Wildfire NEV for sale

[todd.dore]

Here is an email that was sent to me please reply if interested -

Hello,

My name is Benjamin Lachman and I was referred to you by Brian Levin.  We were both affiliated with Carbon Day, inc., which came to speak at a Fox Valley EV association event last year and we had the privilege of seeing several of your electric vehicles.  I wanted to contact you because my Father has a Wildfire 120 volt NEV that he would like to sell and I thought someone with your organization may be interested in it, either to drive or for parts.  I am including pictures. 

Please let anyone who is interested know to contact me via email or to call my father, Ron Lachman, at 847 274 3878.  The vehicle is located in Northbrook.

Thank you. 

--
Benjamin Lachman

 
IMG00018-20100601-1616.jpg
 
IMG00019-20100601-1616.jpg

[rich.carroll]

Certainly an interesting car.  Do we have any idea of what the seller expects to get for the car?  Can you add links to the photos?

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I'm also watching:  http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200493519452&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT   

This is an Electric City Motors 'Current' but the eBay ad doesn't contain much info. Obviously the car is a prototype that doesn't run with some 'mechanical issues.'  Specs for the Current are at http://www.electriccitymotors.com/CurrentSpecs.aspx .  One of the Electric City Motors dealers has a rather optimistic set of specs on their web page at: http://www.futurecars.com/future-cars/electric-cars/the-current-from-ecm-affordable-ev-here-today    They claim 75 MPH and 45 mile range with the LiPoly/Nilar batteries.

I suspect that the most realistic description of the prototype is at:  http://evworld.com/blogs/index.cfm?authorid=229 I believe the poster is the R&D tech for the car.

It is really unclear as to the specs on the car, but if the non-running prototype sells for a minimal amount, it may be a real bargain for a NEV buyer.  I believe the car has passed computer generated (but not the actual federally mandated) crash testing, but may not make all the required regulations to be highway licenseable. 

This looks like, and smells like a Chinese originated electric car which was brought to the US in an aborted attempt to sell these little cars.  How much it needs to make it driveable or licenseable is certainly an unknown, but to purchase a complete shell with doors, seats, etc. it might be worth it. Auto Blog Green described the car two years ago as: http://green.autoblog.com/2008/03/28/another-ev-startup-surfaces-but-for-how-long/

[todd.dore]

Rich - I'll have to upload the pix - will do on Thursday after I'm back from my biz meetings this week.

[todd.dore]

I tried to upload the files, but they were too big.  Anyone know of any good VIRUS FREE software, that is free, which I can use to reduce the size of the pix?

[rich.carroll]

The Gimp (Graphic Image Manipulation Program) is a Photoshop level (read that extremely powerful, with a somewhat daunting interface) that is free, downloadable, and works extremely well.

Find Gimp at http://www.gimp.org/ Make sure you go to the .org site, that's the free version.

Load it up. Open the picture file you want.  (Pull down the File Menu, then open)
Then you only need to pull down the Image menu, click on Scale Image.  You will get a box to adjust the size of the image.  I would suggest a width of 1000 or so pixels for the web.  The height box is automatically locked in proportion to the width (you could unlock it, but don't) Enter 1000 in the width box, hit Enter, and your picture is resized.  Save this rescaled image; I would suggest you save it as a new name.

Totally free, extremely powerful, way more than you need here, but a wonderful picture editing program.