Van Morrison to the NHRA; Listen to the Li-ion. Given current trends,
when we race ohm in our new Voltswagon, we won't be called lead-foots.
Dewey
E-Dragsters Go for Gas-Powered Records
July 30th, 2007 @ 8:02am
By AARON CLARK
Associated Press Writer
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Straddling a 619-pound motorcycle, Scotty
Pollacheck tucks in his knees and lowers his head as he waits for the
green light. When he revs the engine, there's no roar. The bike moves so
fast that within seconds all that's visible is a faint red taillight
melting in the distance.
Pollacheck crosses the quarter-mile marker doing 156 mph; he's traveled
1,320 feet in 8.22 seconds, faster than any of the gas-powered cars,
trucks or motorcycles that have raced in the drag sprints on this
weekend at Portland International Raceway.
It's particularly impressive given Pollacheck is riding a vehicle that
uses no gasoline and is powered entirely by lithium-ion batteries.
Electric vehicles are making their presence felt at amateur drag races
across the country, challenging gas-powered cars and motorcycles. The
"amp heads," computer geeks and tree-hugging environmentalists driving
the electron-powered vehicles are starting to kick some major rear end.
Pollacheck and his bike _ dubbed the KillaCycle _ are part of a growing
movement that's exploiting breakthroughs in battery technology and could
soon challenge the world's fastest-accelerating vehicles in the $1
billion drag-racing industry.
"In professional drag racing I expect to see the electrics eventually
pass up the fuel dragsters," said Dick Brown, president of
AeroBatteries, which sponsors White Zombie, the world's
quickest-accelerating street-legal electric car _ a 1972 white Datsun
1200.
"Electric gives you instant torque whereas gasoline you have to build
up," Brown said. "As we learn to manage it, you're going to see some
really amazing performances."
Brown believes electric vehicles will challenge the top drag-racing
records within five years.
The KillaCycle runs on 990 lithium-ion battery cells that feed two
direct current motors, generating 350 horsepower. The bike accelerates
from zero to 60 mph in just under a second _ faster than many
professional gas-powered drag motorcycles and within striking distance
of the quickest bikes that run on nitromethane. With that hyper-potent
racing fuel, riders can get to 60 mph in 0.7 seconds.
Bill Dube, KillaCycle's owner and designer, likens the sleek, hulking
bike to an oversized household appliance.
"This is like a giant cordless drill with wheels," said Dube, who
designs pollution measurement instruments for the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.
Except for the batteries he receives from sponsor A123 Systems, Dube
pays the costs of his racing team _ about $13,000 a year _ out of his
own pocket.
"We have a chance of actually taking away some nitromethane records,
perhaps the overall record," said Dube.
In drag racing, two vehicles accelerate from a standstill and race over
a straight quarter-mile track. The National Hot Rod Association oversees
the racing of amateur street-legal cars on hundreds of tracks around the
country as well as the professional drag circuit.
In the most popular professional division, Top Fuel Racing, dragsters
with large rear wheels and narrow bodies reach speeds exceeding 330 mph
in 4.6 seconds. Drivers are practically flattened against their seats
during their short ride, meeting more g-forces than astronauts during a
space shuttle launch.
The National Electric Drag Racing Association holds just four races a
year. But electric drag racers are increasingly showing up at drag
strips across the country to show what they can do.
Their vehicles are posting faster and faster times at amateur meets, but
they still have a ways to go before matching professional world record
times. The fastest quarter-mile time by an electric vehicle is the
KillaCycle's 8.16 seconds _ that's 2.36 seconds off the nitromethane
world record for drag bikes set by Larry "Spiderman" McBride last year.
And larger electric vehicles have even more catching up to do. White
Zombie's best time in a quarter-mile is 11.46 seconds _ that's quicker
than a 2007 505-horsepower Corvette ZO6, one of the fastest production
vehicles available to the general public _ but it's still 6.4 seconds
away from the Top Fuel record.
Not everyone in the gas-powered crowd is convinced electric vehicles are
the next big thing.
"I certainly don't see them challenging for professional records in the
near future," said Graham Light, senior vice president of racing
operations at the NHRA. "We don't have a blind eye to new technology,
new innovations and new methods of doing things" but "at this point I
don't see a strong movement toward electric cars."
But electric vehicle racers say people like Light are out of the loop.
They say rapid advances in battery technology will give EVs a shot at
drag-racing records.
"This is a disruptive technology and there is a lot of room for
improvement in this area," said Ric Fulop, founder and vice president of
business development for A123, the maker of KillaCycle's batteries.
In December, the KillaCycle will receive a second-generation battery
pack that will have twice as much juice as its current 374-volt system,
giving it close to 1,000 horsepower. Fulop said he believes the
KillaCycle can break the drag racing motorcycle record within the next
year.
Electric drag racers are test-driving the technology that will
eventually spill over into mass production cars, analysts say.
Today's hybrid cars, like Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius, use nickel metal
hydride batteries, which cost less than lithium-ion batteries.
But the price of lithium-ion is expected to drop. In addition, the
latest generation of batteries offers a higher rate of conductivity and
takes less time to charge _ the KillaCycle's battery pack can be juiced
up in five minutes. New materials also mean the battery is less prone to
overheating and explosions _ a danger of earlier generations.
Experts say lithium-ion batteries that will power a car tens of
thousands of miles over their lifetime and deliver more horsepower are
on the horizon.
The rechargeable lithium-ion battery market, which today mainly powers
consumer gadgets, is worth an estimated $4 billion to $6 billion. That's
expected to mushroom to between $9 billion and $11 billion by 2011 as
the technology becomes more widely used by the military, medical and
automotive industries, according to analysts at Frost & Sullivan.
The Chevrolet Volt, which is expected to be released in 2010, is a
consumer hybrid that uses gas to power a charger and can travel 640
miles on a tank of gas and up to 40 miles on one electric charge. The
vehicle will run on a lithium-ion pack similar to the one used by the
KillaCycle.
Dube and other EV racers say electric cars aren't just about
2-cent-a-mile transportation, lessening reliance on foreign oil or
curbing global warming. They're also about performance.
"For electric cars to matter, people have to buy them," he said. "If you
have a car that is faster than everyone else's, if it's electric so be
it, but people will buy it."
___
On the Net:
KillaCycle: http://www.killacycle.com
A123 Systems: http://www.a123systems.com
Don M. Schwarting
Flight Controls Product Eng.
Panels Products
602 436 5131 office
602 450 3071 pager
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