Date:         Tue, 27 Jun 95 16:53:58 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Richard <rapalmer@unity.ncsu.edu>
Subject:      Re:  Converting to electric?

> Howdy everyone!  I just got back on the list after a
> long absence caused by moving from Virginia to Texas.
> The list sure has grown in the meantime.  Anyway, here's
> my question...has anyone out there ever done a conversion
> of a bus to an electric vehicle?  Or do you know someone
> who has?  I've been considering resurrecting one of the 
> lonely busses down at the junkyard and converting it to 
> an electric, but I wanted to find any information or even
> plans (if someone here has done it before) on the best
> way to go about it.  I found that they're willing to sell
> a decent bus body, clutch and transmission minus the engine
> for about $200-300, so I'm seriously considering it.  It'd
> be great to be cruisin' down the road in a bus that's 
> completely silent and see the puzzled looks on people's 
> faces!  ;)  If you have any experience with this sort of
> conversion please, please help me out!
> 
While I have no experience, I recall seeing somewhere an article from
the late 60's of a race between teams from MIT and some school I believe
in Cal.The Cal. team had an electric Sunroof Deluxe, which of course won
the race hands down! If this could be done then, I would imagine with
today's technology, it could certainly be done.