My Nissan Leaf Forum

Nah Dude, it's all you. I won't steal your thunder but really looking forward to hearing about how it goes.

For those of you interested in EV motorsports, the Palatov dp1/e prototype is for sale right now on evilBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/?cmd=ViewItem&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2648&item=270934758312&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT
Current bid is at $5650 and BIN price is $25K. Sounds like it would need a whole new battery pack and BMS to be useable at this point, but it would be a perfect platform for development of a truly fast EV race car for the tinkerers out there. It's too small for me to fit in comfortably, and my project car days are over due to a bad back, I'm afraid.

The build blog is on Dennis' website (dpcars.net) here:
http://www.dpcars.net/dp1e/
I have been following his various sportsracer developments since the beginning, as he was on the DSR mailing list back when I ran my LeGrand. I have still been toying with the idea of one of his D2 cars with an LS7 in it.

TT

There were 45 bids, showing that interest in the car was widespread, but the high bid was only $11,150USD, demonstrating that the reserve and the $25K BIN price may have been optimistic, though I did get an email mid-auction that the reserve price had been lowered. I imagine the ebay listing was just to get more widespread exposure for the car, and that it will change hands privately outside of the auction site (if DP is really serious about moving it).

TT

Cool, I found the EV motorsport thread. Wish there was a forum.

We ran the Leaf at a motorkhana a couple of weeks ago, came home 4th and 7th out of about 40 cars...here is one of the runs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZxVgkT9 ... detailpage

Next event is early June, should be a fair bit better with the Blitz ZZR suspension in.

But more importantly, anyone know if a set of 17x9 +22 wheels will fit? It would be nice to run wheels from the race car (skyline), but I don't have them handy to check

Cool. Looks like Motorkhana = Gymkhana, right? Nomenclature differences between hemispheres I guess.

I hear ya, I wish we had an EV motorsports forum. I think eventually one will show up, if not on MNL then someplace else. W/ NEDRA, Formula E, SRI's EV1 and others to follow it would only make sense. I think MNL is missing out on an opportunity by not establishing one early.

That's some creative course design for limited real estate!

That sounds like a fairly small offset.... According to my favorite wheel offset calculator, a 17x9 22ET wheel with 225/45-17 tires will have their street-side surface sticking out by 31 mm more (1.18"). That's quite a bit.

Yeah motorkhanas here in Oz are meant to be pretty tight and 1st gear only, I think maybe autocross over there often uses larger tracks? This event was run by the skyline club so it is a more open track than usual, this is an official size course: http://www.hgeconsulting.com.au/khana_zed.wmv

I'd love to hear from someone who has fitted 9" wide rims. I have a set of 18x9 +30 gtr rims I will trial fit on the weekend. It's hard to find a light, forged 8" rim.

Gymkhana(motorkhana) is something I'd like to try out more. As far as solo motorsports, I've done a lot of autoX. Yeah, by comparison they cover more distance, generally somewhere between 0.5 - 1 miles in length, speeds tend to top out at 60 mph for typical street cars and elements are a lot softer by comparison. The Leaf doesn't seem to be a very good autoX choice, I've tried (http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=9773).

There is a Leaf owner who's put 18x9.5 wheels w/ 275/35-18 R-compound tires on just for giggles. You can read about his experience here http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=8115&p=179298. I think they were a set that he used on a R33 GT-R.

BTW, there is a collection of real-world wheel/tire fitments in the wiki.

Excellent, excellent and excellent.

Thanks guys