Instructable of the day: build and race your own electric car

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According to this Instructable, anyone can build their very own electric car in little more than a long weekend. Of course, we wouldn't recommend driving this car on the street with any real traffic, but as a learning tool or for a fun family project, this seems hard to beat!

Starting with some aluminum square section tubing and pop rivets, a ladder-type chassis is made. Wheelchair wheels and tires are then added, followed up by a disk brake from a mountain bike. A wheelchair motor operating at 20 amps at 2000 RPM uses two lead acid batteries giving 24 volts. A simple chain drive mechanism is used for reliability and nothing more than an on/off switch is used for the throttle. With the setup described in the linked article, the peak speed attained was 26.5 miles per hour with 67.5 miles on a single charge. More would be available in the tank, so to speak, with some better batteries and a real motor controller. Isn't cool to see what some ingenuity can do?

[Source: Instructables]

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