Kermit - Hillclimb Buggy Tesla Swap

RadialDynamics · May 5, 2026

Down to the wire, first scheduled race for this car is in a week and a half. At this point, all of the mechanicals are done and the wiring is days away from completion. I was able to reuse my old 930 axle shafts but had to shorten and cut new c-clip grooves due to the fact that flange to flange on the Tesla SDU is about 2" wider than the gearbox it replaced. I was slightly concerned I would end up losing some down travel due to the steeper angle but it worked out that on the limiting straps, there is still plenty of angle available to account for stretch so no wheel travel was lost. Photo dump of progress:

RadialDynamics · May 5, 2026

Meanwhile, Chris has been killing it on the wiring and battery box:

andrew_ln65 · May 5, 2026

Very cool. I keep having intrusive thoughts about building something similar but AWD to compete in the local tarmac hillclimbs but spare time and money have not yet materialised.

RadialDynamics · May 5, 2026

andrew_ln65 said:
Very cool. I keep having intrusive thoughts about building something similar but AWD to compete in the local tarmac hillclimbs but spare time and money have not yet materialised.

Not that I didn't expect it, but it has taken an extraordinary amount of both to reach this point. Fortunately I have had some good people on my side to help this project along, otherwise it would certainly take me another three years to figure out and finish all the wiring and programming on my own.

pennsylvaniaboy · May 8, 2026

out of curiosity..... how much did the weight change from busa/gas powered to going EV?

SLOWPOKE693 · May 8, 2026

pennsylvaniaboy said:
out of curiosity..... how much did the weight change from busa/gas powered to going EV?

Excellent question.

My guess is 125lbs heavier

RadialDynamics · May 8, 2026

Should be in that ballpark. The Tesla drive unit is 200 lbs and the battery box is around 300 lbs all assembled. I never weighed the Hayabusa engine when I pulled it out but they are supposed to be around 200 lbs plus the old chain driven gearbox and 16 gal of fuel, I expect that my net weight increase is less than 200 lbs compared to the old setup.

Getting closer:

SLOWPOKE693 · May 8, 2026

I bet you can't wait to hear it run for the first time. Uhhhh, wait, how does that work? Do you just turn the switch on and get excited about the hum? :flipoff2:

bad zuki · May 8, 2026

SLOWPOKE693 said:
I bet you can't wait to hear it run for the first time. Uhhhh, wait, how does that work? Do you just turn the switch on and get excited about the hum?

Would make a hell of a deer hunting rig. :laughing:

Looking great man!

SLOWPOKE693 · May 8, 2026

bad zuki said:
Would make a hell of a deer hunting rig.

I could get in all kinds of trouble in something like that. You know all those golf courses you have seen over the years with bad ass berms and jumps and thought about shredding on a quad or dirt bike? :evil:

RadialDynamics · May 8, 2026

SLOWPOKE693 said:
I bet you can't wait to hear it run for the first time. Uhhhh, wait, how does that work? Do you just turn the switch on and get excited about the hum?

Pretty much :laughing:

The steering pump is going to be the loudest part of the car. The later models of this pump unit use a helical gear pump which is fairly quite but I got this unit a few years ago with the straight tooth gear pump. Edit: In this video, the unit on the bench is a helical gear pump model and the one in the EVolve Racing is the older straight tooth pump, same as what I am using.

SLOWPOKE693 · May 8, 2026

That would take some getting used to. 😖

RadialDynamics · May 19, 2026

Kermit is alive! It moved under its own power for the first time last Tuesday night and raced this past weekend at the Mt. Ascutney hillclimb in Vermont. It's every bit as insane as I have hoped it would be, even with a few bugs and the torque limit turned way down to start. There's a lot of potential as we start working through the fine tuning. This weekend was all about shaking the car down and collecting data which we certainly accomplished. Race recap to follow.

GLTHFJ60 · May 19, 2026

Shouldn't it be green if it's named kermit?

Seriously though, sick build. Looking forward to performance reports.

RadialDynamics · May 19, 2026

It used to be green for years before I started Radial, then it got the blue wrap but the name stuck

Java230 · May 20, 2026

Looks awesome, I followed Kevin Gale who raced a Toyer modified for a long time. Hill Climbs look like a blast, just not many in my area.

RadialDynamics · May 20, 2026

I miss seeing Kevin at the races, he was one of the regulars that welcomed me into the New England hillclimb community back when I first started racing.

Mr. Mindless · May 20, 2026

Can't wait to hear about temps and power consumption and how far de-rated you are now. Glad shakedown race went well!

mobil1syn · May 20, 2026

when does it get a front drive installed?

RadialDynamics · May 20, 2026

mobil1syn said:
when does it get a front drive installed?

When I'm ready to cut off and redo the whole front half of the car

RadialDynamics · May 21, 2026

Duc · Monday at 7:26 AM

Awesome video. Should be interesting what people use alot of the older EVs for over the next few years.

andrew_ln65 · Monday at 6:09 PM

Duc said:
Awesome video. Should be interesting what people use alot of the older EVs for over the next few years.

I've been doing some bench building recently and there's already some cool options out there. But now there's lots of new EVs being released it should only get better.
Built a driveshaft for a guy recently putting a Lexus "transmission" in his Toyota 86. Turns out that transmission is actually just 2 electric motors in a transmission case, with a fixed 3.3:1 reduction. 700+ ft lb after reduction. A guy could have some fun with that.

Kermit - Hillclimb Buggy Tesla Swap

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