E-Vade: Aussie Made Roadster with 402 HP Nissan V6 to Debut in Melbourne

Set to make it debut at next month’s Melbourne International Motor Show runs (29 February to 10 March), the E-Vade is a custom-made roadster built and designed by Lieutenant Commander David Walter, the ship's engineer for the Anzac class frigate HMAS Ballarat. E-Vade is a joint effort by David and his wife Peta, who encouraged David to design his own car rather than building a kit car. David's objective was to build a car for himself and Peta to enjoy but he won’t say no in building more of them if there’s enough interest. -Continued

David and Peta started talking seriously about building the car five years ago, with serious design work starting in 2002 and the first parts built in 2003. The E-Vade has a mild steel space-frame chassis clad in fibreglass, and weighs just 950 kg in road-going form and 900 kg for a track car being built beside David and Peta's own car. Power comes from a Nissan V6 engine, mounted longitudinally behind the driver and modified to produce around 402 HP for the road car and more than 670 HP kW for the track car.

Both engines drive through a five-speed transaxle built by Ballarat high-performance gearbox manufacturer and exporter, Albins Off Road Gear. A special track-oriented feature of both cars is a built-in hydraulic jacking system which can lift the whole car about 20 cm at the press of a button for quick wheel and tyre changes.