Chapter 37 - The First 3,000 Miles
Some have thought that the Volt Vette spends most of its time as inoperable piles of parts.
Under-the-Hood LED Lights
Not so. In fact, I drive the car everywhere I can, as often as I can.
Still, I was surprised at how quickly I reached the 3,000 mile mark. All those short trips around town add up in a hurry! A mile to the hardware store, two miles to the library, three miles to the supermarket. These are the trips gasoline cars hate. They don't really get warmed up, and so need servicing and repair fairly often. The electric car does not need a warm-up.
I tell people, "I can go 3 miles on 10 cents worth of electricity. How far can your car go on 10 cents worth of gasoline?"
One of the big questions that hung over the project:
Will this car have any real get-up-and-go?
Yes, with 2000 amps and 4.88 racing gears there is more than enough! When I set the controller at 1200 amps, I began to suffer irrational exuberance and had to dial it down. I drive it at 500 amps these days. This gives me a real world range of 30 miles and a top speed of 70 mph.
Still, I would like to take the car to a drag strip, someday, and see what it will do at full power.
This project's most notable failure: As of this reading, no politician has been willing to ride in this electric car. No "public servant" at any level, city, county, state, or federal, has been willing to even look at the car! A friend told me it most likely was "plausible deniability."