Boy howdy. It was backintheday. At the time the hot shit power source was Optima yellowtop lead-acids. I was working for a company that made electric cars back when an electric '92 Ford Taurus was hot shit. They'd made this thing and a couple others. I feel like the motor was an industrial beast; kinda feel like we just bought it out of Grainger. Nowadays? I'd prolly use lithium motorcycle batteries in series/parallel. But if you're going to do that, remember the mantra of the electric car mechanic: 1 HAND IN A POCKET AT ALL TIMES (keeps you from inviting an arc across your heart)
That's legit! I assume you know of the White Zombie? Looks like you can use a 3-phase motor and a VFD if you want (and can provide a DC-DC converter or other source of 300ish VDC).... (damn you, I have other things to do tonight!)
I do not! I mean, maybe I do - I think I've seen it before. But it sure wasn't running in the 10s back then.... I did know Ed Rannberg. Stayed at his house on a road trip once. Super nice guy. Let me ride an electric scooter around a giant plant where they built boilers to refry beans for Taco Bell. Got to see Kawashocki taken apart, which was pretty cool considering it was in a couple of my magazines as a kid. Back when men were men and electric vehicles were made out of lead.