RBW – In the beginning…
Three years from concept, RBW were set to launch summer 2020 – so why three years to convert an MG?
From the outset, we wanted to create an “electric” system that could be sympathetically applied to different classic cars without degradation to the car and with a clear focus on “safety first”.
We have watched many Companies as they have entered the Electric Classic Car business, all with various applications, designs and ideas. Some simply amazing work, yet, the fact remains there is no overall legislation or test procedure to ensure these cars are safe – no integrity test programs, no mileage accumulation, in essence, upon receipt of your newly converted electric classic car, you, the owner, become the test mule! Controversially we are told? We do not agree with this process, how can you know how the car will perform? how safe is the vehicle? What certification proves compliance or even affords insurance? To us, the whole industry needs legislation to protect the consumer.
“That was very much my starting point”, Says Peter, the RBW Founder/Designer/Managing Director. “I wanted to be sure RBW had followed best practice on design, compliance, testing and application and I didn’t want to cut corners placing consumers, the business or myself at risk!” That goes a long way to explaining why it’s taken three years!
Let’s start with the basics, stop thinking BHP, start thinking torque. That’s the difference. Instant torque being applied to classic vehicles from electric motors is a game changer and a dangerous one. The original vehicles were not designed for this new level of performance and still some ‘converters’ choose to use original design components a ‘drive shaft’ or ‘differential’, components simply not designed for the tolerances of when instant electric torque is applied. We knew how we wanted a system to work and built our first system from wood! You’re thinking “what’s the system” and “why wood?” We will come onto that later. We also made it a requirement for RBW to source best in class components, not second hand Tesla parts, or parts with no legacy simply imported without knowledge of performance. Likewise, any drive components, breaking, suspension had to be relevant to the technology the car was using to deliver power, we had to go modern to ensure safety and we have…
Next week, we’ll explain how we wen’t from our development ‘in the beginning‘, to how we now work with some of the pioneers of electrification… Continental and Zytek.
So, there’s an insight to how it all started. It’s been a long three years, which Covid 19 has made just that little longer! The RBW team are back in the workshop and it’s ‘all systems go’ for production of the RBW Roadster.
See you soon,
Team RBW
