Sometimes (when it strikes me to contemplate the obvious) I find it intriguing how our actions and constructive creativity can generate value out of nothing — how a manufactured object, shaped by the human hand or by machines of human design, achieves a value to us which is higher than that of the raw material of which it is made. This enhanced value comes not from additional substance, but merely from the object’s crafted form.

Unless of course the object happens to be a New Venture Gear NV1500 5-speed transmission from a late model GM S-10 derivative.

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Sometimes you have those days when it takes you forever to accomplish something so uninteresting that you have a hard time explaining where all the time went. Yesterday would be one of those days. Though I always end up getting less done than I plan for, yesterday was actually a really productive day. It’s just that the result isn’t much to write about.

But, you know, read on anyway. (Updated, 01/17)

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Recently I’ve had the pleasure of helping motor rebuilding expert Jim Husted of Hi-Torque Electric escape the dungeon of free web hosting, lending a hand to haul the furniture and do a little decorating for his move to a real web host. And I couldn’t be happier or more honored to do it.

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Sometimes it’s helpful to take a step back, stop obliviously patting yourself on the back and take a look at what you’re really doing and how it compares to what other folks are doing. Helps keep you from getting a swelled head unless you really deserve it.

I like to think of what I’m doing as building a sort of hotrod pickup truck. Or as first suggested back in 1998 by the GhiaMonster’s Steve Marks, a “wattrod”. Although a lot of the techniques involved are unique to a high-performance vehicle with an electric powerplant, most of the real work is typical hotrod stuff. Identify the stock parts designed for fabrication economy and driver comfort, which will fail under extreme stress, and replace them with stronger and more expensive parts that won’t. As much as I’d like to think I’m doing something unique, the reality is that most of this is stuff people have been doing for decades.

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Another productive Saturday afternoon. We managed to get the heater core out, as shown in the Disassembly gallery starting on page 4. Unfortunately, as it turned out there was indeed a leak in the core as I’d suspected when running the heater. The reddish GM Dexcool had congealed into a nasty syrupy glop in the bottom of the vent unit, which I’ll have to clean. Fortunately it looks like the heat/vent module disassembles further, so with some luck I can get it all out.

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Suffice it to say at the moment I’m thrilled beyond reason.

The news for today is so insanely great, I must make an effort towards prudent restraint lest I break my rule about profanity. Fortunately for my more sensitive readers, the proper English spelling is unclear for most of what I’d like to express, comprising as it does this sonic goulash of primal Tim Allen grunting spiced with the garnish of an occasional “hot damn”. The big guy is here, and is now safely parked in the back of my garage thanks to some help from Mark Farver, and so one huge item now gets marked off the punchlist.

Motor. Done.

Pictures of the new arrival are in the Motor gallery, page 2.

Also, a couple shots of the current state of the dash, um … sans-dash, are in the Disassembly gallery, page 4.

As is typical for a low-traffic site such as this one, comments don’t get posted very often. Still, for some reason I seem to get quite a bit of comment spam from time to time, and have had to enable moderation of comments in order to prevent it from appearing.

Because of this, comments left here unfortunately won’t appear right away. I try to check for comments at least once a day, but sometimes the notification email slips past for a while. Please forgive the delay in getting your comments posted.

Also, while I’m on the subject. No matter how worthwhile the comment, it will be deleted if it contains language not suitable for all ages.

I often think about what will happen to autocross, road racing and drag racing when hydrocarbon combustion no longer makes sense and no longer has any substantial connection to the real automotive world. I personally would like to think it will continue to exist, but in a different, cleaner form. Nascent organizations such as NEDRA seem to suggest that this will happen, and indeed may be happening already — we may in fact be seeing the first hints of a new age of motorsport dawning before us right now. It’s one of the inspirations behind the Ohmbre project.

Apparently, some folks in Korea are thinking the same thing. Futurist designers at Hyundai have drawn up a concept they’re calling the Greenspeed Gator, running on hydrogen fuel cells. While I can’t resist commenting that I believe them to be barking up the wrong tree as far as fuel cells are concerned, that will all be revealed in time. Whether I’m right or wrong, the important point is that it doesn’t really matter. Clean, quiet electric power is the key here.

I look forward to the day when the general public is aware of how fun electric drag racing events can be. Where power and speed are all that matters — not the pointless, ear-damaging noise or huge flames, or the mist of unburned alcohol burning spectators’ eyes. Just the sound of barking tires, and the sight of a car rocketing down the track on clean renewable energy.

Getting really close on two fronts.

First, this afternoon was dedicated to penetrating to the core. Uh, well, the heater core. And although I didn’t quite reach it, after 3 hours and some assistance by AustinEV member R.D. Childers, the dash did finally come out. Of course by this time it was too dark to take useful pictures, so no shots of the carnage yet. But the vent module is now visible, and hopefully shouldn’t be difficult to remove. Behind that, the prize. Hopefully in the next few days I’ll be able to get the heater core out and start thinking about how I’m going to design its electric replacement.

The big news though .. ah, very good news. Yesterday I got the call from Netgain I’ve been waiting for, for months. My Warp13 motor is ready to ship, and I should have it in a week or so. Better yet, they took pictures, a few of which I’ve posted in the Motor gallery.

This is probably my favorite so far — a lineup of the Warp8, the huge new Warp11, and … well, mine.