Zombie History

---------------------------------------- 1999 LATE VERSION ----------------------------------------
  • Motor:

    11 inch race-modified Kostov (178 lbs.)

  • Drive type:

    Direct drive. No reverse.

  • Driveshaft:

    Two piece driveline with /center carrier bearing. Front and rear driveline loops.

  • Rear axle:

    '57 Ford nine inch axle setup out of a V8 Chevy LUV minitruck. Changed-out 'tall' 2:50 ring & pinion set, decided against the 3:90 ratio, and installed even 'lower' 4:11 gears. Locked minispool. Air shocks & traction bars.

  • Wheels & tires:

    Complete change-over to all new Eagle mags and Nitto tires. The tough look that the original American racing 4 spokes gave the car with those 7 inch wide 13's stuffed under the rear fender lips and the narrower 5.5 inch wide 13's up front, had been gone for several years (see 1997 version photo), but returns with this fresh approach. This matched set of Eagle mags has the same effect and the 'visually matched wider rims in back' approach returns with polished 5 spokes up front with taller and wider inch polished 5 spokes in the back-neatly tucking under the rear fender lips (where the torque gets laid down)! Accomplishing this took quite a bit of research, and it was only after looking into nearly twenty different wheel makers that we found a company that made the two very different wheels in the same design - a 13 X 5.5 rear wheel drive offset Nissan 4 bolt pattern for the front, and a 14 X 6 front wheel drive offset Ford 5 bolt pattern for the rear (to tuck the fat rear tires up under the little Datsun's rear fender arches). All four wheels are shod in Nitto rubber with matching tread design. The rear drag tires are DOT approved street legal types that make the car 'every day' drivable on regular streets and also allow White Zombie to compete in the 'SC' (steet conversion) class of NEDRA drag racing.

    Front - Eagle 5 spoke 13 x 5.5 alloys with 4 bolt Nissan rear drive offset and 175/50/13 Nitto Exit GS radials.

    Rear - Eagle 5 spoke 14 x 6 alloys with 5 bolt Ford front drive offset and DOT street legal Nitto 'Extreme Drag Radials' (22" dia.).

  • Batteries:

    28, 12 volt Hawker Genesis 16ahr @ 336V nominal, 378 lbs. total pack weight.

  • Controller:

    Godzilla 1200 amp programable controller

  • 12 volt system:

    Baby Optima YT, no DC-DC - external charging required.

  • Other Mods:

    For 'Import Drags' race only, dismounted Nitto Drag Radials and mounted Mickey Thompson wrinkle wall slicks on Eagle mags.

  • Car weight:

    2005 lbs. (weighed on scale)

  • Races and EVents

    8-28-1999 Woodburn 'Charging into the next Millenium'...best ET of 14.008 @ 89.12 mph

    9-1-99 'Top Gear' magazine...the UK based magazine runs a feature story called 'Terminal Speed' about electric drag racing and covers White Zombie.

    10-02-1999 'All Import Challenge' at Woodburn...best ET of 13.557 @ 93.07 mph. See that Mitsu 3000 GT in front of White Zombie? That's a twin turbo, 320 hp V6 monster...White Zombie cleaned its clock on that race day :-)

    10-09-1999 'Sacramento Electric Drags' best ET of 13.479 @ 95.4 mph

  • Carnage:

    (1) At Woodburn races, driveline out of balance.

    (2) At Woodburn races, loose pinion nut at differential input yoke.

    (3) At Import Drags, blew a battery on last run of the day.

  • Plasmaboy Quotes:

    (1) Pre-Woodburn...."My own White Zombie direct drive drag car has been refitted with all new 4:11 gears in its Ford 9 inch rear end...should be substantially quicker than at Bandimere with 2:50 gears."

    (2) Post-Woodburn..."After running a 14.008 with street tires, my drag Datsun will once again be wearing its sticky Mickey Thompson baby wrinkle wall drag slicks in my attempt to blast into the 13s. The Nitto Extreme Drag Radials I tried at the August 28th Woodburn drags raised the Zombie's final drive ratio higher than I had expected with their 22 inch diameter size....with 500 ft. lbs. of direct drive torque on tap the race-modified Kostov easily smoked the Nittos and more time was lost due to excessive wheel spin..this cost me time for the run."

    (3) Post Woodburn..."Marko and I jacked up the car to see if we could figure out why it had such a severe vibration when it was last raced at the 'Woodburn Electric Drags'. We removed and took the two piece custom-made unit back to the place that built it where they found it had not been properly balanced and was pretty far off. With the rebalanced driveline in hand, we reinstalled it and spun the Zombie's motor up with its rear wheels off the ground...though the vibration was reduced, it was still there in a big way. The problem was finally solved when I found the yoke of the Ford 9 inch rear end to be very loose, allowing it to wobble. It turned out to be an easy fix, since the large pinion nut had simply come loose (probably due to the driveline imbalance), and it cinched right up. Running the car again showed that virtually all the vibration was gone."

    (4) Import Drags..."I was called up to the lights again...the crowd got into it this time, and the announcer again spoke excitedly about EV drag racing. This time I had the best launch ever, and I could feel the rear end floating a bit as the rear tires expanded. This run would turn out to be the best of the day...the Zombie rocked to the tune of 13.557 @ 93.07 mph in the quarter mile!"

    (5) Import Drags..."We were not able to get a full charge in time for the next run, the Lexan cover was misted pretty bad...I went up and staged anyway. I left with a powerful lunge and was rammed in the seat, but about 2/3 down the track a Hawker let go with a big blast and the Zombie went down, coasting far enough to get to the turn off point....I was done for the day."

    (6) Import Drags..."White Zombie took on the hot import drag racers..finally, after years of failures, broken parts, and performance that always fell short of my goals, my machine is hitting its stride, kicking ass, taking names, and serving notice to the gas-powered drag racers that one certain little Datsun 1200 electric car isn't to be messed around with!"