Food Lion Hot Dog Fundraiser

We spent a cold and blustery day at the Hampstead Food Lion Saturday selling hot dogs and raffle tickets.  We did not sell too many dogs, but we had a good time and made over $200 total including ticket sales.  Every little bit helps, and the $200 puts us that much closer to ordering our Lithium batteries!

2010 NEAT EV Rally Champions!

After two days of competitions, the THS EV11 Team came out victorious.  Capturing first place overall and 10 other trophies made the event our most sucessful ever.  Here were our team results:
First Overall Champion
First, Autocross- Truck class: Joseph Graves
First, Acceleration- Modified class: Tony Capace
First, Acceleration- Truck class: Kevin Mullins
First, Troubleshooting- Stephen Henderson, Sean Bullock
Second, Autocross- Modified class: Sean Bullock
Second, Pit Crew- Alexis Demetrious, Joey Godfrey, Zeke Hartner, Joseph Graves
Second, Jeopardy Challenge: Alexis Demetrious, Sal Castoro
Second, Poster Presentation: Chris Raynor, Sal Castoro

Second, Range- Modified class: Joey Godfrey, Tony Capace
Second, Range- Truck class: Todd Lemaster, Alexis Demetrious

Preparing for the N.E.A.T. EV Rally

This week, our main focus is to prepare for the Northampton East Automotive Team 14th annual EV Rally in Roanoke Rapids, NC.  This year we have a unique opportunity to participate in the rally at the new NCCAR facility.  This state of the art vehicle testing site will offer a much improved location compared to years past.  We are practicing for Pit Crew, Jeopardy challenge, Range, Autocross, Acceleration, Presentations and Troubleshooting.  Our goal is to be competitive.  We are really looking forward to the event.

Family Movie Night Fundraiser

Friday night, we held the first ever community family movie night in the Topsail High School auditorium.  After buying the rights for a one time showing of Toy Story 3, advertising the event to the three local elementary schools, we had 115 people in the audience to enjoy the movie.  We sold popcorn, candy and water to help raise money for our program.  Admission was free, but we asked for a suggested donation of $3.  Everyone had a great time and the EV11 team worked hard to make the event a success.  The movie night brought in $300 and was a great learning experience for our team.  We will take what we learned and definitely have another movie night.  Thanks to Mr. Jeffcoat for running the projector and sound system.

Hampstead Kiwanis presentation

Our EV Team had an opportunity to present our program and fundraising initiative to the Hampstead Kiwanis club early this morning.  If the picture looks dark, it is because the sun had not yet risen! We were the featured guest and a wonderful breakfast was provided by Sawmill Grill.  Sean and Stephen spoke to the group with a prepared speech and then opened the floor for questions.  The Kiwanians were very impressed and had excellent questions that continued when they viewed the Ranger and MR2 outside after the meeting adjourned.  We were able to sell our raffle tickets after the presentation.  With over 25 tickets sold, the meeting was prosperous for our fundraising as well as community awareness of our EV program

Topsail Kiwanis presentation

Our EV Team had an opportunity to present our program and fundraising initiative to the Topsail Island Kiwanis club this morning.  We were the featured guest and a wonderful breakfast was provided.  Sean and Stephen spoke to the group with a prepared speech and then opened the floor for questions.  The Kiwanians were very impressed and had excellent questions that continued when they viewed the Ranger and MR2 outside after the meeting adjourned.  We were able to sell our raffle tickets after the presentation.  With over fifty tickets sold, the meeting was prosperous for our fundraising as well as community awareness of our EV program.

ACE Hardware display and fundraiser

Saturday was a beautiful day for informing the community about our EV program.  We had both the Ranger and the MR2 on display at Hampstead ACE Hardware where we sold raffle tickets and displayed our award winning vehicles.  Thanks for the students who took valuable time out of their schedule to help.  We have an excellent dedicated group this year.  With only 12 students, everyone has to step up and do their share...often.  Many raffle tickets were sold, especially by Todd, our salesman of the day!

Zaxby's fundraiser night

We participated in the Zaxby's school night on Wednesday by displaying the vehicles between 8-9pm.  In return, Zaxby's agreed to donate 14% of their proceeds during this time to our program.  There was a great turn out and after the total was tallied, we will get a $218 donation.  Not bad for three hours.  Good food and good times were had.  Thanks to the THS faculty, students and families that showed up to support our program.

Hampstead Chamber of Commerce day at THS

We had the opportunity Saturday to promote our program at the Hampstead Chamber of Commerce day at the THS gym.  We parked our vehicles outside for display and had a booth set up inside with a slide show and various EV parts to promote our program to guests.  Thanks to our principal, Mr Skipper, the registration fee was waived, so we were able to sell raffle tickets and not have to shell out any of our own money.  There were about 60 participants at the event and we spoke to many interested patrons.  Thanks to Fouty, Sal, Sean and Tony for helping during the event.

New back glass graphics!!

Finally, we can drive around with the distinction of having an official Electric Vehicle!  Well, actually, Empire Signs and Designs has made our vehicles official by donating perforated graphics for our back glass on each vehicle stating "Topsail High School Electric Vehicle".  This is a huge step in the promotion of our program by allowing us to be recognized as an EV when we are out in public or on the street.  Our next step will be to put sponsor stickers on the Ranger.  Thanks to Joe at Empire Graphics for his design and installation.

Raffle ticket sales at Ace Hardware

We had the Ranger and MR2 on display at Ace Hardware in Hampstead Saturday to promote our program and sell raffle tickets.  We had the usual responses like, "I don't believe in that", "it's gas for me", "Why don't you put a generator in that thing?", "why don't you use solar panels to charge it?", "what is the gas mileage?", and my all time favorite...."BAAAAAHHH", which I think is a sign of disapproval!  Aside from that, we had a successful day and made some good contacts and possible sponsors.  Several people had no idea we had this program at the high school, even though it has been in existence for 11 years now.  I guess we need to do a better job advertising.  We have sold about 250 raffle tickets and have 2 months to sell the rest so we can purchase our Lithium battery pack.

Presentation to Topsail Elementary second graders

We took all three vehicles to visit Mrs. Johnson's second grade class this morning.  The student of the week, Allison Garrett, invited her dad to speak to the group.  Well, since her Dad is our instructor, we got to present the EV's to the students.  Allison was very excited since she had helped work on the MR2 conversion.  The students asked very well thought out questions and all of the EV students were happy to answer them.  It was a pleasure to show the youth of tomorrow a technology that will surely be a part of their transportation when they are older.

Raffle, Raffle, Raffle. Anyone want a Raffle Ticket?

Buy our raffle tickets!! We will be selling them until December 17th when we have the drawing for several prizes including a $2800 Tempur-pedic cloud supreme mattress. Please contact us if you would like to purchase them online.  They are 1 for $5 or 3 for $10.

Homecoming 2010

The electric Ranger and Mr2 led the homecoming parade at halftime Saturday night.  Also, we had a member of the homecoming court ride in our electric Miata.  I think this would be the first time an electric vehicle was used by a student on a homecoming court!  We were also selling raffle tickets at the game.  Make sure you contact us if you would like to purchase them.  1 for $5 or 3 for $10.

AutoCross at CFCC

    Several hundred auto enthusiasts were "shocked" to see how well a battery powered MR2 can do on an Autocross course.  Thanks to Brad Draughn and the Cape Fear Chapter of the SCCA, we were allowed to make several runs on their Autocross course Sunday at the CFCC North Campus. EV11 team member Sean drove with co-pilot Brad for two runs, finishing with a respectable 55 second run, good practice for the Autcross event we will participate in at NCCAR this November.  

    Brad, a tech for Toyota of Wilmington, took the controls for two runs with a low time of 49 seconds. His first drive in an EV, Brad was impressed with how well the MR2 performed.  He definitely had an "EV grin"!  The fastest time of the day was in the low 40's, so we did very well against our gas powered competition.  

Spot Festival 2010 display

The EV 11 team has spent two days displaying the EV's at the 2010 Hampstead Spot Festival.  Thousands of visitors stopped by for fun, festivities and a Spot fish dinner.  We had hundreds of very interested visitors stop by our display for information on our project.  This event is the largest one we have locally, and it draws quite a crowd.  Our push this year was to inform of how we intend to raise funds for a Lithium battery transplant in the MR2.  Hopefully, we can raise enough money to buy a new Lithium battery pack.

National Speed sponsors EV 11 Team shirts!

National Speed in Wilmington has agreed to sponsor our team shirts for this year.  Intracoastal Design in Hampstead provided the shirts and printing of the logos.  The shirts look great and certainly make our team look more professional.  Thanks to National Speed and Intracoastal Design for a job well done.

A day full of display

Friday was a busy day for the EV class.  The entire Pender County Schools employees came to Topsail High School for the beginning of school Convocation.  Over 900 employees got a chance to see the EV's and ask questions as they made their way into THS for their day of meetings.  Sal was the early bird and did a great job showing the vehicles to anyone who stopped by.

  Later, we showed all three EV's at the football game against Trask.  We positioned the vehicles so that everyone entering the game had to walk by them.  Most people stopped and asked questions and were very positive about our program.

Display at THS Wrestlers car show

School is just around the corner and we took the opportunity to display all three EV's at the Topsail Wrestlers car show.  This was their second show at the Topsail High School campus and we were amongst about 75 other    cars showing off their wheels.

Kiwanis Presentation

From left to right:  Todd, Alexis, Sal, Zack, Josh, Joey, Stephen, Chris

Early Tuesday morning, the EV team made a presentation to the Topsail Island Kiwanis club.  We met at 7:00am at the Smokehouse in Holly Ridge for their weekly meeting.  Breakfast was served and we had a 20 minute presentation with a question and answer session.  There was plenty of interest from the 60 members present as they asked the team about the vehicles and the future of electric transportation.  Thanks to the students who attended, who got up very early on a lazy summer day to help promote the program.

New motor install in MR2

Today we installed the new Warp 9 motor into the MR2.  The ADC 9 motor we removed needs to have the commutator surfaced and new brushes. We will refurbish that 6 year old motor as a side project this fall.
   The install seemed to be going well until we realized the Warp9 has a different bolt pattern on the auxiliary shaft end than is on the ADC 9.  We also found that dimensionally, the Warp is a slightly larger motor overall as well.  We ended up having to make some modifications to one of the motor mounts in order to make the motor fit.  The whole process took almost 6 hours, but we had to have the MR2 ready for a presentation at the Surf City Kiwanis meeting tomorrow.

   Thanks to the following students who showed up at 8am to work.  Fouty, Todd, Alexis, Sal, Stephen,  Joey, Tony and Kevin.  It was a long and challenging day, but it was worth it in the end. The install was also a very good troubleshooting exercise.

Classy Chassis car show at Poplar Grove

We took the opportunity to show the truck at the Classy Chassis car show at Poplar Grove today.  The car is out of order right now awaiting a new motor, so we just showed the truck.  There were almost 200 cars there, mostly classic pre-1980 cars, so the attendance and exposure were great.  It was hot and muggy, but still great to get out and allow the students to display the truck and gain experience in showing the public our program.

  Thanks to Sean, Stephen, Tony, Kevin, Marissa and Zach for showing up and helping to promote our program.

p.s That red 1961 Bug belongs to Mr Garrett.  We should convert it to EV!

Electric Miata donated to our program!

Today we took delivery of a 1991 72 volt electric Mazda Miata conversion.  The car has 12 miles on the conversion and the overall mileage is only 105,000!  The car, converted by local businessman Irving Smith, will be used as a rolling learning platform for troubleshooting and project development for the EV class.  Mr. Smith and some of his friends converted the Miata "just to see if they could do it".  After the successful conversion, Mr. Smith decided to donate it to the Topsail Electric Vehicle class so it could go to a good cause and a worthy recipient.

  We will now begin planning the future of the car as a learning tool for the EV class and others interested in electric vehicle conversions.  We are very grateful to Mr. Smith for the donation and promised him the car would become an integral part of our program.

News story on local station WECT TV 6 wilmington

WECT story on Topsail EV program

Extreme Makeover, Electric Edition!

Seems like a good time to show the before and after pictures of our newest conversion.  There is some confusion about this truck.  First of all, it is a new conversion.  This truck is not the old Ranger without stickers, we sold that truck last spring.  Yep, "Roscoe" is a newly converted 2001 Ford Ranger Edge.

Below is a picture of our previous 1996 Ranger we owned for 8 years.

Seven time National Champions!

The EV class traveled to Raleigh this weekend and emerged victorious again.  We collected 11 trophies including first and third overall.  This was the seventh year in a row that we have won first overall in the SMARTT Challenge competition against high schools from as far away as Iowa and Miami.
  The new Ford Ranger conversion took top honors.  We finished the truck just two days before the competition and really felt this was our best effort to date.  Being our fifth conversion, we used our knowledge from the past to help us to make the very best conversion we could do with the budget we had.  All of our hard work paid off with a $1000 check for first place!
  The Toyota MR2 placed third and brought home first place in the Autocross competition, a feat we had not yet achieved. We also earned $500 for third place

Our Overall trophies were:  
1st Overall (Ranger truck
3rd Overall (MR2)
2nd School initiative

1st Website

Our Truck team:
1st Range (Josh Parmeley, Jeff Harris)  53 miles
3rd Troubleshooting (Josh Parmeley, Ryan Stone)
3rd Oral presentation (Aaron Hackett, Sean Bullock)
1st Vehicle Design
2nd Autocross (Ryan Stone, Josh Parmeley, Aaron Hackett)

Our MR2 team:
1st Range (Aaron Hackett, Marissa Ruehle) 32 miles, could have gone 50, but we had already won)
6th Troubleshooting (Ashley Counts, Dakota Adcock)
4th Oral presentation (Arik Jones, Adam Markley)
4th Vehicle Design
1st Autocross (Dakota Adcock)

Its' alive!!

"Roscoe" the Ford Ranger electric conversion rolled out of the garage on its' own today for the first time.  Plenty of tweaking to do before the final event competition this weekend.  Details to come, stay tuned.

Open house and raffle drawing

Today, we held our first ever open house for the EV program.  The turn-out was more than we expected.  Many students, parents and interested community members showed up to inquire about the vehicles and also to watch as we drew for the fundraising raffle.  Several of our sponsors made an appearance, including Mrs.Castoro of Hampstead Furniture and Ms.Adcock of Modren Woodmen. There were speeches from both showing just how valuable the community is to our program, We couldn't do it without you guys!

Battery wiring and bed prop

Today, we continued working on wiring the main battery pack.  Most of the batteries are wired and loomed.  We still have to finish the wiring as it moves to the controller.  We also finally got some gas charged struts that help to assist the bed lifting experience.  For years, with our old truck, we had to hold the bed up and place a prop rod in the right place in order to hold the bed in position.  Now the assist is a very nice feature to have and it also makes the lifting experience much safer.