Houston, we have midlife crisis

Ruth's picture
Submitted by Ruth on Sat, 06/07/2008 - 1:53pm. ::

We're both seeing a 20 y.o. and having a wonderful time.

Let's just say I bought it, because I did, but it was more of an inheritance. I have played guardian to this toy for 10 years. We're going to enjoy it immensely for a couple weeks and then put an electric motor in it. Besides the environmental impact, going electric will just improve the performance.

Amazingly this car gets almost 30 mpg, but requires premium.

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Never been much of a car
Haydesigner in San Diego's picture
Submitted by Haydesigner in ... on Sun, 06/08/2008 - 8:31pm.

Never been much of a car person, so I am undereducated as to why this is considered mid-life crisis material. But I thought those crisis things had mandatory convertibles...

Any more info on the electric conversion? How much does that cost, mileage, etc..., and is it really fiscally feasible?


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It all depends
Ruth's picture
Submitted by Ruth on Mon, 06/09/2008 - 1:39am.

...on what you want to do (performance) and range. Based on a recent 1995 Porsche 944 conversion I read about, it costs about $5,800 of which you can get a $4k rebate from the state (plus probably some tax rebates). You can spend more if you get more expensive batteries. If you have a "performance" conversion done for you, it can cost about 12-16K.

With fairly standard lead-acid batteries the range may be about 50 miles at highway speed. With more expensive, high-output batteries you can increase your range. Acceleration and performance are much better in electric than internal combustion. Less energy is wasted to heat. We can save some energy requirements by converting to LED-based lighting and more efficient electronics throughout.

The conversion is not overly complicated, and since we have a very nice, fully-functional engine, we can sell it to recover some costs. Rob and I met over a German clutch, so I don't think we'll have a lot of trouble working on it... We do need to get a machine shop to make some of the materials to join the motor to the drive train... This car may even be able to commute but we need to get Rob's employer to put in an electric outlet (probably not difficult as they are "green.") I'm looking into portable solar charging options, too.

We're going to a meeting in 2 weeks with a club that does this kind of thing to learn more.

No convertible, electric sunroof!


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Nice ride.
Submitted by My Alter Ego on Tue, 06/10/2008 - 9:32am.

I, for one, welcome our new electric Porsche overlords.

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