Back in August, we talked a bit about the YouTube channel Rich Rebuilds that was working on a project that took a Ford Model A rat rod and turned it into a Ford Model A EV. Originally Rich had planned to take the innards from a crashed Tesla to build his Ford Model A EV but decided that was too costly. What he ended up doing was taking a crashed Zero electric motorcycle and using the electric motor, controller, and battery pack out of that to run his Ford Model A EV.
There were some detractors in the build that didn’t think the Zero motorcycle drivetrain would be able to power the Ford Model A EV. After all, the Ford Model A might be lighter than the average car, but it was heavier than the motorcycle the battery pack was for. All the build work was completed, and Rich hooked the Model A EV to a car hauler that he towed with his Tesla to get it to a private road where he could see if the thing worked.
All seemed perfect in the beginning as the car moved quickly and without any problems at all. A few hard launches later and the electric motor was producing so much torque that it was making the transmission jump up and down inside the car. The answer to that problem was a couple of custom transmission mounts to keep things in place.
One of the hardest bits was in finding an adapter that would get the power the electric drivetrain made to the wheels. Rich ended up having a custom part 3D printed, and it appears to have worked perfectly. The finished product appears to be impressively fast. We have no idea how far it goes per charge.
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Comment
This is more proof than any vehicle can be electric, from tiny toys to the twin NASA Crawler Transports (actually hybrids) that are the largest land vehicles in the world and carry over ten million pounds. And electrics are on the Moon and on Mars, too! This is the century that will end the internal combustion engine.