E-Drag video

[Geezeracer]

As a follow-up to Mike Bontoft's E-Kilo video, here's a 9-minute OPB story on an afternoon of electric drag-racing, with a sub story on the replacement of a 1,000 pound Lead-acid pack with a small, but better performing Lithium-Ion pack. The pack's designed for a bike that's currently running quarters at 7 seconds, 174 mph.

http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/vide...ic-Drag-Racing

NEDRA is an acronym for National Electric Drag Racing Association.
The group was formed ten years ago by performance electric
enthusiasts and includes many from the boat ranks. Yeah, yeah, it's
not about boats, but it is about folks who first worked out the
electric performance application packages we use and (Alex) it's pretty
interesting to watch a forklift motor take down a Corvette with ease.

John

[Skoontz]

That's cool but not hearing an engine is just so wrong at the drag strip of all places!

[Geezeracer]

"That's cool but not hearing an engine is just so wrong at the drag strip of all places!"

Maybe, but at the edge of 70 though i've learned that mom was right...All those years of open stacks have messed up my hearing,

Nearly 50 years ago my whole attitude turned when the guys around me in a truck full of soldiers were ragging on about a ridiculously small french truck until the reddest of the rednecks pointed out the huge payload it was packing. I'd grown up on the testosterone diet of biggest baddest noisiest, but this Cockroach doing the work of a Kenworth opened a big window for me. At Nurburgring the change of view helped me appreciate and cheer for Jim Clark while watching him take down the Ferrari 5-liter prototypes with a production 2-liter Lotus 23. At LeMans The big-bore Ferraris and that gunshot V-8 maserati were pretty impressive to watch but David Hobbs' mid top-10 finish in a 1200cc auto tranny Lotus was just amazing. Half the fun for Will and I was concocting a winner that just shouldn't be.

In the mid- '60s Will and I built an H-sports-racer. Instead of the routine tin body and Crosley we layered up epoxy and newspaper for slick papier maché bodywork and powered it with a stock Merc 55h running chain-drive through a Jawa bike gearbox. It won 8 of ten events (wouldn't start once...Hit a hay bale at Salem) and SCCA kicked us up to C-SR to end it.

In electrics we needed a boat to keep things going and elected to run 48v...Partly for low cost, partly for the challenge. The boat was an elderly Karelsen 20ss the motor was a tiny Prestolite Pallet-Jack outboard with jacking and trim. It wasn't nearly as fast as the 144v boats, but it was quickest off the line and by the time the 144s had clawed to plane Will had so much lead it took to the last turn exit pin to catch him, and sometimes they didn't.

The white Datsun in the OPB video is just another such example. Best, it's not a trailered-in quarter queen, but Wayland's daily driver. He's all over Portland in it like any car owner and on race days drives it to the track, races, then drives it home.

A hundred years ago cars were toys for the rich and adventurous. Racing, busting and refining crafted them into the tools they are today. Now to preserve the mobility we've grown used to we need to look over and develop options and in these projects we're seeing racing prove the concept all over again...Noise isn't nearly as important as ability.

John