[toddshotrods]

Your best bet for anything anywhere near your two-cycles is AC, and the first major hurdle is going to be the inverter - if you can find a motor. High-rpm horsepower isn't really the DC series motor's forte. AC on the other hand can spin crazy numbers, and if your vehicle is 500lbs total you don't exactly need stump pulling bottom-end torque. Who are you going to get to build a 500hp inverter though.

Second hurdle is a pack light enough to get you even close to the ICE engine and fuel cell. The best lithium packs (pouches) don't have that kind of power density - yet.

The point is you have to be willing to do what Major suggested: start developing on your own, and be at the forefront when it comes of age. Or, wait until someone else does and join the party. It's just all too green (pun intended) and new right now.

The hard truth that people don't seem to like to swallow is electric is still slower than ICE. It's gaining fast, but not quite there yet. Dollar for dollar you will cross the finish line after a comparable ICE. My race rod, with the current plan, will be around the same weight as it would have been with an all-aluminum ICE V8 (that cost as much as my battery pack will). It will be about a second slower, with the absolute best battery pack obtainable. I don't expect the ICE vehicles to wait for me to catch up.

 

[toddshotrods]

...The new Killacycle pack is 75 lbs (yes, seventy-five!) and delivers 500 hp!...

Any more details available? A123 again or new sponsor? Composition? Numbers (amps and voltage)?

Edit = Did some Googling - very interesting...

Read the post from Sept 30th...

About halfway down this page...

 

[toddshotrods]

Thanks for the info on killacycle, Todd. It means that for a bit over 200lbs you should be able to squeeze out 800hp, or else have 400hp for less than 140lbs. Interesting .

BTW, except for the fact that neither the motor nor controller has been designed, we are still talking todays technology. No superconductor or exotic material needed.

Dawid

You can't even consider those cells, unless you have sponsorship, or happen to be incredibly wealthy. The fact that they're mad efor F1 cars, and have such high power density, means the price would be beyond astronomical. I know some guys who build seven figure (that's not a typo) hot rods and race cars, and that may even be out of their budget.

It does hint at what might be coming our way someday. The cells, like A123 M1s and Kokams, that we think are so hot today were unheard fo not so long ago...

 

[toddshotrods]

With all this in mind, and getting back to the main subject for this thread, I think the next big step for EV drag racing is going to be purpose-built motors. Right now battery packs are the limiting factor. Even though they are available now, you have to be sponsored, wealthy, or single (read, free to "waste" as much money as you please - like me), to afford to experience it. When that changes and more people have access to serious power, the motors are going to become the weak link. Also, as battery technology advances, the sponsored, wealthy, and single, are going to push existing motors way beyond their physical limits.

Right now the solutions are a bunch of subtle improvements and some not-so-subtle band-aids. If you go back and look at ICE drag racing you will actually see a lot of similarities, including the use of dual (and triple and quad) motors to get more power; and borrowed and modded factory parts. Eventually, purpose-built racing parts, and even full engines, replaced all that and now we have 8000hp T/F and F/C.

If Jim doesn't have any real secrets inside those motors, someone eventually will. If he does, they will eventually be discovered by others and competition will drive advancement. When I started racing motorcycles Vance & Hines had secrets inside the cylinder heads that allowed them to totally dominant the rest of the field. Now, there are others who can compete head-to-head with Byron Hines' porting work, and there is a healthy, competitive, sport.

I really have no idea what I'm talking about but my instincts tell me that custom winding is the key to massive power in the future. Every one is afraid to even consider it right now, because the motors haven't reached their physical limits yet. Time-consuming yes, but time is money and racing ain't cheap...