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Electric Drag Racing


Linn1647545492

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environmentally friendly? isn't most electricity still generated by coal plants? looks like he is from oregon where they generate 40% of their electricity from coal.

 

charge that thing in ohio and its being powered by 86% coal

 

besides that it looks like a fun car... it would be fun to go to the drag strip with a few of those and have a mostly quiet drag strip

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Electric motor tech is really good right now. Battery tech... ehh... It's getting better. But the motors are what really interest me. Swap that one big motor with a pair of smaller ones and clutch the second and you'll have half the drain for daily driving, but then full power at the flick of a switch.

 

Use 4 100 horse motors, 2 in front, 2 in the rear. Then cruise all day in a 100hp FWD car, have a 200hp RWD car for fun, 200hp AWD car for bad weather, and a 400hp AWD monster to really blow some door off. All in the same car with just a little bit of programming. Good EV motors are around 1hp/lb. So that's 400lbs. A dressed LSx is around 450lbs. But the EV motors would be lower and better distributed front-to-back.

 

The biggest problem comes down to the battery pack. The Volt's pack weighs in at 375lbs, and supplies it's 150hp motor enough for 35 miles. So our imaginary sportscar would probably see a range of 40-45 miles on one motor. Not bad but not great without a generator. But we're at a driveline weight of 775 before controls, wiring, diffs and axles. I think we're looking in the neighborhood of 1000lbs of driveline. Good news is that it's all located down low. Bad news is that we're probably looking at a 3500lb small car with out a lot of options (the volt is 3790).

 

Then of course, how do you sell an electric sportscar to enthusiasts? Especially when there's no gas engine to extend the range? So battery tech needs to catch up. But as a project car, it could be pretty cool.

 

Hell, use four Volt motors and you've got 600hp with 100% torque at 0rpm. :D

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Electric motor tech is really good right now. Battery tech... ehh... It's getting better. But the motors are what really interest me. Swap that one big motor with a pair of smaller ones and clutch the second and you'll have half the drain for daily driving, but then full power at the flick of a switch.

 

Use 4 100 horse motors, 2 in front, 2 in the rear. Then cruise all day in a 100hp FWD car, have a 200hp RWD car for fun, 200hp AWD car for bad weather, and a 400hp AWD monster to really blow some door off. All in the same car with just a little bit of programming. Good EV motors are around 1hp/lb. So that's 400lbs. A dressed LSx is around 450lbs. But the EV motors would be lower and better distributed front-to-back.

 

The biggest problem comes down to the battery pack. The Volt's pack weighs in at 375lbs, and supplies it's 150hp motor enough for 35 miles. So our imaginary sportscar would probably see a range of 40-45 miles on one motor. Not bad but not great without a generator. But we're at a driveline weight of 775 before controls, wiring, diffs and axles. I think we're looking in the neighborhood of 1000lbs of driveline. Good news is that it's all located down low. Bad news is that we're probably looking at a 3500lb small car with out a lot of options (the volt is 3790).

 

Then of course, how do you sell an electric sportscar to enthusiasts? Especially when there's no gas engine to extend the range? So battery tech needs to catch up. But as a project car, it could be pretty cool.

 

Hell, use four Volt motors and you've got 600hp with 100% torque at 0rpm. :D

Battery tech is all that's holding things back on full electrics, along with the time to recharge. However, ALL future automotive technology (Hybrids, Electrics, fuel cells, etc.)will benefit from smaller, more powerful electric motor tech.

 

The great thing about the Volt achitecure is that it's versitile. You can replace the gas engine with anything; fuel cell, more batteries, larger engine, diesel engine, etc., and it doesn't require very much new development.

 

The motor he's using in the White Zombie is pretty cool too. In order to get more power it would require a larger diameter motor, so instead he bolted two 9 inch (?) motors together on a common drive shaft. Several others have followed his lead, but I think he's still the fastest. There was at least one 240SX running a "siamese 9" last time I checked. I think that would make a fun project, but I still think the full electric superbikes are cooler.

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