The 1950 Jaguar project that is getting a Tesla powertrain transplant out of a Model 3 is drawing ever closer to being ready for its first drive. After getting the battery pack installed, arguably the biggest single job, the next big jobs are to add battery and powertrain thermal management system, but it’s not what you might expect.
SuperfastMatt initially wanted to just transplant the battery, motor and ancillaries cooling system that the Model 3 donor came with, but in the interest of simplicity, he decided against it. What he opted to do instead is just hook up an actual heat exchanger (a traditional car radiator from an ICE vehicle) and just have a single loop (instead of the Tesla’s three) to keep everything cool.
He does point out that his simpler system is nowhere near up to the standard of what Tesla installs in its cars from the factory, but he believes that his solution will provide enough cooling for the kind of application he has envisioned for the vehicle. Matt also doesn’t exclude the possibility of installing the more complex cooling system from the Tesla, but he says he may do that at a later date.
The decision on whether or not the cooling system needs to be improved will be taken after the vehicle’s first drive, which is still probably a few videos away. But aside from cooling, the only other major job to make the vehicle driveable is to hook up the steering system, which probably will be quite a major job in its own right, especially since, as Matt highlighted in an earlier video, he can’t exactly fit the Tesla’s steering rack into the Jag.
Older videos on this converson:
Source: SuperfastMatt / YouTube