I am almost surprised you spoiled the third Coda and didnt do a repeat on the "last week I told you I have a coda, but that's not entirely accurate." bit, except with the third Coda.
I keep seeing that joke in the comments of these videos whenever the Wheego being dead is mentioned but what video did that come from?? I havent watched any of the Daily's so im probably missing on stuff
So, you can use the batteries to power up the Wheego again, and you can use most of the other parts of the prototype to fix parts of your stock Coda in case it breaks down. For free! Not bad, actually.
My random ass literally suggesting Ecotec, Ecoboost or any inline you'll find in any of those FWD cars. But fuck it, Cummins swap is the way for this Coda. I'm in for the ride.
I can't imagine what they were thinking but that's okay, I don't know why they have two hydraulic pumps, but then again I was not the engineer that day .lol
good advice wish someone gave him that before he forgot about the wheego and bricked it but atleast your maybe saving him from having history repeat itself
You have gone a long way to keep the Wheego alive. Now you have gone to the point of using the last of a dead car company to keep it alive. This is dedication to a brand. Next up will be finding a left over scrapped EV1 and using the lead acid batteries to power items in the chicken coup :)
the lead acid packs of first gen EV1s were destroyed after they were retrofitted to use the newer NIMH batteries so he probably won't be finding one of those
Sounds like something an executive would request as a pet project, even though all the engineers say "it's pointless" he still wants it done because he believes in it.
China had an electric motor and Li-ion battery supply shortage for a number of years, so all the startup EV companies (which there was a lot at the time) had to look ay ways to reduce the motor and battery size while still "moving the car".
The brief shot of sitting on the Robin with the number plate where it is... is exactly the kind of subtle humor I watch this channel for. Well played, Sir.
Marketing department, "We want you to put the least reliable transmission ever devised in a car that doesn't even need one." Engineering company, "Your paying up front right?" Marketing department, "Yes." Engineering company, "Well get right on it." Also, how many people would buy a forgotten EV to cannibalize in order to restore a forgotten EV? This guys a treasure.
Its not often that we Engineerings gets to stitch up the Marketing Department, but when the opportunity arises, it would be churlish not to grasp that opportunity with both sweaty palms and run with it as fast as you can.
These "forgotten ev's" have a place in the history books, mostly so that future people can have a laugh! But maybe they'll be worth something in the future!!
I would take exception to CVT transmissions being called the most unreliable transmissions. In this application they are adding unnecessary complexity weight and cost, yes I agree they should not be used . But I have 5 vehicles , gas engined and 2 are hybrid all with CVTs and all have 100,000 or more miles and counting without a single problem , these run almost daily , doing a combination of city , country and highway use , year round in zero degree to 110 plus degree temps. With flat land and steep hills ....... Stop and go and long steady hours long drives . if these are such bad transmissions some ones got a explain that comment .
He could've done it earlier, he just had to spend money, which he wasn't willing to do, now he gets a free car, parts for it, a road trip, a candit conversation with an engineer and a working wheego
although a borrowed f250 and a borrowed gooseneck trailer, , is much cheaper than tha gas mileage of the bus, plus the bus also would not have fit 3 cars
My car trailer is literally on the edge of allowed size in length and width - another coat of paint and it would fail. I am constantly borrowing trailers since it’s only 90% there.
Robert: "I'm gonna take this one awful electric car and use its guts to fix this other awful electric car." Me: "Will that improve matters at all?" Robert: "Of course not, don't be silly!"
8:00: The Wayback Machine has a whole bunch of stuff of the website saved, as early as 2007 but most rigorously around 2014-2018. 339 captures of the main page, around 2000 across other pages.
I love the fact that viewers still love the Trabant more than any other car that Robert has, even though he hasn't made a video about it for years. Go Trabi Go !!!
Normally there's a hydraulic pump inside the transmission that is run by the engine and handles shifting duties. It's not in the torque converter per se but it does need the engine spinning in order to do what it's supposed to do. Of course when you are motor stops every time you stop that's not going to work. Hence the external hydraulic pump
Hey! Just a heads up, I found the old EDI page on Archive Org. I don’t want to post the link because I figure that would get flagged as spam, Just thought I’d let you know.
When you said you were to use the parts to resurrect the Wego I absolutely laughed out loud in happiness! You dreamed it could be, and low and behold it seems to be happening!
@Lassi Kinnunen 81 Yeah, that reminds me of the guy, back in Newport News ca. 1968 or so, who dropped a 318 into a Model T (don't ask me how he did the cooling--I don't recall). Anyway, when he was stopped and revving the engine, one of the Model T's wheels would lift off the ground.
I wouldn't have thought it was hydrostatic, that's about the least efficient transmission it would be possible to install. Great for tuning battery power into hot oil, not so good for moving a car any distance. Anything is possible though, the fact that there's a CVT in it at all is puzzling.
There are other types of hydraulic CVT, like how a Fendt Vario transmission works. Which in many respects is similar to how a Prius CVT works. Planetary gearset, main input from the motor (ICE in the tractor or the Prius), hydraulic pump with variable speed drive or variable speed electric to the ring gear, and the drive is taken from the sun. Having a hydraulically driven CVT in an EV makes no sense though, you'd be better off with an electrically driven one.
@Deon Denis I'm not trying to say it's a good idea, merely that it's not necessarily purely hydrostatic. The Fendt CVT has some hydrostatic components but the primary power transfer is mechanical. It's also possible they were trying to use it as a test bed for CVTs and an electric prime motor was easier to control than an engine. If you don't really care about the efficiency but want to test how well your transmission copes with various specifiable input conditions then an electrically driven CVT becomes a bit less bonkers. It's not a an electric car with a CVT so much as a CVT that happens to have an electric motor attached. But that's all speculation.
Your Wheego must ABSOLUTELY ADORE you for all massive effort you are putting in to save it's little life. It's kinda cool actually (the latter). Peace.
many stick shift conversions are done, but one issue is that manual gearboxes have splash lubrication. Many people drive converted cars in too high gear and low rpm and gearbox lubrication might not work well enough.
I commented last video with this but it's still relevant: I once ran across a Chinese electric conversion car, but they left the 5 speed manual transmission. Thus, it was a manual electric car.
More the fun, double the trouble, and one blown up transmission. And you posted twice in one month? Wow. Improvement! Only time that's happened was the daily videos last year. Edit: how much you want? Does it have leather? Because statistically, if I remember right, you now have 1/20 of the production cars. Which means one is bound to have leather. I mean, who hasn't wanted a Kia optima?
Well, you would need to use the battery pack from one of the Coda’s to run a hydraulic pump to operate the CVT. Might need a computer to run the whole thing - couple of Raspberry Pi’s. Easy peasy - there’s a whole trunk on the Trabant to be filled up!
What a great success story - at least after all these years and I guees this guys deserves a bigger than life THANK YOU just for supporting you and your channel cause now these cars have a second life and purpose instead of ending in the garbage bin ...
Great video, that's an awesome find! But what I really want to know is where can we get a bumper sticker like the one on the WheeGo, you know, the one that reads "My other car is a Trabant" ?
I remember every unsold Coda in America ended up in San Jose under an overpass. Last I heard a company called Mullen bought them up...to what end I cannot say. That was years ago 🤷♂️
Wow, my joke guess was they used recycled beta tape to make a belt drive. Friends and I build a solar race car that used VCR tape to make a continuously accelerating drag racer in High School. Good times.
I stumbled across Ur site for something completely different but have been COMPLETELY mesmerized by Ur Coda adventures! I greatly admire and appreciate the mindset, motivation, and genius that it takes to do what U do. I can't wait to sort thru Ur vids to find the next entry in this Coda adventure. U make me laff and smile and remember times on a friend's farm trying to rewire a '62 VW Type 2 Campmobile so that headlights worked for more than just one high-beam or afternoons combining two Fiat 1100 parts sedans to try to get one road worthy. Thanks!
That's beyond amazing, and the fact they were free makes it even better! Look forward to seeing the Coda chaos, and potentially the Wheego alive again!
OK, that's displaced the one in the Honda CR-Z I test drove* as the weirdest implementation of a CVT I've seen. Not that it's weird to have a CVT in a gas-electric hybrid per se (although personally, I think they're kind of crap in any vehicle bigger than a snowmobile), but the one in the CR-Z had sporty paddle shifters. So you could take manual control and run through the gears! Which... it... didn't have. Yes, they set up the onboard computer so that the CVT would pretend it was a clutchless manual and stop at preset gear ratios when the paddles were used. * As opposed to the one I actually _bought,_ which had a manual. The CR-Z was kind of a dumb car, but I loved mine anyway. Wish I still had it.
That is pretty awesome :-) and when knowing how responsive CVTs are (by design), it gives a whole new meaning to downshifting to get more punch for passing. Which it probably doesn't let you do anyway.
@@ralfoider.9681 Well... it would let you _try,_ but with the best will in the world, accelerating hard was not one of the CR-Z's core competencies at the best of times. :)
I still hold out hope for the little one to live again! and don't for one second think I've forgotten about the bus!! With that said, I truly love your content and honestly just happy with what ever you end up filming! I generally think I'd watch a 4 hour video of watching paint dry... if it was you narrating!!
I'm not even a car guy but you manage to engage and entertain me and get me interested in this stuff you honestly make really good content and are funny you made me interested in cars
Because of you, and your videos, I have not worked on my several projects for over a year. And now, I don't remember where I left off, and have lost all knowledge of how to start again. Thanks.
You should give the working one to the Lane Motor Museum whenever you get done with it. I'm sure they'd love to have it, and a car like this deserves to pe preserved.
Sounds cool to have new batteries for the Wheego! I'm no engineer, but don't you need a brand new BMS for the Wheegos new battery pack, since it will (presumably) have more cells than previously? If you put in old amount of cells, you'll get less capacity and also less range. I don't know if that would be an issue, though. A Wheegos a Wheego, with 50 or 100 mile range. Strange as hell still.
No, 18 of the Coda cells have the same capacity and size as one of the big ones from the Wheego. So he will wire 18 Coda cells together and those blocks of 18 ppear to the Wheego as one big cell.
@@timweber4318 But don't the individual cells have to be balanced by hand then? That would require lots of manual labour, and wiring individual cells so that they could also be charged individually without decompiling the whole battery pack (as was done in an earlier video!).
I used to go to the LA Auto Show every year, and for a few years there Coda would show up loud and proud with their “revolutionary” electric cars. There seemed excited about them and they sure had a nice booth. Then they stopped showing up lol
You'd be surprised to hear the Coda's underpinnings trace themselves back to the Mitsubishi Mirage, not the one sold today but the one that the Lancer replaced.
for an R&D device, it isn't as silly as it seems. if you want to measure real world driving efficiency of the CVT (and not of the vehicle), it is relatively easy to measure the power/torque out put of the car's electrical motor, compare to monitoring the live driving output of a combustion engine on the road.
Your new friend (the one you've cleaned the backyard full of Codas ;) ) could make the principal schematic in no time for Wheego. Other thing is to make good wiring and spacing and stacking of them-with tight packing you might get a heating issue, and you don't want that! Also, you could make add-on cell pack for the running Coda-just stay within weight limits!
I was hoping you hadn't given up on the Wheego. Free prototype weird electric cars is a great solution and you'll have spare parts to keep both going for a long time plus at least two unique cars to play with and a great story and more cool content, a win for everyone.
I'm really pleased to hear that there is a plan to revive the Wheego. I hope it all goes well. Be careful with those battery packs - there is lots of energy and lots of voltage. Plenty of opportunities for bad things.
"This is getting out of hand. now there are two of them!" -Nute Gunray N but seriously these videos are great. I can't wait until the garage is an inhabitable place to work so I can see the bus again, that bus is so cool, now I want one.
Excellent video! I'm very excited for the upcoming Wheego revival project. How convenient that everything came together like that. I'm also exciting to see the video where you fixed up the black Coda.
I can only imagine they implemented a CVT in attempt to get more speed with a smaller motor. Once a car is going you don't need much torque to keep it going, so you can change the output ratio of the CVT to gain more speed once the motor is topped out. Makes sense, and would actually net you more low end torque since the motor will be underdriven at low speeds. However, with how well motor technology has progressed it makes more sense in cost, weight, and space just to use a bigger motor than to add a transmission to it.
Just my thoughts. A smaller motors lower torque needs a lower gearing in order to keep acceptable acceleration and hill climbing abilities, but that would hur the top speed. Even though an electric motor has a much wider usable rpm range, it also has limitations. For example a Porsche Taycan has a two speed gearbox in order to be able to achieve high top-speeds and fast acceleration. With CVT you could always run the electricmotor at its most efficient speed, regardless of the motorload or speed of the car and it could also provide for more/better regenerative breaking down to lower speeds. I guess that this -in theory- could compensate for losses in the CVT transmission.
Have a theory on the name. In Europe Skoda is a respected car builder. They look similar and the name was probably used to sound like Skoda. China builds many many many look and sound alike copies of everything USA / European usually poorly built
Except this was an American company that sourced bodies from China to be modded and rebranded, and only sold the finished product in the US, where pretty much no one has even heard of Skoda.
I am almost surprised you spoiled the third Coda and didnt do a repeat on the "last week I told you I have a coda, but that's not entirely accurate." bit, except with the third Coda.
That would have been hilarious
Plot twist he has 3 Codas, and spare parts from a forth
plot twist : he's the owner of the entire coda project and is trying to self promote !
So-o-o-o, a Coda to his Coda video?
"Last week I told you i have 2 codas, but that's also not entirely accurate"
Don't worry guys he still has a motor to make the worlds fastest garage door opener.
Grumpy gun jesus
Hah he should open a company making fast garage door openers
@@milosmiladinovic8404 a company repurposing Wheego and Coda cars into automatic garage door openers
Put the nightcore back up you coward
I keep seeing that joke in the comments of these videos whenever the Wheego being dead is mentioned but what video did that come from??
I havent watched any of the Daily's so im probably missing on stuff
If only you had a converted bus to haul a car in...
Bus Stuff Bus Stuff Bus Stuff!!!!!
Lmao
Oof
Brilliant segue!
pssst I bet that's what the third ones for
Ooh I feel like I'm part of a secret club now
Whoops. Looks like I let this one slip through the cracks by making the playlist public. Oh well. Enjoy your super early video!
Lmao lucky
@@agingwheels I was wondering why the upload was so early! I love your videos Robert, keep it up!
@@agingwheels did I miss something? Lol
lucky guy
So, you can use the batteries to power up the Wheego again, and you can use most of the other parts of the prototype to fix parts of your stock Coda in case it breaks down.
For free! Not bad, actually.
I was going to say, hopefully the rear window regulators in the white car work.
Prototypes should remain untouched.
@@fullmetaljacket7 leave one untouched in storage, pick apart the other
@@fullmetaljacket7 Not every prototype needs to be saved for history. Some people just have really bad ideas
@@fullmetaljacket7 except they've already been touched, and are inoperable because of it.
*CVT:* _can't handle lots of torque_
*Electric motor:* _produces all the torque_
What could go wrong by putting them together?
It's not the wheels that smoke, it's the gearbox!
CVT: always selects the right gear ratio to keep engine at correct RPM for optimum torque
Electric motor: creates optimum torque at all RPMs
@@MrHack4never Inboard burnouts!
Most decent tractor transmissions use CVTs, they're all about the torque!
@@tomcardale5596 I thought tractors were hydrostatic?
When you get the battery pack out of the white Coda you the only logical step would be to Cummins swap it
I was gonna suggest LS swapping it, but cummins makes much more sense.
does cummins produce a FWD engine?
@@PointlessDrummer No, they don't, but there is a certain kind of cosmic justice, rolling coal in a (formerly) electric car.
My random ass literally suggesting Ecotec, Ecoboost or any inline you'll find in any of those FWD cars.
But fuck it, Cummins swap is the way for this Coda. I'm in for the ride.
@@PointlessDrummer the r2.8 is probably small enough to maybe go fwd
"Wow this car makes no sense, I love it."
I feel like that sums up his channel as a whole lol.
I can't imagine what they were thinking but that's okay, I don't know why they have two hydraulic pumps, but then again I was not the engineer that day .lol
@@ronalddaub7965 one is a pump, the other is the slave. ie one drives and one is driven. Quite common way to transfer energy …
@@Harey0407 actually I like the way he is preserving the obscure vehicles from abroad, a kind of rare car museum for uncommon cars in America .
I'm sure you know by now but don't forget to charge all of those regularly so they don't brick like the wheego did!
good advice wish someone gave him that before he forgot about the wheego and bricked it but atleast your maybe saving him from having history repeat itself
You have gone a long way to keep the Wheego alive. Now you have gone to the point of using the last of a dead car company to keep it alive. This is dedication to a brand. Next up will be finding a left over scrapped EV1 and using the lead acid batteries to power items in the chicken coup :)
If it has four doors, would that make it a chicken sedan?
@@TWX1138 Nice!
@@TWX1138 Yes then it would be a proper four door coop.
the lead acid packs of first gen EV1s were destroyed after they were retrofitted to use the newer NIMH batteries so he probably won't be finding one of those
please film the roadtrip for the third coda
I agree Mr Griffin
Sounds like something an executive would request as a pet project, even though all the engineers say "it's pointless" he still wants it done because he believes in it.
China had an electric motor and Li-ion battery supply shortage for a number of years, so all the startup EV companies (which there was a lot at the time) had to look ay ways to reduce the motor and battery size while still "moving the car".
The brief shot of sitting on the Robin with the number plate where it is... is exactly the kind of subtle humor I watch this channel for. Well played, Sir.
Marketing department, "We want you to put the least reliable transmission ever devised in a car that doesn't even need one."
Engineering company, "Your paying up front right?"
Marketing department, "Yes."
Engineering company, "Well get right on it."
Also, how many people would buy a forgotten EV to cannibalize in order to restore a forgotten EV? This guys a treasure.
Its not often that we Engineerings gets to stitch up the Marketing Department, but when the opportunity arises, it would be churlish not to grasp that opportunity with both sweaty palms and run with it as fast as you can.
These "forgotten ev's" have a place in the history books, mostly so that future people can have a laugh! But maybe they'll be worth something in the future!!
CVTs aren't unreliable if you get them from Aisin ;)
@@1975stoots I mean, 90s CARB EVs are shooting up in value. Looking at you GM EV1.
I would take exception to CVT transmissions being called the most unreliable transmissions. In this application they are adding unnecessary complexity weight and cost, yes I agree they should not be used .
But I have 5 vehicles , gas engined and 2 are hybrid all with CVTs and all have 100,000 or more miles and counting without a single problem , these run almost daily , doing a combination of city , country and highway use , year round in zero degree to 110 plus degree temps. With flat land and steep hills ....... Stop and go and long steady hours long drives . if these are such bad transmissions some ones got a explain that comment .
that bumper sticker on the wego "my other car is a trabant" had my dying lol
I know i'm 3 years late, but it's spelt "Wheego"
Gotta admit, didn't think you CODA've brought LIFE back to the Wheego
He could've done it earlier, he just had to spend money, which he wasn't willing to do, now he gets a free car, parts for it, a road trip, a candit conversation with an engineer and a working wheego
@@pegasBaO23 I know, just wanted to make a pun on the youtubes
The irony of needing to pick up a few cars from a long way away and having a half built car hauler in your workshop
although a borrowed f250 and a borrowed gooseneck trailer, , is much cheaper than tha gas mileage of the bus, plus the bus also would not have fit 3 cars
My car trailer is literally on the edge of allowed size in length and width - another coat of paint and it would fail.
I am constantly borrowing trailers since it’s only 90% there.
Hearing that you're going to fix the wheego made me so happy like literally made my day!!!
I love how they made a cvt and weaker motor work in a car that already came with a stronger motor and transmission it makes no sense
Parts car Coda, an EV "lost to time", helps bring a Wheego back to life, kind of poetic in a way.
Robert: "I'm gonna take this one awful electric car and use its guts to fix this other awful electric car."
Me: "Will that improve matters at all?"
Robert: "Of course not, don't be silly!"
8:00:
The Wayback Machine has a whole bunch of stuff of the website saved, as early as 2007 but most rigorously around 2014-2018. 339 captures of the main page, around 2000 across other pages.
Yay the wheego is back! Also the sticker that says my other car is a trabant is gold, I kinda want one even though I dont have a trabant...
Not yet but it might
I want one too, and I have a Trabant. It would look nice on my Lancer :)
I love the fact that viewers still love the Trabant more than any other car that Robert has, even though he hasn't made a video about it for years. Go Trabi Go !!!
I'll bet there are people in his state's DMV that just bring up his registrations for the interesting read.
YESSSS oh my goodness I'm so excited for the revival of the Wheego!
but for how long till something else in it breaks?
Normally there's a hydraulic pump inside the transmission that is run by the engine and handles shifting duties. It's not in the torque converter per se but it does need the engine spinning in order to do what it's supposed to do. Of course when you are motor stops every time you stop that's not going to work. Hence the external hydraulic pump
Hey! Just a heads up, I found the old EDI page on Archive Org. I don’t want to post the link because I figure that would get flagged as spam, Just thought I’d let you know.
maybe send the link in a reply?
@@Christian23242 just tried; flagged
Wow, I'm looking forward to the resurrection of the wheezing,,,, I mean Wheego.😁
When you said you were to use the parts to resurrect the Wego I absolutely laughed out loud in happiness! You dreamed it could be, and low and behold it seems to be happening!
I, too, grinned very bigly when he said that. (And that solved the question I asked around 4:18 "Why's he sitting in front of the Wheego?")
Is that a ''secret'' video I'm not supposed to watch?
This video is intended for the bestest viewers only!
Taking a dumb electric car apart to fix an even dumber electric car, I love this channel
it's the reason why this channel is the best.
@Lassi Kinnunen 81 Yeah, that reminds me of the guy, back in Newport News ca. 1968 or so, who dropped a 318 into a Model T (don't ask me how he did the cooling--I don't recall). Anyway, when he was stopped and revving the engine, one of the Model T's wheels would lift off the ground.
Every time you brought up the hydraulic in the CVT i kept going "hydrostatic drive" like a lawnmower
I wouldn't have thought it was hydrostatic, that's about the least efficient transmission it would be possible to install. Great for tuning battery power into hot oil, not so good for moving a car any distance. Anything is possible though, the fact that there's a CVT in it at all is puzzling.
@@ferrumignis God knows what kind of cvt it is tho
There are other types of hydraulic CVT, like how a Fendt Vario transmission works.
Which in many respects is similar to how a Prius CVT works.
Planetary gearset, main input from the motor (ICE in the tractor or the Prius), hydraulic pump with variable speed drive or variable speed electric to the ring gear, and the drive is taken from the sun.
Having a hydraulically driven CVT in an EV makes no sense though, you'd be better off with an electrically driven one.
@Deon Denis It really isn't. It's more stupid not having it.
@Deon Denis I'm not trying to say it's a good idea, merely that it's not necessarily purely hydrostatic. The Fendt CVT has some hydrostatic components but the primary power transfer is mechanical.
It's also possible they were trying to use it as a test bed for CVTs and an electric prime motor was easier to control than an engine. If you don't really care about the efficiency but want to test how well your transmission copes with various specifiable input conditions then an electrically driven CVT becomes a bit less bonkers.
It's not a an electric car with a CVT so much as a CVT that happens to have an electric motor attached. But that's all speculation.
Every time some car company says CVT's time has finally arrived I roll my eyes.
Wait until you hear about my concept for a CVT rotary engine!
@@drunkenhobo8020 Epic on a scale I can't even begin to properly address.
@@drunkenhobo8020 A torque curve so flat that you can use it to calibrate machine tools!
Trabbi in the corner feeling like the most efficient car in the room.
Big respect to you for saving some bits of obscure automotive history!
"but now I have TWO codas!" "gasp! what's a coda? is it serious? are you going to live?"
Your Wheego must ABSOLUTELY ADORE you for all massive effort you are putting in to save it's little life.
It's kinda cool actually (the latter).
Peace.
Omg I don’t know how but we NEED to make one of the prototypes work again!! I’m really interested on how that CVT and engine would work!!!
I love how you opened the weego charging port to look all surprised at us:)
So in the end, all of this happened to the Wheego live again. Impressive.
They should have tried to make a stickshift EV! Then it would be interesting 😅
I came across an auto shop near me that did that with an old s10
many stick shift conversions are done, but one issue is that manual gearboxes have splash lubrication. Many people drive converted cars in too high gear and low rpm and gearbox lubrication might not work well enough.
So you're going to swap a trabant engine into the parts car when you're done with it, right?
That'd be a waste of a perfectly fine trabant, also he can't go around saying he drives a car made out of cotton
I was thinking all those extra parts could electrify the grant.
@@pegasBaO23 probably meant buy a new engine and transmission, not part out the existing one
I commented last video with this but it's still relevant: I once ran across a Chinese electric conversion car, but they left the 5 speed manual transmission. Thus, it was a manual electric car.
More the fun, double the trouble, and one blown up transmission. And you posted twice in one month? Wow. Improvement! Only time that's happened was the daily videos last year.
Edit: how much you want? Does it have leather? Because statistically, if I remember right, you now have 1/20 of the production cars. Which means one is bound to have leather. I mean, who hasn't wanted a Kia optima?
I got all geddy when I realised what your were leading up to, it’s so exciting. I felt like Christoph waltz in inglorious bastards, that’s a bingo!
Presumably you now have a functioning CVT unit. Hmm - Trabant CVT?
LOL love it!
The Trabant engine barely has enough power to move the Trabant, let alone power a CVT unit
That would need a torque converter or a scooter style centrifugal clutch to operate plus the hydraulics...
@@pegasBaO23 look up DAF cars, not a whole lot more powerful yet CVT. In the 60's :)
Well, you would need to use the battery pack from one of the Coda’s to run a hydraulic pump to operate the CVT. Might need a computer to run the whole thing - couple of Raspberry Pi’s. Easy peasy - there’s a whole trunk on the Trabant to be filled up!
What a great success story - at least after all these years and I guees this guys deserves a bigger than life THANK YOU
just for supporting you and your channel cause now these cars have a second life and purpose instead of ending in the garbage bin ...
Great video, that's an awesome find! But what I really want to know is where can we get a bumper sticker like the one on the WheeGo, you know, the one that reads "My other car is a Trabant" ?
Yes, yes, Trabant sticker merch! :)
I remember every unsold Coda in America ended up in San Jose under an overpass. Last I heard a company called Mullen bought them up...to what end I cannot say. That was years ago 🤷♂️
Next Month on Aging Wheels: I got all the parts necessary for the prototypes!
man, your delivery is spot on!!
love to listen you just crush those weird match boxes with wheels
keep it up!
fixing a rare car with parts from an even rarer car
Man, I love your demeanor, more people need to be like you
Wow, my joke guess was they used recycled beta tape to make a belt drive. Friends and I build a solar race car that used VCR tape to make a continuously accelerating drag racer in High School. Good times.
I'd love to see pictures or video of that!
I stumbled across Ur site for something completely different but have been COMPLETELY mesmerized by Ur Coda adventures! I greatly admire and appreciate the mindset, motivation, and genius that it takes to do what U do. I can't wait to sort thru Ur vids to find the next entry in this Coda adventure. U make me laff and smile and remember times on a friend's farm trying to rewire a '62 VW Type 2 Campmobile so that headlights worked for more than just one high-beam or afternoons combining two Fiat 1100 parts sedans to try to get one road worthy. Thanks!
Did you try a time machine website to look up EDIs old web?
The Wayback machine might be the way
That's beyond amazing, and the fact they were free makes it even better! Look forward to seeing the Coda chaos, and potentially the Wheego alive again!
OK, that's displaced the one in the Honda CR-Z I test drove* as the weirdest implementation of a CVT I've seen. Not that it's weird to have a CVT in a gas-electric hybrid per se (although personally, I think they're kind of crap in any vehicle bigger than a snowmobile), but the one in the CR-Z had sporty paddle shifters. So you could take manual control and run through the gears! Which... it... didn't have. Yes, they set up the onboard computer so that the CVT would pretend it was a clutchless manual and stop at preset gear ratios when the paddles were used.
* As opposed to the one I actually _bought,_ which had a manual. The CR-Z was kind of a dumb car, but I loved mine anyway. Wish I still had it.
That is pretty awesome :-) and when knowing how responsive CVTs are (by design), it gives a whole new meaning to downshifting to get more punch for passing. Which it probably doesn't let you do anyway.
@@ralfoider.9681 Well... it would let you _try,_ but with the best will in the world, accelerating hard was not one of the CR-Z's core competencies at the best of times. :)
I still hold out hope for the little one to live again!
and don't for one second think I've forgotten about the bus!!
With that said, I truly love your content and honestly just happy with what ever you end up filming!
I generally think I'd watch a 4 hour video of watching paint dry... if it was you narrating!!
Man what A good night. Coffee , Snacks And Aging Wheels Video. (i live in indonesia) Wait, i thought your smart was sold?
The video was filmed before he sold it
And a pack of good ol cigarettes I suggest.
@@bmw3-er unfortunately I don’t smoke
Ohhhhh man I'm so jealous. I would totally get that thing running again!
This is getting out of hand, now there are two of them!
And soon there will be three.
@@onesandzeroes Or, And then there were three.
I'm not even a car guy but you manage to engage and entertain me and get me interested in this stuff
you honestly make really good content and are funny you made me interested in cars
Can you do something silly like hook a motorcycle engine to the CVT and make the prototype go again after cannibalizing the battery?
Because of you, and your videos, I have not worked on my several projects for over a year. And now, I don't remember where I left off, and have lost all knowledge of how to start again.
Thanks.
Coda
Skoda
Love the cars design. Very simple generic car from the 2000s
they actually look like skodas...
@@shept.7736 Nah, more like an Opel of the era
You should give the working one to the Lane Motor Museum whenever you get done with it. I'm sure they'd love to have it, and a car like this deserves to pe preserved.
Sounds cool to have new batteries for the Wheego! I'm no engineer, but don't you need a brand new BMS for the Wheegos new battery pack, since it will (presumably) have more cells than previously? If you put in old amount of cells, you'll get less capacity and also less range.
I don't know if that would be an issue, though. A Wheegos a Wheego, with 50 or 100 mile range. Strange as hell still.
No, 18 of the Coda cells have the same capacity and size as one of the big ones from the Wheego. So he will wire 18 Coda cells together and those blocks of 18 ppear to the Wheego as one big cell.
@@timweber4318 But don't the individual cells have to be balanced by hand then? That would require lots of manual labour, and wiring individual cells so that they could also be charged individually without decompiling the whole battery pack (as was done in an earlier video!).
Just awesome. Couldn't have gone to a better home. That engineer's wife must be so pleased.....
ONE ah ah ah TWO ah ah ah THREE ah ah ah
Love this channel
Mr. White we love you for offering these to Robert.
"Jing jing motor"
I assume that's the sound it makes.
I used to go to the LA Auto Show every year, and for a few years there Coda would show up loud and proud with their “revolutionary” electric cars. There seemed excited about them and they sure had a nice booth. Then they stopped showing up lol
I almost think the front bumpers on these are from a 2001 era Honda Civic
You'd be surprised to hear the Coda's underpinnings trace themselves back to the Mitsubishi Mirage, not the one sold today but the one that the Lancer replaced.
for an R&D device, it isn't as silly as it seems. if you want to measure real world driving efficiency of the CVT (and not of the vehicle), it is relatively easy to measure the power/torque out put of the car's electrical motor, compare to monitoring the live driving output of a combustion engine on the road.
here's an idea turn one of the codas over to rich rebuilds
you should make a project series where you swap the white coda's engine with an engine out of a scrapped trabant
Can I have the coda body after the parts are removed? (I am local too)
That story is awesome!!!! It was so meant to be. I can't wait to see what kind of cool fun you are going to have with those 👍👍👍
If you want to make an EV different put a manual in it.
Your new friend (the one you've cleaned the backyard full of Codas ;) ) could make the principal schematic in no time for Wheego. Other thing is to make good wiring and spacing and stacking of them-with tight packing you might get a heating issue, and you don't want that! Also, you could make add-on cell pack for the running Coda-just stay within weight limits!
The Donguan research institute should have been referred to as "The Dong".
I was hoping you hadn't given up on the Wheego. Free prototype weird electric cars is a great solution and you'll have spare parts to keep both going for a long time plus at least two unique cars to play with and a great story and more cool content, a win for everyone.
this gives me an idea, maybe there are enough free electric car parts to have enough budget to win class c of the 24 hours of lemons.
I'm really pleased to hear that there is a plan to revive the Wheego. I hope it all goes well. Be careful with those battery packs - there is lots of energy and lots of voltage. Plenty of opportunities for bad things.
Dude pls tell me how you find these!
I love these! You are so fortunate to have two in your possession!
"my mom has an F250" and you have nothing of the sorts
But he has a Trabant! A Trabant!!!
@@ve2vfd yep. And about 3,874,827 crappy electric cars.
He has an F150...
Wouldn't it be great to hang out with this guy for a day and drink beer and talk about all these weird little cars he has!
15 seconds ago: Comments 23H ago
Three bizarre EV's are the reagents necessary to summon Alec from the technology web, made of connections.
Always enjoy watching your quirky videos. Great job.
"This is getting out of hand. now there are two of them!"
-Nute Gunray
N but seriously these videos are great. I can't wait until the garage is an inhabitable place to work so I can see the bus again, that bus is so cool, now I want one.
Excellent video! I'm very excited for the upcoming Wheego revival project. How convenient that everything came together like that. I'm also exciting to see the video where you fixed up the black Coda.
I don't know why, but I find this channel fascinating.
God the possibilities with just one of these. Perfect little test mules
I can only imagine they implemented a CVT in attempt to get more speed with a smaller motor. Once a car is going you don't need much torque to keep it going, so you can change the output ratio of the CVT to gain more speed once the motor is topped out. Makes sense, and would actually net you more low end torque since the motor will be underdriven at low speeds. However, with how well motor technology has progressed it makes more sense in cost, weight, and space just to use a bigger motor than to add a transmission to it.
Just my thoughts. A smaller motors lower torque needs a lower gearing in order to keep acceptable acceleration and hill climbing abilities, but that would hur the top speed. Even though an electric motor has a much wider usable rpm range, it also has limitations. For example a Porsche Taycan has a two speed gearbox in order to be able to achieve high top-speeds and fast acceleration.
With CVT you could always run the electricmotor at its most efficient speed, regardless of the motorload or speed of the car and it could also provide for more/better regenerative breaking down to lower speeds. I guess that this -in theory- could compensate for losses in the CVT transmission.
Came here for the Tavarish car and god damn I'm not disappointed. These are god damn fascinating
I want a coda all of a sudden lol. I don’t know why but I just like the way it looks
Have a theory on the name. In Europe Skoda is a respected car builder. They look similar and the name was probably used to sound like Skoda. China builds many many many look and sound alike copies of everything USA / European usually poorly built
"Coda" also refers to a musical section at the end of a piece.
Except this was an American company that sourced bodies from China to be modded and rebranded, and only sold the finished product in the US, where pretty much no one has even heard of Skoda.
these cars are something I did not need to know about before I knew about them, but now that I know about them, I need to know about them.
With the leftover motor you could attach a fan blade and make your own wind tunnel.
i have no idea how cars work, but i love this channel