- This do-it-yourself electrical race automobile is severely fast round an autocross course.
- It weighs simply 1,700 kilos.
- The Apex Cricket EV is powered by a Nissan Leaf motor and a Chrysler Pacifica battery.
Motorsport is loopy costly, but it surely doesn’t must be that means. If in case you have some fundamental mechanical abilities, you might benefit from the thrill of racing on a price range. And that’s precisely what a father-son duo from Northern California did a couple of years in the past, utilizing available components and a little bit of elbow grease.
The Ariel Atom-like inexperienced machine within the video under known as the Apex Cricket EV, a battery-powered race automobile that got here to life proper when Covid hit. After lower than a yr of tinkering within the storage, it was able to make a reputation for itself on the autocross course.
There’s a Gen3 Nissan Leaf motor on the rear that maxes out at 214 horsepower (160 kilowatts), which is loads for a automobile that weighs simply 1,700 kilos (771 kilograms). The primary iteration of the Cricket had the Leaf’s unique one-speed transmission and open differential sending energy to the rear wheels, however that was an issue. As a result of the entire automobile is so light-weight, the one motor would smoke one of many tires at speeds of as much as 70 miles per hour. That’s enjoyable, but additionally fairly scary.
So the usual Leaf transmission was swapped for a six-speed gearbox with an built-in limited-slip differential lifted straight from a Nissan Maxima. A do-it-yourself adapter plate mates the electrical motor to the transmission with out a clutch in the best way. The difficulty right here is that the motive force can’t shift gears whereas driving, however that’s not wanted on quick autocross runs. As a substitute, a single gear is used all through the dash.
The suspension, steering and brakes are from a C5 Chevrolet Corvette, whereas the battery pack is produced from a number of 60-volt modules sourced from the Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivan. In whole, the pack has 16 kilowatt-hours of vitality, sufficient for roughly 100 miles of vary on the road. And it may be pushed wherever, as a result of it’s avenue authorized.
Aside from the tubular chassis, which was welded by a neighborhood store, the whole lot was performed at residence, within the storage. When it was all stated and performed, the ultimate price was round $20,000, which is taken into account low cost on the earth of racing. What’s extra, within the three years for the reason that automobile was completed, it is wanted no upkeep aside from altering tires and charging the batteries. At first, a couple of points with the facility supply popped up often, however they had been finally sorted out after fidgeting with the customized motor controller.
So an affordable home-brew EV is feasible. It simply takes some work.
