The Killacycle Team had a great day at the track
today. The Discovery Channel rented out Bandimere
Speedway to film EVs against Gas vehicles. First run
was not too bad; 8.844 at about 150 MPH (I think just
under). We had a bit of trouble hooking up, so the
60' times suffered a little. Second run was a little
better, but the 60' time was still 1.200 seconds.
This one was a little quicker at 8.201 seconds at
154.69 MPH. I don't remember the exact sequence of
events (we should check the log book) but we kept
tweaking things a bit; turning up the ramp up rate,
then turning it down, turning up the series amps, then
turning them back down, etc. Next two runs we
couldn't get the bike to hook up at all, so Scotty let
off the launch button and coasted the rest of the way.
Those two runs were around 13 seconds at about 100
MPH. The other run, the back tire did a burnout for
the first 60'. It didn't just spin the tire down the
track, there was tire smoke for the first 60' or so!
We have had the launch motor amps turned up to 2,000
before, and still were not having issues like this.
As we are running out of track time, we figured we
only had one run left to give it our all, so back to
the pits to cool the controller and for a good charge
(MAN! that PFC-50 Rich lent us allowed us to charge at
25 amps and 400V! I don't think he's getting it
back...) The battery pack was at about 50 deg. C; we
would have liked 65 deg C, but that's what we had to
work with). All set, we head to the starting line,
and as fate would have it, the 3 phase power feed to
the speedway lost a leg, and the timing lights went
out. After some waiting, they got some generators
out. While the score board at the end of the track
wasn't lit, the timing tree and timing computers came
back on line. But by this time, our battery pack had
a chance to cool down a bit. Scotty decided to use
the throttle this time. As soon as it took off, it
looked FAST. You could tell it really hooked up this
time. After the run, we were all standing around
looking at the dead score board, waiting for the time
to appear, when we realized that nothing would happen.
But Susan, Scotty's Fiance was one step ahead of us;
she was reading the time off the slip, and screamed
"8.083!!" Our 60' time was still 1.215; if we could
have gotten the traction under control, we would have
been in the sevens... But then someone asked what the
MPH was: 159.85 MPH! _So_ close! But by this time we
were way past the track cutoff time and a dozen track
Camaros were lined up to go. Derek Barger went and
begged the track official to let us get one more run
in, and got them to let us get one more shot at it.
He jumped on his electric minibike, ran back to the
pits and got him to run back to the starting line. No
time for charging, no time for cooling the controller,
all we did was check the tire pressure, and the track
got the cars back out of the way. So on the last run,
without a freshly charged pack, power still out to the
score board, we had a very similar run. Scotty worked
the throttle by hand, had similar traction issues, and
the launch was good. What was the time? The TV
producer was trying to create a bit of drama, so he
read the times back to us a little at a time. End
result: 8.083 seconds: well within 1% of the previous
time! What was the finial MPH?
163 MPH.
Yup, fun day at the track.
- Steve and Derek
(I hope I didn't screw up the facts too much; Derek
and I are working on less than 4 hours of sleep, and
it's been a long hard day keeping the bike ready for
the next run)
____________________________________________________________________________________
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to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel.
http://travel.yahoo.com/
_______________________________________________
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today. The Discovery Channel rented out Bandimere
Speedway to film EVs against Gas vehicles. First run
was not too bad; 8.844 at about 150 MPH (I think just
under). We had a bit of trouble hooking up, so the
60' times suffered a little. Second run was a little
better, but the 60' time was still 1.200 seconds.
This one was a little quicker at 8.201 seconds at
154.69 MPH. I don't remember the exact sequence of
events (we should check the log book) but we kept
tweaking things a bit; turning up the ramp up rate,
then turning it down, turning up the series amps, then
turning them back down, etc. Next two runs we
couldn't get the bike to hook up at all, so Scotty let
off the launch button and coasted the rest of the way.
Those two runs were around 13 seconds at about 100
MPH. The other run, the back tire did a burnout for
the first 60'. It didn't just spin the tire down the
track, there was tire smoke for the first 60' or so!
We have had the launch motor amps turned up to 2,000
before, and still were not having issues like this.
As we are running out of track time, we figured we
only had one run left to give it our all, so back to
the pits to cool the controller and for a good charge
(MAN! that PFC-50 Rich lent us allowed us to charge at
25 amps and 400V! I don't think he's getting it
back...) The battery pack was at about 50 deg. C; we
would have liked 65 deg C, but that's what we had to
work with). All set, we head to the starting line,
and as fate would have it, the 3 phase power feed to
the speedway lost a leg, and the timing lights went
out. After some waiting, they got some generators
out. While the score board at the end of the track
wasn't lit, the timing tree and timing computers came
back on line. But by this time, our battery pack had
a chance to cool down a bit. Scotty decided to use
the throttle this time. As soon as it took off, it
looked FAST. You could tell it really hooked up this
time. After the run, we were all standing around
looking at the dead score board, waiting for the time
to appear, when we realized that nothing would happen.
But Susan, Scotty's Fiance was one step ahead of us;
she was reading the time off the slip, and screamed
"8.083!!" Our 60' time was still 1.215; if we could
have gotten the traction under control, we would have
been in the sevens... But then someone asked what the
MPH was: 159.85 MPH! _So_ close! But by this time we
were way past the track cutoff time and a dozen track
Camaros were lined up to go. Derek Barger went and
begged the track official to let us get one more run
in, and got them to let us get one more shot at it.
He jumped on his electric minibike, ran back to the
pits and got him to run back to the starting line. No
time for charging, no time for cooling the controller,
all we did was check the tire pressure, and the track
got the cars back out of the way. So on the last run,
without a freshly charged pack, power still out to the
score board, we had a very similar run. Scotty worked
the throttle by hand, had similar traction issues, and
the launch was good. What was the time? The TV
producer was trying to create a bit of drama, so he
read the times back to us a little at a time. End
result: 8.083 seconds: well within 1% of the previous
time! What was the finial MPH?
163 MPH.
Yup, fun day at the track.
- Steve and Derek
(I hope I didn't screw up the facts too much; Derek
and I are working on less than 4 hours of sleep, and
it's been a long hard day keeping the bike ready for
the next run)
____________________________________________________________________________________
Need a vacation? Get great deals
to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel.
http://travel.yahoo.com/
_______________________________________________
For subscription options, see
http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/ev
