Value of our Minors

[ianmack]

And there’s even somebody smoking by it. I don’t know what the green lobby would say but I’m pretty sure health and safety would have kittens!

[burnham28]

I have a gas bag inside my car. Oh dear looks like the shed again.

[MorrisJohn]

Totally agree. The engine, noise and smell are all part of the yesteryear experience. It would be like removing the vehicle’s beating heart.

I’m of the view petrol will still be fairly easily obtained 30 years from now. There should be sufficient demand from car enthusiasts to keep reasonable supplies for the foreseeable future. Maybe we’ll just need to start driving them all daily to increase demand

I for one just don't get why you would want to convert a Minor to electric power.
The whole charm of the car would be lost, you may as well just buy a modern car.

Phil P

[kevin s]

My thoughts are:

Steam trains - being external combustion they are pretty easy to convert to almost any type of solid, liquid or gas fuel, many did run on oil in the past, also you don't have the limitations of a car for carrying fuel so if it needs 3 tenders full of hydrogen it's not the end of the world, I do think advancing technology will take them off the main lines eventually though.

Trucks: Lots of industry experts have looked at Tesla's truck and concluded the sums don't add up the batteries would have to weigh so much there would be no payload left. We (the UK) currently don't have any plans for vehicles over 3.5T they are just starting the consultation phase, diesel and hybrids are going to be around for a long time, perhaps it will be biodiesel, but it will still work in older cars.

Cars: All new cars will be electric by the end of this decade but many selling now are petrol hybrids and other countries are allowing hybrids to run for longer, there is also plenty of other machines not going electric (motorbikes, chainsaws lawnmowers, Generators) etc so there will still be a demand for petrol or some sort of bio equivalent for many years to come.

Electric conversions - I work in the modern motor industry and have driven many electric vehicles, they are great and when conversions become affordable as more second hand parts come on the market can see relatively simple conversions to electric classics being a great fun to drive alternative way of keeping the vehicles on the road. Already now it is possible to buy relatively affordable control and charger units, throw in a secondhand motor and battery and away you go.

[ianmack]

Steam engines can be persuaded to run on all sorts of fuel. I once saw a charming film of a narrow gauge railway serving a sugar plantation and fired entirely on sugar cane waste. It worked but how well it went wasn’t touched upon.

Conversion to other fuels isn’t necessarily plain sailing. A man local to me is restoring an old steam roller which was converted to oil late in its working life. The different warm up characteristics of oil compared to coal had caused serious cracking in major parts. Alternative fuels don’t get around the innate inefficiency of external combustion.

[philipkearney]

[quote=geoberni post_id=663527 time

A short clip....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZcK2DuDX5M
[/quote]

Thanks Geoberni, a great little video. I think I'll still stick to petrol for as long as it's available !

[sid]

i see that a new coal mine has been given permission to open in Whitehaven,Cumbria. it will produce 'coking' coal..will this be suitable for the Steam boys? of course,friends of the earth are up in arms and no doubt Swampy will hot-footing his way up there as soon as he has put a stop to the HS2 in London

[pgp001]

According to the Traction Talk website it is unlikely that the coking coal will not be any good for preserved road and rail steam.

https://tractiontalkforum.com/showthread.php?t=47093

Phil

[MCYorks]

I for one just don't get why you would want to convert a Minor to electric power.
The whole charm of the car would be lost,

I agree with the charm of the car being lost. Electric motors are an excellent form of propulsion but don't have the character of a internal combustion engine. One also wonders how many people would want to travel on an electric powered 'steam' train, rather than the almost living & breathing real thing?

That said I can see some circumstances when an electric conversion for a classic car may be beneficial. If you only do short journeys or need to make regular trips into an ultra low emission zone for example. At the moment though the prices seem a little too steep to be an economical option for most people, but I'm sure as things progress they will get much cheaper.

In my opinion some of the other limitations seem to be the biggest issues to solve. The Minors drive-train wasn't optimized for the torque curve of an electric motor, plus the gearbox & diff will both sap power. If you can only get a 50 - 60 mile range between charges then it would probably rule a out 200 mile round trip to the national rally or a camping trip to the continent. There is also limited space for batteries, so invariable battery packs end up mounted in the engine bay and boot. These tend to be the first bits of the car to get damaged in an accident and batteries generally don't like being crushed This is one reason why most purpose built electric vehicles have the battery pack under the floor & within the wheelbase.

[Sleeper]

.. and how much do those batteries etc. weigh?
Enough to start altering the suspension and braking system?

John ;-)

[ianmack]

.. and how much do those batteries etc. weigh?
Enough to start altering the suspension and braking system?

John ;-)

It all depends on what you fit according to your preferences for speed and range. As we discussed earlier the ‘Vintage Voltage’ type of conversion requires substantial modification because they are offering high performance. Someone asked why Minor owners should settle for less but I guess we already have in our choice of vehicles. The point with a conversion is that you would modify to the degree you require.

A motor and batteries giving modest speed and range might not weigh significantly more than the petrol engine and a full tank. If you want a long range fast car you will have to cut it about a lot more to fit extra battery capacity.

I’m not sure that the gearbox would sap power. The first Minor conversion retained the gearbox because it was claimed this allowed optimal use of a less powerful motor. The batteries will necessarily be in the boot or engine bay but realistically if either is seriously crushed in an accident the car is likely to be a write off anyway.