Today was a great day. I pushed the EV to it's limits. I had to get the empty weight of the vehicle to have the registration change officially to Electric. The closest weigh station was 15.5 miles away. The batteries have not been broken in totally so the range is still uncertain. I got all the way there with no hassles. The weight has increased by about 900 lbs. (Hefty batteries). I consulted my battery state of charge chart and it said that I had about 70% remaining. So I decided to give it a shot and try to make it home. Well I got to the 29 mile mark and she started to lose power, so I pulled into someone's driveway and waited for 15 mins to let the batteries recover. I had to get over a couple of hills to get to the nearest gas station. Waiting worked and I made it over the ridge and met the owner of the gas station in Pleasantville and asked him if would let me plug in for a bit to boost my batteries in order to get me home. Well Thank you Joe Fanelli, what a great guy. I spent about a half hour there showing off the car to interested parties, and then was on my way again and made it home.

The next hurdle was to get the last bit of information to the DMV. It did cause a bit of uncertainty among the supervisors and agents there. They did some checking with various higher authorities and finally gave me the green light and now my registration and title reflect the fact that the car in now a 100% electric car with Zero emissions. I am now officially totally street legal. Does that mean that I can apply for the Federal tax rebate, I wonder?

It's been a totally exciting day. Maybe I said that already.

I have driven 200 EV miles and have had some bugs to sort out. None have been too serious and I was able to fix them quickly. One bug was more serious and took 24 hours to get the EV back on the road.

The car accelerates very well. It seems to be a lot smoother than with the old engine (I.C.E.)

I start out in 3rd gear and don't change until I reach 45 mph, then to 4th up to 55 mph, and finally 5th gear up to 70 mph. I haven't pushed it any further as the rpm dial is not yet working (the wiring is a little beyond me, so I am getting some help with that)

It is a total pleasure to drive. The music sounds great because the car is so quiet.

I am going to have to modify a few things to make it better.

It needs power steering in order for my wife to be able to park it. It is too heavy for her at slow speeds.

The controller is getting too hot so I have to make some changes to the cooling system. So the guys and EVsource.com are helping out with that.

The motor to transmission coupling was too small for this application, so I am changing it to a much sturdier one. This is taking a bit of time and it is killing me that the EV is off the road. I am having to exercise my patience.

The part came in today and is at the machinist having the splined part welded into it. So I hope the car will be back on the road next week. Then I shall be wearing my EV grin again.