- The unique Chevrolet Bolt EV is a superb commuter automobile.
- It’s reasonably priced, easy and unpretentious. It’s additionally not precisely quick.
- In different phrases, it’s not precisely race automobile materials. However that didn’t cease a small workforce of fans from turning a Bolt right into a enjoyable weekend monitor automobile.
The Chevrolet Bolt EV is a superb little commuter. With used fashions ranging from just below $10,000, it’s the most effective offers on the market. You recover from 200 miles of vary and a decently sized automobile that may go from A to B with out breaking the financial institution.
It additionally has 200 horsepower, which is respectable for a every day driver, however it’s not precisely race automobile materials. Regardless of all of this, a workforce of fans obtained a 2018 Bolt EV and turned it right into a monitor automobile for some good-old weekend enjoyable.
It began after one of many workforce members got interested within the 24 Hours of Lemons race, which is an inexpensive and soiled solution to get into wheel-to-wheel racing with out anticipating huge wins. That is lemonsnot Le Mans. The latter is maybe the world’s most legendary endurance race. The previous is mainly the identical factor, however for dirt-cheap automobiles.
In line with the EVTuners video embedded above, the American metropolis EV obtained a custom-made roll cage, a pair of racing seats, a hearth extinguishing system and a knowledge logging machine that makes use of a Raspberry Pi to do all of the heavy lifting. A weight reduction program was additionally put into place, with numerous the unique inside being ripped out within the identify of weight financial savings.
Now, for those who’ve ever heard of the 24 Hours of Lemons race, you may know that its complete shtick is low-priced automobiles. Particularly, members ought to now spend greater than $500, however that’s roughly a vibe, as a result of final time I checked, $10,000 is greater than $500. That stated, the organizers allowed the Bolt EV to enter the race as a result of it could spend two-thirds of it off monitor, ready for the battery to recharge.
With a 60-kilowatt-hour battery pack, the 2018 Chevy Bolt EV isn’t any vary monster, and it’s even worse when it’s a must to sustain with different race automobiles on the monitor. That is the place the low-stakes mentality helps quite a bit. You have got an hour or two of enjoyable on the monitor, then you definitely get to DC quick cost at a whopping 50 to 55 kilowatts, which is abysmal by fashionable EV requirements.
But it surely’s comparatively reasonably priced, and it’s enjoyable. And if you’re hitting the 24 Hours of Lemons, not Le Mans, that’s all that issues.
