
Stuffing a Tesla Drivetrain into a 1981 Honda Accord - mdesq
https://jalopnik.com/this-glorious-madman-stuffed-a-p85-tesla-drivetrain-int-1823461909
======
tsomctl
To anyone who isn't aware, there is a huge world of car hacking. There is of
course the basics like getting an expensive air filter (pointless), and it
goes all the way up to welding up your own custom car. The more common mods
are things like tuning your suspension, replacing your engine with a more
powerful one, or upgrading your differentials. It takes a wide range of
skills, including welding, machining, panel beating, plumbing, and electrical.
You can very easily nerd out on this.

~~~
loeg
> You can very easily nerd out on this.

It's also a good money suck. Pretty easy to spend a year's pay on car mods
that _at best_ do not regress safety features nor increase your rate of
speeding tickets. At worst you're looking at safety issues and additional
tickets (cost).

Not judging — people have different hobbies and are free to spend their money
how they see fit. If you're looking for frugal hobbies, though, this isn't it.

(Now, shadetree home car maintenance — that's a frugal hobby in a similar
vein. It's a nice break from the keyboard and requires some of the same
skills.)

~~~
Frondo
I'd love to do a lot more to my car, but I live in an apartment in a crowded
part of the city; no garage, no place for tools.

Is there anything like the equivalent of a commissary kitchen, but for cars?
Like a garage with tools where I could rent it for a couple of days, and then
go work on it with their tools, etc?

~~~
cstejerean
Profile says you’re in Seattle. If so, check out The Shop
([http://theshopclubs.com](http://theshopclubs.com)). It s a bit more than
just a garage to rent, but among the various services it offers to members one
of them is the ability to rent their bays with a car lift to work on your car.

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walrus01
Considering they built a new subframe and raised it so much, this is really
more like a custom Tesla/volt frankencar that is wearing the body shell of an
Accord as a hat.

~~~
itomato
The gasser look really does not suit the first-gen Accord.

~~~
taneq
Agreed. Aesthetics are always subjective but to me it looks terrible.

~~~
stinos
Ha came here to see if anyone else'd posted this. I really like what an Accord
looks like, also because my parents had one in my childhood, but making it
high like this one just makes it look weird and ugly to me.

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alex_hitchins
One day, when money is not an issue and I have the time to tinker all day
long, I'd love, I mean LOVE, to build my own electric Saab 9000. I'm a big fan
of the early, non GM Saabs and currently own two. For some unknown reason,
I've always had it in my head that an electrified 9000 would be the most
perfect car every possible. I understand and am comfortable knowing I am alone
on this. Buy lordy, one big lottery win and I know the first thing I'm getting
myself!

~~~
the_rosentotter
I'm not a big car guy, but I am nostalgic for my 9000. Like a true Saab it was
in many ways a strangely put together car, but it had a hard to describe feel
of being well engineered and a great ride. I owned a 900 too, and had Saab
still existed I would most likely still be driving a Saab today.

Perhaps the new Chinese owners jump onto the electric wave and need a good
base vehicle? One can dream!

At least an electric 9000 wouldn't have the balance chain chewing up the
engine block ;)

~~~
alex_hitchins
It's such a solid car. Over engineered I dare say but such a lovely thing to
drive. And personally, I still think it looks quite contemporary amongst cars
of today. My father had a 900 and I feel that was my gateway Saab as I adored
that thing. In a way I don't really feel for any other cars. I like cars, but
often can give or take. Saabs make me feel all funny. Perhaps I should see
someone about it... Must admit, I've never had any issues with the balance
chain. After a head gasket (that was skimmed, fixed and happy for another 80k)
I had a heater matrix go and a radiator, then water pump but I put all these
down to the gasket going. Another brilliant thing with the ones of my era, is
they are designed to be worked on. No job was ever that much of a pain.

~~~
the_rosentotter
Saab designs have always been timeless (mostly pre-GM of course) and still
look great today.

The easiest fix for the balance chain issue on 9000s is to simply remove it.
It's a whole subsystem only there to counter vibrations for smoother engine
operation. This speaks to your point about over-engineering, but is also an
illustration of the kind of design that makes the car feel so good.

~~~
alex_hitchins
My daily driver, a now 20 year old 9000 just turned 225k miles. I fully expect
it to do another 225k!

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bri3d
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt4fGIoVMpM](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt4fGIoVMpM)

Another fun swap: a Tesla drive unit and Volt batteries into a Lotus Evora.
Basically recreating the original Tesla Roadster's bigger counterpart.

Volt+Tesla is an increasingly popular swap because the Volt batteries are
easier to manage and have a more convenient form factor. Plus, there are more
of them available from recyclers.

~~~
gonesilent
The main reason why is volt packs are dirt cheap vs tesla packs commanding a
huge premium because DIY powerwall guys snatch them up.

~~~
SwellJoe
So, why aren't DIY Powerwall guys snapping up Volt battery packs? I can see
two reasons to DIY a Powerwall: Price and to work around Tesla's stupid rules
about where/how Powerwall can be installed. Seems like you'd want the cheapest
batteries you could get if price is your motivating force in building a DIY
Powerwall.

~~~
gonesilent
Volt pack is hard to split up to usable voltage. Tesla pack splits in to easy
to manage voltages because of it's module design. BMS is also fully decoded on
Tesla modules so get to keep safety aspects.

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inetsee
Sounds a lot like the urban legend I read years (and years) ago, about the son
of a Porsche dealer who dropped a Porsche Spyder engine into a Volkswagon Bug.
According to the story, he had a lot of fun rolling up next to muscle cars at
stop lights, and then watching them disappear in his rear view mirror.

~~~
djsumdog
Back in University, we had one guy in the dorms who said his Uncle Bill put a
Miata engine in an MGB. We were contemplating how that would even remotely be
possible; looking up pictures of forums boards of both engine bays.

"Well I guess, if you remove all of x, y and z and made custom mounts..."

We later learned this guy ones one of those bullshitters who would lie about
everything; told us he was in the national guard and hat to shoot rubber
bullets at people looting stores after tornadoes. He was our age and had one
of those civilian IDs they give military family members.

Next semester we ask the guy if his uncle will bring his MGB to the car show
we were putting together. "Oh he sold it." .... right ...

Anytime we had some crazy idea for our cars. "I wonder if I could convert my
mom's Maxima to a 5spd," the respond would always be, "I BET UNCLE BILL COULD
DO IT!"

~~~
spitfire
In the UK they do put K-series[0] engines into the MGB.

[0] The K-series is the descendant of the T16, which is the descendant of the
M-series, which is the descendant of the O2-series, which is the descendant of
the O-series, which is the engine that we /designed/ for the MGB, but never
was put into the MGB before it was canceled. The O-Series instead went into a
bunch of work vans and other hateful boxes instead.

So he might have sort of been right. But he was probably still a royal
bullshitter.

~~~
poooogles
>The K-series is the descendant of the T16

Descendant only in the fact it came later. The engines share nothing from
memory. The K series was an all new small capacity engine (1400cc) on release.
Compared to the O, M and L (diesel) it's a fully aluminium block and head with
steel damp liners. The K series had its bore and stroke upped to bring it to
1800cc after launch, along with adding variable valve control with the VCC
engine.

The two engines share very little in common, the most frequent thing being
they're normally both attached to a a PG1 gearbox.

Source: UK MG owner that used to own 300bhp ZR.

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userbinator
...and somewhere else, someone is probably contemplating swapping a combustion
engine into a Tesla. The world has a way of balancing itself out with weird
things.

~~~
stephengillie
Put a gasoline generator in the frunk and run an extension cord to the
charging port. You'll probably get 50-60 MPG. (Teslas cannot leave the Park
gear while charging, so a workaround is needed.)

...unless you wanted to retrofit a Toyota eCVT onto a Model S. The Toyota eCVT
is quite remarkable in combining electric and mechanical drivetrains entirely
through planetary gear ratios, without any shifting. John Kelly at Weber State
University has many excellent videos describing these transmissions.[0]

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLNDGUISTYM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLNDGUISTYM)

~~~
2sk21
Indeed - the Toyota hybrid synergy drive is a real marvel of engineering. The
way in which it uses two separate motor generators to simulate a conventional
CVT is just amazing.

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sgt
Also worth checking out: [http://evbmw.com/](http://evbmw.com/) this is
electronics wizard and Irishman Damien Maguire converting BMW's (in his view,
the best cars in the world) to electric.

His videos are very detailed and also fairly slow paced so you can take your
time to understand. He's done several brilliant builds already including an
E39 (aka the best 5-series in my opinion), and E31 (8-series from the early
90s).

Currently he's busy with an E36 EUR1000 conversion which almost sounds too
good to be true so it will be very interesting to view.

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agentgt
Watching that video of the car accelerate I remember being awestruck how fast
circa 1990 my Taiyo RC Fast Traxx could go.

I remember my dad and I scaling up the math (I was only 10 so I needed a
little help) and I remember asking him why normal cars didn’t have batteries.

I don’t recall the answer but it was long... I also was quite distracted with
my new RC toy car .. err tank (google fast traxx).

~~~
taneq
The answer was "NiCd batteries are way too expensive, lead acid batteries are
way too heavy, and both have way too short a cycle life."

~~~
Tossrock
Deep cycle lead-acid batteries have fine cycle lives, and indeed were (and
are) used for driving golf carts. However, they trade off for lower specific
power, which makes them unsuitable for a full-sized, highway-speed-reaching
car.

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tyingq
Kudos, but the fit/finish isn’t exactly “sleeper” category.

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avcdsuia
Why do HNers like Tesla so much? Surely Tesla start the era of electric
vehicles,but for me it's just yet another American luxury car.I fancy
something more exquisite and fun to drive.

~~~
frisco
Have you driven a high performance EV? (Specifically, a Tesla?)

I can't think of something more fun to drive, and I've driven a lot of cars.
It feels completely different from a combustion engine car.

~~~
userbinator
Oddly enough, I've had the chance to briefly drive a _trolleybus_ , and while
it doesn't accelerate quite like a Tesla, it's still surprisingly quick off
the line, for a multi-ton vehicle. All that torque is available from a
standstill.

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CodeWriter23
A long time ago I would go to the street drags on S. Eubanks in Albuquerque.
This guy rolls up in a beater Corvair. Starts powerbraking it, burning up the
stock 14” wheels on the back, egging anyone on to race him. Everybody is
ridiculing him. One of the regulars with I’d guess about a 12 second muscle
car (quarter mile in 1977, pretty fast) takes his challenge.

The Corvair totally smokes the muscle car. I only recall a couple of seriously
built cars being that fast. Corvair guy dies his victory lap, comes back to
the starting line, stops and turns on his dome light. He’s got a Pontiac 428
where the back seat used to be, a 2 speed automatic is hooked up to a static
rear axle via chain drive. Absolutely brilliant in its simplicity and ROI.

~~~
joncrane
Wait, did you say chain drive? How does the chain handle all that power? Must
wear out the sprockets quickly.

~~~
CodeWriter23
I’m taking Corvair guy’s word for it. The transmission was buried under the
floor pan, so we couldn’t see the final drive. The car was nearly silent, it
didn’t have the typical rumble of a V8. It had this odd whine it made when it
was in motion, which he attributed to the chain drive.

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matte_black
I wonder if Tesla will just sell a drivetrain by itself? Would be cool to just
DIY your own electric car.

~~~
userbinator
From what I've read, they don't even sell parts to owners of their cars, only
authorised repair centers.

~~~
Scoundreller
Which means a surplus of spare parts because it's too expensive to repair a
salvaged car.

~~~
astronautjones
Perfect HN opportunity to open up a marketplace for said parts, especially
with so many early adopters here

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asciimo
EV West makes kits you can drop into your old Karmann Ghia, Beetle, Porche and
more.
[http://www.evwest.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=40&osCsid=63be...](http://www.evwest.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=40&osCsid=63bejo67v91j814k59tmakfcm6)

~~~
russellbeattie
Oh wow! An electric Karmann Ghia would be about the best thing I could imagine
driving.

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atroyn
Does anyone know how much a Model S powertrain costs at salvage? I'm wondering
about the total cost (less labor) of this mod.

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Rantenki
Sounds awesome. Back in the day people were (or still are) stuffing VG30
(Nissan 300ZX) engines in 70s era Datsun 510s, which were awesome little rally
cars in their time.

Example:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0MXPq8LLhU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0MXPq8LLhU)

I guess this is the modern equivalent?

~~~
loser777
I don't know if you mean _literally_ sounds awesome ;). It's absurd (in a good
way) how the RC-car electric sound belies the actual acceleration.

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abritinthebay
One day I'll take my '67 VW Bus and put a nice powerful engine in it. Maybe
one of the early 90s Porsche engines (as it would be nice to stay air-cooled
and Porsche has VW heritage).

But damn it's an expensive hobby to even _own_ an older car - let alone mod
it.

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mikehotel
He is just getting his feet wet with this first ev project. Looking forward to
his next one!

 _This won’t be his last electric build, either. Next up, he’d like to build a
full-size version of an RC10 radio control car. That’s our kind of toy, for
sure._

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Zardoz84
Sadly, this kind of things on Spain are far of being possible as a car that
run on the streets need to be homologated, and a lot of paperwork. Something
stupid and simple like replacing the lights by led lights would required it.

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coryrc
How about Tesla drivetrain in a stretch Vanagon?

[http://cafeelectric.com/stretchla/about/](http://cafeelectric.com/stretchla/about/)

~~~
gonesilent
That one was never built but another guy did one in a vanagon transporter

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zw123456
Oh, very very cool. My dream... Tesla spider chassis tucked under a Porsche
550 spider replica. James Dean Meets Elon Musk.

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olivermarks
[http://www.nedra.com](http://www.nedra.com)

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triviatise
moment motors is an austin startup that converts classic cars to electric.

Here is a porsche they did
[https://www.momentmotors.com/porsche/](https://www.momentmotors.com/porsche/)

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tritium
Geeze, if Honda Accords didn’t look drastically different back then...

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wheresmyusern
this reminds me of the white zombie -- the car that started my whole obsession
with electric cars all those years ago.

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renw0rp
such a waste; it's so fugly

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bb88
Awesome, so this is what it's like to be rich and bored.

~~~
astronautjones
Honestly that applies to most long term posters here

~~~
cjcfjrf
Long term poster. Rich (10mm) but definitely not bored. Too Damn busy. Rarely
see rich people being bored

~~~
senatorobama
How did you make your fortune, if you don't mind me asking?

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saudioger
Reading about this makes me feel like I'm hallucinating, wtf.

