Electric Conversion: 1979 Porsche 924

All this talk about electric cars has me thinking, maybe an electric conversion would be a cool way to save the planet, save on gasoline, and still have a fun drive.  The real trick is to find something that still keeps the manual transmission, has a decent amount of horsepower kilowatts and isn’t weighed down by keel’s worth of lead acid batteries.  Like this 1979 Porsche 924 Electric Conversion offered for $5,120 or best offer located near Winona, MN via craigslist.

The seller of this oddball conversion only includes one small photo…but he (she?) includes an excellent write up, so I’m just going to let the words speak for themselves:

We are selling our 1979 Porsche 924 electric car conversion, either as a
working whole car (but without batteries) for $5120 (or best offer), as
a “glider” (the Porsche 924, nearly new tires, motor to bell-housing
adapter, splined clutchless motor shaft adapter, and dash-mounted
ammeter and tachometer for $575 (OBO), or as a complete EV parts kit
(motor, controller, charger, DC-DC converter, etc.) for $4545 (OBO).

The Porsche was driven 50 miles on gas and converted to battery power in
June of 2009. It was used for 3 summers to commute occasionally,
driving 13 miles into the center of town, topping off the charge there
for a bit while at work, then driving 13 miles back home. Its range at
highway speed, when it had its 144-volt, 98 amp-hour lead-acid gel
battery pack, was optimally 50 miles (or about 10 miles maximum at top
speed of 100 mph) but realistically more like 40 miles at highway speed
around here due to our 400-foot hills, headwinds, cold temperatures, and
occasional gravel roads, all of which suck down range.

Because of careful attention to weight distribution, motor size, and
controller output (adjustable through a range from battery-conservative
to dragster) it still handles like a true sports car, even when you
stick in 840 pounds of lead-acid batteries. Most of the conversion parts
were purchased new from Greenshed Conversions in Florida, including the
motor, controller, DC-DC converter, electric vacuum pump for the
brakes, contactor, throttle control, Xantrex E-Meter, motor drive-shaft
adapter, and bell-housing adapter. From other suppliers we got the
tachometer, tach sender, ammeter, 40-foot charge cord retractor,
resistance heater for the interior vents, various relays and switches,
AC charger, and battery shunt regulators.

At this point the Netgain Motors WarP9 motor is just “broken in” with
about 30 partial battery cycles. It has a heat-sensitive control to
relay-start a 12-volt supplemental blower for added cooling. The
1000-amp, 144-volt, LogiSystems, fan-cooled controller is user
configurable and is currently set to about half acceleration to avoid
smoking tires. The original 5-speed trans-axle is still in the Porsche,
coupled to the motor without a clutch. Just pick a gear and “step on
it”.

The odometer currently reads 70,165 miles and only 1,043 of those were
under battery power. The car as a whole is in perfect working condition
except for the lack of batteries, and has almost no rust (a little spot
on the surface of the passenger door next to the window), mainly because
it spent 18 years in storage before we bought it and has not been
driven in the winter. The paint is a bit oxidized in spots and could use
buffing or a repaint to a flashier color than the standard “Mexico
Beige”. Thanks to some added springs in the rear this car has over 500
pounds of baggage capacity under the hatch.

To see more details and photos of how we did the conversion check out
http://www.geopathfinder.com/Porsche924.pdf . And to see more discussion
about the planning and design work, check out our website at
http://www.geopathfinder.com/Transportation.html .

The Parts Kit list is as follows, and actual shipping costs will be
added to the asking price of $4545: NetGain WarP9 DC Series Motor

LogiSystems 1000-amp, 144-156-volt controller with 12-volt DC cooling fan

Curtis 5 k-ohm throttle control with micro-switch

QuickCharge OP144V/10A battery charger with wet-cell, AGM, and Gel
battery modes; 10 amp max. charge rate; has recent factory “SCO” circuit
board upgrade

QuickCharge 12-volt battery shunt regulators; three units, each
controlling charge voltage for four 12-volt batteries; these prevent
over/undercharge of any one battery

Xantrex LinkPRO battery monitor (includes 500-amp, 50 mV shunt)

Thomas 1/10 HP, 12-volt, permanent magnet vacuum pump (runs power brakes)

IOTA DLS-45 Power converter (DC-DC converter to charge 12-volt ACC battery from main battery bank)

Solid-state 96-144-volt heater core; 1540 watts max. (replaces “wet” heater core)

ADM Speed Sensor to drive Westberg tach from front shaft of Warp9 motor

EV200 12-volt contactor; switches main battery bank to controller

The 1979 Porsche 924 “glider” includes the body plus four Cooper CS4
Touring tires on the original aluminum rims, two JC Whitney 750-pound
rear helper springs, Clutchless plate adapter for Porsche 924
bell-housing (securely mounts a Warp9 motor), Clutch spline adapter
(couples a Warp9 motor to Porsche 924 drive-shaft splines), Westberg 500
amp Ammeter, and Westberg 7000 rpm tachometer with motor speed sensor,
all for $575.

This totals $5120 for all of it, still assembled and ready to add
batteries. Make an offer on either the whole car, the parts kit, or the
Porsche glider. We will accept either cash or a PayPal payment to our
e-mail address. Serious inquiries only, please!

See another interesting electric conversion for sale? tips@dailyturismo.com