history

A Little Scorpion Background_
It’s a 1976 Lancia Scorpion. VIN #0719 of the 1801 brought into the US from 76-77. A mid-engine(motor), rear wheel drive two-seater with independent suspension, four wheel disc brakes, unibody construction and a targa-style convertible roof.

Designed by famed Ferrari designers Pininfarina, this car was developed by Fiat (Lancia’s parent company) as the successor to the X1/9. Code named the X1/20, the original concept was a 3.0 liter, six-cylinder supercar. Unfortunately, the market wouldn’t pay for an expensive Fiat and Lancia already had a supercar called the Stratos. To capitalize on the designs, prototypes and assemblies that already existed, Fiat decided to bolt in the four cylinder engine from the Beta sedan and sell it as a Lancia.

In the U.S. this car was branded the Scorpion, but everywhere else it was know as the Montecarlo. The American and European spec differed in more than just name. To meet U.S. safety regs, the suspension height was raised, bumpers added front+back and semi-pop-up headlights were installed to get them up to passable height. The engine was also scaled back to 1800cc to meet smog requirements. Although the Scorpion’s run ended in ’77, the Montecarlo continued until ’81. Production came to an end at #7578. Some estimates suggest approx. 300 of these cars left in the U.S. Sounds reasonable to me, since they are prone to rust and keeping Italian engines running is always a challenge. Fortunately, I don’t have to worry too much about the latter.

A Little Personal Background_
My interest in EVs goes back to the 80s. My step-father Brad, who I grew up with and deeply admired, was a car buff. He was not a gearhead, but he always kept an immaculately maintained car and would trade them out frequently to keep variety in his ride. Through the years I knew him, he drove a Jensen Healey, several mint-condition Beetles, a long succession of Cadillacs and many others.

We would often go together to test drive used cars he was considering, like the cool ‘81 Lancia Zagato (which he declined) or the incredibly cool ’81 Fiat Spider 2000 Turbo (which he bought and gave to me my first year of college). I was also with him when I first spotted a Lancia Scorpion. We passed by one at a local service station and both mistook it for a Ferrari. I later went back for a closer look and recall thinking “this is the closest thing to a 308 I might someday be able to afford”.

Brad and I also frequently hatched plans to restore or kit-build a car together. Driven by our collective lack of Internal Combustion mechanical knowledge and inspired by the Back to the Future DeLorean, I wanted to make something electric. He was rightly skeptical about that part. In ’89 it looked like we were going to have our chance to start building. Brad purchase a stripped out Porsche 914 from a storage center eviction. The thing was completely disassembled and suffered the typical 914 rust invasion. Unfortunately, our project ended before it even got started.

A couple days after Brad left a message on my answering machine telling me about the 914, he suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage and slipped quickly out of this life. That message was actually the last I ever heard from him. I manage to keep it on my machine for a long time, but that machine gave out and disappeared many moons back.

The 914 languished in it’s storage unit for couple more years. I was a broke college student at the time and didn’t have the resources to do anything with it. My mom was suffering financially and eventually sold the car to a mechanic friend. I’m not sure what ever happened to it after that, but I do think of Brad every time I see one.

Since that time, I kept the idea of an electric conversion in the back of my mind. I read all the conversion journals I could find online, wrote up several wish-list configurations of cars and equipment required and plotted how I would be able to pull it off financially. However, the reality of living in the city with no garage, minimal tools and no place to even charge an EV kept my dreams in the “pipe” category. I frequented the EV Tradin’ Post and other EV classifieds in hopes of finding a previously converted car I could afford and the wife would green-light...and that’s exactly what I found in early 2006.

The Acquisition_
The Classified listing had no photos and little information, but I knew these cars and became immediately excited. Not only had I fallen in love with these cars years before, my friend Anthony Rossano has one in great condition. He also has a beautiful Ferrari 308 GT4 that sings through it’s tuned exhaust. Ironically, we had talked about his desire to electrify his Scorp when the engine crapped out. I could wait to tell him about my find.

The ad was placed by a gentleman named Steven Yoast in California. We exchanged many emails and he sent some photos of the car. It looked fairly rough but I was more excited than ever. When we finally got together on the phone, we had a great chat about the Scorpion, EVs in general and our common interest in alternative transportation. He admitted that he really didn’t want to sell the Lancia, but it’s range was too limited for his commute and he wanted to find someone who could give it a good home. I assured him that I could do exactly that, but would still have to figure out how to pay for and transport the car to Seattle.

So I found my dream EV, but still didn’t know how I could afford to buy it and pay the small fortune it would cost to transport it. Then life payed back some of the karmic credit I had established. At the SIFF premiere of Who killed the Electric Car, I happened to stand in line with and sit next to many of the SEVA members. After the film they were all joining director Chris Paine, Chelsea Sexton and Wally Rippel for drinks and invited me to follow along. I got to buy Chris a drink and congratulated him on his incredibly informative and motivational film. I asked how he manage to get all of the incredible EV1 footage if the cars were all gone. He said he said he borrowed Peter Horton’s for the final week he had it before turning it in.

While sitting at the bar, I struck up a conversation with another EVer. That person turned out to be Roderick Wilde, who is a legend in the EV community. He is the proprietor behind EVParts.com and the mad genius builder behind the insanely powerful drag-van Gone Postal. He was suggesting ways I could get into EVs and I told him all about the Scorpion. When I told him it was in California and I had no way to transport it, the stars aligned. He and another EV legend, Don ”Father Time” Crabtree, were organizing a trip to Cali to show Gone Postal at the official premiere of Who killed the Electric Car. On their way back they were going to have half of a two-car trailer empty. So we struck a deal to help them mitigate their fuel cost and I soon had two of the most-expert opinions in the EV community picking-up and transporting the Lancia. I’m eternally grateful for the generosity these guys shared. The fabric of life has an amazing weave.

When Father Time made it back to Seattle with the car, he picked an ironically suitable location to drop the car, the 76 gas station just down from my house. After thanking him (not nearly enough) for his efforts, I stopped in the gas station just long enough to top-off the air in the tire. With my wife and daughter follow in the Subaru behind, I drove the topless Scorpion home through Seattle’s beautiful Interlaken Park. This was the first time I had ever driven an EV and I’m sure my wife could see my EV grin wrapping around the back-side of my head.

The Conversion_
Steve was actually the second owner of the EV, having bought it from the estate of it’s creator, a man named Karl Morin. When he bought it, he had limited info about the pack life, the conversion or any other vehicle history. Just a small cardboard box with the relevant paperwork. There were no formal plans or schematics in there, but several hand written notes laid out different parts and pricing scenarios.

Karl was mindful of keeping the weight distribution as close to stock as possible. 18 of the car’s 24 batteries are packed tightly behind the seats (and the firewall), keeping the weight low and centered to the car. The remaining 6 are in the front compartment with the 12v system battery. The batteries are Hawker 12v Sealed Lead Acid and weigh about 20lbs apiece making the pack weigh-in at approximately 500lbs. The batteries are run in a series of parallel pairs to give a system total of 144v. Each pair has a WildeEvolution resistor and pair of light-gauge wires running off towards the dash and ending in a long terminal block. From this terminal block you can check the level at each pair, which has come in very handy for identifying the weak cells in the pack.

The pack runs to a 500amp Curtis 1231C controller mounted on a heat sink above the motor. If you’re familiar with these controllers, you’ll know about the high pitch whine they emit when you first step on the accelerator. It has something to do with a frequency shift that protects the motor at low voltage. It definitely draws the attention nearby pedestrians.
A discussion of this noise on the EV maillist suggested the control causes the motor to make this noise. Wherever it comes from, I don’t think my dog Oliver is fond of it.

The motor is a Kostov 14404, which I believe is a 10.7” series-wound 30hp motor. There is a receipt in the box dated 1997 for this item, but he rest of the EV components were purchased in the fall of ’98. There is also vehicle registration in ’99 recognizing the vehicles conversion to electric, so it was about a two year project I would guess. The earliest ownership record was to Karl in Jan ’85 as a renewal. I have no idea if he was the original owner of the car, but he obviously enjoyed it for years as a gasser and wanted to keep it alive after it’s combustion days were through, much like my friend Anthony.

Well, enough with the words already. You can get a better idea of what this Lancia Scorpion Elettrico is about by checking out the photos and the journal. Please be sure to leave comments or mail me directly with any questions or suggestions you might have, especially if you have past knowledge of this car or the man who created it.