I purchased an electric kit car on eBay!
A Bradley GT 2, one of 50 the company produced electrically, of which one of 10 they built themselves. It is still the standard body as the Bradley GT2 but has a subframe that holds the enormous amount of batteries on, which is bolted underneath the standard VW chassis.
I had only been looking for a few days before coming across said car.
Recap:
I recently went on a hunt for an older car to convert to electric. This was actually after watching a Counting Cars on the History channel, when Roli picked up a Seabring-Vanguard CitiCar, a golf cart, street legal, ABS plastic body, electric car from the 70s. I had known about this car for a few years and searched on eBay soon after this.. through some digging I came across one, but given what it was the guy was asking too much, no bids and his auction ended, and re-listed, same price..
Soon after I look on craigslist for local stuff and came across a 1970s Opel GT with an electric motor bolted to the transmission already for only $500. I attempt to contact the guy and plan a trip to go fishing with a friend from Ohio that I moved out here to California to work at the same team in the company I am at.. We go fishing and don't catch anything,, figured, out California fishing experience sucks, caught like 2 small trout and that's it.. No communication from the guy, who said he would be returning the night before from L.A., we even stop at the city (about 2 hrs from San Jose) and eat and wait.. finally decide to head back home..
A few days later he txts me to say that he just now returned and we try to schedule something for the weekend. I let him know that because the 2hr drive, and the pictures and text about the car that I have seen thus far, I was prepared to hook up a hitch and car trailer to my buddy's Jeep Cherokee and do the sale right then and there if it looked good to me in person. He also mentions that another guy was interested and has a schedule meetup for Saturday.. great business man, isn't he? .. so I let this slide and basically let the other guy go after it..
The next week I get another txt saying the other dude's truck broke down half way to check it out, and if I was still interested to let him know to schedule something.. we schedule for July 5th. I convinced my buddy to drive out to Redwood city, about half way between SJ and SF to go to the only U-HUAL place with the hitch that will work for his car in stock by saying I will buy him the hitch, he just has to drive to get there, and maybe the car as well..
We go out to Redwood City on Independence Day to get the hitch, and given the traffic we made decent time, we get there around noon. We ask about the hitch asked if they wanted them to install it because they are booked on that, we explain we had tools (really, all I brought were pliers and vice grips sitting in the passenger seat) then upon looking at it the lady says that the bolts for it are missing.. and she would knock like $10 off, and should be easy enough as going to the O'Reilly's across the street for the bolts.. while looking it over, and going back and forth to the car parked a block away because they wouldn't let us in the parking lot, we basically decided to go for it.. I am literally holding my card in my hand when the guy txts back and tells me that his grandfather, the owner of the car, sold it without him knowing...
I let him know I was disappointed in this as I am literally holding a hitch in my hands getting ready to pay for it...
We go to another Ohioan working with us for a 4th celebration of board games..
background note:
I am against gas. I have never had my drivers license because of this fact, which actually did not come out until a few weeks after graduating high-school (2005, I was 18) when my brother showed me a torrent on Over-Unity, plans on generating more electricity than you use. For the next ~decade I conceive of my own electric motor.
I spent 3 years as a mechanic at a bicycle shop.. I am not sure if I like bikes, but I hate gas, bikes became my mode of transportation. If it were not the step-mother of a girl who worked at the bike shop, I would not have gotten a decent computer job (perl, regex, data conversion/entry) and was able to quit when the shop became way too corporate, along with many of the good people leaving..
March 2013
When I was revising my resume for some other position a year or two later, I asked in the #cycling channel on EFNet, which I frequented, if the company was any good. Fairly quickly I receive a statement from someone stating "We're hiring".. He is now my boss' boss, and I moved two others (sort of) from Ohio out here to Silicon Valley to work with me..
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