wws944

The controllers are similar to, but much smaller than, the electric trolley controllers of the day. There is a bank of resistors which are switched in various series and parallel combinations, and also connecting the stator coil(s) and rotor in series or parallel. So the answer to your question is "all of the above". Googling around, I found this web page which seems pretty good: Wells Auto Museum (twinkletoesengineering.info) One interesting feature that some early electrics had was a primitive form of regenerative braking. The above web page claims that some electrics didn't even have mechanical brakes.

I know Illinois started offering vanity plates in the early 1970s. When they first came out, my dad ordered a set for his '70 Electra, then later for a couple of other cars. As far as amateur radio call signs go... I think ham plates have been around for a really long time. Vanity call signs were a perk for Extra class hams - so I'd guess date from when incentive licensing was introduced in the 1960s. At some point in the late '70s the FCC stopped granting vanity calls. But they were eventually re-introduced in 1996 - which is when I got mine. They offered the vanity calls through a series of staged "gates": Gate 1 was for hams who wanted to recover a call sign they, or a close family member, had previously held. Gate 2 was for Extra class license holders. Gate 3 for Advanced class, Gate 4 for General class, and then for Tech and probably Novice class. I have ham plates on my 944 (previous non-vanity call sign), and did have my current vanity call on plates on my Suburban. Was going to put the plates from the Suburban on my Tesla - but then decided not to. Unfortunately I'd already replaced the Suburban's plates with non-descript ones. I'm now thinking of putting the vanity call plates on the Reatta. The problem with ham plates is that these days anyone can type the call sign into google and find out where you live. So if one accidentally cuts someone off in traffic...

Typical trolleys of the era ran the overhead power lines at 600V DC, though some interurbans ran at 1200V DC and even higher. IIRC, the motors in the bigger trolley we run at the Trolley Barn can draw up to about 75 kW. So the rectifier has to be able to support over 100 amps on the DC side - just for the one car. That is quite a lot of current for vacuum tube technology - especially 100 years ago. It is interesting that Edmonton used mercury arc rectifiers. Typically rotary converters, basically motor-generators, were used.

The Lincoln welder folks used to manufacture similar motor-generators for EV charging back then. In one of Lenos Baker Electric videos, he shows his period charging stand - complete with mercury arc rectifier on display. But as with the Detroit Electric that we have at the Trolley Barn, modern batteries and charging electronics are used.

If anyone is interested, the annual Antique Autos in History Park (San Jose CA) is coming up on September 19th. Details at: https://historysanjose.org/programs-events/ The Trolley Barn will be open, but unfortunately we won't be doing trolley rides through the park. The high voltage rectifier has been on the fritz lately - so we can't energize the overhead power line. It won't be fixed until at least late September.

Probably the 2002 Buick Rendezvous that we had until a couple years ago. The 3.4 liter V6 was kind of underpowered for it. Especially at highway speeds - where it sometimes had problems maintaining the speed limit.. Though the same 3.4 in my daughters 2004 Olds Alero works fairly well.

LOL - literally almost every other word is a swear word. But yeah - Clint has a Gran Torino.

I learned to drive on my parents '70 Electra Limited and '73 Electra 225. The '70 had the high compression 455 and dad even ordered it with factory dual exhaust. Zero-60 was about 8 seconds - great for such a heavy car. The '73 455 was a sad shadow of its former self by comparison. Maybe 12-13 second 0-60 on a good day, and got about 7 mpg. Funny thing is that prior to the '73, they had a '67 Electra - which I only drove a couple of times. But dad claimed the '67 was even faster than the '70.... In my case, it would be my current daily driver - an early Tesla Model 3 Long Range RWD. The 0-60 time is supposedly in the high 4 second range. (Originally just over 5 seconds, but early on we got a couple of 5% power boosts via over-the-air software updates.) The dual motor cars are way faster.

Well, the topic has been debated endlessly for years on a couple of threads at the Tesla Motors Club forum. I'd provide links, but most here would probably rather use the time enjoying their old cars. I also have a friend who is leasing a Mirai. So I can claim to have ridden in one. Not sure what he will do when his lease is up.

H2 won't be viable as a transportation fuel for a very long time. I doubt if it will ever be viable for passenger cars. H2 cars, such as the Mirai, are EVs in the sense that they have electric motors and a battery pack. It is just that the battery pack is fairly small, and the FC converts H2 for the bulk of the power. A pure EV has a much larger battery pack and no need for the added complexity and inherent inefficiency of the FC. Where does H2 come from? The page you linked to briefly mentions the problem in the last couple of paragraphs. Most commonly from methane (natural gas - CH4) reformation. However it is more efficient, with less pollution, to burn the gas directly in a modern combined cycle natural gas plant and use the generated electricity to directly charge a battery. Same with electrolysis - which is a very energy inefficient process. Someday, maybe decades from now, we may have enough surplus energy from solar cells and other renewables that we can use the excess 'inefficiently' to replace existing production of H2 (for ammonia, fertilizers, steel making, and such). And then after that, it may make sense to use additional excess for transportation. Perhaps air travel first - where weight of large battery packs really matters. Again, I can't see where it will ever be viable for passenger cars.

I can't speak for Matt, but in my case $30 of electricity (using PG&E off-peak rates) would propel my Model 3 about 650-700 miles. That is not counting the fact that I have a solar system on my roof which provides "free" electricity during the day. My off-peak EV-A rate is $0.18366/kWh - so $30 would buy 163.3 kWh. My car shows a lifetime energy usage of 244 Wh/mile (4.1 miles/kWh). Doing the math, 163.3*4.1=669.5 - let's call it 670 miles. More around town, and less on the highway.

A fellow named Raymond Carr drove a 1912 Baker Electric from Astoria, Oregon to Atlantic City, NJ in 1995. I managed to contact some of his family a couple years ago, and they were kind enough to send me a copy of a booklet he had published describing details of the adventure. He bought the Baker from the Harrah Collection in 1986 and did a lot of restoration work on it. The Baker's electrics were pretty much stock, though he did have the original motor rewound for a higher top speed of about 30 mph. Batteries were modern, for 1995, lead-acid. He left Astoria on May 28th, and arrived in Atlantic City on July 3rd - mostly driving on U.S. 30. Had a crew following him with a generator for charging in the outbacks. A year later, Carr drove a 1909 Stanley Steamer from Anchorage, Alaska to Bar Harbor, Maine. And in 2000, he did an "around the world in 80 days" trip in a 1939 Ford. They sent me booklets on those trips as well. Fun reading!

I drove I-5 to Seattle for 4th of July weekend. On the way north, there was a fire just north of Lake Shasta that came right down to the edge of the road. The plume of smoke was impressive looking! Lots of emergency vehicles on the side of the road, but fortunately traffic was still flowing. One nice thing about modern cars is that they have cabin air filters. It is interesting to read the history of cabin air filters. Seems Nash was a pretty early proponent of them back in the 1940s. Unfortunately it took the rest of the car industry another 50 years to catch up.

Yes - all modern EVs, and hybrids for that matter, use a DC-DC converter to go from the 3-400V traction pack to power the 12V accessories (and maintain the 12V battery) like the alternator in an ICE car would.

Besides his suspension being a mess, he has a belt driving an alternator for 12V? LOL! That is what DC-DC converters are for.

As big a fan of EVs as I am, I would have a hard time wanting to convert an older car. Though it seems relatively easy to mount an electric motor to the front of a conventional transmission, that is only the start of the problems. You have to add 1000 lbs of weight to the car for the batteries - which of course requires changes to the entire suspension, braking, steering, etc. Speaking of brakes and steering, they then need to be converted to an electric system. And if it is a more modern old car, an electric air conditioning system needs to be devised and so on. It would be a never ending project. I know a fellow who converted a Porsche 914 to EV. He has been working on it as a hobby for over 10 years. I was amused at his cabin heating system. He found a couple of womens hair driers that would work on DC. Wired them in series to match the battery voltage and they then blow hot air through the HVAC ducts. (No need for cooling as he can just lift off the roof.) He also did a lead-acid to Li-ion battery conversion a few years ago - which added to the costs, but also gave him a lot more range and usability. While it is quite driveable, it is definitely still a "work in progress"...

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You guys beat me to mentioning this one. I'm too lazy to find the forum postings, it's not here at aaca, but a couple of years ago I found some commentary on this. There apparently were a couple of different Continentals used in various scenes. And when they put the car in the crusher, it clearly had its engine removed.

Briefly talked with Jay Leno at a car show in L.A. But probably any car buff in S. California could say the same. A buddy of mine snapped a photo of the two of us. Not sure Jay was even aware the photo was taken. Met Marc Tarpenning - cofounder of Tesla. A friend/neighbor of mine is a high school/college buddy of his, and actually introduced him to Martin Eberhart when they were all working at previous companies.

"The Great Race" with Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Jack Lemmon and a host of others was a fun movie. As far as chase scenes go, W.C. Fields did a pretty good one in "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break":

A late uncle of mine bought the last Oldsmobile sold in the Omaha Nebraska area. Just a few days after Olds ceased to become a brand. It is a loaded 2004 Alero - though not one of the "final 500" edition cars. I bought it from his estate, and my daughter drives it now. Not sure if that makes it worth any more or less than any other used Alero. But it makes for fun conversation.

Like fluorescents, LED bulbs come in a variety of color temperatures. Commonly either 2700°K (roughly the same as traditional incandescent), 3000°K (roughly the same as halogen incandescent), 4100°K (close to daylight), or 5000°K (daylight). For task oriented spaces such as garages, workshops, kitchens, offices, and reading lamps, choose daylight temps. For living spaces such as bedrooms and family rooms, warmer temps are more comfortable. I used to buy 2700°K for such spaces because 3000°K wasn't as available as it is now. But for me, 2700°K is too warm. So now I use 3000°K when possible. As far as substituting LED bulbs in auto lighting, it depends on the situation. There is a fundamental difference between how a LED emits light (e.g., in a planar fashion) and how an incandescent filament does (e.g., much more omni-directionally - though it does depend on things like orientation of the filament). With separate bulb and reflector, the LED(s) may not be at the correct focal point of the reflector, and can emit light in unexpected directions. So it is really hit or miss as to how a given LED replacement will work in any given fixture. If one has traditional sealed beam headlights (e.g., 6024, 6054, etc) - which incorporate the entire optical assembly in one unit, it is easy to find effective LED replacements.

Nice. When we bought my '61, someone had previously painted it red. But it was originally white, so we had it repainted back to the original color. Dads '60, and the '59 parts car were also white. The '59 also had the optional removable hard top - which was one of the reasons we bought it. Unfortunately it was sitting outside by the workshop where I was working on it, and got ruined by some neighborhood vandals. Lesson learned.

Back in the mid-1970s, between my dad and myself we had three 190SLs. Being busy with college in a distant state, I ended up selling my '61 to a guy who "really really" wanted it and would treasure it forever. Then the SOB flipped it to a classic car dealer about a month later. Dad sold his '60 in the late '80s to a collector somewhere in Michigan. (Dad regretted selling too, and a couple years later he bought the Reatta Convertible that I still own today.) The third was a very rusty '59 parts car that we stripped and disposed of. The 190SL was neither "Super" nor "Light". Maybe SLow was a better description. It was a pretty looking car though, and convertibles are always a treat. But no way in my mind would I ever pay six figures for one in todays market. Just so many other cars I'd rather own for much less money.

I know your post was in jest. But you might be surprised. A couple of relatively small panels combined with a modest Lithium battery would handle your perking and toasting sessions. Something like a Jackery 1000 Solar Generator (https://www.jackery.com/products/jackery-explorer-1000-2-x-solarsaga-100w-solar-generator) would probably do the job. On a recent camping trip, one of the guys brought along two Jackery 1000s and solar panels. They powered all our needs over the weekend. This included powering an amateur radio station and computers. (ARRL Field Day.)