Since I already posted about my experience at Refuel 2010 now it’s time to look at who all else was there.

I was excited to see Palatov Motorsport’s cars. I visited the Palatov shop last July in Portland but at the time the dp1 was out of the shop and the dp4 hadn’t been built yet. They brought the dp1e electric racer and the dp4 hayabusa-powered mini-racer. The dp1 is powered by a Remy PMAC motor and impressively compact Rinehart Motion Systems inverter, coupled with a healthy Thunder Sky battery pack. While solidly in the prototype phase, the car is coming along quite impressively and makes quite an impression in person. From looking around the Remy website I suspect the motor they’re using is from Remy’s “off the shelf” series of motors designed for hybrid drive systems. It uses an interesting construction technique they call “HVH- High Voltage Hairpin”. Basically, the windings are made of rectangular wire slotted very neatly into the stator laminations, for measurable improvements in power density and efficiency. It’s really a very sexy looking motor.

(Taken from the white paper available at http://www.remyinc.com/hybrid.asp)

Palatov says he’s planning on selling a EV drive system based on the Remy motor and RMS inverter. It’ll be very interesting to see what the price point for that sort of a system will be.

The dp1e looked great on the track, they took a close third in the time trial after the Kleenspeed WX10 racecar and the Wrightspeed X1. Given that both of those are AC-150 powered, with approximately double the peak power of the dp1e it’s not a surprise, but impressive how close it came.

See the rest:

I didn’t get a good look at the Kleenspeed racecar with the hood up, but I saw the AC-150- a good starting point for a real fast machine. I’ve got to say, I’m more interested in cars that push the boundaries a bit with more experimental motor systems, especially in this day of booming growth and diversity in brushless motors.

I’d seen the Wrightspeed X1 before, and while the specs and performance is way up there, the big lithium brick/ariel atom/AC-150 formula isn’t all that new and exciting these days. Of course it works well!

Also representing the AC Propulsion AC-150 was the EBox and original T-Zero. The T-Zero still holds up well as a very unique and well constructed car.

eeVee motors brought one of their Honda Civic based conversions. It’s a pretty tidy package. Azure AC-24 and ThunderSky pack. Good combo. Funny sounding power steering pump.

The borderline nuts Capstone CMT-380 Diesel turbine series hybrid supercar showed up as I had seen before at the Maker faire. They didn’t do much driving in it, not sure if it was having issues or if they’re just precious about it. It’s quite an impressive car in a totally crazy in the head sort of way.

Speaking of being precious about a car, EV4U custom conversion’s Beetle was there, with fresh paint and a caretaker extremely apprehensive about getting it messed up. Other than that, floodeds and a Curtis. Move on, nothing to see here. If he had driven it on-track my car wouldn’t have earned the distinction of being slowest. (… wow, that’s some snarky attitude)

Optamotive brought their X-prize contender “E-Rex”- despite looking a bit rough around the edges (work in progress) it seemed to run alright. It’s definitely got potential.

Finally, Jeff McCabe brought his 928 conversion, complete with a very nice looking pack of Taiwanese cylindrical LiFePO4 cells. If I had the cash this is definitely a direction I’d like to go with the MX-5. His motor and controller are similar to mine, but the performance of the Lithium pack really sets his car on another performance level.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to check out all the bikes and other three-wheelers. It was an interesting spread of EVers represented here- looked like everyone enjoyed themselves. I had a great time, enjoyed seeing the spread and meeting new people. Looking forward to next year! I’ve been inspired by a ride in the stupid-fast Tesla Roadster to build something electric, lithium powered and really fast. Probably the Kart. We’ll see.

See Part one for my personal experience at the event.

Thanks very much to Miles K. for photographs.

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Now in its second year, the REFUEL all-electric expo and race at Laguna Seca Raceway was held last Sunday, the 11th of July. Held by Speed Ventures, it’s an opportunity for owners of electric cars or motorcycles to drive on track in a track-day setting, as well as compete in a time trial style race against the other electrics. I missed the event last year but made a point to attend this time, and to my great satisfaction was able to bring the electric MX5.

It was a bit of a stretch to get the car down to Monterey, arranging trailer and towing facilities around my friends’ schedules, but in the end things worked out well- the car made it down and back safely with no incident. There was even enough space to bring the electric bike and electric recliner- both of which fulfilled their purposes very well and were great fun to have along.

We arrived at about 8:30 AM after about three hours on the road and found the racetrack hidden in thick fog. By the time the first session came around the fog had burned off though, leaving beautiful sunny, breezy weather for the rest of the day. I made it out for two sessions on the track, for exactly two laps each before the batteries were too soft to continue. Coming over the big hill to the corkscrew corner on the second lap was accomplished at near a crawl.

I had a good chance to get more of a feel for how the new Rudman regs perform, mainly how much additional convection cooling they need in operation- I had to keep chasing the overheating reg around the pack with an electric fan. It’s definitely good to be putting some cycles on this pack, it’s clearly starting to work itself out and become more balanced. The battery I thought was weak and having self discharge problems seems to be behaving better. I am wondering if perhaps my old balancer system was causing a higher quiescent discharge on it than on the others.

My car was the only one driving on track with lead batteries, and one of only two brushed DC powered cars- it’s not a surprise that it was the slowest car out there. Despite that it was incredibly fun and gratifying to take around the track- and what a beautiful track. Sure I could have done better racing in practically anything gas-powered, but that’s not the point. Finally after three years working on the car I can drive it and charge it at a racetrack 120 miles from home- that’s really something. The car is unique- smooth, quiet and really pleasant to drive, even reasonably fast when fresh off the charger. Two laps, about four and a half miles of hard driving is pretty much the limit before the voltage sag completely destroys the driveability of the car. According to the Cycle Analyst that’s about 12-16 AH in- I’m not sure if this is a reasonable useful capacity out of the 55AH Optimas or if they have suffered in the last year they’ve been sitting full but rarely cycled.

The bike performed excellently as usual as a speedy runaround, and was passed around a bit for test rides. The electric recliner was the real star of the show. Sitting out of view in the truck while remote-crusing it around the paddock was stupid fun. We maneuvered it over near the Palatov Motorsports trailer and distracted them from their cars for a bit with some antics that Dennis ended up mentioning on his site (See dp1e section, 7/9/10 post). Then at the end of the day I traded a ride in the chair for a ride in a Tesla Roadster- something I had never managed to get before. Suffice it to say the Tesla knocked my socks off.

All in all, a fantastically successful day.

See part Two for my thoughts about the other cars that showed up to the event.

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I had the privilege of attending the first ever US TTXGP All-electric motorcycle road race on Sunday May 16th at Infineon Raceway. I arrived with uncertain expectations about the nature of the race- I was impressed by the innovation and variation in the bikes and the determination of the teams. Here are the results in place order, with my photographs and technical observations and impressions:

First Place: Zero/Agni

Coming from their victory at the 2009 Isle of Man TTXGP Zero/Agni put up a formidable and balanced showing. The combination of an excellent rider, a good-handling bike with a balance of power, battery capacity and thermal management allowed them a handy victory.

The large rectangular Molicel battery pack is mounted oblique in the frame. With the composite fairing installed the rider appears to rest almost flat on top of it. Molicel supplies batteries for Zero’s production bikes.

Looks like an analog balancing system. I don’t believe I’ve see this system before.

Dual Agni Lynch motors coupled directly with a steel shaft with sprocket. Adequate power, good cooling from outboard mounting and ram-air scoops taken from the production bike.

The Zero/Agni team ran a very clean and uneventful race. Their bike clearly balances proven reliability and performance.

Read on for the rest of the competitors-

2. Lightning

This was my favorite bike at the event, I think they’re really a team to watch. While teams building an electric vehicle are often required to do some custom design of battery packs or management systems, there are several off the shelf solutions for motor drive and transmission. Every other bike used one of these off the shelf drive systems. These guys however put together a one-of-a-kind drive using an EV-1 induction motor.

The story I’ve heard goes like this: several years ago someone in the EV community found the GM parts department number for the EV-1 motor and transaxle and tried ordering one from a GM dealer. It was shipped to the dealer and was able to be purchased just like any other GM part. Several members of the EV in-crowd then proceded to buy as many as they could, until the stock ran out or GM wised up to what was going on and shut off the supply. I believe they managed to get a hold of sixteen or seventeen motors. Last I heard not all of them have been installed but the folks who hold them are very protective, because they are fantastic motors, rare, and hold a special emotional importance with the EV-1 connection.

Anyways, the EV-1 drive system was capable of 100kw. Without official numbers I would guess the Lightning bike was running near that, maybe more. Suffice it to say the bike was fast. Extremely fast. For the first half of the race the Zero/Agni bike would pull ahead with far superior corner speed then the Lightning bike would effortlessly pull ahead in the straights with its massive power. Massive power comes at a cost though, the second half of the race saw drastically reduced power that left Lightning playing catch-up continuously. I didn’t get the official word on the cause of the slow-down, I expect it was a combination of heat buildup and battery depletion. The rider actually stopped the bike near the end of the race to attempt to let the systems cool down.

Both the Lightning inverter and motor are liquid-cooled, in fact the motor even has an oil cooling circuit as well. It was the only bike with plumbing. I observed their radiator up front, looked about 10″ x 18″. Given the insane power levels they were running I’m not surprised they had heat buildup issues. It’s possible they were also having battery heating issues, but with enough A123 batteries to power through a 25 mile race I bet they weren’t pushing the C rating, already very high for the A123s. As well, the batteries perform better warm.

They’re running a Elithion Lithiumate BMS with 7 banks used- likely indicating usage of somewhere between 56 and 112 series cells- no more than 370v nominal. Considering the EV1′s nominal voltage of 311, they’re probably running closer to 112 series cells than 56.

Drive was accomplished with a two stage reduction, first stage timing belt, second stage chain. PFC50 to charge.

The rear of the EV1 motor can be (barely) seen here.

I was curious about the specifics of the inverter. It’s nothing I have seen on the market. I was unable to get a clear answer about its origin or prototype/production status. I would guess that the main sponsor of the team designed it and is considering marketing something like it. They did tell me it’s based on IGBT modules. Uses a 4 quadrant full vector control algorithm. They have installed a custom quadrature encoder on the motor to replace the GM specified one.

I believe with better handling or better driving, better thermal management and moderated energy usage this bike could win the race. It’s incredible power early on was seriously inspiring.

3. Electric Race Bikes

This bike had a similar setup to the winning bike, with dual outboard mounted, shaft coupled Agni motors, allowing a fairly high-ratio single reduction. The bike was quick and reliable, leading to a respectable third place finish.

I was interested to see that they appear to be running Headway LiFePO4 batteries. At least, that’s the only battery I’m aware of that is about that size in a shiny blue foil wrap.

If there’s a recipe for success in this race it would seem to currently be the dual Agni setup.

4. Werkstatt

Despite an odd hiccup in the first lap, Werkstatt came in first of the two production-based bikes racing. The Mavizen TTX02 is a very impressive machine, with the polish that comes with a professionally designed product. Again with the dual Lynch motors. Recipe for success indeed.

5. K Squared

Coming in next after but significantly behind the big Mavizen is the Zero S based K Squared bike. With its small size an weight the K Squared bike ran a good race. There’s no doubt the Zero S is a very capable machine.

6. Pril Motors

The Pril Motors team made up for less high-dollar components with reliability and solid driving. This bike is the only one represented in the race using a sep-ex DC motor (in fact, only team using anything besides induction or brushed permag), a 6.7″ size. Single speed chain reduction necessitates the gigantic rear sprocket, but is more efficient than double reductions.

According to their website they are using pouch type LiFePO4 batteries.

7. Square Wave

From the file of “interesting drivetrain ideas that might not actually end up being the best, but impressive nonetheless” comes the Square Wave bike.

Using a belt CVT primary drive enables the high-ratio secondary chain but is less efficient than direct drive, and as demonstrated by every other bike there, largely unnecessary. Thunder-Sky batteries are not usually thought of as good racing batteries, but that’s because most modern EV racing is drag racing, not time-trial. Thunder-sky batteries are supposed to be good to 3c (reports vary about the accuracy of the manufacturer’s 10c pulse claims, some even cite unacceptable sag under 3c draw). 3C draw will drain a battery in 1/3 hour, or 20 minutes. The race lasts longer than that, so assuming constant 3c usage, you should be able to use your entire TS battery capacity. That’s not entirely the racing reality, you need to let off sometimes, and you need higher peak power for acceleration. However, it is worth taking into account the importance of capacity alongside power density in selecting a battery for a longer race.

The Square Wave bike was outfitted with 90AH thunder-sky batteries, the 6.7″ C-face induction motor usually sold with the Curtis inverters, and a Curtis 1236 inverter. It ran the whole race, but was very slow.

8. Electric Motorsport

Reliability problems plagued the Electric Motorsport bike. Curtis 1238 inverter. TS or Sky-energy looking batteries, except in teal. Not sure what brand.

DNF: Volt Motors

Reliability problems also for the Thunderstruck-EV sponsored Volt Motors bike. Curtis Induction setup again, with single reduction, big-sprocket rear end.

DNF: Team Electra

Even with awesome vintage cafe racer looks, built on a vintage Norton frame, with LiFePO4 batteries and induction drive system the Electra team ended up breaking down fatally mid-race. Hopefully they will be better sorted next time.

The SWIGZ.com pro team and Bob Schneeveis’s Empirical Electric team didn’t make it into the race.

Overall the race was extremely impressive. I have great respect for the TTXGP organization and every team who makes it out to run this race. It’s exciting to see electric vehicles make it back onto the road track in this new era of affordable and high performance lithium batteries and many high power and efficiency drive systems. The TTXGP organization is providing a venue for advancing EV racing from hobby to professional, and while there aren’t enough teams with big resources and sponsorship to fill a race I’m sure it will grow. But in its infancy it’s a great opportunity for newcomers to experiment with technology and inventive solutions- there’s not really a “killer app” yet, it’s possible to have hugely different bikes competing neck and neck. And that’s pretty neat.

Please let me know if I’ve got any facts wrong! Also, contact me for higher resolution photos.

Photos taken with Canon Digital Rebel XT and Pentax 300mm/f4 lens.

Thanks to Plugbike for the race results.

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Utilitarian, simple, but often subtly stylish gauges. Some exist only to display the data, some have a bit of graphic flair. All of them display a pretty standard, instantly recognizable array of data, even hailing from opposite sides of the world. All of them, again, are “Mil-spec” and exude a certain quality.

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My racing team ran in the Sears Pointless LeMons race last weekend at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma- I chose not to drive but stuck around the whole weekend to support my team and work on the car. It was definitely our best LeMons race yet- we had virtually no problems with the car, only a slipping fan belt (we had a spare) and received only minor penalties, resulting in plenty of track time for all our drivers. Infineon is a really nice facility for spectating with fantastic vantage points and seating all around the track and plenty of bathrooms and facilities. It’d be convenient to have power in the pits, but we did OK without. And the word from the drivers is that the track is really fun. Hopefully LeMons will make it back there and we will be able to run there again. I wouldn’t like to have missed my only chance to drive there.

I arrived early Friday morning and secured a pit space nice and close in, and adjacent to three other 300ZX teams, which was pretty neat in itself. In the time I spent waiting for my teammates to arrive I pulled out my paints and a piece of plywood I had kicking around in the back of the car and made a sign matching the colors and design on the car. I painted it with my fingers.

We had replaced the drivers side door with an undented one Christian found on Craigslist, but I hadn’t gotten a chance to paint it before the race, so we started the race just with a spraycanned 5 on the primered door. As we settled into the routine and the car continued to perform well I got the paint out and put coats of paint on the door between driver changes so that it could dry out on the track. While a bit goofy, and leading to some unintended consequences the door did get pretty much painted. Christian leaned into the car to retrieve the extinguisher while the purple paint was wet- and got it all over his front.

On the second day I got out some scraps of steel stock I had brought and designed a little video camera mount for the car, then between driver changes I welded it on and set up my old point and shoot with a 2gb card shooting video, good for about an hour. My first attempt, welded to the rear shock mount tower took nice video of the driver but wasn’t able to see out over the hood and get any kind of view of the track, except on steep downhills. Other than for learning that one of our drivers never, and I mean never puts two hands on the wheel that location turned out to be pretty useless. So I set up another little mount right between the rearview mirror and the windshield, welded to the roof. It gets a real nice view out over the hood of the track and everything going on on it, and even catches a reflection of the gauge cluster every once in a while when the sun is just right. Not to say there isn’t further improvement to be made, but it works pretty well.

Sean brought his DMC-12 for the Concours de LeMons- along with Evil Clint’s more funky DeLorean and the racecar FauxLorean CRX it was quite the scene. We had joked that he would win the “Nicest DeLorean” Concours award, and indeed he won the “Hey look it’s a DeLorean” award. I mean, it’s a DeLorean, you’ve got to give it some kind of award, even if it didn’t really win something. It was pretty neat to see it making parade laps on the track too. Crusing along the back straight behind the wall with its low profile it looked like a crocodile skimming along a lake just under the surface.

The Oldlady Z will race again, but needs a good bit of work before then- Jay mandated some roll cage modifications (again…) and the brakes are really on their last legs. With all the time we spent on the track they’re just getting worn out. Rotors are warped to hell, and pads may be ready to go too. The clutch seems to be behaving itself, but it may be prudent to reinstall a good clutch the right way for future reliability. Or we could just wait until it breaks. The other thing is a persistent tendency to run hot- it doesn’t overheat consistently but overheats too often and generally runs hotter than it ought to. Overheating is known as a destroyer of this engine, so that’s a problem we’d like to “lick”. A new cheap radiator and maybe an electric fan could be in order.

We finished 88th out of 147, and 5th out of 5 300zxs. About average finish for us. We could have done much better if we had just been better organized about spending every minute on the track- and it would help to get the overheating solved for sure, that alone has cost us time most consistently at the last couple races. The judges said they had given us 15 penalty laps for our (junkyard, god’s honest truth) adjustable shocks, but it seems they didn’t actually write it down anywhere. Whatever.

Another good race, good vacation, good time with friends, good meeting people, good food and having a good time. We’ve canceled our acceptance to T-hill in May due to budget and the required work on the car, but we’re hoping to be back before the season is out.

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My friend Alan is the owner of a lovely 1950 Hudson Commodore 6 Sedan, and is a member of the Northern California Hudson Club. Last weekend the club planned a meetup in Portola Valley on the Peninsula, to visit and tour the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation’s museum there. Alan invited me along- we drove in his Hudson down to Portola Valley then carpooled up to the museum. I’ve written posts about the museum- here I’ll just post about the Hudsons.

Here’s Alan’s Hudson. Like I wrote above, a 1950 Commodore 6, started life as a Commodore 8, but the flathead straight 8 engine is not as well designed as the flathead 6, so Alan swapped it out long ago. It’s also got a Hornet intake and Twin H Power dual carb setup, headers and exhaust work. It’s outfitted with a 3 speed manual and original oil bathed cork clutch.

It’s not a museum-restored car, and the decades have taken their toll on the trim and interior, but it’s a very solid and beautiful car.

It’s got character.

When we arrived, two other Hudsons showed up as well, a 52 Hornet and a 53 Hornet. Alan arranged that we ride with Ed in his 53 Hornet up to the museum, he said I ought to see what a really nice Hudson is like. And was he telling the truth or what-

Ed’s car is particularly unusual because it has the original upholstery intact, actually in really excellent shape. The car just looks 1/4 its age in every way. It’s not been restored, it’s just the result of an extremely luck barn find.

These are pretty neat cars. Riding in Ed’s superbly preserved car is like a time capsule, gives you a real feel of what the car life was like back in the 50s when these were sold. As well, it’s even good by modern standards- smooth, quiet, quick– well, of course these cars don’t measure up to fuel economy or safety standards. But the style, such style.

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Browsing BoingBoing today I saw this article. I clicked through and looked through the photos posted on the auction website. It’s worth a look. Here’s the story: wikipedia Chrysler’s Newark Assembly plant in Newark, Delaware built tanks between 1951 and 1957, and cars between 1957 and 2009, including LeBarons, Town and Countrys, and most recently Dodge Durangoes. The property and facility was bought by the University of Delaware for $24.25M, as it is adjacent to campus. They plan to re purpose the property for research and future expansion. The sale was made in October 2009, now they are auctioning all the industrial machinery, tooling and fixtures that made the plant run. $24.25 seems like really a pittance for such a facility- 3m sq. ft., chock full of everything needed to run a production car manufacturing operation.

The pictures really struck a chord with me. Usually when pictures are available of a closed factory, or other “urban relics”, they’re in rough shape- they’ve been looted and explored, the roof leaks, flaking paint and light filtered through broken windows illuminate scenes of decay and rust. Not here- this factory is fresh and clean. The pictures could have been taken over a holiday when the workers were at home, aside from the acres of empty stock shelves. And indeed- the emptiness is not due to flood or famine or disaster, but just the management deciding to close up. The employees cleaned up one night, and never came back. They’re still around- but not working here anymore.

And equipment! What equipment! Mills, lathes, a Haas VMC and toolroom mill, stock racks and bandsaws, in the manual machine shop alone. All installed in a solid, spacious, well lit facility. Not to even mention any of the production facilities, or testing/QC areas. Auto lifts, toolboxes, spacious rooms with everything needed to do anything with cars.

It’s hard to put my finger on what I’m trying to get at, because the screw-up represented here is so fundamental to the issues I see at play in the world here. Simply, it is insane that everything Chrysler built here is being taken apart and auctioned to the highest bidder. The “service economy” or “knowledge economy” that America has been and is still purposefully heading towards excludes manufacturing. And here we have a university taking over an American manufacturing facility and instantly liquidating everything they can, including facilities that could be used in industrial engineering education programs, and demolishing it, ready to build whatever fits their vision. Research space and future expansion. In order to crank out more B.A.s who don’t understand how the food gets on their table, and B.S.s who don’t know what to do with a wrench or drill.

Even if the plant was built to make cars and the car market has been pulled out from under it doesn’t mean that the established manufacturing facility it left behind is worth most as empty land for a university. Considering capitalism, a plant full of machines should have more earning potential, and should be worth more than a plot of land. And from a “doing what’s right for the world in the face of impending energy crisis that will destroy every foundation of American life” perspective, that plant should be building wind turbines, or electric motorcycles or electric cars or anything to prepare for a post-petro world, regardless of profitability. I would pack up and move to Delaware right now, plus give my right kidney for the chance at using 1/100 of that facility to work on things that I think are important for the future of the world. It really kills me to see this kind of an opportunity taken away. As well, America does not need everyone to go to university, many of the kids “served” by the University of Delaware would be better served by the opportunity to work in the trades, in a facility like the one that is currently being destroyed.

Here’s the list of items to be auctioned (189 6-axis robotic arms. Jeezus).

And here is a mirror of all the images on the auction page.

P.S. 50th post! Woo hoo!

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Basically- I noticed this aggressive driver in a black Passat with frat letters on the back when they passed me on the right. Drifting around in the lane, uneven acceleration. Decided to give them wide berth. As I followed directly behind them in the left lane, but with 2-300 yards distance I saw them brake suddenly, realized they had failed to slow down with traffic. They then swerved sharply into the right lane, where there was some space. It was a misty day, with moisture on the road but no standing water. The driver then lost control of the car, skidding side to side, then sliding into the embankment on the side of the road, probably at 50+ mph. The car rolled onto the roof. I pulled into the median and crossed the road, helped the driver out of the car through the rear driver side window. The driver’s side front corner of the car was crushed worst, although the airbags didn’t deploy, the driver was lucky not to get more hurt.

After a couple minutes I realized the engine was still running, despite having lost all the oil, and being upside-down (obviously). I reached through the drivers window and steering wheel and moved the key out of the ignition position. The radio kept playing. Couldn’t shut the key off and remove it as the transmission was not in park. Before I shut it off the engine sounded like a diesel, and was beginning to smoke. It had lost all the oil when it first hit the embankment- the oil pan was shattered.

I found it a bit impressive how well the car held up, for the safety of the driver and running upside down with no oil for a good little while.

Despite having seen it unfold right in front of me I’m still not exactly sure what happened here. It was pretty shocking, unreal. Puts into perspective how the way we use cars and roads can quickly, in just an instant go from the disconnected, comfortable, predictable way we are familiar with into a real display of heavy objects in motion, subject to all the misunderstood, unprepared-for physical realities that aren’t a part of the road culture. Racing LeMons, even autocross is also a good way to get in touch with the car as a physical system- find the limits where surface predictability disappears. And cheaper and safer than flipping your car on the highway.

No one was badly hurt, only one car was totaled, but not only our distracted driver friend got a bit of a reality check seeing this crazy scene unfold.

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Something strikes me as pretty funny about the car in this picture. Probably because I expect the driving experience in a diesel rabbit has got to be pretty wretched. Hey- I’ve got nothing but respect for terrible econoboxes boldly proclaiming their worst attributes!

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First, get yourself a pack of these “TWIN DRAFT GUARD” (AS SEEN ON TV) “MAGNETIC VENT COVERS” from your local Bed Bath and Beyond – maybe walmart or target carries this or something similar as well-

They’re not very strongly magnetic, but I tested it on the freeway, didn’t go anywhere. And cheap! $9.99 for 3. Good enough.

Next, draw some numbers on them with a fat permanent marker- I decided on 1, so we can be 15, 51, or 5 using the 5 painted on the car. Drawing a 6 would give you the most versatility, as you can just flip it over and it will become a 9- tricky! UPDATE: I just thought of something else- even better. Since the package of magnets includes three sheets, cut one in half and make 1′s, then make 6/9s on the other two- then for $10 bucks you’ve got 1, 9, 6, 16, 19, 61, 91… seven unique number possibilities! That’s quite a bargain!

Simple as that! Indeed, they stick to cars! That is, as long as you don’t have a Saturn, or DeLorean, or Corvette, or……

But If you have one of those your paint will probably survive some masking tape.

The vaunted 1(doorhandle)1 Camry Race Wagon

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