ‘53 Chevy, Blue Meanie looked sharp. Punch 2, is when they look into the open engine bay and spot lots of batteries, gold plated connectors, tidy wiring looms, funny looking ‘electronic’ boxes, and an electric motor…damn, this thing is an electric car! Punch 2 continues when you hit the remote, the trunk lid pops open, and with the press of another remote button, the motorized rear battery tray starts humming and out slides 7 more batteries in view. Punch 3, is when they either learn about its stunning acceleration performance, or, they witness it first hand.

From Tim:
While leaving, with the sounds of loud exhaust and huge engines all around us, everyone had their eyes on this little blue car, silently cruising toward the exit gate. John could not resist, all those eyes on his car doubting that little electric motor they had been staring at all day, he had to let just a little smoke out of the tires on the way through the gate. The crowd went wild!!

Well, it didn’t go quite like that, nice try. Tim What actually happened, was all day long, I was taunted by Tim, my brother Roger who had stopped by, and countless show goers, to take the car to an open area and do a smoke’n burnoff. As Tim pointed out, there were more than a few who had doubts about the claimed performance level of a ‘battery car’. A few were shown the video of White Zombie blowing off the V8 Mustang last year, and this pretty much sealed the deal for them.

The entire day, I resisted the requests, opting to behave myself. When we were leaving the show with FT sitting next to me, Tim was in the back seat and saying, “Come on John, light ‘em up for these guys.” I resisted for the moment, but then I looked over at the show’s security dudes who were smiling with big approval type grins and spinning their fingers in that universal hotrod sign language that says, “Light ‘em up.” This was more than I could take, and so down went my right foot…the Zilla responded instantly, and even with three of us loading down my little Datsun, the rear tires spun and scratched at the pavement with a very loud continuous squeal. Better than the security dudes, fellow hotrodders, and shocked show goers reactions, was the guy sitting next to me, Father Time, as his wry grin vaguely cloaked by his long white flowing beard could be seen as his sign of “Cool”.

See Ya….John Wayland

Nearly four Saturdays ago, my wife and I traveled 200+ miles north of Portland, Oregon to take part in the Earth day celebration show in the small rural town of Kingston, Washington, which is also home to Madman Rich Rudman and Manazanita Micro of PFC charger fame. I’ve been friends with Rich for a long time, and though I’ve been up and down the I-5 corridor seemingly hundreds of times on trips to Canada, Seattle, Renton, Burien, Port Townsend, Olympia, Tacoma, Tenino…well, you get the idea…I’ve never actually been to Kingston or to Rich’s place. He’s been to my place a gazillion times, but I’ve never made the trip to go see his.

Rich had asked me to help out his town’s Earth Day EVent by bringing, as he put it, a ‘quality built’ EV to augment his rough-around-the-edges’ Goldie, the muscular, hi torque, tire shredding Fiesta EV…read that, he wanted Blue Meanie at his home town enviro show. Specifically, he wanted a sharp looking EV with a crank’n sound system. In my brain, I questioned the ‘crank’n sound system’ bit, as without exception, in all of the past earth day shows I’ve been part of, they have nixed any attempt at audio fun, with immediate protests about how the sound was too loud, too aggressive, too much this, too much that….mellow-wimpy stuff like Gordon Lightfoot, Adrian Legg, Enya, or any other genra that lacks bass and is about as exciting as a bowl of soggy Special K cereal probably would be acceptable.

Rich and I are buddies, he does a lot for me, and I like to return favors, so I ‘reluctantly’ agreed, not because I didn’t want to, but because it wasn’t a realistic goal to achieve. I didn’t catch wind of this until the week before, pretty short notice, especially considering Blue Meanie has had its dash and console area torn up for a while as I’ve been redoing the center console and the entire stereo system. Work happened, and I found myself away from Portland and 160+ miles southeast, back in central Oregon’s city of Bend doing fork lift service work….not one or two days, but 5 days, on and off, back and forth, overnight stays, etc., etc. I’d get home at 10 at night, then get up at 5:00 AM to start work early in town, then, I’d be off to travel again. I had no time for regular family stuff, let alone time to get my car all put back together and have it show ready.

When Friday rolled around, the car was still as it had been, pretty much untouched. Coworker Tim Brehm showed up to help me, but by late Friday night, it was quite obvious we were nowhere close to having the car back together, and in fact, it was torn down further. Even if I had stayed up all night, I still had to get the trailer and Jeep ready, put the car on the trailer, etc., etc…..all this to be done in a driving Pacific NW rain storm. I called Rich late in the night to give him the bad news, but then I offered to bring up my Insight as a second best option. It’s still an enviro type car, it has an even more outrageous sound system than Blue Meanie’s (this is about to change), and, my wife and I could simply ‘drive’ it to the show…no Jeep, no trailer, none of the hassle of fighting traffic with the setup, and just a fraction of the $90-$110 fuel cost that would be incurred towing the trailer and car with the Jeep all the way to and from the show. It was a good plan, and one that Rudman jumped on.

I was pretty exhausted and frustrated by the time I finally got to bed near 1:00 AM, and knowing we had to be up by 5:30 the next morning in order to make the 3 hour drive up to Kingston, it made me feel even more tired! The only saving grace, was that the Insight still had 3/4 a tank of gas, so I wouldn’t have to take any extra time going to the gas station…you can do stuff like this when you’ve got an Insight that gets up to 90+ mpg.

I recently wrote:

By the way, the last time I put some of that foreign oil (gas by another name) in my Insight, was in mid February! Yes, I don’t drive it as much as I do my electric car, and yes, I drive a service truck to and from work five days a week, but when I took a freeway cruise the other night with Steely Dan’s ‘Everything Must Go’ playing at irresponsible internal organ massaging volume levels, it’s hi fi sound thrilled me, but it was the digital Insight dash gauge displaying the fuel level was still at 3/4 full, that made me smile…oh yeah, the HV battery level was also at ‘full’.

Not having to go get gas was a time saver, and a reminder of how frugal this machine is. How many folks out there would take off on a 400+ mile round trip without their car’s 10.6 gallon tank topped off? At 3/4 full, there was probably 7 - 7.5 gallons still in it, in Insight terms, that’s plenty of fuel.

The morning came way too early, but by 7:15 we were on our way to join the Madman for a day of enviro-awareness. There’s only one way to put this….the weather was horrible! The rain was coming down like crazy with lots of big rigs all around us for the entire 200 mile trek. Their kicked-up spray flinging off all 18 wheels that combined with the continual down pour, mandated high speed only wiper action. The freeway was down to very low visibility. Certain sections of I-5 has deep ruts that plays havoc with the Insight’s narrow tires on dry pavement, let alone when these ruts are filled with deep water. I love driving, and I even look forward to driving in challenging conditions, but ‘this’ was truly a white knuckled drive. The temperature was on the cool side many times turning the rain into hail, so I had to run the AC compressor constantly in the defrost mode to keep things defogged inside the car. Finally, we had to move along at 73-75 mph to keep from being sucked under or run over by semis. This was a menu then, for worse case fuel mileage as the Insight had to scrap with all the behemoths on the road while pushing against torrents of water, running a richer mixture due to the low temp air, cruising at higher speeds, and running its AC constantly.

A needed break about one third the distance up I-5 at ‘Spiffy’s’ for a mondo breakfast buffet was the only respite from the soaking drive. The storm was at a minimum, 200 miles wide, as it never let up until we turned northwest off I-5 on the last leg into Kingston. About three and a half hours after departing from Portland, we were up in the hills of rural Washington state and as we came into Kingston, just as Madman said might happen, the clouds parted and glorious sunshine welcomed us…weird, after such a long, grey drive. The Insight got it worse mileage since I’ve owned it, at just 54 mpg…it usually delivers in the 75-80 mpg range even with a full passenger load and overnight luggage, and with just me as the driver at speeds of 57-62 mph on clear 65-75 degree days, it gets 92 mpg. The fuel gauge was at 1/3 or so.

Rich’s place was great, and we received a warm welcome. Attached to their home is a car port and garage area where Rich does some of his Madman stuff. Batteries everywhere, wires, motors, car parts, gauges…and of course, the electric motor test dyno! It’s got a video feed going into the heated garage, where inside a computer setup and small TV operate and monitor things. You sit there, listening to the outdoors sounds of birds, wind, and water through a less-than-hi fi speaker system, then the silence is broken by the sound of an electric motor spinning up, as you watch the brushes flashing nifty arcs off the commutator in the little black and white TV….cool.

Rich and I left our wives to do their thing, as we departed together in the Insight for my first ever trip to Manzanita Micro where we would pick up Goldie, and of course, I’d get my first view inside the brain of the Madman….his electronics shop. All I can say, is ‘wow’! Out front in the clean parking area, sits the big ‘ol forklift battery I got for him, linked to the shop via 2/0 power cables and several 350A Anderson quick connects. His shop isn’t huge, but compared to my small backyard 2 car garage sized EV shop, it is. Inside, there’s plenty of space for Goldie and his recent Yale forklift acquisition, enough batteries to power a small town, a monster sized generator/dyno, various workbenches strewn with circuit boards, a motor here - a motor there, and there are of course, racks full of pretty green boxes, some completed and ready to go to anxious customers and other in various stages of completion. Oh yeah, there was also the full size vertical rack housing the BIG isolated charger project, one that can jam too many amps to remember. If you’re an electronic geek and love things that spin, whir, glow, and make heat, this is the place! When he flips on power to everything, you begin to realize how many projects he’s working on simultaneously as high intensity LEDs light up, fans and load banks go into action, transformers hum, and meters all wake up. Yeah, this was fun!

It was time to get over to the Earth Day EVent, and after making sure Goldie’s now 8 year old Optima YTs (at least some of them are this old, as it’s a mixture of YTs) were topped off, we left with Rich in the lead, I following in Sniffer, my ‘normally’ fume sniffing Insight. Funny, how even with tired old YTs and knowing Rich had never really punched it hard, he easily squirted away from me several times even though I had the Insight to the wood….yeah, pure electric blows away hybrid stuff. Still, it was fun, the two of us tooling around this beautiful rural town in our two enviro cars.

Not much can be said about the actual EVent, other than it was the typical granola crunching save the earth crowd, only a bit more bizarre than usual in that many of those directly involved with the show were wearing goofy animal costumes, I guess, to convey their thoughts of ‘being one with all God’s creatures’ or something like that…cute, but goofy. The setting was in a wooded lot, the ground muddy and wet. They had covered the area where we parked our cars with shredded fir bows and fresh wood chips. As I pulled my car into place, it felt like I was driving on cork and felt that at any minute, I would sink down into a mud bog. Have I ever spoken on how much I hate mud, especially when it gets on my car’s tires?

Once we had the cars staged for the right effect, Rich told me to go ahead and crank up the tunes. I looked around and assessed the ‘scene’, then told Rich it wasn’t going to be a good idea, but Rudman being Rudman, or at this moment, the Madman, insisted. And so, the soothing sounds of chirping birds and barking squirrels was suddenly punctuated by loud clear audio flowing from the MB Quarts as the classic southern rock rhythm of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘On the Hunt’ woke things up. Almost immediately, a two legged raccoon came busting out of the woods, mad as hell, demanding we turn that ‘noise’ off! Thanks, Rich.

Retuning to nature, the show was pretty much the same as other Earth Day EVents I’ve been part of, with most everyone at there already convinced that recycling, minimalist use of resources, and alternative fuels being the way to go. I’m all for that stuff, as long as it’s done within reason and as long as political dissertations are left out of the equation. It was as it usually is though, a ‘preaching to the choir’ type of thing, so I question how many regular folks were influenced by it all. Personally, I find a large majority of the earth muffin type folks hard to put up with, especially when it comes to their ill behaved offspring. It seems that a hands off approach to raising their kids, is the norm…we don’t want to hurt their self esteem by telling them no, or by scolding them when they act like little animals…heck, even their parents wanted to be animals on this day. Yeah, this was definitely the stereotypical Earth Day crowd, so I was was worn down by the day’s end after having to constantly remind little brats, their fingers greasy and dirty from all they’ve touched, not to lean against the car, pry open its doors, and jump up and down on the custom seats…all the while, their parents let them do it without a single word said to them. One guy asked me what I paid for the car, and when I told him around $20,000 five years ago, he coughed up a “Oh, that’s expensive!” Then, after his self proclamation of how ‘expensive’ my car was, he watched as his little maniacs pushed on, leaned on, drooled on, and overall abused my car…not a word said to them. When I told them to look but not touch and to please not pull on the mirrors or scratch the paint, he acted as if I had committed the utmost sin and said, “Come on kids, lets go.”

This may be my last Earth Day that I’ll take my clean, polished, detailed cars to. I’ll stick to hot rod EVents, show and shine get-togethers, auto shows, electric vehicle shows, and of course, the drag strip. Too bad I don’t still have Sluggo, the 3100 lb., 108V, wet cell / 400 amp Curtis powered Ford Escort I used to have…with it’s funky bodywork, so-so paint job, and uninspired interior with the awesome stock radio, it’s the perfect Earth Day EV. The little demons could jump on it, kick it, and abuse it all they’d want and it would still look the same.

After what seemed to be an eternity, the EVent finally winded down and it was time to fold up camp and go back to the Rudman home base. Rich was all concerned about Goldie being able to make it back on its old batteries and wanted to jam in some quick amps before we left. Unfortunately, the dirt road that led to the outdoor outlet he wanted access to, was blocked by several SUVs being loaded up with stuff. Funny, how these enviro folks talk the game, then drive BIG SUVs instead of an electric pickup or a hybrid. Rich was in a hand-wringing moment now, but I was thoroughly enjoying his panic and thought it would make for an EVentful trip back to his place. The aging Optimas stepped up to the plate however, and Goldie cruised back to Manazanita Micro just fine, thank you.

There’s a microbrew facility across the parking lot from Rich’s shop, Hood Canal Brewery, and though I’m not a big drinker, I ‘do’ occasionally like to have a beer with friends. Rich and I took a break from Goldie’s recharge and I was introduced to ‘Big Beef Stout’. Don’t worry, I’m not a drink ‘n drive guy at all. I merely sampled three of their brews in small shot style glasses, but I did take a 6 pack of Big Beef Stout with me.

We left Hood Canal Brewery, as I handed Rudman the keys to my Insight…he’d never driven one before. Since the car had already hit an all time low in fuel economy, I gave Rich permission to throw miserly driving to the wind and told him to enjoy himself. He took me on an aggressive, hard corning, spirited drive down a road that cut through emerald green foliage still dripping with the recent rains. To add to the effect, we had Velvet Revolver pumping at HIGH wattage levels through the 700 watt rms Wayland sound system, thus, Madman had no vision out the inside rear view mirror. Let it suffice to say, Rudman had a fun time.

After returning to the Rudman digs, we had a terrific dinner of homemade lasagna. Though the Earth Day show was a chore to take part of, just hanging out with Rich and his family made the trip worth the effort.

Cheryl and I left to get to our hotel for the night, the weather still clear and dry. In the morning, we headed out with the Insight’s gas tank at the 1/3 level, or about 3-4 gallons of gas…plenty for a 200+ mile run. It was warmer, the rain was gone, and the beginning of the trip was largely downhill with the speed limit at 50 mph. The Insight rewarded me with 90+ mpg for the first 20 miles or so, then settled in at the low 80’s. Once on the I-5 freeway system though, the rains and wind returned, and the mileage fell into the mid 70’s. We made it home with one bar left on the fuel gauge, the NiMH batteries were as they usually are, topped off with the HV battery pack gauge near full.

See Ya…….John Wayland

The company I forklift wrench for, NW Handling Systems, is my newest sponsor to join the team. They have given me permission to use my service truck as a track base vehicle, complete with its on-board 7.5 kw welder-generator, air compressor, and stuffed full with all my tricked out tools, inverter system, microwave, various lighting systems, drill press, grinder, cables, connectors, contactors, etc. This shop on wheels will be very helpful for us as it has most everything one might need at a race track, and, it will be great advertising for the company, as hundreds of car guys, many of whom work blue collar type jobs where forklifts are used, will see it every weekend we’re at the track.

Dutchman Motorsports has completed the high strength stainless steel dual armature shaft for White Zombie’s new ‘Siamese 8′ motor….quite simply, it’s a work of art and a shame to hide it inside the new motor! The Dutchman surprised me with a very generous amount of sponsorship help on the new shaft, too, so that really helps.

I delivered the new shaft to Hi Torque Electric this morning on my trip to central Oregon for work related duties. Jim Husted and I went over how the new motor will go together, and everything from the color of the field sections (purple) to the new solid copper brush interconnects that will replace the wimpy stranded wire interconnects was discussed. After the armatures, center bearing, and fan are pressed onto the shaft, it will then be high speed balanced. When the armature assembly is ready, the motor gets fully assembled and hand timed so that both motor sections if run independently, give the exact same rpm with the same voltage and current applied. After the fine tuning of timing is completed, the end bells will be secured to keep things perfect. The completed Siamese 8 motor fed from a 336V supply, should give White Zombie even more muscle, perhaps as high as 300 hp. The new hotrod twin armature Siamese 8 will be about 6 inches shorter than were the two separate 8 inch motors mounted in their dual motor aluminum mount, and will now clear the car’s front frame rail, allowing us to mount the motor lower and parallel with the road surface as is the rear end’s input flange. A custom aluminum drive line with turbo 400 sized Spicer universals will transfer power to the back end. If all goes according to plan, White Zombie will be race ready by the end of the month. Minus all drive train vibration, with a pack of powerful Hawkers at 336V nominal, a new SCR based Afterburner (for both turn-on and turn-off), and weighing less than 2300 lbs., it should be a very fun ride! The goal is mid to low 12s at something around 110 mph.

The monster 13″ motor for Purple Phaze is coming along nicely, and now has its variable timing brush rigging installed. There is approximately 22 degrees of timing each side of neutral available. The H100 brush material used in the Zombie’s motors has proved near ideal for the stuff I’ve been doing, so Jim ordered and received bigger versions for the 13 incher. The steel com of this motor is in terrific shape, as is everything else. Jim worked over the field coils a bit and rebaked them.

Friday will be a crazed EVer’s day, with MadMan Rudman, Father Time, the new kid Tim Brehm (gotta get him a suitable nickname), and yours truly heading off from Portland back over the mountain to Redmond together. Father Time will bring the new aluminum drive end bells for his and my 13 inch motors he created. Madman will be checking out Jim’s motor shop and giving input on the variable brush timing setup, and Tim will be subjected to it all. We’re all piling into the Jeep Grand Cherokee, trailer in tow, so we can haul back the minitruck and its new power plant. When it’s back in town, Tim and I will begin creating the design of battery placement and motor-driveline’ rear end setup. I’m also looking for a bodyshop that can transform the near four decades old truck into a glossy purple track rocket, hopefully, sponsoring a lot of the cost in return for receiving highly visible advertising as the electric minitruck blows off high powered gas cars The Exide batteries are already in my shop, and Marko Mongillo is ready to make battery trays for the 29 Orbitals. The Dutchman and I are also scheming another Ford nine inch setup for the truck. With the massive torque this motor will make, and with 560 hp of battery power on tap, it will ‘need’ Dutchman axles! Oat says the new Z2K Zilla slated for this truck, will be ready near the end of the month.

To add to all the stuff on my plate, Tim and I will be taking Blue Meanie to a custom street rod show on Saturday, so we’ve got to get the Z1K installed, the four new subs mounted, and the stereo system back on line. Lots to do, but when your having this much EV fun, it’s all worth it.

See Ya……John ‘Plasma Boy’ Wayland