Hi everyone, this one is probably for the old timers... I'm one of the volunteer admins over the DIY Electric Car forum.
I've been on the list here for 7 years, but have archived it all and hardly read any. Short backstory, I've built but not finished an electric recumbent bicycle out of a treadmill motor and other junk. I've built but not finished a 1986 Honda Nighthawk motorbike conversion using a forklift motor and other junk. I've built but not finished a 1970 Opel GT rescue by welding together two rotten bodies, an AC forklift motor and a Prius Gen 2 EVBMW controller. No more EV projects until I finish one! Oh, oops, well except for this one, because it's not like they come up for sale often. But for real, I bought it because it was the closest path to actually driving and enjoying an EV. I got into EVs because I'm cheap and never wanted to have to learn how to fix cars. Oops. My GTE was originally owned by Richard (Dick) Newell, I think an EE professor at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He paid to have the GTE assembled at a custom car shop (Bradleys were originally kits). I have what I presume is an old picture of him from 1983 in front of the car. He had it built, barely drove it 200 miles, had a little controller trouble with it (the early ones used EV1 controllers instead of a PMC DCC-96, apparently), batteries died on it, and then his son unfortunately had a stroke. Compounding factors, it sat in his garage for 14 years with only those 200 miles on it. I have some printouts of some posts here on the EVDL from Dec 17, 1994, when he was selling his GTE to the man I bought it from. He was offering to give it away or was taking offers. The buyer seems to have upgraded it to an Italian "ZAPI" controller (800A), which apparently experienced weekly problems for everyone who ever owned one (I have a letter from him to Zapi detailing this). He is an electrical engineer himself, so he kept it running. He drove it, even daily'd it for 7 years until 2003, and it appears to have sat in his garage since, needing batteries. 30 years of him owning it (to the week) had him post it for sale, (for the same $2000 he paid for it 30 years ago), and I bought it. I know the infamous Gail owned a GTE at one point, I saw in her obituary I missed her by a few months :(. I have a few handwritten notes from her to the previous owner, where she filled in some missing documentation holes for him. I don't know if he was a regular around here, but judging by Dick's age in the 1983 photo, I don't imagine he's still with us today either, but sometimes I figure people's children or grandkids wonder what ever happened to Dad's old car or whatnot and would like to hear it's still around. (Also, on a note of people who've drifted away, Bruce who tirelessly archived news posts from here on the DIY Electric Car forum hasn't been around in a year). Anyway, not sure what I should post about it. Are pictures discouraged (hosted offsite with links instead?)? Maybe I have some questions if there's any other GTE owners around (I don't know of any), this would probably be the best community to still find them. Or if some of you have questions or things you'd like to find out about it. The car is mostly assembled and, some of it works. Motor is present but not installed. The controller is intimidating. I myself like to read up as much as I can on anything, so, I'm going to scan and find a way to archive as much GTE stuff as I can get a hold of. _______________________________________________ Address messages to [email protected] No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/
