George Hamstra of NetGain Motors (http://go-ev.com), extended an invitation to Illuminati Motor Works to visit his facilities in Chicago, IL. So, this past week Nate and I took a trip up to the Chicago area and met up with George Hamstra at Warfield Electric Company, the folks that manufacture George’s record breaking WARP series motors, for a tour of the plant.
After some introductions and being joined by Hunter, also from NetGain controls, we were led on a tour of the plant, getting to see how George’s motors are made from beginning to end. From the turning of the steel stock into the motors arbor, to the winding of the coils to the application of the WARP series motor Red paint, we saw it all and were quite impressed. It’s one thing to take a motor apart and see how it works and quite another to talk to and watch the motor builders in action — quite impressive. We even got to see George’s motor being adapted to an outboard boat motor. Very clean, very nice, and really the future for boats of any type if they are to be run on waterways where IC engines are band due to pollution of protected waters.
From Warfield we headed out for a quick stop to “recharge” at White Castle, of which we don’t have any in the Springfield area so it’s always a treat and a must stop whenever we pass through Chicago or St Louis. Then we were on our way to meet up and share our 40 stack of sliders with the guys at Pioneer Conversions. These guys are true to our hearts, or maybe us to theirs seeing they’ve been around longer, out on their own building electric race vehicles. The difference, these guys have the enviable circumstance of being retired so everyday is a holiday of which they can spend in the shop playing…I mean working on their conversions and advancing the EV community.
Although any one of these guys has more experience then all of the Illuminati combined, there conversions are anything but old school. From the custom built automatic transmission coupled to one of George’s 13 inch motors to the siemesed WARP 7’s in their 0.98 second dragster, Yes, I Said 0.98, less than 1 second, electric drag car built and raced by the Pioneer Conversion guys, three retirees in a shop out kicking ass between dining on the finest cuisine White Castle has to offer, BSing with newbies like us, and doing custom conversions for…well…all comers… from stock to super stock cars these guys can and do convert it all.
Our last stop on this trip was at none other than NetGain command.
Netgain Motors, Inc. in Lockport, IL.
There George and Hunter showed us some of the new things they’re working on along with pictures of several vehicles that their equipment is currently being used in, including some incredible pics of recently declassified top secret military craft. I’ll leave it at that cause I’m not 100% sure what all about the pics have and have not been declassified/reclassified/…um…Kevin Proofed.
Along with their existing lineup of impressive equipment, George told us a little more about the new motors and controllers NetGain is looking at, the AC line-up that was first announced at EVCON this past September and the fast charger that you can currently order through Jack Rickard’s EVTV online store.
To put it bluntly, these are game changers. Not even OEMs have offered an equivalent fast charging setup as George now offers. Once again innovation has come from the ‘fringe’, the DIY crowd, not OEMs or Uncle Sam…however wouldn’t it be nice if OEMs or good old Uncle Sam saw what George is working on and realized how much better it is than anything else out there and sent a few….million orders his way to help out us DIY-ers that are currently shouldering the brunt of this energy revolution, while at the same time helping themselves to that mythical brighter future? I think so.
I also hope to keep working with George and NetGain Motors and all the other innovators he introduced us to. The only way we’re going to be able to change the world is by working together and George has a team that I’d be proud to work with.
Oh, and for an update on the what’s going on with Seven…see previous blog, “and the molds continue.” It’s almost like death and taxes: the only sure thing to be going on at The Hall of Seven until the body work is through.
Later
Kevin