Rickard Electric Beck Speedster Owner's Manual

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Page 2 Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual EVTV 14 Morgan Oak Street Cape Girardeau MO 63703 (573)587-2091 jack@evtv.me http://EVTV.me 2 of 30...
Page 3 Special Editions Inc. has produced the Beck Speedster replica kit car for many years providing literally thousands of cars to very satisfied and loyal owners. The Beck Speedster is consistently viewed as one of the finest kit car replicas available and the definitive reproduction of the 1957 Porsche Model 356A Speedster –...
Page 4 Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual RICKARD ELECTRIC SPEEDSTER FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS The Rickard Electric Speedsteris an AC induction driven automobile powered by 36 Lithium Ion Iron Phosphate (LiFEPo4) cells. It is capable of a top speed of over110 mph and a nominal range of 80 miles. The following specifications...
Page 5 Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual Emergency/parking brake: Hand brake on rear disks. Pack Voltage: 120vdc Cell Voltage: 3.35v nominal Individual Cell Capacity: 180 AmpHours (Ah) Number of cells: Charge Voltage: 126.6v Charge time at 240vac: 7 hours maximum...
Page 6 Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual VW SWING AXLE TRANSMISSION The Beck Speedster Electric uses a 1961-1966 Short Axle (26-5/8”) transmission with short splines. A few notes on this transmission: Gearing 2.64 1.93 1.14 0.93 Ring & Pinion 3.44 This gearing provides a very good match to the High Performance Electric Vehicles Systems AC-50 AC induction motor drive system.
Page 7 Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual ACCELERATION DATA Original 1957 Porsche 356A Electric Speedster 1600 S Speedster AC-50/Curtis 1238-7501 0-20 km/h 0-30 km/h 0-40 km/h 0-50 km/h 0-60 km/h 0-70 km/h 0-80 km/h 0-90 km/h 11.3 0-100 km/h 13.2 12.3...
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Page 11: Controls And Indicators
Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual CONTROLS AND INDICATORS Page 11 of 30...
Page 12: Operating Notes And Suggestions
Most of these derive from the very low noise levels and the lack of engine compression you may be familiar with in driving Internal Combustion Engine or ICE powered vehicles. Your new Rickard Electric is a true plug-in electric, battery powered vehicle – not a hybrid.
Page 13: Gear Selection
AC induction motor fan in the rear engine bay. GEAR SELECTION The Rickard Electric uses the same familiar VW transaxle common in the Beck Speedster class. Reverse is a little interesting until you become accustomed to it as you need to push down, or “in”...
Page 14 DID detect our approach until we honked the horn. BRAKING Due to the weight of the batteries, the Rickard Electric is slightly heavier than the ICE engine version. We very carefully designed this for a 40/60 front/rear weight distribution closely matching the original Porsche and have added slightly stiffer coil-over springs to support the weight.
Page 15: Range Considerations
3000 cycles and if you recharge more often – even longer. That’s essentially the life of the car. So we rate the Rickard Electric Speedster as an 80-mile car. We have several indicators to remind you what your State of Charge or SOC is at all times. And in the event you discharge it too far, the car will automatically go into “limp...
Page 16 Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual naturally in driving the car. Most drivers quite naturally adapt to this in a short time. But the car is quite capable and probably shows best on back country blacktop highway in the range of 45-65 mph. This is where the Porsche Speedster has always reigned unchallenged.
Page 17 Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual battery pack. During acceleration it is PERFECTLY NORMAL for this voltage to decrease below 110v and lower while under load. Do not be alarmed. This “sag voltage” is entirely normal with these cells and is simply a byproduct of demanding large currents out of the cells.
Page 18 Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual V – Voltage. This is another reading of your pack voltage. – You can use the plus ( ) and( )keys on the Victron face to cycle between these four indications. This device will track both incoming and outgoing energy from your cells. But to do so it is important that it is initially “synchronized”...
Page 19: Emergency Disconnect
Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual EMERGENCY DISCONNECT The electric vehicle is engineered to be quite safe in all instances. But it does consist of electronic control devices and if they fail, predicting the failure mode is difficult. There can be no instance where the car runs away with you out of control.
Page 20 Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual CHARGING Most new electric car owners are somewhat focused on two questions: How far can I go on a single charge? How long does it take to recharge the car? These questions are of course valid, and somewhat interrelated.
Page 21 Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual For example, let’s say you drive 12 miles on errands in the morning and return home for lunch. Go ahead and plug it in. That you are not going to do a “full charge”...
Page 22 Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual duty NEMA 14-50 adapter. This is the type of connector most often found on electric ranges but also at RV parks across the country. This adapter will connect the two phases of 240 vac service to the two blade prongs of the charge port, and the neutral of the two phases to the ground pin.
Page 23: Charging Costs
Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual The vehicle uses a DC-DC converter to convert the 120vdc pack voltage to 13.2vdc to operate the auxiliary equipment on the car such as the stereo, headlights, water pump, and instrumentation. Much like the 12vdc battery in your ICE car, this is “on”...
Page 24: Cooling System
Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual electric meter. The actual cost is based on your local electric utility rate. The national average for electricity at this writing is 11.75 cents per kWh. At that rate, if you drove the car to full discharge, it will cost about $2.35 to recharge it.
Page 25 Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual One of the key and most controversial design issues faced with the Electric edition was this issue of heat removal. A liquid cooling system provides its own costs, maintenance, and component issues. But we have designed a very...
Page 26: Tire Pressure
Rickard Electric Special Edition – Owner’s Manual 65C. IF you get a gage indication on the combi gage past midrange, check the CTemp on the Curtis 840 display. If it is above 80C, you have had some failure of the cooling system and need to have it repaired.
Page 27 Do NOT charge a car unattended with any type of BMS connected to it. With the Rickard Electric, you can simply plug it in and walk away. The charger very ably terminates the charge sequence automatically and safely.
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