Well, Matt's list made me feel no so bad about acquiring another project until my very supportive partner observed that Matt's list is just 1 more than mine. I am now the happy owner of the '94 Solectria from Putney VT. Give me 6 months, or so, and it will be back on the road.
I remember the Bradley GT from a few years back. The ones I worked on were on VW chassis. I'll look for pics somewhere. John M "Money doesn't talk, it swears"--Bob Dylan Apr 25, 2025, 9:38 PM by [email protected]: > 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/ > _______________________________________________ Address messages to [email protected] No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/
