The Topsail High School electric vehicle class is dedicated to the pursuit of exploring alternative solutions to internal combustion vehicles, and increasing environmental awareness as well. The students work hard to secure funding in order to achieve their goal of converting normal vehicles to clean electric power. Thus far the Topsail EV class has successfully converted three vehicles, and have won over 70 trophies while competing against other schools with similar programs.

Topsail recently took the 144 volt Paseo and ran in the autocross competition at UNCW. The event was put on by the Cape Fear Chapter of the Carolinas Region of the SCCA. They were kind enough to let us run our laps free of charge. The car ran about 9 seconds off of the fastest time recorded that day. The car could have performed better if it had autocross wheels and tires, because the car actually gained such high speeds on the long course that the tires were not able to handle the corners very well. Overall it was a good experience, but now we are currently working on developing a Plug-in Hybrid vehicle for the SMARTT Challenge competition this spring.

In 2000 the first year EV class converted this 1996 Ford Ranger. The truck was donated by Sanders Ford in Jacksonville, NC, and all of the conversion parts were purchased from EV America. The total cost for conversion was $5,500.

The Students began the conversion process by researching conversion techniques, design engineering the vehicle for the conversion and providing supporting data for the calculations of expected range and top speed of the completed conversion. With the engineering process complete, the students began the arduous task of securing the necessary funding. The class developed a sponsorship package to present to local businesses and individuals who may have wanted to donate money or services for the completion of the project. After securing the necessary funding they began ordering the parts for the conversion.

For two months the Ford Ranger was transformed into a clean running electric vehicle. During this time fabrication of battery boxes, motor mounts, transmission coupler, and control board were completed. The wiring and electronic component connections were made and tested for the maiden voyage. The newly converted truck rolled out of the garage three days before the final event of the EV Challenge competition was to be held in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The final event was a success and the team won three trophies including the rookie of the year title. The future looked bright for the electric vehicle program and sights were set on more conversions in the coming years.

The 2005-2006 class was successful in converting a 1985 Pontiac Fiero. The car began its life as a six-cylinder sports car that was notorious for overheating and catching fire. Obviously this spelled the demise of the first mid-engine sports car produced in the United States. Our goal was to retro fit the Fiero with electric drive train components and batteries to create a cool running, environmentally friendly mid-engine electric vehicle.

The conversion process was mapped out early in 2005 as the EV class had acquired two Pontiac Fieros, which would serve as donor vehicles. The first step was to identify which of the vehicles was best suited for use as the rolling chassis. This decision was easy since we only had a title for one of the cars, and the other car, which was donated by West Carteret High School, could not be used since it had gone through a previous conversion. The next step was to isolate the best parts off of each car that would end up on the finished vehicle. While this process was going on another group was taking the combustion engine out of the vehicle that would be used as the finished vehicle.

After removing the internal combustion engine, the electric motor was then mounted to the cradle of the car, which houses the motor, transmission, and the rear suspension. Next we wired the car and put in the motor controller, which would soon be connected to the battery string. Following this process the battery boxes were fabricated and mounted to the car. The car was multicolored since parts from several different vehicles had been used to piece it together. The car was sent to the painter about a week before the final event and we got it back just two days before we left.

The final event was a success for the new car. It performed better than expected, and helped the team to bring back 14 trophies including first place overall. This first place overall continued to the teams dominance of winning first place since the 2003-2004 final event. First place trophies received included vehicle design car class, vehicle design truck class, troubleshooting, autocross car, autocross truck, oratorical presentation, vehicle range in the car class, and vehicle range in the truck class.