my other obsession... 1976 citicar electric

[mudfud]

well, I spent 10 hours today rewiring my citicar. it's a souped up golf cart with 8 x 6 volt lead acid batteries and was upgraded to an electronic controller by the last owner.

I managed to blow up the controller last month, so I had to do a big rewiring job. the guy before me left out many key features in electric vehicle wiring and switches, so I decided to go back and add some parts.

fortunately, a local citicar owner came and helped me for 3 hours, and he's a retired aircraft mechanic, so he knows his stuff.

unfortunately, I was engrossed in wiring the car, covered with dirt and sweat, and my cellphone and computer weren't checked... missed the arepachi.

here's a few pix of the car and the wiring mess.

she really turns heads when I'm out. I have to allow extra time for all the explanations everywhere I go.

I'll get back to the pachinko plastic painting experiments next week. first, I head north to work and visit my parents, and meet up with mopar.

[compirate]

Does it get more California than that? You look like you missed your turn for the parade!

For those interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citicar

http://www.didik.com/citicar.htm

eBay find of the day: Electric Citicar Autoblog Green

If you wanna know what it's supposed to look like

[mudfud]

can you believe that the guy I bought it from was driving it around like that in sacramento? his wife did the custom paint job. there's a big peace sign on top of the roof, a papoose lady in a tree, a 3 eyed MTBE fish, an earth and moon, and a no more war for oil banner on the back (sad that she painted it for the 1st gulf war and it's still timely).

honestly, though, berkeley is a bit too liberal for me. we call it the socialist republic of berkeley. some day I need to get the citicar into the "how berkeley can you be" parade.

[Moparformances]

thats a neat car.. i have never seen one like it before i love unusual cars (guess that y im into Mopars)

how far will it go on a charge???

[compirate]

thats a neat car.. i have never seen one like it before i love unusual cars (guess that y im into Mopars)

how far will it go on a charge???

DRIVING AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE, FRANK DIDIK, CAR, AUTOMOBILE, EV, CITICAR, COMMUTACAR, HPV, HUMAN POWERED VEHICLE

[hanabi]

I LOVE that car!!

I could actually picture myself driving that around!!

Funky!!

[mudfud]

hey mopar. i'd drive it to sacto, but i would be recharging every 30 miles.

the max range, with new batteries, was 40 miles. realistically 30.

the max speed was 38 mph, I can get 35 miles, only 38 down hill with a tail wind.

there are probably a few hundred of them still around (about 2500 were made). one advantage over time was that the frame is tubular aluminum and the shell ABS plastic, so it didn't rust out. (it is, however, cracked and leaking, so I have a lot of patching to do).

most people have replaced the relays and switches that came stock: you had a cam that the pedal rotated and switched from 24 to 36 to 48 volts, with a big resistor on at the start to spill some energy. this setup was very hard on the battery pack, since 4 of the batteries took more of the load, and very hard on the relays. but, they didn't have affordable solid state electronics in the mid 70's

the car cost $5K new, in 1976, and started becoming popular, given the oil embargo. then, consumer reports killed it with an article saying that it was dangerous riding around on top of 8 acid containing batteries.

also, it's not that crash worthy, though it was never designed to go beyond around town trips.

I used to be active in a citicar group and it was amazing (just like here) the things that people did to soup up their cars. one guy got his citicar going 55 mph, another drove in the dead of winter through snow with it as a daily commuter. others have tried different motors, controllers, shells (sheet metal was cool).

say hanabi, maybe I could add a little more purple to the paint job when I touch it up?

anyhow, there's still a bit of wiring to do, so my first test drive won't be until later in the week.

thanks for the comments.

[Sid]

that is one cool looking vehicle

Go Flower Power...

[compirate]

With the new battery technologies out there, I wonder how well it would do now (cost a lot more though).


Oh, and we need video of you driving by in it (what's the speed limit on your street? )

[luckydog]

35 MPH in that would feel like driving 150 MPH in a corvette

[Sid]

yeah but it wont be sucking down premium gas like there is no tomorrow...

[pinball wizard]

With the new battery technologies out there, I wonder how well it would do now (cost a lot more though).


Oh, and we need video of you driving by in it (what's the speed limit on your street? )

the last i heard,this was a few years back,the battery in a toyota prius hybrid cost 18,000 .00 to replace.the nmh batteries are better than lead acid,but they are very expensive.that is what is killing electric car development.

[mudfud]

yep. batteries are the holy grail of EV development.

there are some newer lithium compounds out, but a NiMH pack was going to set me back at least 5K for the citicar (48 volts).

if cost were no object, a lithium ion pack would weigh less and go at least twice as far... but probably cost close to 10K once the battery management system was included. those lithium guys like to catch on fire!

for now, I lug around lead acid batteries. 8 of those still cost 1K, and they weigh 80 pounds each.

hey LD, I think that 35 in a citicar is even more scary than 200 in a corvette. the doors and windows rattle, it creaks, and the skinny tires make for a very hard ride.

but hey, it's a piece of EV history and a funky one at that.

compirate, I'll work on that video over labor day weekend. maybe i will actually get her running . then, I have a lot of cosmetic work and crack sealing to do. ordered a new fixit called plastifix. plan to do a lot of patching with it, BUT i think it will work to fix cracks on pachi trays and parts... more to come.

[dattia]

I love it! What a great thing to have!

[MrGneiss]

Very cool car!!


I saw one in someones front yard for sale a few days ago and wondered what it was..it was yellow!!

[takethecastle57]

YouTube - How to get a Real Electric Car for under 20K
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[takethecastle57]

YouTube - Your next electric dream car: all electric Shelby Cobra 427

[takethecastle57]

YouTube - 50,000 Watt Electric Go Kart
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[takethecastle57]

YouTube - Chrysler 200C EV Concept Interior Design 2009

[mudfud]

here's the first drive video... took hours of debugging, but she runs now.

I'm going to try some new plastic repair stuff that might be helpful on pachi's too!

YouTube - 1976 citicar - 2009 1st drive