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Well the topic says it, I was thinking around 120hp or more (the more the better ). Its not for my beetle, I'm just designing a future project. Thanks

Why so big? Just run a faster spinning electric with a gear or chain drive. That way you don't have a 1500lb motor on the thing.

-Mark

Big? I'm trying to design a completely electric sports/super car. Super light weight with a good bit of power. A complete tube chassis with fully independent suspension. Stuff like that. And if anyone wants to know why I'm thinking about this, I just want to.

Electric Vehicles is a fascinating subject with quite a few fascinating cars to its name. Some people race them, some bask in the glory of the low fuel bills, some produce great commuter/inner city cars and some people are just plain geeky. There are a number of different sized motors + controllers out there. Do a Google search, heres a start:
http://www.ev-america.com/
http://www.acpropulsion.com/
http://www.nedra.com/
http://www.ev-america.com/
http://www.evaa.org/evaa/index.htm
http://eaaev.org/

Ooops, forgot to mention.

Low weight, gobs of power. Sounds great doesnt it. The big but is that range, power and weight in EVs is directly proportional. With the technology available today you cant exclude any of the above.

Lots of power means lots of voltage. If you want a feasible range with that you need lots of amperage ie lots of batteries ie lots of weight. So there goes your luscious bhp/tonne ratio.

Unless you had other plans

Does about 90 minutes of spirted driving sound too long or unrealistic? I've never really used electric engines in anyway. I'm just planning right now. I don't want it do be weighed down by heavy batteries. How long would 3 or 4 batteries last with a motor like I'm envisioning? Could solar panels be used to charge them? I know they're exspensive, but this is going to be a toy, something for fun not practicality. If they can I was thinking of setting a few in the rear deck lid of the car I'm designing, just for that little bit of extra power while I'm driving around. Incase I get stuck in traffic or something unexspected like that.

Stop thinking in terms of horsepressure and instead concentrate on torque and amp-hours (energy storage and rate of consumption).

Kaylor used to offer an adapter plate that bolted right up to a T1 transaxle and used a cheap system of stepping relays instead of a more sophisticated controller. Don't know if this is still available.

http://www.kaylor-kit.com

Roy is a nice enough guy, but I strongly suggest that if something's not in stock (not available for immediate shimpment) that you not pay him in advance.....it may be forever till it arrives (literally). Not trying to cast aspersions, but it's sadly more often than not what ends up happening.
-ANT

Check out the cars here. Compare voltage, amperage, range , top speed, weight and number of batteries. Crosscheck that with the EV dragracers.
http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/index7.html#Volkswagen

Do a Google search on the engines and controllers they use. It helps to think in terms of kilowatts (kW) as opposed to horsepower. Kilowatts are voltage times amperage minus transmission + controller losses.

I'm trying to figure it out, but for the time being, about what would it take to the car to do about 160 - 180mph. The car should be very light, its going to have a tube Mercedes 300SL hard top style chassis. Its just in the planning stages so I have no solid idea. I do know its going to be mid engine, either by a vw transaxle, porsche transaxle, or a japanese import transaxle. I've still got to read up on it more to fully understand it.

OK, you piqued my interest, and I went out and found a link for you:

http://www.ghiamonster.com/

Can you say 1000+ foot-pounds of torque?

The History section of that site is particularly informative.

Top speed is projected at 150+mph.

Heh, he just used a FEW batteries ...

SO much for pollution free. How many of those batteries will end up in the local landfill site ??

Yeah, the whole project is more than a little out of control. Dude's already spent more than $50,000. I still don't quite understand where all those batteries fit in the car.

There's a guy out here near TOronto that has a Geo Metro that went this way. He has to carry around a trailer to carry all the batteries if he expects to get further than about 25 minutes or so .... I don't see the logic. The batteries are also environment killers ....

Yep. Low fuel bills, humongeus battery costs. Massive torque, massive weight. EV transportation is a fantastic concept. Soon as it reaches full maturity it will be even more fantastic.

I was wondering, could someone tell me what the pros and cons of alternating current and direct current. I found some AC motors that have 740 ftlbs of torque, they're stackable too. They're very thin too. They're ment for racing. But they're not buyable right now, they're still in the testing stage. But I'm not going to be doing this for a while so they might be in production by then. I couldn't get any of the other stats for it. But they sound ideal for it.