[CKidder]

I'm really looking forward to this build... my money is on 600HP which it will hit just before the motor melts

Keep in mind that even a "real" Tesla with dual motors won't do more than around 500HP because the batteries won't provide more power than that. A lot of people were bummed because the total HP should have been over 600HP between the front and rear drivetrains but you can't actually get that. So, one of the biggest hurdles in such a project is figuring out how to get that much power out of the battery pack itself. 500HP is about 373kw or right around 1000A. There aren't too many packs that'll handle 1000A for very long. Racing people have them but then they use packs with high surge capacity and not quite as much longevity.

That's a long way of saying: I'm looking forward to seeing how he plans on getting that much power out of a battery pack. That'll have to be some pack!

 

[CKidder]

I'm hitting 1200 amps and 340 v with my "most of a Volt" pack

I expect that

(1) Jack will be able to pull a lot more out of the Tesla pack - for a short time and the pack probably won't last 200,000 miles being treated like that

(2) Jack will be able to get a LOT more than 600 Hp out of that motor - with the same provision - for a short time and the motor probably won't last 200,000 miles being treated like that

Tesla has to be careful - they are expecting 999 out of 1000 people to be able to get 200,000 miles

We - as "Enthusiasts" are willing to accept much worse results - in exchange for more power

You're right, you can get 1200A out of the average battery pack. The issue with that is twofold. One, the battery has some effective resistance itself and this will cause the pack to sag when you draw a lot of power. And two, its not particularly good on the battery to draw it too heavily (chemical and mechanical damage may result). I've seen plenty of graphs of the Tesla battery pack when doing hard accelerations. They sag that pack pretty heavily when drawing 1000A. So, I wonder what your "most of a volt pack" does when you draw 1200A. There's no way I'd believe you're still seeing 340V when you do that. It's pretty likely it sags by many 10's of volts. I wouldn't even doubt it if you said it sags to 280V or less. To some extent that's OK. Like I said, Tesla packs sag *heavily* when you draw on them hard. It isn't as heavy a sag as you see with lead acid batteries but lithium cells certainly do sag.

I'd be interested to hear how those volt cells hold up in the long run. It's always a bit of a gamble but maybe they'll do fine and I'll be surprised.