UPDATE: July 1, 2007

No car work this weekend. I promised Jacquie that I'd work on getting her stained glass workshop set up.

Next week will be a short work week because I have a business trip to Seattle on Monday and Tuesday. I now have all the parts on hand that are necessary to get the vehicle up and running. (Accept for springs. I need to get everything in the car so I can re-weight it and order the appropriate springs for the new total vehicle weight.)

Next week I hope to have the electric motor mated up to the VW transmission and then installed in the car ... assuming all goes well. (I'll have photos of the work.) Following that, will be mounting and wiring the electronic control equipment and associated circuitry. So far, I don't see any "show stoppers."

Just for fun ... from the weekend Seattle (WA) Times:

"It was a classic "American Graffiti" moment. A Corvette had stopped at the light next to Martin Eberhard's new Tesla Roadster. The Corvette driver wanted a race. Jim Woolsey, former CIA director in the Clinton administration, was at the wheel of the Tesla, taking a test drive. He asked Eberhard, Tesla Motors' CEO, what to do, and got the answer he wanted. "TAKE HIM !" said Eberhard.
(And they DID as the article went on to say the guy in the Corvette, came long side at the next light, and said... "What IS that !! ")

Note: A Tesla is a new totally electric vehicle (EV) being developed and about ready to go into production. It's quite "pricey" ... like $90K+. One reason you don't want to drag race an EV - even a 1986 VW Cabriolet - is because the DC electric motor develops full power and torque even at zero vehicle speed. This means that in a drag race, the EV has full power, right from the get-go, while the gas car has to proceed down the road a bit before it gets it's game on.