New Deloran? Fintos in Irish Times

https://fb.watch/dyK9QZPxg8/

Sorry for dragging up old thread. Prototype now in a museum in Leitrim

Leitrim Made first electric car goes on display at Glenview Museum | Season 2 – Episode 34

The Glenview Museum, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim have acquired two prototype cars for their collection from the first company to attempt to build electric cars in Co Leitrim.

The yellow eRoadster electric car was County Leitrim’s very first attempt at a production electric car and is the only one of its kind. The car was based on the Lotus 7 and built from scratch (not a kit car) by Tom Finnegan, Keadue, Co Rosommon with the intention of bringing the car into full production at a manufacturing facility in Carrick on Shannon, Co Leitrim.

Tom Finnegan’s journey with this unique Irish-built electric car began as plan to write a ‘how to’ book on building an electric car which quickly morphed into an ambitious multi-stakeholder collaboration comprising universities and institutes of technology across Ireland, design houses in Belfast, composite chassis manufacturers in Denmark, experts in electric car propulsion and F1 engineers.

The eRoadster car was built in 2010 and instead of having a petrol engine, it has a 12kw Brushless Motoenergy DC motor driving a live back axle through a gearbox and differential. Up front it has a bank of 24 x 150 Ah Prismatic Lithium Ion Batteries producing 80 Volts and delivering power through a Kelly Controller to the rear axle mounted motor. The lightweight chassis is a semi-space frame design made from box-steel and aluminium honeycomb composite panels. The body is GRP and formed aluminium sheet.

eRoadster

Wheelbase: 3620 mm

Width: 1650 mm

Height: 1170 mm

Weight: Unknown

Electrical system: 12v for lights, horn, 24v to run the controller, 80v for motor

Power system: Brushless Motoenergy DC

Batteries: 24 x 150 Ah Prismatic Lithium Ion Batteries

Chassis: semi-space frame design (box-steel and aluminium honeycomb composite panels)

Body: GRP and formed aluminium sheet

Brakes: Regenerative

Acceleration (0 – 60): Not available

Range: 120 kms

The yellow eRoadster was built as a proof of concept before the car was completely redesigned by Fintos Chief Engineer, Mike Keane. The matt-black SPIKA pre-production promotional mule car was constructed in Carrick on Shannon by Tom Finnegan and Pawel Szawernoga in 2018 for the SEAI Energy Show in the RDS under the direction of Chief Engineer Mike Keane formerly of Williams Engineering (F1) and with design input from, among others John Corrigan then working with Red Bull F1 Racing and Raghu Vangapandu who had worked for Mercedes and BMW.

SPIKA

Length: 3,000 mm

Width: 1760 mm

Height: 1420 mm

Wheelbase: 2300 mm

Weight: 800kgs (including batteries)

Electrical system: 12V

Power system: electric propulsion

Brakes: ABS, Regenerative

Acceleration (0 – 60): 5 seconds

Range: 500 kms

Following on from the success of the 2019 Energy Show the Fintos team worked very hard at raising the €2.5 m they required to put the SPIKA into production in Co Leitrim. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful in generating the required investment and Fintos and the SPIKA project folded in 2019. In the words of Tom Finnegan; “we gave it a go, you never know….some-time in the future.” The full story of the SPIKA can be found on the Ireland Made website https://irelandmade.ie/county/leitrim/

These two unique electric cars represent a brave attempt to launch a car industry in Co Leitrim and are now on display in full working order in the Glenview Museum, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim. The Kennedy family look forward to welcoming you to their museum this weekend www.glenviewmuseum.ie

The Glenview Folk Museum is located just outside Ballinamore in Co. Leitrim and is owned and run by the Kennedy Family. Twenty years ago the Kennedy’s recognised the importance of preserving the past for future generations and their folk museum collection is an excellent representation of Irish society.

On permanent display is a large collection of skillfully restored internal combustion engine and electric powered cars, motorcycles, tractors, 4x4s, mobile shop, pony and trap and a faithfully recreated 1930s car workshop, which is accurate to the smallest detail.

Do you use a Jubilee clip in your workshop? Check out our downloadable tribute to this unique tool https://irelandmade.ie/shop/

Credit: Tom Finnegan, Mike Keane, Brian, Theresa and Alan Kennedy at Glenview Folk Museum

The former Chief Engineer of Fintos Electric Cars, Mike Keane, now working as an Automotive Engineering Consultant has recently joined Ireland Made and is co-hosting our ‘Talking the Talk’ podcast along with Ireland Made founder Kevin Reid. In each 30-minute podcast Kevin and Mike explore how items of automotive technology made their design journey into mass production and the effect this has had on our motoring lives. The Talking the Talk podcast is available on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/0tly7945sLnuBe6hpqzKaI?si=f0bcdc3745d441f7 and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUAsRjiVH2Stlh1yuEXXXIA or wherever you get your podcasts

1. Check out the Ireland Made website www.irelandmade.ie to view our back catalogue of videos.

2. Feel free to share on social media. This post is copyrighted© to Ireland Made®

3. Not to be copied or reproduced without permission.

4. Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/irlmade/

5. Follow us on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUAsRjiVH2Stlh1yuEXXXIA

#irelandmade #leitrimmade #glenviewfolkmuseum #electriccars #carproduction #keaneautomotive