This blog documents the restoration, and conversion, of a 1965 Humber (Singer) Vogue to a fully electric vehicle. The Vogue will be powered by an 11kW(modified), 3 phase industrial AC motor, controlled by an industry standard Variable Speed Drive (VSD) or Inverter. To be able to produce the 400 volts phase to phase the VSD will need about 600 VDC of batteries. A big thanks to the contributors on the AEVA forum: http://forums.aeva.asn.au/forums/

Sunday, July 24, 2011

First Drive - It's Not a Mixmaster!

The first time Laurel, my other half, saw and heard the motor running in the Vogue she indicated that she hoped I wasn't building a Mixmaster - a device that made whirring noises but didn't move. The Mixmaster joke has been ongoing in our family for almost a year now.

I put the Driveshaft in last night. We waited all morning for the rain showers to stop then just after lunch checked the weather radar map again and it showed clear for a couple of hours. The covers came off for the first time in about a year. I'm holding the keys.
The bonnet closed. Curously I was glad to see it still did!
Some quick video editing and...

Laurel says it's officially NOT a Mixmaster.
I should have put the dashboard in but I was really wanting to see it move. The fiddling with clip leads is to select forward/reverse. The ignition system and safeties were all operating.

Some stills.
About the only electric thing left to do is mount those rear chargers that you can see lying around in the boot.
There was an interesting moment halfway up the street where I stopped and some neighbours were in their driveway putting stuff in the boot of their car. The Vogue brakes gave a little squeak when it stopped and they looked up in time to see it silently take off in reverse - a priceless look. It's the next driveway up on the left from where the Vogue is in this shot.

Now for some lights, trim, glass, rubber, pinchweld, etc....

2 comments:

ML said...

Now you can look forward to the sounds of the suspension, glass and door rattles which the motor normally masks! Well done!

Malcolm Faed said...

Brilliant Johnny. What a milestone. Reminds me of when I had the ute driving under its own power.

Laa teh best with the finishing. Mal (a4x4kiwi)