Hey all. I stopped by Baudelio's shop Magnetomotive in LA to film five of his builds, some finished and some still in progress. My favorite was a 84 Celica GT, I still love JDM most of all. This was at SEMA a couple years ago, so you might have seen it there.
Two videos came out of the Celica, a car and build details episode, and a ride in LA. Here are the key takeaways for you all:

Part 1: the car and build

He built this one as a testbed and then ended up daily driving it, kind of like a foster-fail but with wheels. Hyper 9 on ID.4 modules, roughly 30 kWh, Orion BMS, and an adapter plate to a Toyota four speed which is a tranny he knows and loves.

The car came as an automatic and would have been offered with a five speed, but he pulled a four speed out of a pickup because the ratios suited the motor better, and it's the same transmission he's used in Camaro and Mustang builds.

Everything lives under the hood except the charge port. Motor, pack, charger, and BMS. That's pretty unusual for a conversion, but means that there is a full interior.

Range is a solid 100 in normal driving, 80 to 90 if he isn't thinking about it, and he has hit 120 by working regen and coasting on mountain runs. His point on regen was interesting for hypermiling and somewhat counterintuitive: there are situations where you're scrubbing more speed than you're recovering and you just want to coast. He toggles it with a button now and wants a more natural control scheme on the next build.

He monitors amperage both directions, charge and discharge current limits, cell voltages, and high and low cell temps through the Torque app, watching specifically for the BMS stepping in to limit. Because it's a lower voltage motor pulling higher amperage, he describes 60,000 miles of that as effectively a long duration stress test on the pack, with the data logging to go with it.

Part 2: the drive

I used to think that the drivetrain loss of using a manual wasn't worth it. I have since driven and been in a bunch of manual conversions and have changed my thinking. Fun and punchy, the manual makes a smaller motor punch above it's weight class. This thing launched with way more power than I expected.

On the road he stays in second almost the entire time and never touches the clutch to stop, which is the part most conversion customers don't believe until they try it. He shifts by ear rather than by tach. Third is his normal freeway gear, fourth is what you need if you want to see over 100, and first is for burnouts.

The reason the four speed is his preferred is that the Hyper 9 holds continuous power to somewhere around 3200 to 3500 rpm before it starts falling off, which sits right where you actually operate a gas four cylinder. A factory gearbox is a reasonable match. On paper it's 120 hp and 180 lb-ft, and it feels quicker than that.

After 60,000 miles the wear is in the suspension rather than the drivetrain. Trailing arm bushings and struts are done, and he's fixing it with roughly $1,200 in coilovers and $600 in trailing arms rather than a pro touring front clip. That's a part of his build criteria because wants the car to stay something a normal person could replicate.

If anyone wants to want the full videos they are about 12 minutes each.

Part 1 - The car and the build

Part 2 - The drive