Baja MiEV?

[jray3]

Parts car #3 arrived this week, and for once as advertised, it runs and drives!
It's a 2012 SE Premium with satnav, DCFC, heated seat, the works. Funny thing, it's silver, and I just sold my good front bumper valence to Brooks! But EVen though this car only has 24,000 miles, the battery has only 29.01 Ah capacity, making it a 45 mile machine. That's not a deal-breaker to an island dweller or some other use cases, but indicates to me that calendar life aging of these packs has brought an end to the days of upgrading range via collision salvage, unless you luck upon a rare warranty-replaced pack. So what to do?

I'm seriously considering making a dune buggy out of this baby. No irreversible mods in mind yet, but removing the front and rear bumper covers eliminates a lot of the potential rubbing and ripping by greatly improving the departure and approach angles.
I know that the CV joints don't tolerate lowering, but will check on the angles involved in a bit of a lift. With the rear coil springs, a mild lift is very easy. For off-road tires, I'll start with the spare snow tires I already have, but there are plenty of options for narrow 15" wheels thanks to the ongoing aircooled VW Baja Bug and Sand Rail movement. Finding some taller rubber that will still fit in what remains of the wheelwells will be fun, but maintaining the size ratios for ASC and ABS function won't really matter for a trail runner.

Might EVen take it to a track day: https://jalopnik.com/my-mitsubishi-i-miev-is-a-secret-track-weapon-1850040433

There was a user on here around 2012-14 who bought a 2nd car and planned to turn it loose off road, but I'm not finding those posts right now, I recall he never returned and posted progress.

So speak now if you want a bargain on a clean low-mileage silver car in need of a front bumper valence and headlamp before I have too much fun! :twisted:
-Jay

 

[MickeyS70]

But EVen though this car only has 24,000 miles, the battery has only 29.01 Ah capacity, making it a 45 mile machine.

Might be worth doing a proper battery calibration as the BMU’s degradation algorithm is very conservative without regular corrections..

 

[jray3]

Thanks for that reminder, Mickey , and will do. My other i-MiEV get 100% recharges daily and fairly frequent excursions to two bars or less, but a crashed creampuff like this one or any used car one acquires may not have received that recalibration treatment in quite a while!

 

[jray3]

Discharged to 10% and fully recharged in a single L1 session, and no change in BMU data- still 29.1 Ah.

 

[MickeyS70]

Was worth a try but as a SOC of 10% should be low enough to trigger BMS capacity re-calibration (battery voltage <339VDC) there doesn’t seem to be anything more left in the tank…

 

[jray3]

Here’s a Baja MiEV update, as I’ve found the largest tire/wheel combination that fits without cutting fenders, and got the ratios right to preserve ABS, ASC, traction control and regen! The rear tires are LT195/75R14 Goodyear Wrangler AT on Mitsubishi Mirage steel rims. The front carries 185/65R15 Bridgestone Blizzak winter tires on our stock rear steel wheels. This car won’t drive far enough EVen in summer to melt that soft winter rubber up front, but it sure sticks to the tarmac, and trails too!

Next comes a bit more lift up front to lEVel the stance and improve overall clearance.

 

[jray3]

Added turn signals and a MiEV-sized winch.

 

[Timiev]

Alright! Somebody knows how to have fun! Way to go

 

[CeeJay09]

too cool, I bought my parts car from an off-grid property, they used it for driving around the acres of land with an electric chainsaw running from the DCdc charge port with a manually switched contactor. I test drove it around the property and it was surprisingly fun in the gravel and slipper dirt

 

[CeeJay09]

the chainsaw was due to them using the car to collect firewood in case that bit was not obvious

 

[rkolibar1]

 

[jray3]

Thank you @rkolibar That bit of AI-creativity obviously abandons all MiEV underpinnings, but I like that mean front fascia... Rather than a square roof rack, the stunt i-MiEV I want to see has a perfect arch of a rollbar that extends the rear roofline just enough to ensure that a forward rollover ie 'somersault' lands back on all four wheels rather than resting on the rear hatch. Imagine hitting the brakes hard enough to induce a single forward rollover! That would probably require a full custom chassis and suspension anyway, so you're on the right track!

 

[patrick_star]

Here’s a Baja MiEV update, as I’ve found the largest tire/wheel combination that fits without cutting fenders, and got the ratios right to preserve ABS, ASC, traction control and regen! The rear tires are LT195/75R14 Goodyear Wrangler AT on Mitsubishi Mirage steel rims. The front carries 185/65R15 Bridgestone Blizzak winter tires on our stock rear steel wheels. This car won’t drive far enough EVen in summer to melt that soft winter rubber up front, but it sure sticks to the tarmac, and trails too!

Next comes a bit more lift up front to lEVel the stance and improve overall clearance.View attachment 979

I hoped to find this! We hit a pot hole the other day, now we have a flat. I'm wondering if it's worth swapping to something like this because we have mean winters in Michigan.

 

[WReed82]

JRay,

I like, and thanks for the tire/wheel specs!

Rkolibar, I like your idea too, but am happy with the traction and simplicity of the rear-wheel-drive I-MiEV.
It would be cool to build something a bit 'stealth' in-between these two!

Thanks and good health, Weogo