[GBA]

Racin' improves the breed.

[Westlander]

Let’s see how these batteries hold out at -20F.

[martin_fierro]

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[Cletus.D.Yokel]

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.

[SteveMcKing]

"Who are we to strip-mine Lithium from Mother Earth?!"

[xcamel]

Only 87 tons of CO2 from a coal fired plant to charge it too!

[rightwingextremist1776]

Yea, but I’d like to know how many times he can hot lap the thing!

[Centurion2000]

But how many miles will it go on a single charge?

[Centurion2000]

from the article .... very interesting

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.

[zencat]

Not recommended for use with Al Gore, III.

[GoldCountryRedneck]

Yeahbut, that sewing-machine whine just ain't gonna grab the fans the way a fire-breathin' nitro-burnin' flames-from-the-exhaust-stacks Top Fueler will....

[OldGuard]

SONOMA, Calif. - SUMMIT FastNews - Results of round 2 eliminations in Pro Stock Motorcycle at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 20th annual FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals:

Driver-—————————Speed
Steve Johnson (Suzuki)——190.54
Craig Treble (Suzuki)-——189.98

[Dogrobber]

Watch the video of this beast do a burn-out and subsequent speed run. It is wild! And the sound. It sounds like the largest, meanest, most dangerous mosquito in the universe. Like anything taken to extremes, its just too cool.

I don't see anything really unusual in the technology as it is applied. Most of the really powerful movers in the world are electrically powered. Examples: Cruise ships (diesel turbine electrical generation powering electric motors in pods); any nuclear powered ships, locomotives (diesel-electric) and large earth movers (Liebherr T 282B). Therefore its no surprise that somebody has made the jump to raw speed and power in an electric drag-racer.

[Sensei Ern]

OK, when they start mass producing them, at a cost I can afford, with enough power to go 300 miles, I want one.

[Hot Tabasco]

Racin' improves the breed.

Yep, from superchargers to turbochargers to you name it, today's cars are running on the innovations that were created on the race track.............

[Ramcat]

The only problem I see with electrics and racing is that they'll have to use synthetic sound.
Fast, quiet bikes or dragsters won't do it for the attention deficit crowd.
This could make for some unbearable "disco" type experimentation / fusion.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

The KillaCycle runs on 990 lithium-ion battery cells that feed two direct current motors, generating 350 horsepower.

At about $20 a pop for the common variety, this is almost $20,000 worth of batteries. Hope they don't have to replace them very often.

Manufacturing this many batteries requires significant power and pollutes quite a bit of land as well.

Not a green solution.