If youi've been on the EVDL for a while, you probably remember reading posts by Roland Wiench. He gave us a lot of them -- over 4,100. His first post, about LRR tires, seems to have been in November of 2003. He posted several times in late 2016 and early 2017, then one last time in May of 2017.
You can read many of his posts in the archive. He's also quoted in an EVDL library article, http://www.evdl.org/pages/battpost.html I realized recently that I hadn't read anything from him in quite a while, so I did some investigation. I'm sad to report that Roland passed away on the 16th of March this year. The obituary is quoted below. Roland got his El Camino conversion from Robert Aronson's Electric Fuel Propulsion in Michigan. Aronson is probably best remembered for his Renault- based Mars I and Mars II conversions (Dauphines and R10s), every nook and cranny jammed with lead batteries, but he converted several large American cars too. Roland never stopped improving and refining that El Camino, which at one time weighed over 3.5 tons. Recently, he'd fitted it with Leaf modules, which must have significantly reduced the weight. You can see the car before the Leaf module conversion here: http://evalbum.com/470 ----- https://www.croxfordfuneralhome.com/notices/Roland-Wiench Roland Eugene Wiench September 4, 1936 ~ March 16, 2018 (age 81) Born on Sept. 4, 1936 on Friday at 11:45 AM, I came out facing North in Dickinson, North Dakota, in the hospital 400 feet from our home. Made it home for lunch at 12 noon. My father, an electrical engineer, took me down to his electrical laboratory (I called it a dungeon). At the age of 8, he taught me basic electricity. My first project was a dog repellant that was placed in the garden. As a dog came into the garden, I turned on a switch that tickled his feet at a real low voltage. The dog stood up on his two back feet and tiptoed through the tulips, dancing the jitterbug. Later, I made an overhead electrical trolley using an erector set with the clotheslines as the conductors. I forgot to turn off the power and the laundry lady did the jitterbug too. I attended St. Patrick´s grade school and Assumption Abbey high school in North Dakota. I also attended the College of Great Falls, Montana. I enlisted in the Navy in 1955 as flight, radar controller, and navigator for carriers in the Atlantic. After studying aviation electronics engineering, I worked for Boeing Aircraft in Great Falls. Meanwhile I was employed as an electrical technician, then electrical supervisor at MANG (Montana Air National Guard). After serving in The Navy, USAF, and MANG I was honorably discharged as Master Sergeant in 1989. In 1976 I received a grant and a prototype electric car from Electric Fuel Propulsion of Troy, Michigan. Since 1989 I have worked on the science of improvement of the electrical vehicle. ===== While Roland remained a bachelor, many nieces and nephews survive. To some he was an Uncle and to others, because he lived with us during our childhood, Roland was an Uncle-Brother. Roland was predeceased by parents Frank and Clementine Wiench; brothers and their wives: Francis (Marilyn) Wiench and Alcuin (Annie) Wiench; sisters and their husbands: Bernice (Paul) Wilhelm and Beatrice Hall. David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
