914 Electric Conversion, 914 electric conversion Options

[AmblerEV]

Ambler EV is going to officially unveil our full 914 electric conversion at our grand opening June 5, 207 & 211 South Main Street, Ambler PA. For those of you in the Philadelphia area, stop by and see the future. For those of you outside the Philadelphia area, follow our page on Facebook to see more teasers as the day get closer www.facebook.com/Amblerev. For those of you attempting this yourself, I am happy to talk end specs but questions about components used or design will not be answered (EV West is your source for that). If you are interested in buying a full electric 914 (or converting your 914 roller) so that it can handle level 2 charging, has a range over 200 miles, and will no longer contain any vacuum or 40 year old EFI electronics, stop by or email me at sam@amblerev.com.

[bbrock]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif) Every time one of these threads pops up, my desire to own an electrified 914 grows for the spite factor alone. I miss the days when people turned up their noses and shunned my 914.

What I'm hearing is that for $40K we could have a 914 that outperforms just about any modified 914 out there. My question is, why hasn't this been done? What does it cost to stuff a rebuilt 911 engine into one of these thing? Compared to some of the awesome builds I've seen in my short time here, the price tag doesn't seem out of line.

We celebrate transplanting all sorts of engines into this amazingly flexible platform that Porsche designed, but take stinky dead dinosaurs out of the equation and the crucifixes come out. Why tear up a perfectly good 914 to put a Subie engine in instead of just buying a Subie? The same could be asked about a 911. The reason, of course, is that the combinations of these engines with the 914 platform creates an experience like no other. Why is transplanting an electric motor so different?

The car does need to perform though. I wouldn't even feel safe in a car with top speed of 70 mph in the land of 80 mph speed limits. It has to be capable of reaching triple digits just to have the margin of safety. I'm looking for a car capable of at least 250 miles of range on a 30 minute charge before replacing our main driver with EV, but for a 914, I'd be happy with less because driving the 914 is less about gettin' there as it is goin' there. I could afford to spend a little more time at the charging station to let people sneer at my car in disgust. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[914e]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif) Every time one of these threads pops up, my desire to own an electrified 914 grows for the spite factor alone. I miss the days when people turned up their noses and shunned my 914.

What I'm hearing is that for $40K we could have a 914 that outperforms just about any modified 914 out there. My question is, why hasn't this been done? What does it cost to stuff a rebuilt 911 engine into one of these thing? Compared to some of the awesome builds I've seen in my short time here, the price tag doesn't seem out of line.

We celebrate transplanting all sorts of engines into this amazingly flexible platform that Porsche designed, but take stinky dead dinosaurs out of the equation and the crucifixes come out. Why tear up a perfectly good 914 to put a Subie engine in instead of just buying a Subie? The same could be asked about a 911. The reason, of course, is that the combinations of these engines with the 914 platform creates an experience like no other. Why is transplanting an electric motor so different?

The car does need to perform though. I wouldn't even feel safe in a car with top speed of 70 mph in the land of 80 mph speed limits. It has to be capable of reaching triple digits just to have the margin of safety. I'm looking for a car capable of at least 250 miles of range on a 30 minute charge before replacing our main driver with EV, but for a 914, I'd be happy with less because driving the 914 is less about gettin' there as it is goin' there. I could afford to spend a little more time at the charging station to let people sneer at my car in disgust. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Look at EV West, Zero EV in the UK and Electric Classic Cars in the UK it has been done.

I'm more happy with 125 HP and 170 pound feet of torque in a 2000 pound car. So far I have only made it to 4th gear this weekend. It seemed at 70 mph I should shift to fourth
For 40K I think what you asked for is possible @Jonny Retrofit I believe is putting a Tesla motor in his 914. He might be wonderfully insane.

It is kind of fitting to put a Tesla motor in a 914, if it was not for JB Straubel's (Former CTO of Tesla) 944 conversion where he worked out cell level battery management there might not be a Tesla, he seems to be the key person that brought everyone together. (could be why Tesla seems spinning in circles since he left).
For your requirement I spent 30 seconds searching and can with an AMR motor
Peak Torque: 280 Lb Ft Peak (w/150kW controller)
Peak Power: 210 HP Peak (w/150kW controller)
Max RPM: 10,000.
There is good chance a a 901 transaxle would not last very long. Even a 915 transaxle might have a short life. The torque band on a EV is about 10 rpm to 5500 rpm and ruler flat. Higher voltage extend that torque band, which why the Taycan at 800 volts is brutal and relentless. If Porsche releases a Taycan crate motor in few years maybe two gears is enough.

I like to shift a small light car so I keep the transaxle. It is likely cheaper and faster to have more power than the chassis can handle with one speed reduction and map the power down.

There are hundreds of 914 conversions most of the them done by universities, colleges and, high schools for engineering and racing competitions. Bugs were equally common, unfortunately most of those Bugs seem long gone, that history is lost. It seems the bugs did not have enough value to keep around. I have not been able to find one. The 914's 25 years ago had just enough value to keep them from being crushed.