A really cool hybrid

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

I had a great day with a bunch of guys from Western Washington U.
Their car is all carbon fiber, has an Insight drive train enhanced with a big PEM brushless 3 phase electric motor that was attached to the other side of the tranny,buy punching a hole through the case and welding a shaft onto one of the inner shafts . The electric motor will drive the car with engine off.
Lots of other cool details that I can't talk about until after the finals.
http://99mpg.com/Data/resources/down.../wwuxprize.jpg
They may be here for a few more days.

[02insight]

I was also looking at their page couple of days ago. Very good design, it must be very easy to get 100+ mpg all the time. I've also pondered about mounting an electric motor attached to the insides of the trans. a more crude approach would be to mount it to the driver side drive shaft using chain drive (to the inner end which doesn't move with suspension)

Their Facebook Page:
WWU X Prize Team | Facebook

I read somewhere someone attached an electric motor using chain to the driveshaft of a geo metro to make it a hybrid, but the problem with that was that they attached it to the end which moves with the suspension, and the chain would skip when the suspension moved too much.

[retepsnikrep]

When the event is over would appreciate some detailed pics of the gubbins especially this motor and gearbox hack they have done. Can't be easy to weld to a hardened gearbox shaft with the reqd accuracy etc to make a reliable motor coupling. ???

What size battery do they have? Mima I assume?

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

We can't get to the tranny input mod to take any photos that would show anything, but the guys will send me some photos of the modification that show what they did. It sounds like the tranny input shaft right from the clutch, had an extension welded on that pokes out through a hole on the other end of the tranny housing. The 1" shaft has an industrial timing belt pulley that is driven by a 3" wide timing belt. The engine is driving their rear wheels with modified CV jointed axles.
The lithium pack size and voltage that is powering the AUX EV motor is one of the secrets they want to keep confidential right now.

IMA pack is the stock pack, except that they have no cooling provisions.
What a hack job their guy did on the harnesses, wires run to the wrong places, missing wires.
We finally got it all sorted out this afternoon. MIMA will be installed tomorrow AM, and we need to add an additional radiator for their EV motor and controller, figure out how to get some air through the battery pack, as they stuffed it into a cavity on the passenger side rail along with the power electronics, with barely enough room to get it in and out.
The DC/DC and power inverter were mounted so their heatsinks stick out under the car, right into the air flow.
Having my shop handy is helping them with the mechanical finishing touches.
We has a solar cookout for lunch, with my big dish, hamburgers, sausage and beer.
Was another nice day.

[mahout]

Originally Posted by 02insight

I was also looking at their page couple of days ago. Very good design, it must be very easy to get 100+ mpg all the time. I've also pondered about mounting an electric motor attached to the insides of the trans. a more crude approach would be to mount it to the driver side drive shaft using chain drive (to the inner end which doesn't move with suspension)

Their Facebook Page:
WWU X Prize Team | Facebook

I read somewhere someone attached an electric motor using chain to the driveshaft of a geo metro to make it a hybrid, but the problem with that was that they attached it to the end which moves with the suspension, and the chain would skip when the suspension moved too much.

We did that on an 89 Metro xFi back in '91: the result was about 20% increase in mpg (50 to 60 mpg) but the system was crudely operated. The motor was mounted where the A/C would have been mounted and drove the flywheel pully so there was no problem there. Two 12V DC batteries were controlled manually connecting via a switch.The only 'automatic' was a breaker switch relay on the brake pedal so when brakes are applied the motor drive disconnected from batteries. A 1.5 hp motor provided total drive on level ground so the engine virtually did nothing.
That experiment didn't last long due to the manual work involved but did convince me that the Honda method of electric motor assisting interrnal combustion engine was superior to Toyotas gas engine assisting electric motor because of the inherent simplicity (even before including real electronic control systems).

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

The team is on the way back to Detroit, with a fully functioning IMA, and a big smile. The cars performance is noticeably better. They still have a few bugs to iron out.
I put up a small slide show showing some of the interesting aspects of the car.
MIMA Honda Insight Modified Integrated Motor Assist - Western Washington University X-Prize car
Will hopefully get more photos of the tranny hack once they get back to Washington.
The finals will be held starting on July 19th, with some of the telemetry being updated in real time during the race.
I had a really nice time with the guys.
The team members all are great team players, so a lot was accomplished while they were here, with time for a solar cookout , and plenty of beer.