Audrey and I went to the Sarasota, FL event. We were there last year and like "Cruise" has pointed out, there were 1/2 as many conversions this year at the event as there were last year. I must say, I am a little surprised by the way things are going. I would have expected a "blossoming" of EV's from every angle. More conversions and more factory Ev's. But What I am afraid we are seeing is half as many conversions and twice as many factory. Quite a while back I had taken one of Lee's Quotes from Gahandi, about how they try to laugh at us, ignore us, hate us and then we win... and I added " and then they take what we have done and claim it as their own"... I think this is what is up setting to people like "Cruise" who probably takes Great pride in his work. Audrey is quite a bit the same way, she is very proud of her little Green Bean that she has done so much work on her self ( I will take credit for Wielding the WHIP!!!). Was it Rush that pointed out that we must have a positive attitude about these people who are buying FACTORY EV's... and strutting around like proud roosters about great things they have done, and how adventurous they are. One of the conversions at the Sarasota show had the lead acid batteries and the owner had "artfully" attached a melted off battery post ! Something, I am sure, no Tesla or Volt owner will EVER do !~! For that matter it is doubtful, that anyone owning a factory EV will ever do ANYTHING to the car, other than plug it in. Talking to most people on a philosophical level, they will agree that probably our main purpose here is to learn. And what separates us from the lower forms of intelligent life is our ability to learn and devise solutions to problems. When we see any animal or person who has ingeniously figured a way to deal with their life's problems we always applaud that and tip our hat. My prediction is that we are going to continue to see a downward spiral of home conversions for the next 7 years. ( Lee's 7 year EV cycle that he talks about). At which point there will be enough Leafs, Volts and Tesla's in the junk yard that DIY'ers can pick up battery packs and motors at a cheap price and build their own. This will be similar to what happened to the Hot Rods. For those DIY'ers that are feeling pushed out by the new Factory EV buyers, we must remember the good times we have had, even though it may not have seemed like it when we were dealing with the problems that we had to in the past. We had a great opportunity for learning and it is really not over. At regular car shows, were people are showing off their custom made hot rods, a nicely done EV conversion still has a place.
Steve Clunn -- Steve Clunn Merging the best of the past with the best of the future. www.Greenshedconversions.com _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
