[OPSash]

Hey All,

First a quick intro - my name is Sasha Anis and I'm from a motorsport electronics background. I spend most of my days tuning Motec and other engine management systems. Being a firm believer in climate change and appreciating the efficiency of electric power (and let's face it, being inspired by Tesla), I decided it was time to build an electric sports car that is as capable on the racetrack as it is on the road.

So, Why an Evora?

Simple really. The body comes off, so access is great. With a Tesla drive unit, there needs to be enough space to fit the drive unit and batteries, so a mid-engined car is really the optimal layout. The options were a Cayman (uni-body, 4 wheel mac-strut), an Elise (basically a Tesla roadster at that point), a Ferrari 360 or something in that era (too expensive and old). No one will miss the Naturally Aspirated V6, so it's the ideal car that has a great deal of potential once you double the power output. Oh did I mention it has an all aluminum chassis?

Who the hell is this guy? I've raced as a driver and crew chief in Continental Tire Sports Car Championship (Camaro Z/28R and Aston Martin DB9 GT4), as well as World Challenge and have won championships in the Canadian Touring Car Championship with cars we built (Hyundai Genesis Coupes). My personal racecar is a Nissan 350z GT car with a 3.5L V6 (sound familiar?) with a Quaife sequential gearbox, 12" wide wheels all around, big slicks, carbon bodywork etc. I'll attach a few photos, and here's a video of the Z in a regional race at Mont Tremblant with some GT3 machinery:

Mont Tremblant Road Racing with the 350z Recently:

Last week I purchased a 2014 Evora with Serial # 514. If you look through some photos of my stuff, you'll know that 14 is my lucky number, so I'm feeling pretty positive about how this project is going to turn out. We had it out at the local test track for a few laps to configure the dash and do some CAN sniffing, as well as to get a benchmark. With old-ish tires the car did a 1:21.9 - to compare my Z does a 1:12.1 at the same track. So there is a lot of room to grow. The ultimate goal will be a low 1:16 for the car, in full street car trim with all of the creature comforts. Here's a link to a clip of the car going over curbing while on power. Talk about well tuned dampers. The car is SO composed, and ridiculously fun to drive. It hardly feels like it is on street tires!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMfTbRjgg8f/?taken-by=onpointdyno

We've already installed Motec's largest display - the C1212 (12"!) with display creator, which enables us to design whatever kind of display we want on the logger, while still keeping the Motec quality functionality, logging and robustness I've come to expect and love. We already have a Tesla Model S drive unit and a Chevy volt battery, once we finish doing the CAN decoding for what we need, it will be time to strip the Evora down and start on the mounting.

I'm sure I will need a lot of help from you all here, being so new to this car and to the brand. So I hope that in exchange for some of the information I share, you will all be helpful with this project as well. I'm excited to share it with you all, and I hope you enjoy it and don't get too discouraged by the lack of a screaming gasoline burning four stroke. It will still be awesome, I promise.

Here is a little bit of CAN information that I've found for those of you that might find it useful if you want to connect a data logger to your Evora:

CAN Data we have processed so far:

Evora uses a 500kbps bus speed. Devices on the bus are ECU, Dash, Yaw Sensor, Steering Angle Sensor, ABS Module (and trans module for IPS)

ECU - 0x114:

Engine Speed - 0x114, Byte 0-1, Length 2 Bytes, Little Endian (Intel) format, unsigned, scale 0.25 gets it close to engine RPM but I don't believe that is quite right.
Accel Pedal Position - 0x114, Byte 3, Length 1 Byte, (0-255), unsigned scale 0.4 will get you close to 0-100%
Clutch Position - 0x114, Byte 4, Length 2 bits, offset 4, unsigned,shows clutch position as a 2 bit number 0, 1, 2
Stability / Traction Status (from ECU) - 0x114, Byte 4, Length 1 bit each, offset 2 and 3, one bit set when sport mode active, one bit set when TC is off.

Steering Angle Sensor - 0x85:

Steering Angle: 0x85, Byte 0-1, Length 2 bytes, Little Endian (Intel) format, signed, scale 0.05 gets you very close to steering wheel angle
Steering Rate (speed of steering): 0x85, Byte 2, Length 1 byte, Little Endian (Intel) format, signed, scale 10. Not sure units.

ABS - 0xA2, 0xA4, 0xA8:

Wheel speeds are very strange. They appear to be either 12 or 14 bit numbers although only 12 are set (You would need to exceed 255km/h to see if the 13th bit will be set). If you're staying under 255km/h you can mask half the byte which should allow you to get these values into a Motec logger.
Wheel Speed LF - 0xA2, Byte 0-1, Length 14 bits, Little Endian (Intel) format, unsigned, scale 0.0625 gets km/h
Wheel Speed RF - 0xA2, Byte 1-2-3, Length 14 bits, offset 6 on byte 1, same as LF for the rest of the settings
Ground Speed / Gauge Cluster Speed (10km/h too high at 100km/h) - 0xA2, Byte 3-4-5, Length 14 bits, offset 4 from Byte 3 bit 0. Rest of settings the same as Speed LF

Wheel Speed RR - 0xA4, Byte 0-1, Length 14 bits, Little Endian (Intel) format, unsigned, scale 0.0625 gets km/h
Wheel Speed LR - 0xA4, Byte 1-2-3, Length 14 bits, offset 6 on byte 1, same as RR for the rest of the settings

Yaw Sensor - 0x303

Lateral G - 0x303, Byte 4, Length 1 byte, Little Endian (Intel) format, unsigned, scale TBD, start with 10 for the scale and -1250 for the offset.

ECU To Dash - 0x400, 0x402

Engine Temp - 0x400, Byte 5, Length 1 byte, Little Endian, unsigned, scale TBD 1-1 gets somewhat close in F but it is not correct.
Fuel Level - 0x400, Byte 4, Length 1 byte, Little Endian, unsigned, 0-255, 255 is full, 0 is empty. Scale to 60L if you want to estimate remaining litres.

TMPS - I will have to confirm the corners for these and the scale. I don't have it in front of me right now. They are on 0x402, each 1 byte, bytes 0 through 4. Little endian, unsigned.

More photos and updates will come. We will also have all of the base evora (non supercharged, MY14) engine / gearbox stuff for sale, naturally.

Thanks for reading!

Sasha Anis
OnPoint Dyno

 

[OPSash]

And a few photos of the Evora:

 

[3X163]

Sounds like a cool project. :up:

Please post pics of your progress as you go.

 

[111Joe]

Sounds awesome! Too bad you are not in California, I would love to help you out with this.

 

[OPSash]

Thanks! I will do my best to keep this thread updated with our progress. I'll try to get some photos of the display today that shows live tire pressures among the typical engine channels. Really cool to be able to log tire pressure!

 

[Dylan]

Engines, transmissions and full fuel tanks aren't light, but neither are battery packs, etc. Do have a sense yet of the weight difference, if any? Given the Lotus chassis design, mounting the pack low to maintain or even enhance the CoG would seem challenging too. Will be following to see how you address these issues, and changes in suspension. IIRC, the Tesla Roadster gained about 800 pounds over the donor car.

 

[Doge]

-eek--eek-

uh, *clicks subscribe to thread*

Can't wait to see progress!

 

[OPSash]

Good questions Dylan. Until I weight all of the OEM components I won't know the difference exactly, but right now I am estimating we will gain approx 400-500lbs. The battery capacity will be less than a Tesla Roadster, which will help with the weight. Although the lack of a full carbon body won't help!

Right now the plan is to fit one full Volt pack where the OEM fuel tank is (under the rear seats). In the case of this car, we will need to cut and raise the rear shelf to house the volt batteries. The second volt pack is going to be the problem. I don't see any clean way yet of mounting it in the chassis and keeping it very low. One option would be to mount some battery modules in the front area, and ditch some of the radiator ducting, but that is a less than ideal solution and will result in a fair bit of battery cable and plumbing weight. I would like to keep the front for the high voltage ancillaries like the DC/DC converter, charger, and AC compressor. There will also be an electric power steering pump that we will fit at the front.

Engines, transmissions and full fuel tanks aren't light, but neither are battery packs, etc. Do have a sense yet of the weight difference, if any? Given the Lotus chassis design, mounting the pack low to maintain or even enhance the CoG would seem challenging too. Will be following to see how you address these issues, and changes in suspension. IIRC, the Tesla Roadster gained about 800 pounds over the donor car.

Unfortunately the car currently has an airbag light on for high resistance on the driver airbag. It will be a week or more until that is sorted and fixed under warranty, and for obvious reasons I don't want to touch the car until that is all sorted out.

I do plan on dyno testing the car and getting it up on the hoist later this week, so will get some photos of that for you all, along with dyno figures of a base bone stock Evora. My guess from driving it is not much more than 230whp, but I could be wrong.

 

[invictusmaneo]

while it will be tail happy, you could potentially mount some where the stock muffler is since that won't be there any more. You can get them pretty close to the rear axle

 

[PLAY-DOH]

Subscribed

 

[Butters]

Subscribed as well. This is gonna be good.

 

[phaphaphooey]

Question due to my curiosity: why did you buy a new car when you could've gotten an older one for much cheaper since you are going to strip it down and rebuild it anyway?

Please do keep us updated on this build.

 

[Butters]

+1 Seems like maybe a wrecked or salvaged car would've been better for this build?

 

[brgelise]

I've seen you race.

Very interested in your build and believe climate change is multifactorial. Our biggest concerns are developing 3rd world countries and esp China and India which are 25-50 yrs behind us on environmental issues. I think packaging issues in the Evora will present major problems for you as well as ruining the single biggest asset of this vehicle-->its extraordinary balance. I too, wonder why destroy a new, rare car when there are plenty of fine used ones out there. Let alone by a rolling chassis from Lotus. You do race so you would know those channels.

 

[OPSash]

Cool! Would that have been at the Glen?

I'm glad to see you guys think the car is new! It's actually used, a 2014.

This car is not going to be a racecar, so for that reason it's important that it still feels like a brand new car. My goal is to hopefully be able to turn it around one day, and so I didn't want a car with scratched leather, faded paint, worn bushings and the rest of it. This conversion will be a significant investment, so the difference between a 2009 used car and a 2014 wasn't that big of a difference, and I think the newness will raise the value of the overall project considerably.

A salvage or roller chassis would be a good option for a race car, no doubt about it.

Regarding Climate Change.. I don't think we want to open that can of worms! Let's just say I want to get people thinking about it, and this was the best way I could think of to do that that uses my skillset and experience.

One comment that resonated with me through the recent election process was the notion that politicians don't lead, they follow. So if enough of us have climate change at the forefront of our minds, and are vocal about it, politicians will take more action to get things done to speed the process to stop emissions.

Things like convincing India that renewable energy is nearly comparable on cost with coal, and may even be cheaper once you consider the lifetime cost of a new power plant (I don't know the facts, but I would imagine that to be the case once you consider that localised power production doesn't require electrical lines or new infrastructure, nor does it require the purchase of coal - or in India's case where coal is free, the mining and healthcare / moral costs). I'm sure if you offered people free solar electricity, with the caveat that they might have some periods without power, they would not complain. This would buy some time for cheaper storage options to come into the market.

I just opened the can. I didn't want to do that.

In other news, dyno time tomorrow.

I've seen you race.

Very interested in your build and believe climate change is multifactorial. Our biggest concerns are developing 3rd world countries and esp China and India which are 25-50 yrs behind us on environmental issues. I think packaging issues in the Evora will present major problems for you as well as ruining the single biggest asset of this vehicle-->its extraordinary balance. I too, wonder why destroy a new, rare car when there are plenty of fine used ones out there. Let alone by a rolling chassis from Lotus. You do race so you would know those channels.

 

[gray]

This is pretty interesting.

That said, I'm curious how you intend to deal with cooling. It's arguably the #1 issue with the Model S (I've never had mine go into limp mode never having tracked it, but all the auto mags pretty much have within a lap or two).

Also, there are some questions about the robustness of the drive unit itself, particularly in performance models which see the most use/abuse (knock on wood - we're still on the original one). It's my personal suspicion that they're over-driving the motor and setting a low cooling threshold with the estimation that if you can keep the motor relatively cool, it'll hold up to being over-driven.

Why use a Volt pack? You're going to have quite limited range using even two Volt packs. Is it because you're conceptually basing it on that dragster using a Volt pack and Model S drive unit ran 10s?

Have you considered trying to source one of the new retrofit roadster packs? In that, there's an important assumption that the power systems are inter-operable (which may or may not be the case, and you'll probably have to do a lot of systems integration work regardless). A related question is how to charge the battery pack absent the charge/discharge logic presumably integrated into the Model S drivetrain package.

 

[OPSash]

Cooling goes hand in hand weight weight and power. Since this car will be lighter, there won't be as much need for power (380whp will be enough), and with less weight you generally spend less time applying the power (the car accelerates faster, has higher cornering speed, so requires less energy to accelerate between each corner). I would venture a guess that the worst possible setup for heat management would be a very heavy car on street tires. As it needs to slow down significantly compared to a well setup car on r-compounds or slicks (for example corner 4 at Mosport is a 210km/h corner in my Z, and maybe 160km/h corner in a street car).

The volt batteries have less internal resistance than the Tesla batteries (I believe that is an oversimplification - I am not an expert on battery chemistry), so for a small pack capacity, the volt battery should have less voltage drop under high load than an equivalently sized Tesla battery. I would imagine the higher voltage will also help with the cooling requirements, to some degree. My guess would be that the same power at a higher voltage would produce less heat.

But that will all remain to be seen obviously. The main plan for the car is time attack, so it won't run for more than 4-5 laps at a time. For endurance running, a lower power mode may be required, or significant cooling. Don't forget that a gasoline engine needs far more cooling than an electric drive system, the problem may just be that Tesla didn't get enough cooling to the inverter / motors directly, not that the car doesn't physically have the air capacity to cool the motor. If that was the case, we wouldn't be able to race with 500+ whp seven litre Camaro's.

As far as capacity, 30kWh is enough for a fun weekend car. DC fast charging stations are popping up more and more around here, so you really only need 200km of range. The car would be towed to the track for lapping days I imagine, at least at the start.

In other news, I have been learning a tiny bit about CFD. I managed to get a simulation done that is within 10% of reality, so if I can make it repeatable there might be a platform here to evaluate some changes to help reduce drag. In this simulation (using SimScale for meshing and simulation, modelling done with SketchUp from a 3D model) the car has a cD of 0.25 without the wing, and with all cooling inlets blanked off, including the under body air scoops. Full flat floor with a 3.5" ground clearance at the lowest point. My guess on actual cD would be closer to 0.29 in this configuration (0.33 is stock). The simulation seems to have potential, it simulates a moving floor and everything.

This is pretty interesting.

That said, I'm curious how you intend to deal with cooling. It's arguably the #1 issue with the Model S (I've never had mine go into limp mode never having tracked it, but all the auto mags pretty much have within a lap or two).

Also, there are some questions about the robustness of the drive unit itself, particularly in performance models which see the most use/abuse (knock on wood - we're still on the original one). It's my personal suspicion that they're over-driving the motor and setting a low cooling threshold with the estimation that if you can keep the motor relatively cool, it'll hold up to being over-driven.

Why use a Volt pack? You're going to have quite limited range using even two Volt packs. Is it because you're conceptually basing it on that dragster using a Volt pack and Model S drive unit ran 10s?

Have you considered trying to source one of the new retrofit roadster packs? In that, there's an important assumption that the power systems are inter-operable (which may or may not be the case, and you'll probably have to do a lot of systems integration work regardless). A related question is how to charge the battery pack absent the charge/discharge logic presumably integrated into the Model S drivetrain package.

 

[brgelise]

As far as performance is concerned, at the Glen last July a Novice showed up in a Tesla Model S the fastest model. Let's just say we were all GROSSLY underwhelmed. First off novices, by their nature, are very slow. This particular driver let's be polite and call them inept AND SCARY. Yes, the car was fast as hell in a straight line for a few laps, even in session 1, then it went into its safety modes. They fought with it all day, charging it up between sessions and only getting a 1/2 dozen laps before the battery packs were too hot etc. They are NOT READY FOR TRACK DAYS YET, NOT EVEN CLOSE. The left after 3 sessions. We all expected a fast sedan on track by PM, but it never happened.

As far as charging these things, unless its via solar or wind, its only moving the pollution upstream IMHO. I doubt majority of owners charge that way. The power grid in this country is already maxed out in many areas. So, at what cost will the EV vehicle become routine?? That does not mean I am not very interested in your project. But don't plan on taking it to a track. The motor will be a profound letdown compared to the capabilities of the vehicle. You race, you know balance...out of the box in its price range, what is better/ Cayman GT? Best of luck and we all have different ways to let our creative juices flow!:clap:

 

[OPSash]

Dyno'd the Evora yesterday and it put down 250whp. A lot more than I was expecting to be honest. Here's the dyno graph.

Also got the ECU in and configured to transmit custom load messages to the ABS module. All of the ABS / Stability control is now working exactly how we want it to without the factory ECU or the factory ECU logic in the equation. We could also drive the factory dash as OEM if we wanted to, but I am pretty sure there isn't a demand for a PnP Motec ECU for this thing, so not going to bother with that.

Also attached a picture of the mess of motorsport electronics in the passenger footwell. 12" display and an M130 ECU and a whole bunch of fancy wire.

Next steps for the car are to get this airbag fixed, and start disassembly.
Next steps for the EV system are to finalise the rest of the HV system and start on the electrical schematics and CAN programming and testing for the other devices. I'll get a Chevy volt charger, DC-DC converter and AC compressor on the way here next week, that should keep us busy for a little while.

 

[brgelise]

If you get to a point where you get full ability to tune this, something our suppliers have been grappling with for years, you will be a major hit on this website. Great stuff. I envy your knowledge on this stuff!!!!