What happened to the electric and diesel TVRs?
Discussion
A genuine question.
In 2013, there were articles stating:
Amid difficulties with retrenchments and the sale of assets, Smolensky moved to Austria, where he set about building three prototypes with the hope of kickstarting a modern era for TVR.
“We built three cars,” said Smolenski. “A Tuscan Mk2 convertible with a 400bhp Corvette LS3 engine, a Cerbera powered by a BMW twin-turbo V8 diesel and a GT350 powered by a 100kW electric motor. They all worked well, but the costs were high. We would have to sell them at between £100,000 and £200,000, which was too high to make sense.”
(I guess GT350 is a spelling mistake in these articles and should read T350?)
->But does anyone know what happened to these two electric and diesel cars, and who built them in the first place?
In 2013, there were articles stating:
Amid difficulties with retrenchments and the sale of assets, Smolensky moved to Austria, where he set about building three prototypes with the hope of kickstarting a modern era for TVR.
“We built three cars,” said Smolenski. “A Tuscan Mk2 convertible with a 400bhp Corvette LS3 engine, a Cerbera powered by a BMW twin-turbo V8 diesel and a GT350 powered by a 100kW electric motor. They all worked well, but the costs were high. We would have to sell them at between £100,000 and £200,000, which was too high to make sense.”
(I guess GT350 is a spelling mistake in these articles and should read T350?)
->But does anyone know what happened to these two electric and diesel cars, and who built them in the first place?
The Tuscan Mk2 convertible with a 400bhp Corvette LS3 engine was finished and sold by Str8six in 2012/13 and was renamed by them.
The Cerbera, powered by a BMW twin-turbo V8, worked out very well and went to one of Nikis managers, who may still own it today.
Maybe you mean a different one, but I know about an electric powered Tuscan, which is just being restored at the moment,
The Cerbera, powered by a BMW twin-turbo V8, worked out very well and went to one of Nikis managers, who may still own it today.
Maybe you mean a different one, but I know about an electric powered Tuscan, which is just being restored at the moment,
Thank you all for the replies, the Pistonheads-community is always a great source of knowledge for these kind of things.
A dark German Tuscan with an electric motor has been for sale for a long time, now not anymore, is that the one being restored? It did not have correct registration with electric drive if I remember correctly, and it could be bought with or without the battery pack, a.o. located in the luggage compartment (from the pictures it looks like CALB LiFePO4 cells). But that probably is not the Smolenski-one, is it (still intrigued by the GT350 name)?
Regarding vehicle weight, I have converted quite some cars and as a rule of thumb, if you remove the conventional drivetrain and insert an electric drive system, the new mass is close to original mass plus the battery mass. Depending on the battery pack size or a car converted many years ago that would work out to say 1100+250 kg I think. Max allowable axle mass could be an issue with a TVR.
Links:
http://www.thewheelz.com/2017/03/15/takers-107bhp-...
https://www.carscoops.com/2017/03/an-intriguing-el...
A dark German Tuscan with an electric motor has been for sale for a long time, now not anymore, is that the one being restored? It did not have correct registration with electric drive if I remember correctly, and it could be bought with or without the battery pack, a.o. located in the luggage compartment (from the pictures it looks like CALB LiFePO4 cells). But that probably is not the Smolenski-one, is it (still intrigued by the GT350 name)?
Regarding vehicle weight, I have converted quite some cars and as a rule of thumb, if you remove the conventional drivetrain and insert an electric drive system, the new mass is close to original mass plus the battery mass. Depending on the battery pack size or a car converted many years ago that would work out to say 1100+250 kg I think. Max allowable axle mass could be an issue with a TVR.
Links:
http://www.thewheelz.com/2017/03/15/takers-107bhp-...
https://www.carscoops.com/2017/03/an-intriguing-el...
Just found this previous thread, stating the aforementioned diesel 6 in line, and the possibility that the Tuscan was indeed the Smolenski car (but what about that GT350 name...).
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Interesting that the previous carscoop link mentions more than one electric conversions of the Tuscan.
Regarding the battery/balance question:
I tried to count the cells in the Tuscan picture, and it seems around 24 in the rear which are visible. I think there are more in the car. A 180Ah CALB cell weighs 5.6 kg.
Normally in a conversion of a few years back, the electric motor is a 'simple' motor with output shaft (so not an integrated version with reduction gear and diff integrated, like Tesla/GM etc have nowadays). In that case it is common to attach the motor to the standard gearbox, either fix it in one gear (e.g. second), or retain the shifting possibility to increase performance. But since the top speed is so limited, I think it was fixed in one gear. Although one of the pictures shows someone is shifting, so I don't know what is true in this respect.
If it would be a 80V conversion, with 24 cells, and a minimum range, then the mass increase would be really small (134 kg batteries). But performance and range would be very poor. If they would e.g. double the battery pack, you would add 134 kg to the already mentioned 134 kg (27 kWh, 100 km real range). If placed in the rear, then you will really begin to feel the extra mass during spirited driving, but you can still make it handle OK. If it is placed up front together with the electric motor, it would be much better.
With modern technology (e.g. a Tesla drivetrain and modern batteries), you could however make a very interesting useable car.
(I vaguely remember someone telling me some year ago that a German person was looking into using a Tesla roadster motor in a Tuscan)
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Interesting that the previous carscoop link mentions more than one electric conversions of the Tuscan.
Regarding the battery/balance question:
I tried to count the cells in the Tuscan picture, and it seems around 24 in the rear which are visible. I think there are more in the car. A 180Ah CALB cell weighs 5.6 kg.
Normally in a conversion of a few years back, the electric motor is a 'simple' motor with output shaft (so not an integrated version with reduction gear and diff integrated, like Tesla/GM etc have nowadays). In that case it is common to attach the motor to the standard gearbox, either fix it in one gear (e.g. second), or retain the shifting possibility to increase performance. But since the top speed is so limited, I think it was fixed in one gear. Although one of the pictures shows someone is shifting, so I don't know what is true in this respect.
If it would be a 80V conversion, with 24 cells, and a minimum range, then the mass increase would be really small (134 kg batteries). But performance and range would be very poor. If they would e.g. double the battery pack, you would add 134 kg to the already mentioned 134 kg (27 kWh, 100 km real range). If placed in the rear, then you will really begin to feel the extra mass during spirited driving, but you can still make it handle OK. If it is placed up front together with the electric motor, it would be much better.
With modern technology (e.g. a Tesla drivetrain and modern batteries), you could however make a very interesting useable car.
(I vaguely remember someone telling me some year ago that a German person was looking into using a Tesla roadster motor in a Tuscan)
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