Hello to All,
Just a reminder for those within striking distance of Portland - White
Zombie will be entered in tonight's 'Street Warriorz' street legal only
races. This is a BIG EVent that should have a large crowd in attendance.
I had written:
>We 'are' racing again this Saturday night at what should be a really fun
>EVent, the 'Street Warriorz' all street legal drags. If your car's not
>street legal, you can't race. The gates open at 4:00. Along with drag
>racing, there's also an audio competition and other cool stuff.
We will be trying to hit 11.7 tonight with White Zombie, re-fitted with
the 4:11 gear set and with the battery pack current set to 1500 amps. If
we hit our goal, it will be the quickest 1/4 mile ET ever achieved by a
street legal car powered by conventional lead acid batteries. Rich
Rudman will be on hand with his latest hybrid, his new plug-in Prius,
that we will be using to recharge White Zombie...that procedure should
be a real crowd pleaser!
Victor Tichonov's (Metric Mind) incredible 'EVision' meter system has
been invaluable as both a daily driver's gauge system and as a racer's
best friend! In addition to all the valuable info it constantly gathers
and spits out, during recharge in the pits we can now keep track of all
systems with bright, colorful digital and analog read-outs that double
as eye candy for all those curious to EVs that crowd around the car
between runs. As we race primarily in the evenings when it's darker
outside, WZ's open trunk allows those curious to peer inside to see not
only the rear battery pack, all the cables, contactors, and shunts, but
also the EVision's main brain board with its surface mount LEDs on and
blinking communications signals...again, it's great eye candy and it
exudes 'high tech' to those accustomed to seeing gas car stuff.
Production boards will of course, be mounted inside protective housings
in typical Victor OEM style, but I forced the issue with him to keep the
circuit board raw and un-covered. I mounted it safely deep inside the
trunk and largely out of touch, and yet it's clearly visible so as to
draw-in questions about what its role is.
The Enersys 14 lb. batteries (formerly Hawkers) are doing exactly what
the engineers promised they would and are holding up well to 750 amps
each! We now have a better charging strategy where we let the packs get
up to 'racing temperature' which takes about three passes, then we fan
cool the batteries in the pit to keep them in their sweet spot - warmed
up for sure, but not too hot to cause damage. By not letting them get
boiling hot, as we had done in past years, there has not been one
battery failure, and not a hint of fogging under the Lexan covers due to
gassing and spitting batteries tortured by extreme heat.
The Siamese 8 motor too, has been super reliable ever since Jim Husted
modded them with my requested 15 degrees of advance over the previous 10
degree setting. The motor has been arc-free and pulls hard all the way
down the track.
It's a weird sensation to know that Tim ran the car hard Wednesday
night, four passes down the 1/8 mile, we had zero problems, and then I
simply hopped back in it and drove WZ home. I recharged WZ before going
to bed, and the next morning the batteries were all sitting at ~ 13.04 V
each....perfect! This morning, Saturday, the car waits in my backyard EV
shop ready to race...we have nothing to do to it, other than perhaps
doing a few more improvements to the five point harness mounts. If I
have time, I might take it for a 15 mile cruise to and from the
Albertson's Distribution center to weight it to see exactly how much
weight the 6 point roll bar added.
For now, we seem to have most issues resolved and as a result, we have a
very strong running, reliable street legal electric car that has
~ 40 miles range and runs consistent 11s...I'd say that's progress!
See Ya.......John Wayland
_______________________________________________
For subscription options, see
http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/ev
Just a reminder for those within striking distance of Portland - White
Zombie will be entered in tonight's 'Street Warriorz' street legal only
races. This is a BIG EVent that should have a large crowd in attendance.
I had written:
>We 'are' racing again this Saturday night at what should be a really fun
>EVent, the 'Street Warriorz' all street legal drags. If your car's not
>street legal, you can't race. The gates open at 4:00. Along with drag
>racing, there's also an audio competition and other cool stuff.
We will be trying to hit 11.7 tonight with White Zombie, re-fitted with
the 4:11 gear set and with the battery pack current set to 1500 amps. If
we hit our goal, it will be the quickest 1/4 mile ET ever achieved by a
street legal car powered by conventional lead acid batteries. Rich
Rudman will be on hand with his latest hybrid, his new plug-in Prius,
that we will be using to recharge White Zombie...that procedure should
be a real crowd pleaser!
Victor Tichonov's (Metric Mind) incredible 'EVision' meter system has
been invaluable as both a daily driver's gauge system and as a racer's
best friend! In addition to all the valuable info it constantly gathers
and spits out, during recharge in the pits we can now keep track of all
systems with bright, colorful digital and analog read-outs that double
as eye candy for all those curious to EVs that crowd around the car
between runs. As we race primarily in the evenings when it's darker
outside, WZ's open trunk allows those curious to peer inside to see not
only the rear battery pack, all the cables, contactors, and shunts, but
also the EVision's main brain board with its surface mount LEDs on and
blinking communications signals...again, it's great eye candy and it
exudes 'high tech' to those accustomed to seeing gas car stuff.
Production boards will of course, be mounted inside protective housings
in typical Victor OEM style, but I forced the issue with him to keep the
circuit board raw and un-covered. I mounted it safely deep inside the
trunk and largely out of touch, and yet it's clearly visible so as to
draw-in questions about what its role is.
The Enersys 14 lb. batteries (formerly Hawkers) are doing exactly what
the engineers promised they would and are holding up well to 750 amps
each! We now have a better charging strategy where we let the packs get
up to 'racing temperature' which takes about three passes, then we fan
cool the batteries in the pit to keep them in their sweet spot - warmed
up for sure, but not too hot to cause damage. By not letting them get
boiling hot, as we had done in past years, there has not been one
battery failure, and not a hint of fogging under the Lexan covers due to
gassing and spitting batteries tortured by extreme heat.
The Siamese 8 motor too, has been super reliable ever since Jim Husted
modded them with my requested 15 degrees of advance over the previous 10
degree setting. The motor has been arc-free and pulls hard all the way
down the track.
It's a weird sensation to know that Tim ran the car hard Wednesday
night, four passes down the 1/8 mile, we had zero problems, and then I
simply hopped back in it and drove WZ home. I recharged WZ before going
to bed, and the next morning the batteries were all sitting at ~ 13.04 V
each....perfect! This morning, Saturday, the car waits in my backyard EV
shop ready to race...we have nothing to do to it, other than perhaps
doing a few more improvements to the five point harness mounts. If I
have time, I might take it for a 15 mile cruise to and from the
Albertson's Distribution center to weight it to see exactly how much
weight the 6 point roll bar added.
For now, we seem to have most issues resolved and as a result, we have a
very strong running, reliable street legal electric car that has
~ 40 miles range and runs consistent 11s...I'd say that's progress!
See Ya.......John Wayland
_______________________________________________
For subscription options, see
http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/ev
