Rickard Electric Beck Speedster User manual

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EVTV
14 Morgan Oak Street
Cape Girardeau MO 63703
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http://EVTV.me

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INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the world of electric drive automobiles. This owners manual
describes features and functions of the EVTV Rickard Electric Speedster.
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 – certainly among the most iconic sports cars ever produced.
As one of our many conversion projects, EVTV designed a ground up electric
drive speedster based on the Beck Speedster rolling chassis. Among our most
popular series of episodes, this design has been built by many of our individual
viewers and is now widely copied by dozens of conversion shops across the
country. It is rapidly emerging as the definitive electric drive replica car in the
genre.
EVTV is widely viewed as the definitive information source for custom electric
car conversions worldwide. And our business is producing very technical
videos for a demanding engineering audience. But we’ve received so many
requests for this car from people who lack the ability or time to do their own
conversion, we’ve begun small scale production of these vehicles in our shop
and production set in Cape Girardeau Missouri.
Over the years, kit car builders have fitted Beck Speedsters with internal
combustion engines of ever higher performance and horsepower, achieving
truly impressive performance on this sturdy frame. But the elegance and grace
of the original Porsche 356A Speedster was most noted for balance, elegance
and refinement in handling. In designing this Rickard Electric Speedster, we
specifically referenced the performance of the original 1957 356A Model with
the 1600cc S motor as the design criteria.
We think the resulting vehicle is astonishing. It goes quite beyond simply not
going to the petrol station for fuel or even reducing auto emissions. It is an
experience many will find totally new, totally refreshing, and very much in
keeping with the Porsche tradition.
We do very much hope and intend that your purchase of the Rickard Electric
Speedster provides you years of driving pleasure and pride of ownership. We
believe it will open a world of quiet power and smooth elegance you’ve likely
never experienced before…

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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
apply:
Curb Weight: 2039 lbs
Weight Distribution: 40/60 front/rear
Wheelbase: 85 inches
Height: 49 inches
Length: 152 inches
Width: 65 inches
Battery Pack Capacity: 21,600 wattHours.
Horsepower: 64
Range: 80 miles to 80% depth of discharge
Top Speed: 130 mph dynomometer
Cooling: Pump driven glycol/water 50%.
Cooling capacity: 2 liters
Front suspension: Fully adjustable twin torsion I-beam
Rear suspension: Torsion bar with adjustable spring plates
Tires: Michelin Energy Saver
Tire pressure: 38 lbs
Foot Brakes: Four wheel disk with pressure sensitive
regenerative braking on drive train

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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: 36
Charge Voltage: 126.6v
Charge time at 240vac: 7 hours maximum
Charge time at 120vac: 12 hours maximum
Controller: Curtis 1238-7501
Drive Motor: HPEVS 50 kW AC induction
Charger: Elcon 3killoWatt 120/240vac
Accessory Power: 13.2vdc, 400 watt
Headlights: High Intensity Discharge XENON 6000K
Exterior lights: 12v LED
Heater/Defroster 120vdc 3000w PTC with blower
Throttle: Hall-effect foot pedal

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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
1st 2.64
2nd 1.93
3rd 1.14
4th 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. You will find the use
of all four gears quite natural although you will find the shift to fourth gear
most appropriate at about 70mph. For this reason, we refer to it as the “felony
gear” and might not be an appropriate choice for street use.
Super Diff - The reinforced differential housing carries four spider gears
instead of two which are mounted by an additional shaft. The end gears are
kept in place by two snap rings per side rather than the usual one per side.
Heavy-Duty Aluminum Side Cover – This gear box cover reduces the
spreading of the ring and bevel gear, which often in VW transmissions under
high power loads leads to fracture of these parts.
Welded 3rd and 4th Gear Hubs - The original two piece construction of the
synchromesh gear hubs are not designed for high performance use. Welded
synchros are able to handle more power.
Steel Shift Fork – A much stronger steel shift fork.
Hardened Woodruff Keys - Are used to secure the individual gears in the main
shafts.
Redline MTL Manual Transmission/ Manual Transaxle Lubricant is used in
the transaxle to reduce friction and increase efficiency. This makes the gear
noise a little louder, but decreases rolling resistance.

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ACCELERATION DATA
Original
1957 Porsche 356A Electric Speedster
1600 S Speedster AC-50/Curtis 1238-7501
0-20 km/h 1.5 1.3
0-30 km/h 2.3 2.2
0-40 km/h 3.3 3.0
0-50 km/h 4.7 4.0
0-60 km/h 6.1 5.0
0-70 km/h 7.6 6.7
0-80 km/h 9.3 8.1
0-90 km/h 11.3 9.8
0-100 km/h 13.2 12.3
0-110 km/h 15.3 14.7
0-120 km/h 18.3 17.4
0-130 km/h 22.3 21.2
0-140 km/h 28.0 25.4
Original Speedster acceleration data taken from the book, Porsche 356,
Driving in its Purest Form – Dirk-Michael Conradt
Times in seconds
Speeds in kilometers per hour

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CONTROLS AND INDICATORS

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OPERATING NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS
Driving an electric car is really quite similar to driving any car. But there are
some interesting differences and subtleties that can enhance your experience.
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.
STARTING
There is really no analog to “starting” with an electric car. To drive, you do have
to “turn on” the vehicle by applying voltage to the controller. But it always
starts and there is little indication that it is “running” until you step on the
throttle.
It is a good idea to place the gear selector in neutral and apply the hand brake
before energizing the system.

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Turn the ignition key one detent to clockwise (right). A single red indicator
light should light on the combination gage indicating the vehicle is ready for
operation. You may hear some very quiet, but audible sound from the coolant
pump, heat exchanger fan, and 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” on the gear shift selector for this gear
alone before putting it into position left and aft towards you.
The remaining gears are 1st through 4th in the standard H configuration with
1st gear left and forward, second gear left and aft, third gear right and forward,
and fourth gear, right and aft.
It is actually not necessary to use the clutch at all when pulling away from a
stop or when stopped at a stop light. But it is suggested that you use the
clutch when shifting gears while in motion to match the electric motor rpm to
the new gear ratio.
We went to great lengths in selecting gear ratios to properly match this drive
motor to the Speedster driving characteristics. The motor is capable of a top
speed of 6500 rpm but is electronically limited to 6300 rpm. A brief study of
the performance graphs in the front of the manual will familiarize you with
optimum shift points. But you will very quickly develop a feel for the car and
you can really operate at almost any speed in any gear without harming the
motor or drive train.
DRIVING
Do take care on acceleration during your first few weeks of driving this car. A
great deal of our sense of speed and acceleration is derived from the “roar of
the engine” we are accustomed to in ICE cars. There is no roar from an electric
vehicle and you can find yourself far in excess of the speed limit in just a few
seconds if you are unaccustomed to this.
Similarly, there is no engine compression to slow you down when you take your
foot off the throttle. In many electric cars, they employ a kind of pseudo
“neutral band” regenerative braking that engages when you remove throttle
pressure. This will slow the car and recapture some of the kinetic energy of the
cars forward motion to recharge the batteries and simulates the engine
compression pressure we are all accustomed to.

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In extensive testing, we’ve found this actually DECREASES driving efficiency
and range. The car wheels quite freely down the road with no electric power
applied and you will quickly learn to glide long distances using no energy at all,
in many cases actually accelerating in even slight downhill terrains.
Be aware that subliminally we are all acculturated to the sound of automobiles.
We’ve been around them all our lives. And they make a very recognizable
sound. This car does not make that sound. Be on the alert for pedestrians,
children, pets, and even wildlife. We’ve driven THIS car within 8 feet of a wild
deer standing in the middle of a rural blacktop highway and the animal never
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.
Additionally, the Rickard Electric features the four-wheel disk brake upgrade to
increase your stopping power.
But the Electric also features true regenerative braking. That is, when you
press on the brake pedal, all power is removed from the AC induction drive
motor and the controller instead configures the motor as an electrical generator
to produce current which is used to recharge the battery cells. This produces a
powerful slowing effect and is controlled by the PRESSURE on the brake pedal.
This gives the sensation of having power brakes. Note that if you push in the
clutch while braking, which most of us are accustomed to do as we slow for a
traffic light, you immediately disconnect this power brake assist because you
have disconnected the motor from the wheels. It is NOT necessary to put in the
clutch when slowing to a stop at all, and your braking will be much more
secure if you avoid doing so.
Note that this regenerative braking is ONLY applied to the REAR wheels. In
some braking situations you may indeed want to put in the clutch to use only
the hydraulic four-wheel disk brakes to stop.
In all regimes, you have the full faith and credit of the standard hydraulic
brake system available at all times. Simply apply a little more pressure on the
brake pedal to “step through” the regenerative braking.
One additional note. We are all accustomed to parking a manual transmission
car “in gear” and trusting to the engine compression to keep the car from
rolling away. The AC induction motor does not provide any such compression

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and ergo, your new Electric Edition will in all likelihood roll off down the hill
and into the river. ALWAYS place the transmission in neutral and apply the
hand brake when parking the car. Never leave it unattended without the
handbrake applied. This brake locks the rear wheel disk brakes on and is very
capable at holding the car in position.
Similarly, always RELEASE the hand brake before beginning your drive.
RANGE CONSIDERATIONS
The Beck Electric features a cell pack of 36 3.35v Lithium Ion Iron Phosphate
(LiFePo4) cells connected in series to produce a nominal pack voltage of
120vdc. These cells have a capacity of 180Ah, or 21,708 watt-hours. We find in
normal driving, energy is consumed at a rate of about 1.6Ah per mile, or 225
watt-hours per mile providing you with a maximum theoretical range of about
112 miles.
Running out of gas in an ICE car is pretty much penalty free. You pour in an
additional gallon of petrol and drive to the gas station.
In an electric car, running your battery pack completely empty is another
matter. It destroys the $10,000 battery pack and you have to buy a new one –
or at a minimum several expensive new cells.
On the other hand, these batteries are also unlike any you may be familiar
with. Limiting your range to 80 miles per charge, these cells are rated up to
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
mode.” In limp mode you can still drive the car, but the throttle input is cut to
a fraction of its normal value, and it can take several painful minutes to
accelerate to 30 mph. This allows you to “creep” or “limp” to a safe area out of
traffic or a nearby place where you can recharge the cells sufficiently to get
home.
The actual range you get will vary dramatically depending on your driving style.
Higher speeds take greater energy to overcome the wind resistance, so at 70
mph you will not likely achieve 80 miles – perhaps 70. Strong accelerations
also consume more energy. Use of the electric defroster/heater will also use
energy – reducing range slightly.
If range is your issue, you will very quickly learn a kind of “push and glide”
technique for extending your range. There is no real trick to it, it comes quite

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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. There is no need to baby it along. Let it have its
head.
STATE OF CHARGE INDICATIONS
ODOMETER
You will find one of the easiest to use indicators is simply your odometer. With
the car standing still, push the reset button on the Speedometer and it will zero
the odometer before you start. It is important that the car NOT be in motion at
the time.
In normal driving, 130 kilometers or 80 miles is pretty much assured.
COMBI FUEL GAGE
The battery pack contains 180 ampere hours of energy fully charged. An
ampere hour is an amount of energy consisting of one ampere of current for
one hour. You can quite readily use a steady 180 amperes of current and drive
the car for one hour. You could also drive steadily at 90 amperes and drive for
two hours.
We have connected a device that counts ampere-hours, or Ah, to the existing
original fuel gage on the combination gage on the dashboard. This fuel gage
was never very accurate in our ICE cars and it is not terribly accurate in the
Electric Edition either. But it does give some indication of Ah consumed.
VOLTMETER
We have provided a small red voltmeter that is rather clearly visible on the
auxiliary instrument panel. Though other instruments display voltage, they are
not as easy to read. When charging, your pack may read as high as 126.6v.
But almost immediately after charge completion this will fall to 119-120v. This
is the voltage of your fully charged pack.
As energy is used from the pack, the pack voltage naturally
decreases. At about 90% depleted, this voltage will read
about 114.5v. But do note that this is the STATIC voltage
– that is the voltage read when you are entirely stopped at
a stoplight and not drawing large currents from the

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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.
To check your SOC, allow the car to sit for a few seconds, ten or twenty
seconds usually allows it to stabilize, and glance at the meter to see the
voltage.
VICTRON ENERGY BMV600
The Electric Edition is equipped with the Victron Energy BMV600 battery
monitor. This device is quite accurate, but not easy to read. It counts actual
amp hours out when driving, and amp hours in during regenerative braking or
charging.
The device will display four values:
I– amperes. This is the instantaneous current you are using from the battery
pack while driving, or the instantaneous current you are putting INTO the pack
during regenerative braking or charging.
CE – consumed energy. This is the number of Amp Hours net that you have
used from your battery pack. Starting from 0.0, this number will decrease
during charging or regenerative braking, and it will INCREASE during driving.
At a value of 162 Ah, it also sounds a high pitched alarm and energizes our
“limp mode” to discourage further depletion of the batteries.
There is a small toggle switch hidden on
the left side of the dash toward the
bottom edge. We call this the VALET
switch. If you are allowing someone else
to park your car while at a restaurant
for example, you can manually place the
car in limp mode with this switch.
SOC – State of Charge. This shows a
percentage of battery energy remaining
to be used. For example, if it shows
67% you have 67% of the total 180AH
still remaining to be used.

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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” to your pack.
This should happen quite automatically when you recharge your pack. But it
is a very good thing to check before beginning to use your car.
After fully charging your car, check the Victron SOC indication for 99% or
greater indication. If you have fully charged your pack and do NOT have this
indication, you can resynchronize the Victron using the following procedure.
1. Press the SETUP button for at least 3 seconds. The display should
change to Cb.
2. Press the plus +key five (5) times. The display should read SYNC.
3. Press and hold the SELECT key for at least 3 seconds. The display
should indicate OK.
4. Press the SETUP key for at least 3 seconds. This should put you back in
your normal display.
OPERATING THE HEATER DEFROSTER
Your Electric Edition features a luxury often hard to find on the normal Beck
Speedster – HEAT. A small but powerful 120vdc electric Positive Temperature
Coefficient (PTC) heating element and blower are installed under the dash. A
dash mounted switch allows you to turn both off and on.
While heating a convertible may not be the most efficient use of energy, it does
pay to have a clear windshield to see through. Most of the hot air from this unit
is vented to the windshield to act as defroster. It uses about 9 amperes from
the pack so you can calculate 9AH from your pack total for an hour’s heat.
This would reduce your range by about 5%.
There is a small swivel vent under the dash on the drivers side. If you push this
open, a bit of warm air will be redirected toward the driver’s feet. It’s a pathetic
little bit, but welcome enough on cold February mornings.

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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.
In the unlikely event you encounter a situation
where the car is accelerating uncommanded in
Toyota Prius fashion, there are several options to
recover:
1. Remove your foot from the throttle and
ensure no carpeting or mats are interfering
with throttle operation.
2. Turn off the ignition key. Unlike a gasoline
engine, there is no damage to the engine
here and there is no analog to the
“dieseling” concept in an ICE vehicle where
it runs out of control even without ignition
voltage. You are effectively removing all
“fuel” from the motor – a heavy duty
contactor relay will open, removing pack
voltage from the controller.
3. In the incredible event that steps one and
two both fail for whatever reason to disable the pack, a heavy duty
manual emergency disconnect switch is provided on the drivers side door
post near your left elbow, just beneath the engine bay hatch release.
Turn this switch a full 180 degrees to completely disable the battery
pack. ONLY use this switch in an emergency or when storing the car for
long periods of time as it completely disconnects the battery pack and
resets all your instrumentation.
4. In the further unlikely event none of those steps work, you can always
put in the clutch. The motor will complain loudly at high rpm but is
electronically limited to 6300 rpm and probably won’t even be damaged.
In this way, you can disconnect the motor from the drive wheels and
slow the car.

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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.
In actually using the car, you will quickly learn neither is really very important
to most drivers.
The quick answer is 80 miles, and 7 hours. Both are actually extremely
variable. The 80 miles is quite variable depending on how you drive the car.
We have driven the car in testing quite over 100 miles in urban stop and go
while still within the 162 Ah limit. Similarly, driving 90 miles per hour on the
freeway will not only deplete the pack within 60 miles, but can result in a
felony speeding ticket.
The amount of charge time depends on how far you have driven the car. In
actual practice, American drivers AVERAGE 39.4 miles per day and the
MEDIAN daily drive is 26 miles, meaning half the licensed drivers average 26
miles per day or less.
The LiFePo4 cells are truly remarkable devices and account for much of the
expense of your new electric car. They exhibit very few of the churlish
characteristics of lead acid, nickel cadmium, or nickel metal hydride cells. For
example, there is NO advantage to fully discharging these cells - ever. There is
no memory, and there is no need really to ever fully charge them. They do not
sulfate, they need not be “balanced”, they do not take water, and they really
behave quite remarkably well in both hot and cold temperatures. You may note
about a 10-15% decrease in range in temperatures below freezing.
They do NOT like to be overcharged.
And they do NOT like to be over-discharged. By limiting your driving to 80
miles on a charge, these cells should last for 2000 charging cycles. By way of
comparison, lead acid cells of the very best industrial design are typically good
for 350 cycles (from fully charged, to fully discharged, to fully recharged).
If you limit your driving to 70 miles between charges, you can FURTHER
extend the life of these cells by 50% to 3000 cycles.
What this means in actual practice is that you can charge when and where you
like, as often as you like, without regards to cell chemistry quirks. And a lesser
cycle doesn’t really count as a full cycle.