Motor: Dual Warfield 8 inch series-wound motors. (225 lbs.) Motors configuarable in either series or parallel wiring.
Drive type: Direct drive. Motor shafts connected with splined coupler between front and rear motors. Electric 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. 4:57 gears. Locked minispool. Air shocks & traction bars.
Wheels & tires: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 BF Goodrich 'TA Drag Radials' (24" dia.)
Batteries:20, 12 volt Exide 'Orbital' 50 ahr @ 240V nominal. Total pack weight 800 lbs. Below is the charging setup used at Portland International Raceway (PIR) before we were allowed access to clean hydroelectric sourced AC power off the grid. In short, the gasoline fueled drag racing world was not yet ready for the new breed of electric drag racers, so we had to rely on dirty, loud gas generators. Note the Manzanita Micro custom early model PFC30 charger:
Controller:Godzilla 1400 amp controller. (belwo left) To get the maximum rated current out of the early model Godzilla controller, ice was added to the coolent tank between runs. After one high current blast down the track, the crushed ice & water mixture was melted by the hot IGBT transistors into warm water. Shown below right is trusty EV sidekick Marko Mongillo handling icing duties:
Added new 'After Burner' contactor controller bypass. Steering wheel thumb button converted to be used as controller bypass switching motors into parallel with a direct connection to the battery pack. ETs dropped by seven tenths of a second! The bypass consisted of twin Kilovac 'Bubba' contactors, shown below. Note that the contactor on the left has an open stud...we disconnected the power cable from that contactor until the car was ready to make a 1/4 mile pass, for safety reasons.
12 volt system: Todd 20 amp DC-DC tapped at 1/2 pack voltage with Twin Exide 12V, 12 ahr small AGM batteries.
Other Mods: Added interior quick-pull emergency disconnect. Also added important instructions to the rear bumper around the NHRA required external kill switch:
Car weight: 2485 lbs. (est)
3-30-2004, Friday night street drags PIR, 13.709 @ 98.83 mph...new SC/B world record! 1/8 mile ET of 8.744 @ 77.86 mph .
5-08-2004, White Zombie becomes the 1st street legal electric car to ever break 100 mph in the quarter mile with an ET of 13.004 @ 100.76 mph!
5-14-2004, 1st time in the 12's...best ET 12.99 @ 101.25 mph new SC/B world record! 1.885 60 ft. time. Here's the time slip for the back-up run that sealed that record:
'Afterburner Bypass' controller bypass Bubba contactor welded shut. Car would not drop out of bypass mode...had to use main contactor to shut car down. Added emergency disconnect for the 5-14 races and had to use it when another contactor welded in the 'GO' position!
(1) Pre-May races..."I've started the mods for the afterburner mode! Though Oat massaged and tweaked my vintage 1400 amp version Godzilla controller last Fall (good for an impressive 1/2 second gain) I am still experiencing a 'stall' in power when the car is switched over from the series mode, to the parallel mode...This 'stalling' is frustrating, because the car accelerates very strongly and has a terrific launch...the car next to me accelerates around and heads off while the controller protects itself from the sudden change to a paralleled motors load and a much lower inductance. After the shift-over, the amps just stick at 600 for at least a second, then s-l-o-w-l-y ramp up...there is a huge rush of power when that happens, and the Zombie's lunge sets me deep into the seat as the car starts humping again. All that power though, comes way too late. It's time to do something! I have begun the mods to make the parallel shift a controller bypass thing. The next time the car hits the track, when the button is hit and the accelerator is floored two contactors will connect each motor directly to the 240V pack! At the shift-over point I expect the initial inrush current to be in the 2000-2500 amp range, and that should wakes things up a bit and it might slice off a half second or better from the present 13.709 ET."
(2) "Yes, 100 is coming...tonight at PIR...it's sunny, clearing, and dry again. I'm off work early and need to go out and finish up the afterburner mods for tonight's 100+ mph run. If it stays dry, I'll be hitting the afterburner button at around 8:00."
(3)"The Afterburner contactor bypass was in place but untested...In theory, letting off the throttle, hitting the steering wheel button, then slamming down the accelerator again, would disconnect the controller, disconnect the series mode, connect the parallel mode, and feed straight 240V battery potential to the twin motors. I had constructed a 'resistor', 10 ft. of 1/0 cable coiled up (to make it more compact), with two ring terminal connections. I had figured the instantaneous current without such a resistor might exceed 3000 amps and blow up batteries. I made a guess that the 10 ft. of 1/0, would hold that 3000 amps back a bit to say, 2500 amps or so...it was just a guess. The 1/0 loop would not be inserted in series with the contactor pack, until we were at the track and ready to race. I had no desire to somehow accidentally engage the Afterburner mode and fly off Marine Drive and into the Columbia River!"
(4) May races... "The car had a strong launch, and it felt like the front end got a bit light, too. I was expecting the Afterburner mode to be pretty potent, and I was not disappointed! I hit the button when the series mode through the controller had ramped down to 700 amps. The effect was immediate as the 1500 amp dash gauge's needle banged on the peg and stayed there, with the car's back end coming loose a bit accompanied by the sound of barking tires...great fun. The motors simply exploded with power and hurtled the car forward with very strong acceleration. This first run was far quicker than I had hoped for at 13.35 and 98 mph, a quantum leap for my car, a whole 4/10th second quicker than the previous weekend's 13.7 times!"
(5) May races..."The fourth run was 13.004 @ 100.76 mph against the V8 Camaro. The driver shut down the engine, opened his door, and with his time slip in hand, he looked over at me and said, "I 'should' be happy...this is the quickest my car's run, and the first time it's broken 100. You know your car pulls its front tires off the ground, right? I knew I was in trouble when you launched like that...the worse part, is that I'm going to have to tell my buddies that I got beat by a battery powered Datsun!"
(6) May 14th 12.99 second run...."I almost gave it up for the night after run #2, as I was certain the contactor was checking out and felt the 3rd run would only be a bust. Many of my friends were there to watch the races and see the car run, and I figured the first low 13 second run was a good memory for them, the second a bad one, so I should cut my losses and go home...glad I stuck it out for a couple more runs :-)"