Thursday, July 17, 2008

And so it begins...


Yesterday, after some calls to my insurance company and the SAAQ (Quebec's department of transportation), I closed the deal for the purchase of a 1972 Karmann Ghia. It will be converted to a completely electric drive, similar to the following:



http://www.evalbum.com/34
http://www.evalbum.com/54
http://www.evalbum.com/219
http://www.evalbum.com/267
http://www.evalbum.com/683
http://www.evalbum.com/670
http://www.evalbum.com/1193
http://www.evalbum.com/1412
http://www.evalbum.com/1765
http://www.evalbum.com/1688
http://www.evalbum.com/1863

Sure, its been done before, but, for me: that's the point! This will be my first conversion and the Ghia is relatively simple to convert: its a simple car. The instrumentation is basic, in fact, pretty much everything is basic.

Why I picked a Ghia:
- Its lightweight, 1918lbs, as per the owners manual; I'll weight it myself before and after the conversion.
- It has a small frontal area and is reasonably aerodynamic (21sqft & 0.37, both to be confirmed). - There is a great support community for restoring / fixing / maintaining this car.
- Its a car I want to drive. I don't like commuting to work, but this car will make me look forward to that aspect of my day.

The Ghia runs as-is, I took it around the block near the seller's home in Laval. I still need to get it inspected and registered. I'm getting its 'transit' papers this week so that I can bring it for its inspection on Monday morning. The plan is to have it fully plated and insured as an ICE, then do a converion, have it re-inspected and then re-registred as a EV.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a beautiful car! Best of luck with the conversion.

Jay Donnaway said...

Congrats, and welcome to the club!
Here's hoping your conversion progresses faster than Doug's or mine!

Nick Drouin said...

Thanks guys, with some luck it will be on the road before the end of the year.

Anonymous said...

Nice choice for a conversion. They have plenty of room and can handle quite a bit of weight compared to other small cars. VW quality ride too.

I am converting a 64 Ghia. Almost ready for an on road test.