openinverter forum

For those unfamilliar with the project here is a Youtube playlist of videos from day one to late last year :



Der Panzer is a BMW E31 I purchased in a very sad state in August of 2014. It has always been Heubner powered and indeed sported the first kit I purchased from Johannes driving a DMOC 645 inverter and Siemens 1PV5135 motor. It destroyed the torque converter in a ZF 5HP24 automatic gearbox when I accidently revved the motor to 10k rpm:) Next up I converted to a 5 speed manual from a BMW E39 523i. The layshaft was ejected through the side housing when I cranked up to 50% regen. A replacement suffered a similar fate. Next up was a ZF 6 speed from an E60 530D. This lasted well and even survived a tuning session with Johannes when we reached 130kw. Not bad for an 80kw motor.

Real fun began in 2017 when I was given a Tesla Large rear drive unit. This was fitted to the E31 along with an open source control board based on Heubner technology. Moron here then decided it needed to be "motorsport proven" and promptly put the car into the wall at Mondello Park race track :


Once the running gear had been repaired it was then time to head to a dyno day at StoneMotorsport :

Not bad for slip control:)

So then the car was sent to an Irish version of Chip Foose for a complete bodywork repair and respray which is nearly complete. Attached a few pics of the progress so far.

Love that colour!

Excellent colour indeed Damien. Cant wait to see it all finished and on the Autobahn Peter

Visited the paint shop this morning to test the latest V4.12 software on the Panzer.

Mr.Foose tells me the Panzer will return on Wednesday next the 17th.

Der Panzer has returned

Short little walk around video :

Got the Panzer charging today. First time in the 6 months she's been with the painter.

It took 6 months to get it painted?

Welcome to Ireland.

Front back together. Underside painted. And the question the whole internet has wanted to know: The Weight!

Seems putting your car into the wall at the track has a detrimental effect on filament lamps. Spent 2 hours changing almost every bulb in the Panzer. Another reason to upgrade to leds.

Panzer NCT repairs today. Steering idler arm was a tour de force as the ball joint taper was on there since 1996. Fitted a new door brake on the driver side and for the first time in nearly 5 years of ownership the door stays open on its own.

congratulations on such an important milestone

Thanks to the help of a forum member who kindly wrote the software we now have working speedometer and tachometer.

Glad it works

JB can you tell us what signal you use to calculate RPM and speed from?

Sure. I mounted a proximity sensor on the Tesla drive unit pointing at the inboard driveshaft flange on the right side. It counts the 6 bolt heads on the flange for every wheel rotation. The arduino then translates this into 9 pulses to drive the speedometer and 20 pulses to drive the tacho at half the motor rpm. So 3k indicated on the tach is 6k motor speed. Reason for this is I don't have the ability as yet to create a new fascia for the tacho to go to 16k rpm:)

Panzer gets a tailpipe:)

That's simultaneously hilarious and awesome.

Is it not a tad inconvenient to have to bend down and plug in?
This only occurred to me because I've pulled my back and I'd look a sorry sack trying to plug that in.

Looks cool though.

More Panzer progress. Chademo port and hv control box installation and final part of boot floor.

Damien was literally dancing in the street today