Conversion of an MGA to Electric Power
by engineering students at University of Texas, Arlington


Electric motor, flywheel, clutch and gearbox assembly

In 2001 some engineering students at University of Texas, Arlington, took on a project to convert an MGA to electric power. During the project there were extensive project notes on a web site for which I had a web link. When the two semester class session ended the University removed the information from their server, and my web link ceased to function. For some time all contact with the project team members was lost. Posting here of what little information I had eventually drew attention from a few people to re-establish some contacts. After a few years the car was sold at a charity auction. While the new owner was looking for information he ran across this web page and started asking questions.

Addendum September 2005:
TA DA! Progress. The car now belongs to Raymond Auger in Aspen, Colorado. Thank you very much, Raymond, for contacting me. From documentation included with the car, Raymond was able to contact the conversion team leader to get some information about the electrical controller, and now has the car running again. Latest report is that it pulls up a 12% grade to his house at 37 MPH, which is not too shabby for a steep hill.

With some cooperation and pooling of information, we were able to re-establish contact with a couple of the original team members. We have since procured a copy of most of the project information from UTA server. There is a lot of information, much of it rather dry data. I will be posting some of the more interesting information here.

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