The Siamese 9" motor is $8,400, listed on Jim Husted's site. The Zilla 2k HV is $5,000. The PFC50 charger costs $3,300. The drive shaft probably costs around $800. The Dutchman 9" Ford HDST rear-end is $825 per the Dutchamn motorsports website. The CalTracs traction bars will set one back about $500. The pair of g-Force P 225 /50R15 radials in the rear are $320 plus the two LRR Continental tires up front are an additional $120. Add another $700 for the alloy wheels. About $3,000 in car plus ancillary components to make the car road worthy(DC-DC, aux battery, contactors, fuses, wiring, seats, battery housing, ect.).
This is ~$23k, without batteries or BMS. The lead acid version didn't need a roll cage, and the lead acid batteries he used were $3.5k for the pack. Surely, at least some of the parts could be found used, bringing the cost around $25k or less, for the lead acid setup for which to run 11s. This is provided one does all of their own work putting the car together.
At $23k without batteries, BMS, or roll cage, and adding $1,000 for the roll cage so that it can meet NHRA regulation, this leaves $36k for the pack and the BMS without going over $60k. My understanding was that his pack was somewhere around $40k. If that battery cost is correct, the car's build cost, if you do your own work, would be about $60k.
I'm waiting on a quote from Dow Kokam(I intend to perhaps buy a pack of these years down the road and had inquired earlier), but the time I inquired about Kokam batteries 5 years ago, they were about $1,100/kWh(for the kind used in the "Electric Imp"). These new Dow Kokam ultra high power batteries are a completely different battery, but I'd be very surprised if the cost is above $2,000/kWh; that price just wouldn't be able to compete with the likes of A123, which has similar specific power, but is currently around $1,000/kWh. Wayland's pack is 22.7 kWh.
How large of a pack were you investigating? If you don't mind sharing, what was the exact amount they quoted you? $60k for 23 kWh(including BMS) may indeed be the case, but it definitely sounds a bit high!
Further, Wayland's car is street legal, and maintains its original chassis. I'd be hesitant to call it a drag car, as those tend to be built on a chrome molly chassis with a tubbed rear end, and non-legal tires. While the Datsun definitely has its amenities stripped out, it is 100% street legal, including the tires. It also never has to worry about being cited for excessive noise, and in some states, violating emissions regulations. Were that Lingenfelter relegated to street legal tires, it probably wouldn't get that 8.9 in the quarter mile, and may come up half a second or more short.
While it is true that a street legal ICE car that is faster than the Zombie can be built for a lower price, the ICE car's parts are more easily available and enjoy economies of scale, versus Jim Husted hand building a Siamese 9" or Otmar hand-assembling a Zilla controller and taking the time to make sure the characteristics of the IGBTs used match closely enough to be put into a balanced, working controller. If EVs and their parts ever see volume production, then the real comparison will be known; I suspect EVs would be cheaper if on an even playing field using today's EV technology, but they are not.
I chose to compare the Veyron because John Wayland has done something many would think impossible; he has built a street legal electric car that accelerates faster than the fastest accelerating production car on Earth(or one of the fastest). THAT is what I was getting at. If he can compete in acceleration with the fastest production car on Earth, what is there to stop the auto industry from building a $500,000+ boutique electric car that out performs the Veyron in every which way, shape, or form, and even gets comparable range? Being that the Veyron is a 4500 lb lard ass, surely a competitive EV could fit a 1500-2000 lb pack of lithium under there... the Eliica from Keio University comes close in top speed, doing 231 mph on the Nardo test track in Italy, and whose designer says will do 250 if given enough track.
Give Wayland $100k to play with, and I would not be surprised if he got into the very low 9s, and remained street legal. He hasn't even explored his current setup and is deep into the 10s.
