The college engineering program is building an electric car with grant funds from NASA. Just happen to be running the ME side of things and donated one of my cars to the cause. Its a 73 Opel GT and the body work is progressing nicely. Spent 10 hours Monday and Tuesday cutting and welding in patches. Heres a couple pictures, ill update as we keep building it. It will certainly be different to have an electric vehicle with a little class, not just another econobox!

Nice! I always wanted to build an electric car just for the communte and make the Jeep the "fun vehicle" full time.

i always wanted an Opel GT to put an Ecotec LNF in it... Electric car? Sacrilege.

Posted by Samurai i always wanted an Opel GT to put an Ecotec LNF in it... Electric car? Sacrilege.

^ Bandi likes this.

Neat car, there definitely aren't many of those left. I honestly thought they were fibreglass bodied.

edit: did they remove the paint with a grinding disc?

Posted by bandi ^ Bandi likes this. Neat car, there definitely aren't many of those left. I honestly thought they were fibreglass bodied. edit: did they remove the paint with a grinding disc?

oh i hope not... the Opel GT... sold at Buick dealers where the average Buick customer knew not what it was. Kind of like when Ford sold DeTomaso Pantera at Lincoln-Mercury dealers?

You dont want to know how they sanded the body. Someone else made a decision to use flapper wheels in a drill after i said id bring my DA and some pads down. Didnt do to bad a job but will require a lot of touch up and filler. Oh well, doesnt need to look great. Seeing a GT at all is a rare sight!

Original plan for this car when I owned it was a Lexus 1uzfe aluminum V8 but I lost my job. Couldnt afford the race car project anymore. At least i get to see the car survive the crusher, it was literally the straightest one ive ever seen in person. 90% of them were wrapped around poles. Just like the 70's vettes the rear end would come around on you on wide curves at high speed. The car will have a "go baby go" button on the dash that bypasses the controller and dumps the batteries straight to the motor. Best of both worlds, controlled for endurance and ungodly instant torque for some fun time...

Neat. There was one at Targa Newfoundland when I was there in '08, but it broke during the test day. I forget what failed, but it was a pretty normal component (like the distributor or fuel pump or something) and they couldn't source one in the 2 days before the race started. Crappy deal since they trailer the thing over 2000 miles to get it there, and I doubt they give refunds on the entry to Targa ($25k, ish)