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Alzax3
15-05-2011, 09:37 PM
This is an unusual one - fancy a full on build?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NOVA-KIT-CAR-VW-B ... 415993cc02 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NOVA-KIT-CAR-VW-BEETLE-BASED-1968-TAX-EXEMPT-/280675732482?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item415993cc02)

islandman
16-05-2011, 03:53 AM
Like the wheels, for a chassis and body in reasonable nic this is a good price

jim73vw
16-05-2011, 04:33 PM
Also may stay tax exempt, V5 says Volkswagen and under body type it says Sports.

Was tempted, but not great timing !

Alzax3
18-05-2011, 08:00 PM
They've plonked the body onto the chasis and added photos - it's a Mk2 and appears to have a good screen - looking like a bargain for someone at the present price!

caterham7
20-05-2011, 01:50 PM
Hi,

I've wanted a Nova for about 20 years now, and just registered on this forum.

I was going to bid on this when I saw it a week ago, but it's jumped up in the last day and I'm not sure how much it's worth, anyone like to share their estimate?

Thanks

Lee

Alzax3
20-05-2011, 01:57 PM
Hi Lee

That sort of depends just how desperately you want one - if it's been years and you want a Mk2 then this looks like one that has a lot of potential - it's got a good screen and a V5 and looks like a lot of the hard work has been done (no mention of wiring mind!) so if you have the skills to finish it then up to £2 or £2.5K wouldn't be unreasonable. Mind you, unless you do a top-notch job of the build it won't be worth that much more when finished, they're not and never have been a car to buy as an investment! Good luck whatever you decide to do.......

bobbybrown
20-05-2011, 08:15 PM
Hi Lee

That sort of depends just how desperately you want one - if it's been years and you want a Mk2 then this looks like one that has a lot of potential - it's got a good screen and a V5 and looks like a lot of the hard work has been done (no mention of wiring mind!) so if you have the skills to finish it then up to £2 or £2.5K wouldn't be unreasonable. Mind you, unless you do a top-notch job of the build it won't be worth that much more when finished, they're not and never have been a car to buy as an investment! Good luck whatever you decide to do.......
Completely agree on this, I wonder if the price jumped once the body was put back on the chassis and they got the engine going?

Surely the photos helped too :)

Alzax3
23-05-2011, 12:47 PM
Sold for £1,500 so a bargain for someone, was it a forum member though?

caterham7
23-05-2011, 02:00 PM
I didn't bid in the end, as I hadn't seen it in the flesh and my wife wasn't too keen on me buying it at the present time.

Will be keeping an eye out for a project or a running model in the future though - annoyingly my cousin's husband had a Nova in bits several years ago, and sold it on without letting me know.

Neil
11-06-2011, 07:57 AM
Sold for £1,500 so a bargain for someone, was it a forum member though?

Someone who's a forum member now :)
I went to pick it up yesterday from the very nice bloke selling it (who mentioned he had another purple Nova in a container)

I bought it for my son to eventually convert to electric - he wants to do engineering at university and having read about the Rebirth Bug conversions http://bit.ly/m48cLD I thought a Nova would be a good project for him. (I've since found a couple of American College students in Mississippi http://bit.ly/inS7G7 have built an electric Stirling and a company called Evsource whose electric Stirling http://bit.ly/jm6yoH is for sale ($27,000 on ebay last time I looked.)

The idea is for my son to learn about engineering, but since I know nothing about mechanics and have regarded engineering with real, material things as slightly quaint, I thought it'd be best to get something with a reputation for being relatively simple.

This forum is just a fantastic resource.
(Note to self - better stop being so patronising talking about my son - he'll obviously be posting in his own right soon enough.)
Neil

Spacenut
11-06-2011, 07:21 PM
Ah - that's the car you bought. Well done, its a good starting point for a build. There are several precedents for electric drive Novas, although the most famous (infamous?) was the Nova Dragonfly which was intended as a publicity vehicle for a new generation electric motor developed by Lee-Dickens in the early 1980s.

Finding a suitable motor is going to be the big engineering challenge - it would be better to fit individual motors on all four wheels, and control the torque split/limit slip via a central computer, but you are moving into mega-money territory there!

I'm looking forward to seeing what solutions your son comes up with. Me? I've always fancied a gas turbine/electric hybrid myself :thumbup:

Lauren

Alzax3
11-06-2011, 08:00 PM
I've a friend in Cornwall who does electric vehicles as a hobby - he swears (frequently) by Lynch motors, I think the company is in Taunton, very small powerfull pancake motors that lend themselves to use at each wheel. Control electronics and regenerative braking are all available off-the-shelf, insurmountable problem is and will be batteries, until technological advances give us a worthwhile power-to-weight ratio.....

Neil
11-06-2011, 10:11 PM
There's a range of electric motors available for the small, but still slightly growing DIY market in the US... Some of the brands include Curtis, Kostov and Netgain. I'm thinking of getting Netgain WarP 9 mainly for its ridiculous name - it's more expensive, possibly heavier and definitely longer than the equivalent Kostov so I don't have another reason. They're all basically enormous washing machine motors. (Some people rob them from fork lifts or defence related machinery) They fit onto the clutch/gearbox assembly with a custom adapter. (Theoretically pretty straightforward with only 4 bolts on a beetle)

The power is controlled by controller - Soliton and Netgain are the market leaders for DIY though a company called Zilla has started re-manufacturing after having given up the ghost in Bush era America. These interface with Android tablets (or at least the Soliton does and the others will) for cool touchscreen instrumentation.

The other main component is the battery pack - CALB and related Li-ion batteries are getting progressively more powerful and more affordable. They're inherently more stable than lead acid, weigh about half as much and are smaller. Not sure whether to get these direct from the source (inevitably China) or go through an EU distributor or even get them from the States. I'm getting miles ahead of myself - in any case by the time I've sorted out the wiring on the petrol engine there'll be metal polymer batteries capable of 600 km on a charge (see http://bit.ly/dy54s5)

Basically at the moment our idea is a single motor attached to the stock transaxle with something like 144v 130 Amp Hour battery pack giving something like 40-50 miles range and 0-60 in about 8 seconds

I did read about the Dragonfly - the odd cloak and dagger demise of the project reminded me of the 'Who killed the electric car' story http://bit.ly/19Lhjd about how GM and big oil conspired to arrest electric car development in the Regan era (recently released as a DVD) This movie was 'produced' (whatever that means) by my neighbours who must have done alright out of it because he drives Tesla (which someone told me he just totalled - electric cars are 'shockingly' quick)

Sorry to go on - If you'd seen me struggling to detect which was the starter solenoid, which the coil and where the live came in on the existing loom, you'd know I should shut up. (Btw if I do get these right does it matter if the headlights come on when I move the indicator stalk - that'd just be a mistake I could correct right? - not a problem that'd cause loads of ever more difficult problems? There really is no limit to what I don't know or how much I'm prepared to embarrass myself.)

Neil

MicksRedNova
11-06-2011, 11:57 PM
Check this link out for an Electric Beetle called Black Current that I saw doing 12 second 1/4 miles at Santa Pod this Easter:
http://www.hvwc.co.uk/Blackcurrent/bc3/bc3a.php

Mick

Neil
12-06-2011, 07:00 AM
OK, I'll concede that I could do with a 'Car electrics for Dummies' (can anyone recommend one?) - and for my son, who through the mysteries of genetics is somehow less of an idiot, to finish his A-levels. Who would have believed that years spent studying fine art would have failed to prepare me for practical engineering? :)
Neil

Spacenut
12-06-2011, 09:30 AM
Hi Neil - you certainly don't have to have an engineering background to own (or even build) a Nova, and a fine arts degree will allow you to appreciate the audacious styling of this unique machine!

What you do seem to have is plenty of enthusiasm, and that is really all you need.

Wiring is always a rats-nest, usually because a custom loom from the factory was always extra, and it has often been stated that with suitable extensions to earthing cables, the original VW loom can still be used. Go figure.

Headlights glowing when the indicators are on might just be a poor earth connection somewhere. If you go ahead with the conversion project, I would suggest you build a new loom anyway, based on the services you require. If you get the rats-nest working, and the car back on the road, there will always be the temptation to continue to use it after conversion, which will only lead to unreliability later on - and there's nothing (and I mean NOTHING) more embarrassing than being at the side of the road in a broken-down Nova. Ask me how I know :blushing:

I can't personally recommend any texts, although the Nova modifications and service manual, downloadable from the main site, was compiled latterly by ex-club chairman David Iles, who had a background in automotive electrics (I believe he worked for Austin-Rover Group) and included a "wiring for dummies" guide specifically Nova oriented, in the manual.

You've certainly done your homework on the electric drive thing. A single motor driving the VW transaxle is certainly achievable, and provided the stock chassis is left well alone should at least avoid any issues of re-registration and BIVA testing. Otherwise I would have recommended a completely new chassis and drivetrain layout!

Lauren

Neil
12-06-2011, 11:17 AM
Check this link out for an Electric Beetle called Black Current that I saw doing 12 second 1/4 miles at Santa Pod this Easter:
http://www.hvwc.co.uk/Blackcurrent/bc3/bc3a.php

Mick

That is pretty amazing.
Apparently the Tesla is so quick it's hard to control - 0-60 in 3.7sec is quoted. Rebirth autos in California do a twin motor adaptor plate for bugs http://rebirthauto.com/ra-vwsa-twin.aspx designed for 600ft-lbs pulse or 260HP @ 5000rpm. I wonder what I'm doing... although I have another son, I have spent a lot of time growing the older one, maybe I should spend more time thinking about brakes...
:)

Ben
13-06-2011, 08:37 PM
Hi Neil

Have a look at my modified drill it was a rubish 18v RYOBI now it has Makita 18v Lithium-Ion power it is a totaly different tool
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/bentiley/DSCF4827.jpg


Ben

Neil
13-06-2011, 09:16 PM
:D how many amp hours?

Ben
14-06-2011, 01:18 AM
Hi Neil

3.0 amp hours it is only 600 grams. A bank of 14 will give you 240v wired in series you then could have more than one bank wierd in parlel. I have wanted so see a electric Nova for years. What batries will your son be using.

Ben

Neil
14-06-2011, 08:22 AM
At the moment it looks like it might be a pack of 48 CALB 130AH batteries http://www.lithiumstorage.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=69 though by the time we've got the car running with the VW engine and MOT'd everything might have changed (not least the price - and at the rate we're presently going the entire technology :) ) There are plenty of competitors (Thundersky and GBS for instance)

My vanity got a kicking when I discovered that converting a Nova to electric is far from a unique idea - before I bought the car I hadn't realised that a bunch of other people have already converted Sterlings - see http://www.evalbum.com/255, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3e_UDbGmaM and http://evsource.com/tls_converted. Afaik they all use either lead acid or Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) because Li-ion has only recently become more 'affordable' (still eye-wateringly expensive) The helpful guy from Rebirth Autos in California even mailed me last night to say that there's someone else on London who has a Nova that he wanted to ship to them to convert... I'm going to get in touch.