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Just Add Torque

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The engineer Scirocco owner had the hood and the hatch open as we approached from the passenger rear 3/4. We were pleasantly surprised to see a VR6 in the caboose. You don’t see that commitment everyday or for that matter a rust free, 1st gen Scirocco either. We are in rust belt Michigan after all at the Ann Arbor Cars and Coffee last Saturday.

The first thing that came to mind was the Ford Shogun because that was done aftermarket (see Jay Leno’s Garage here), then Renault R5 Turbo because, well, they’re sweet. Anytime someone takes a typical front engine car and crams the power unit behind your head, I turn mine to look. Have your seen Gilfred Racing? They do it with an Acura V6 in a Mini Cooper, The Super Cooper Type S. Killer.

Anywho, I digress. The real treat was the electric engine up front mated to the original 4-speed gearbox. It’s a 50KW motor powered by two 2021 BMW I3 batteries he found on eBay. Got lucky to find those batts so he says. But while the hybrid was’t quite up and running, we questioned the sync-ing of motors in this hybrid setup. You see, I never really understood that the motors don’t have to be sync’d to each other. The wheels spin as they spin, that is your speed. Each motor simply adds torque.

The challenge for his drive line, and my brain, rested in the gear selection for the electric motor. Something he hadn’t sorted as it actually wasn’t powered up yet. Obviously you can’t run 1st or 2nd or you’ll be spinning silly. 4th gear may be the right choice or different gear with similar ratio. He’ll most likely pick something that compliments his driving style for his infinite torque cocktail. Not sure he needs it with that thing in the rear but I look forward to learning more.

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