Video A Honda Civic With no Gas Tank (Video) 331
Adam Blankespoor: My name is Adam Blankespoor and this is my Honda Civic, a ‘96 Civic that I converted to full electric battery power. Took out the engine and added the motor and a lot of batteries. So, I drive it every day to work and back. My commute to work is 15 miles and it takes about three-and-a-half hours to charge that. If I use the full battery capacity, I could probably go 50 miles, but I rarely do that and rarely have a need to do it, living here in Ann Arbor. If I use that full battery capacity, then it would take 10 hours to charge on a 110 outlet. The charger that I have, it can use 110 or 220, automatically switch between the two. And so that would cut the time in half. I finished it a year ago. It took me two years to convert and I finished it a year ago and have about 2,000 miles on it. And one of the things that amazes me still is that, I haven’t had to do any maintenance really or any kind of tuning. Once I got everything connected, it’s basically been trouble free for the first 2,000 miles. And I think it’s less of a testament of my prowess and more of a testament of the simplicity of this system and the elegance of an electric drive. Interviewer: Could you walk us through the various parts of the system? Adam Blankespoor: Sure. So, everything from the flywheel to the lug nuts is original Honda and I have a WarP 9 motor and it’s a DC series wound motor. It can handle 160-volts nominal and up to 1,000 amps of output. This is a WarP-drive controller. It acts a lot like a dimmer switch. So my accelerator pedal controls this controller and it controls how much power goes to the motor. I have 45 lithium ion battery cells and they are 100-amp-hour capacity at about 150 nominal volts. This controller is liquid cooled and that’s regular engine coolant. And then I have 25 cells in the back along with the charger and a DC-to-DC converter.
An all electric car?!? (Score:5, Funny)
Practical? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Like most environmentally friendly alternatives, it's not even close to ready for mainstream. The masses buy things when they make sense. This stuff doesn't make sense yet.
Luckily you always have people who are motivates by things other than practicality (early adopters). In this case, you have hippies ;p
The same can be said with computer technology. A lot of stuff is impractical or overpriced when it first comes out.. but there are enough people who are enthusiastic about the tech and willing to buy it kno
Re: (Score:2)
And there is an outfit in Tampa that has a kit to convert a VW Bug, Porsche 356/912/914, and just about anything else that uses a 200mm clutch for about half that price.
Re:Practical? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure, but paying somebody else to do it for you is like using Windows instead of Linux.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Is it Practical? (Score:2)
14000$
Price of Gas today: 1.24$ per Litre.
MPG for a 1996 Honda Civic: 31 or 13.18 kmpl
14k$/1.24$ = 11290.32 Litres of gas
11290.32 * 13.18kmpl = 148,806.45 Km.
So I would say from an "energy" perspcetive it is practical if perhaps your electric motor and batteries can even last 150,000 KM of travel.
From every other perspective, with a nominal trip range of 30 miles (48.2 Km), you would have to take 3087 trips or full charges before that is even possible.
So likely under any loosely defined definition of practi
Re:Practical? (Score:5, Informative)
Since over 50% of US electrical production is from coal it's not like an electrical vehicle produces zero CO2, in fact full lifecycle analysis shows a modern high efficiency non-hybrid may produce the same CO2 as a hybrid.
Re:Practical? (Score:5, Funny)
They're you go, bringing facts to the argument again.
Re:Practical? (Score:5, Interesting)
"They are you go?"
But anyway, if you're living in Springfield, IL an electric car isn't environmentally friendly; the power comes from coal and natural gas. But if you're in Clinton, IL, your electric car is nuclear powered. If you live by the TVA your car is hydro powered. Fact is, if every car were electric, we'd be burning fewer fossil fuels, even though over half of the cars would be fossil-powered. Now, almost 100% of cars are fossil-powered.
Re: (Score:2)
There are very few hydro plants that dump power. When power is not needed they just save the water. It's all used by the end of the year.
New load might be physically served by hydro, but economically incremental load is served by fossil fuel.
Re: (Score:3)
Flow of river is almost always used for generation but is typically a small fraction of the total water available. There are exceptions.
Most hydro plants run flow of river at night/off peak and as many hours as they have water for during the highest cost hours of the day. Limited by physical maximums and restrictions on ramp rate (no 'walls of water' downstream) etc.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Since over 50% of US electrical production is from coal
50%? More like 40%... [eia.gov]
Re: (Score:2)
Ok, it's been falling for a few years as natural gas takes its place due to the shale gas boom, I stand corrected.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Here [climatecentral.org] is a map that shows what is the least CO2-polluting type of car for each state, based on the source of the state's electricity. All numbers are based on a full life cycle analysis of each vehicle.
In many states, the Prius is more environmentally friendly than the Nissan Leaf. But in all states, the Prius is more environmentally friendly than any non-electric, non-hybrid vehicle.
Re: (Score:2)
Interestingly enough, the dark green states in that map seem to roughly correlate to how much nuclear power is produced in the state. Go figure.
Though I question the numbers.
In Maryland, I can buy all Wind Powered energy from Ohio (which is actually cheaper then the mostly coal mix that I get by default). I have to imagine that that would lessen the impact.
Re: (Score:2)
You can't ever make a gasoline car 'green' because it uses fossil fuels, period. Electrics only use fossil fuels as long as the power source does. Bio-diesel is an interesting idea but what I've read says it can't scale to replace current gasoline usage. It will still have a place for some applications but it can't be the majority fuel source.
Of course I did just read abou
Missing the point (Score:3, Interesting)
Imports from Canada (Score:4, Informative)
US electricity production is 100% produced from domestic sources, none of it from imported sources.
Really? When did you surrender and become part of Canada then? [www.cbc.ca]
Re: (Score:2)
Since over 50% of US electrical production is from coal it's not like an electrical vehicle produces zero CO2, in fact full lifecycle analysis shows a modern high efficiency non-hybrid may produce the same CO2 as a hybrid.
Electrical production, even in the US, is slowly but steadily shifting towards renewable sources, like solar and wind. So the percentage of electrical energy that does not contribute to increasing CO2 emissions will, over time, increase, but the gallon of gas will always mean the same amount of non-renewable crude oil.
Re: (Score:2)
Great, when that's true for where I live I might consider an electric vehicle, today it makes no sense on economic or environmental grounds. I did work on the grass roots movement to require 15% of our electric power generation to be from renewable sources but while it passed it hasn't become physical reality yet and even at 15% the mix will still make it a toss up as to which is better. Perhaps my first new car will be an electric or plugin hybrid, today I'll buy a used vehicle and drive it into the ground
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Practical? (Score:5, Informative)
Considering emissions on automobiles have been reduced by 99+% (CO, NOx, HC) since the 1970's but SO2 and NOx from power plants have only been reduced by 70% and 60% over the same time period it's actually proven to be easier to do it for cars in the real world =)
Re: (Score:2)
It is easier, but for political, not technical, reasons.
Re: (Score:2)
Now, certainly cars get better mileage thus reducing the amount of gas they use, but the amount of CO2 produced by each gallon of gas used is still quite the same as before.
Re: (Score:3)
CO2 emissions aren't being reduced anywhere. So when discussing reductions of emissions it's stupid to focus on CO2, unless you have an axe to grind.
Re: (Score:2)
Who cares which powerplant is more efficient, you have to look at the total CO2 production over the useful life of the vehicle. Several recent academic evaluations have shown that a fairly efficient (40+MPG) midsized car produces roughly the same amount of CO2 over its useful life as does a plugin Prius. When you add in things like the energy to mine the material for the battery and build it, the energy to mine and transport the coal, etc the lifetime CO2 production of the Prius is no better (ie with coal a
Re: (Score:2)
The Prius is a bad example to pick, because for a car that size it's almost comically thirsty.
Re: (Score:2)
"and an awful lot of CO2" Hey he is helping the economy. Pepsi and Coke need all that CO2 for the sodas they are making!
Re:Practical? (Score:4, Insightful)
Lighten up AC. It's the guy's _hobby_, it's not meant to be especially practical, you know? (great fun though)
Re:Practical? (Score:4, Interesting)
There's a guy locally who did about the same thing for about a fifth that. To a first approximation, something made out of used parts with 10 times the performance of a golf cart should only cost about 10 times as much as a used golf cart. His first conversion project was, literally, take the guts of a used $2000 large electric forklift and put the guts into an econobox with a blown engine. His first upgrade was to a real VFD instead of forklift control.
I suspect the guy is suffering from hobby-economics. So I built me a little carpentry project this summer using $100 of wood and a new $500 saw... Is that a $100 project? Well, no, my bank account is $600 lower, it must be more than $100. Is that a $600 project? Well, no, I only spent $600 for a project AND a slightly used saw so assuming the saw is worth more than $1 the project must be worth less than $600.
Re: (Score:3)
To a first approximation, something made out of used parts with 10 times the performance of a golf cart should only cost about 10 times as much as a used golf cart
The first law of engineering is "nothing scales".
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah but thru the miracle of used parts market, 10 forklifts worth of good used batteries does cost about 10 times as much as one.
The main cost seems to be batteries. High horsepower VFDs are old stuff, cheap, even new. High horsepower electric motors? Cheap. The cabling isn't too expensive. Its all in the batteries.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
> this will never get off the ground
That's because it's a car.... not an airplane. Jeez... look who's the smarty-pants now
Re:Practical? (Score:4, Insightful)
You should consider the $14000 + the cost of the original honda civic as the total cost of the finished vehicle. Then compare that cost to a similar quality gas guzzler. The real savings will be found in the difference between those two prices, not in the original cost of the conversion.
When doing a cost analysis, don't forget to deduct the cost of oil changes, filter replacements, and exhaust system repairs/replacements for the life of the electric car. Discount the cost of brake jobs as well, if the car uses regenerative braking. In Ontario, Canada, (and possibly other jurisdictions as well), you can also deduct the cost of emissions testing every two years. And then there's the cost difference between fixing the things that typically go wrong with an I/C engine in the course of a decade or so, and fixing the problems that crop up with an electric motor and controller.
As usual, this is a more complex question than it first appears to be.
Re: (Score:2)
In Ontario, Canada, (and possibly other jurisdictions as well), you can also deduct the cost of emissions testing every two years.
In Alaska, he'd fail engine emissions tests. He has unapproved engine modifications.
Re: (Score:3)
Son, you're gonna drive me to drinkin' (Score:4, Interesting)
if you don't stop drivin' that hot rod Lincoln [lincvolt.com]
Re: (Score:2)
e-Fast & Furious? (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Why not just buy an EV? (Score:2)
If you really want an EV (as opposed to a hobby car) that you can count on for a reliable commute, why spend $14,000 turning a $2,000 16 year old car into an EV, when you can buy a Mitsubishi i-Miev for around $22,000 [myimiev.com] (after tax rebate)? For $6000 more you get a full factory warranty, twice the range, a car that's been designed to be safe in a crash with the extra battery weight, and no hassle from your insurance company if a charging problem burns down your house. Or for a few thousand more, get a Nissan
Build your own way more interesting (Score:3)
I think a primary reason why you might want to do a conversion is that you then have total control over parameters of performance, and can tweak them to your hearts content.
Also you can take a car you really like to begin with and simply make it run on electric, rather than having to buy one of the few electric car designs existing (Have not seen the i-Meiv but I hated the Volt's interior and dash)
I agree with you about the range on this being just too low. I'd like to see a do it yourself hydrogen convers
NYTimes reviews Tesla - (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/automobiles/autoreviews/one-big-step-for-tesla-one-giant-leap-for-evs.html?hp [nytimes.com]
Hey, just incidentally the New York Times reviewed the Tesla Model S today. There seems to be a lot of electric vehicle haterz on Slashdot lately, I don't get why, but if you're legitimately interested in the tech, rather than just Detroit astroturf, the NYTimes review is certainly worth a read.
"Put simply, the automobile has not undergone a fundamental change in design or use since Henry Ford rolled out the Model T more than a century ago. At least that’s what I thought until I spent a week with the Tesla Model S."
Re: (Score:2)
I've seen no practical technical reason why every car in the US couldn't be replaced with an EV. Just busine
Re: (Score:2)
Cite or GTFO.
Do you happen to have any numbers on the use of copper, neodymium, and lithium in any model Tesla or any electrical vehicle at all? No? Lots of people thought catalytic converters were going to ruin the American auto industry too. I'm fairly certain Elon Musk would not be going to the trouble if he didn't think he could produce these, eventually, in quantity.
Can you tell me the relative efficiency of a conventional gas-burning engine? And compare that to the efficiency of burning coal or na
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I hear you on the sticker shock WRT Tesla. I don't know that they're ever going to be cheap, though I'm sure there's an economy-of-scale thing they're hoping will allow them to lower the price once they ramp up production.
Home-brew ethanol? That's impressive. You should post a link or links related to this - I would be interested (though, it too is probably impractical for me).
Huge waste of money (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Huge waste of money (Score:4, Insightful)
So you're complaining about wasting time...on slashdot?!
There's a difference between wasting my time and wasting my employer's time.
For that range, use a bicycle (Score:3)
30 mile range is a 15 mile radius. That's barely beyond practical bicycle range. If he had picked up cycling (with or without a helmet) instead of converting his civic to electric, it would be better for the environment, he would be healthier, and it would cost a whole lot less too.
Yeah, I could do that... (Score:2)
Yeah, I could to that or I could just buy a Prius. With the trade-in from my Honda that cash outlay might be comparable, and it would only take a few hours. :)
Of course there's plenty of room for research in this field. I wouldn't mind learning that type of engineering and having a corporation pay me for my time. There are plenty of people doing that and... designing cars like the Prius, Leaf, Volt, etc.
car conversion: "don't start from here" (Score:2)
there's something very very wrong with converting pre-existing ICE cars to electric. look up the phrase "mass decompounding" for a clue, but in essence it's that a ICE vehicle is designed around carrying one very large heavy object which is typically 15% of the mass of the vehicle: the engine.
the *correct* thing - ecologically - is to design and build a vehicle that's right for the environment, based around the most efficient kind of drivetrain: parallel hybrid. it's possible then to get below 350kg, stil
Re: (Score:2)
""rare earth" is a misnomer"
Really??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Earth_(band) [wikipedia.org] As a misnomer, they really rock! Even for old misnomers...
Re: (Score:3)
Electric vehicles are vary useful, but you have to get past the moronic safety requirements and the "I need a truck" retardation that most american drivers have. a vehicle the size of a Smart Car but 3/4 the width would be perfect. 1 seat, room for some baggage, and sleek enough to do 75mph without much drag. You can EASILY make this a 200 mile range electric car with a fast recharge from 110VAC or solar.
Yea! What sort of inbred redneck ever needs to carry more than their own ass and an overnight bag! Fucking savages!
And you can make them safe in case you have to tangle with a idiot in a SUV... a lot of people dont have the IQ to realize that.... they dont have all the really stupid and heavy safety devices required in the USA.. what they think they know is incredibly wrong and inaccurate... Looking at what morons out there believe...
2 points:
1 - you're not going to garner a lot of support for your cause when you use terms like "morons" and "Don't have the IQ" to refer to anyone and everyone who doesn't march in lock-step with your apparently militant position.
2 - If you're going to waste your time with a good 2 paragraph rant about how so many people are just oh-so much dumber than yourself, you may want to learn proper
Re:car conversion: "don't start from here" (Score:5, Insightful)
I suggest you go to youtube and watch some of the Smart crash test videos. Against larger cars, the Smart usually gets punted quite far.
If everyone drove something that size, sure. But mass does matter.
He did it the expensive way.... (Score:2)
I know guys that have converted other cars to all electric years ago for less than $14K. One did it for $5500 and over 70% of that cost was the batteries.
Electric conversions are not new or innovative, I helped do an electric conversion of a "Le Car" in high school automotive engineering class back in 1984.
Gas tax (Score:2)
good luck with that. There was a case in the US a few years ago where someone was sued for not paying gas tax since they ran their car on cooking oil
Transmission? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Wow, I guess. (Score:5, Insightful)
Geeky and cool does not mean useful. In fact most of the best geeky and cool things are not useful at all.
Re:Wow, I guess. (Score:4, Insightful)
It is geeky and cool. If you don't get that you might be on the wrong website. Geeky and cool does not mean useful. In fact most of the best geeky and cool things are not useful at all.
I now know how to describe my penis - thanks.
Hobbies (Score:2)
Stephen Wozniak on the Homebrew Computer Club
http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/homebrew_and_how_the_apple.php [atariarchives.org]
Re: (Score:2)
i think jtownatpunk was getting at the 'news' part of 'news for nerds'
If this is no different than the electric cars people have been building for years, it's not hardly news. What technical item is present in this conversion that makes it significant?
That said I agree it's cool, and I also wish the $$$ where more in favor of doing something like this. It's just not news that you can spend $10k-20k and have an EV conversion with a 30 mile range. Something like this should be on HAD, where "sure it's been
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
What I can't understand is how the GP got modded up on a nerd site! I swear, there should be some way to make sure only nerds get mod points; any nerd would have modded that luddite to oblivion.
Re: (Score:2)
I kind of think 14,000 seems like a lot of money for conversion. I like the idea of do it yourself when you can save money but if you can buy ready made for the same price I don't see the point, unless it's just for the fun of it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You're right something like this is more for the fun of it. Though $14k is fairly normal price for a DIY conversion. At least that's what I gather from reading about it, never tried a conversion myself.
Re:Wow, I guess. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
About 90% of drivers will drive more than 30 miles a day only on rare occasions.
In the modern US, a household with cars typically has 2 or more cars. Short range electric cars are perfectly useful for almost all of those households. They can keep a long range gas car for those purposes, and use the short range EV for daily commutes without sacrificing any utility.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
My round trip daily drive is:
work 12 miles
dojo 4 miles
kid's school 2 miles
So yeah, 35 mile range is just fine for my daily needs, and my employer even has free charging. (we have a Tesla S and a couple homebrew VW's in the lot already).
I've seriously been considering doing this for a while...
-nbr
Re: (Score:2)
They can keep a long range gas car for those purposes
Rent it. That way when it breaks down in Middle-of-Nowhere, Oklahoma, you just don't care, its somebody else's problem.
I also rent the $20 home depot pickup truck. I'd have to rent that truck a hell of a lot of times to equal just one monthly loan payment on a compensation machine of that size...
Re:Wow, I guess. (Score:4, Funny)
I don't understand why this is a story at all.
Did you already forget what site you're on?
Re: (Score:3)
But, for another grand or two, he could have bought a brand new 40+ MPG IC vehicle with a warranty, all kinds of new safety features, and a range of hundreds of miles with a "recharge" time of about 5 minutes.
Yeah, but thats way out of his budget and wasteful. First of all if he spent $14K on his hobby car thats probably because his budget was $14K and not a penny more... so telling him there's a really nice donor car available for only $15K is kind of pointless, especially if the total cost of the conversion would be $15K for the donor plus $14K for conversion parts and tools, that's $29K for a guy with a firm $14K budget.... Also he's throwing out a brand new IC engine with warranty, kinda a waste to buy it
Re: (Score:2)
A 96 civic in decent shape is worth about $(US)3K.
If he has a good 1.6vtec leftover he can get a few bucks for it.
Re: (Score:2)
Hybrids have been out for quite some time, emergency response crews have adapted their processes to assume there is a battery pack and high voltage source in a vehicle.
Re: (Score:2)
Likewise, emergency responders will have a basic idea of how hybrid cars are put together and where the dangerous stuff is. If it's a self made car, you really can't be sure of what is where.
"I mean, why he put the batteries in the A Pillar I'll never know...and sadly neither will that Jaws of Life operator..."
Re: (Score:3)
If we had intelligent inspections in this country, it shouldn't be a problem: an amateur builder should be able to get a DMV inspection of his/her car and that should be one of the rules for EVs or home-built hybrids. In many states, they already have special inspections for home-built cars, where a DMV person will do a basic safety check. Considering how few people actually make home-built cars of any kind, it really shouldn't be that hard to have one competent DMV person in every metro area able to do s
Re:Street Legal?? (Score:5, Informative)
Oh boy, here we go.
Crumple zones and chassis structure are not touched. In a low-speed collision, nothing more happens. In a high-speed collision, there may be some leaking of electrolyte (The same way the lead-acid battery in your ICE car can leak), but there will be no dangerous inflammable liquids spilling around. Electrically, the battery pack is automatically isolated via inertia switch and circuit breakers and isolating fuses, along with contactors which separate on 12v power loss.
No. In an accident, the system is automatically isolated, as noted above. In addition, the power-carrying cables from front to back run along the underside of the vehicle, usually along the old exhaust tunnel, keeping them far away from anywhere emergency services may be operating.
Oil gets spilled. Some metalwork gets crumpled.
Some metalwork gets crumpled.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, it's the same on the outside, but what about the stuff inside and possible outcomes if, say, it gets involved in a serious accident?
It won't explode if it doesn't catch fire. The JOL won't hurt the operator unless the engineers who designed the car are dumb enough to run high voltage cables through the doors.
I can't see how an electric car can be anything but safer than a gasoline car.
Re: (Score:2)
If this was some regular Joe, you may have a point. This guy is a ENGINEER. We take safety issues and extreme scenarios seriously. However it is frequently the managers and accountants that forces compromises. This gentleman is fettered by neither.
Bad argument (Score:3)
What would happen if you ran your gas vehicle into a nuclear facility...
They would scrape the remains of you and your car off the sides of the impenetrably thick concrete cooling towers.
Immovable object, meet easily squashable force.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, you and your car aren't going to look pretty after hitting it but I reckon you are going to damage the structure.
Concrete Containment Vessels on the other hand...
Re: (Score:2)
Once you are married, your wife or gay life partner will likely insist on a second vehicle. Since most driving will fall within the range of an EV, you can use it without sacrificing the option to take the other gas vehicle for those long trips.
Re: (Score:2)
Hey...what she wants to do with her own money...is up to her.
No free rides around this house....
Re: (Score:2)
Rationalization stuffed full of false dilemma in almost every line.
There's nothing wrong with saying you just don't like it, or don't like change, or you're inherently paleoconservative about how you travel or whatever. Don't need to make up strange rationalized constraints to fit a predetermined outcome. "I don't like it" is good enough.
Re: (Score:2)
A couple small hills or stoplights can affect the range more than that.
Dealing with stall currents is tough on EV design.
Re:Citing error (Score:5, Informative)
Dealing with stall currents is tough on EV design.
most people don't know what stall currents are. several wikifascists took issue with improvements to the "wheel hub motor" wikipedia page, recently, when facts were presented that showed that the efficiency of EV motors is far, far worse at low RPMs than any ICE vehicle ever could be.
for those people not familiar with "stall currents", stall conditions for an electric motor is when it is operating at or just above 0 RPM (i.e. stall). not only is the motor not moving (so there's not enough air circulation), but the electric wire, as an inductor, is capable of absorbing far more current. that just means more heat is produced, and that the efficiency is lower. a typical EV motor can be only 12 to 15% efficient (!!) at its lower RPMs! avoiding this worst-case situation is flat-out impossible with a Direct-Drive (Wheel Hub) motor. for a bicycle that doesn't matter so much (you can always pedal), but for a car it's a serious problem.
this is why VW's XL1 concept car has a *seven* speed automatic gearbox. electric motors have to be kept in their optimal efficiency band, just like an ICE does. it's complicated! much more complicated.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
It's "Slashdot" represented in 7-bit ASCII, LSB on top and MSB on the bottom of each character.
Re: (Score:2)
1) Battery technology currently sucks.
2) This proves for the 5000th time that one guy in a barn is smarter than those big evil car companies. Not!
3) This proves for the 100000th time that lone inventors can build something that most people won't buy because of to much $$$.
4) This project is as much a personal life-style statement as it is a technical advance.
5) There is no technical advance. People already know that stuffing $10k of batteries in a car will get you 30-40miles. (see
Re: (Score:2)
All we need to be is inclined to make an electric car and we can "probably" do it? Then obviously there is not a need for engineers if just anyone with the inclination could probably reproduce their work.
The only difference between an engineer job title and a skilled amateur at home is an engineer job title spends 160 working hours and $1.38 to do what an amateur would do in one hour with ten bucks. You rarely if ever need an engineer to make one, unless its like one ... space station ... you need an engineer to make 100K copies profitably.
Re: (Score:2)
and who even wants to convert an ugly civic
Well, I'll grant you that there are snazzier options, but where are you going to get the 1.21 Gigawatts to power a DeLorean?
Re: (Score:2)