I have a serious question regarding the possible use of a 240D as a hybrid. I read more than a year ago about a guy who converted a 6-cyl BMW to a hybrid by removing the transmission and attaching a very large alternator to charge a bank of batteries. He then removed the differential and mounted an electrical motor to each rear wheel. I seem to recall that he also attached electric motors to each front wheel but that would require a 4WD set up and I'm not sure BMW did such a thing. In any event he claimed he simply let the engine idle at a constant speed and got about 100 mpg. Anyone seen anything about this? I'm wondering if the same could be done with a 240D driving an alternator with batteries, etc. There was a company north of Los Angeles that simply coupled a large electric motor to the front of a differential on a custom car built with a '34 Ford fiberglass body. They had a bank of batteries under the rear floor but didn't have any means of on-board charging of the batteries. Their car would go more than 100 miles at freeway speeds without a recharge. This car would also go from zero to 60 very quickly but my understanding is it discharges the batteries really fast doing that. Anyone seen anything with this sort of setup? Inquiring minds want to know.
- posted
19 years ago