Urba Town Car Mechanix Illustrated Car Hard to Find '80's Electric car

1970 Other Makes

This is a Urba Town car from Mechanix Illustrated magazine. The car was recently featured on the Bold Ride website, nd all description can be viewed by typing "urba town car bold ride " in your search engine to see the full article.
This car and others like it, ere built from plans from Mechanic Illustrated magazine. Anyone could buy the plans, or $19.99. The plans are still available but cost so much more. The original plans call for a donor vw beetle. At todays prices, t would cost around $8000 to build. (that includes the cost of the donor veh) . They built many of them for the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie Total Recall, ut most of them were later destroyed. Mechanix Illustrated was a primary source for guidelines on how to build hybrid and electric cars in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the plans were for pure electric cars, hile others showed how to construct plug-in hybrids that mostly ran on grid-supplied energy, ut also had a backup gas engine on board (not dissimilar to the Chevy Volt). The plans published by Mechanix Illustrated for its “Town Car” concept, pon which is this creation, ad a top speed of 55 miles per hour, nd a battery-only range of 60 miles. When assisted by the gas engine, he range was extended to 100 miles. The real-world specs on this street-legal car are slightly different. Its top speed is 50 miles per hour; its range on a full charge is 70 miles, ith juice supplied by 12 six-volt “golf cart” batteries. It has an 8 horsepower motor that provides a casual level of performance: zero to 35 miles per hour in about 15 seconds. The batteries are 5 years old, ut are still functioning. I just replaced one battery.
Its funky retro design uses fiberglass and polyurethane foam build directly on top of a Volkswagen Beetle. But the cars design picks up three feet of length and two feet of width on the vw chassis. The car seats 4 people comfortably. Theplexiglass windows don’t roll down—to get some breeze, he windows are removed entirely. The interior wood is made from mahogany. The wood, rim and most of the wiring actually came from an electrical power plant that was being dismantled in Iowa. I have all the plan sheets and books on the vehicle. There are many special order electrical parts on the car that are no longer available. So when an electrical problem occurs, have learned to adapt new technology parts to the primitive parts, r get lucky enough to find them on line. All of the chassis, rakes, ransmission, xles, nd steering gear is vw, o parts are easy to find. Lots of parts are hand made, ut some are simply off of other vehicles: interior and exterior door handles, ail-lights, iper motor. There is no heat or a/c, o it is a fair weather car. The power source is 12 six volt golf cart batteries wired in a series to an 8 horsepower motor. It uses the vw 4 speed transmission, here is no clutch, ust remove foot from throttle and shift. It has an onboard 72 volt to 12 volt converter to run the lights, adio, ignals, ct. It has a 220 volt on board battery charger that was made in the late '70's. I have left the original charger in place because that is what it was born with.110 volt chargers are available if you don't have access to a 220 plug. It has an amp meter, nd the thought of running out of battery power is part of the thrill of driving. It is super quiet to drive. I live next to a busy road where the speed limit is 50. I drive on that road sometimes, nd people will slow down to take pictures or give me the thumbs up. Anywhere its driven, ou have to plan an extra 1/2 hour to answer questions and let people take pictures...its great!! Driving an electric car is a chance game, ou go as far as you can til you reach 1/2 battery power, hen you have to turn around. If a small gas powered generator was installed, he mileage range would be as far as you want. There have been a few times that I haven't quite made it back, ut the reserve power in the batteries will allow you to hobble along at about 5 mph for a short distance. I have always been lucky. I had an antique resistor fail about 15 miles from home, uckily I had a paper clip in the glove box, nd after about a half hour of engineering, was back on the road. I take it to car shows where it is an instant hit. It has been one of my favorite toys for many years, ut now its time to go to another home. Keep in mind, his car is a novelty. Its really not intended for daily use on todays fast paced roads. Its a fun neighborhood cruiser, rgrocery getter. Car shows are a blast with it. There are a fewsmall cracks in the fiberglass by the headlights. There were bubbles inthe gel-coat on the passenger door, hich was just repaired. There are a couple more bubbles, ut they are easy to repair on this car. The paint is Chevorletengine orange, o its very easy to come by. This would be a perfect car for the beach, r where it is warm most of the year. I have owned the car approximately 6 years. If you have any question please email me. This car is sold where is and how is. It can be inspected and driven most anytime. You can also type "urba town car" on your internet search engine to see more info on this car. The car was appraised for$6800 this past summer. State Farm has it fully insured for that same amount. I will take less than that amount because its almost time for a couple batteries to be replaced, nd they are $80 each, o I adjusted the price accordingly. Thank you so much for your interest!!

On Dec-18-15 at 16:09:32 PST, eller added the following information:

Every schematic and diagram on the car is included. Where every wire goes, ll the plans, here is 100's of pages of information on the car. The car was built with the latest technology at the time. Many advances have been made in the electronics of this vehicle, ut everything works fine and is easily repaired if a problem arises

• Condition: Used
• Make: Other Makes
• Year: 1970
• Mileage: 18,000
• Color: Orange
• Engine size: electric
• Transmission: Manual
• Drive type: RWD
• Interior color: Tan
• Vehicle Title: Clear
Want to buy? Contact seller!