Re: EVs are slower than ICEs...for now
Hello to All,
Hello to All,
Bill Dube wrote:
> I have to agree with Jim on this one. The article gave a very balanced
> account of the present state of EV drag racing in the context of ICE
> drag racing.
And I have to disagree, big time. Comparing a street legal sedan to an
all-out funny car is not by any stretch of the imagination, balanced!
That's exactly what Mr. Clark did when he cited White Zombie's 11.4 ET
and then in the same line, said it was 6.4 seconds off the best top fuel
record...you call that balanced?
>
> We aren't _the_ very fastest ....yet.
I nor anyone in our crew, nor any other team of EV racers have ever made
a claim like that.
> It is a fact that the fastest EVs are not as fast as the fastest ICEs
> on the drag strip at this time.
Who has ever said this? What we do say and what we do, is compare our
EV's performance to similar gas cars' performance...and this is
important...in the same racing class. I compare my street legal EV that
is driven to the track to other street legal gas cars driven to the
track, and I never, ever say we are faster than any gas car...ever. I do
point out when we are the quickest car at the track on a given night. I
also, to help non-car nut folks appreciate what our EV's performance is
like, often compare our car to factory available street cars. This is
valid and fun, as it raises quite a few eyebrows to learn that a
backyard converted electric car can waste a Porsche, Vette, or Ferrari
in the 1/4 mile drag!
>To argue against this is foolish.
To argue that our EV is quicker than 'any' other gas car is for sure,
foolish, because there will always be somebody quicker and faster. We
don't do that, and we never have. To argue against stupid remarks like
Mr. Clark's however, is smart, not foolish. It's smart because it
corrects misinformation that his bad writing implies...comparing a
street legal electric car's 1/4 mile performance to a several thousand
hp all-out funny car...now that, is foolish! It's also foolish 'not' to
speak up and correct misinformation when it presents itself. The
comparison of a street legal sedan, whether electric or gas powered, to
a $250,000 nitromethane burning funny car or nitromethane burning rail
dragster is misinformation if it implies to an uneducated reader that
the two are comparable...and again, that;'s exactly what Clark did.
> To be insulted by this statement of fact is hubris.
You are muddying up the waters here. I was not insulted by the statement
of fact that you and your race-only drag bike are a few seconds off from
the very top dog nitromethane burning drag bike...that was a valid
comparison, because by your own yardstick, you're out to ultimately meet
and then exceed that nitromethane bike's potential...and for the record,
I and I'm sure all other EV fans are 100% behind you all the way, and
very proud of your accomplishments to date!
What I was offended by...and I made it quite clear, was his absolutely
stupid comparison of my car, a car anyone with a brain knows is racing
in a street legal regular car class, to one of the most radical machines
ever to run down a track, a nitromethane burning funny car or rail (he
also exhibited bad writing by not making which top fuel machine he was
comparing to, clear).
Here's the best way to make myself as clear as possible. If Mr. Clark
was trying to say that EVs are getting quicker, but are still a ways off
from the baddest of the bad nitromethane machines, he could have written
it this way, and I would not have anything to say:
In the most popular professional division, Top Fuel Racing, dragsters
with large rear wheels and narrow bodies reach speeds exceeding 330 m.p.h.
(530 km/h) 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. No one in the world of racing EVs are challenging
this upper
end of racing machines at this moment, though with continued battery
development,
it's only a matter of time.
But electric drag racers are increasingly showing up at drag strips
across the country to show what they can do. White Zombie, an old
Datsun economy car converted to electric power is full street legal and
has run the quarter-mile in 11.46 seconds - that's quicker than
a 2007 505-horsepower Corvette ZO6, one of the quickest production
vehicles available to the general public.
Their vehicles are posting faster and faster times at amateur meets, but
the pure racing EVs have a ways to go before matching professional world
record times. The quickest 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.
--------------------------------------
See, it's easy to be clear, easy to be fair, easy to not make an apples
to oranges comparison, as did Clark.
See Ya...John Wayland
