Posted on 07/30/2007 1:30:10 PM PDT by GBA
With Barely a Sound, Electric Dragsters Aim for Gas-Powered Records
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.us.biz.yahoo.com ...
Let’s see how these batteries hold out at -20F.
You need to move somewhere warmer.
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From article:”If you have a car that is faster than everyone else’s, if it’s electric so be it, but people will buy it.”
That is the truth, especially in the USA.
That’s KillaCycle?
Given that electric motors achieve 100% horsepower at initiation, you’d think they would have a bigger chain (or possibly shaft drive). Titanium-alloy racing chain?
Only 87 tons of CO2 from a coal fired plant to charge it too!
It's time that government went after big batteries and their windfall profits.
Or a summer of 110-plus. Batteries don't live long lives here in the desert.
Yea, but I’d like to know how many times he can hot lap the thing!
But how many miles will it go on a single charge?
Just proved that you know nothing about traction and racing slicks.
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 answer is obvious...one quarter mile.
Not recommended for use with Al Gore, III.
Horsepower equals Torque times RPM.
What are we teaching kids in science classes now a days?
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