Wayland Invitational IV Electric Drag Races! - Page 2

ToddLa · 03-09-2009, 09:53 AM

Lets hope Tesla has the MC240 by July, or we are not going to roadtrip anywhere.

James · 03-09-2009, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToddLa

Lets hope Tesla has the MC240 by July, or we are not going to roadtrip anywhere.

Todd, we will have a Tesla HPC installed at the track that night.
Half of these guys are electricians or electrical engineers and PIR has a reserved area for electric vehicles.

felix pius · 03-09-2009, 02:06 PM

Thank you Plasma Boy, for your invitation. How much I would like to be present at this electric drag race! If only it wouldn't be so far away - it seems Europe is still a desert - regarding electric car races.

Cheers

Felix

Plasma Boy · 03-22-2009, 09:02 AM

Hello to All,

We last left of with my announcement of the 'Wayland Invitational IV' races coming this summer July 24th & 25th here in Portland, Oregon at the PIR drag track. Here then, is an update on things. For those who do not know me well, I am an electric forklift technician by day and a crazed high performance electric car guy at all other times. I am employed by NW handling Systems, a full service forklift sales, rentals, and repair facility.

It's funny how I have a way of turning ordinary chance meetings into opportunities...it's something I have a bit of a gift for, I think. Witness the following:

I was at my biggest forklift account the other day, a food service warehouse (Arby's, Wendy's, Burger King to name a few) with large area cooler and freezer rooms. There was a traffic accident a mile or so away where one of the vehicles had run into and destroyed a power pole, subsequently taking out the warehouse's three phase power. Their LARGE outdoors diesel generator had kicked on and with the turbo whistling away and the diesel barking loudly, the warehouse was running on standby power...to the tune of 400 kw continuous! I looked at the data plate on the minivan sized generator and saw that ominous rating and thought to myself, "That's the same amount of power it takes for my little Datsun to make an 11 second 1/4 mile pass." Of course, this generator belts it out for hours on end, but hey, it was a fun spec. to note.

Anyway, after I went inside and began my work at hand, I saw the higher-ups doing a walk-through with an electrician holding a couple of high tech type meters, and took the opportunity to say hello, striking up a conversation with her. She introduced herself as AnneMarie, the 'Project Manager' for Fox Electric here in Portland. Knowing she was there due to the nature of the power situation at hand, I quipped at her,"That's quite the generator out there! 400 kw, Wow, that's the same amount of power it takes to sling my electric drag car to its 11 second 1/4 mile ET!" Like a cartoon character coming to an abrupt halt with the accompanying tire screech sound, the electrician as she turned and asked, "Electric drag car? Are you into electric cars? Do you know about the Tesla?" This opened the door w-i-d-e open, as I instantly went into my spiel about all things Tesla! As my mouth was running on the outside, on the inside my brain was figuring out that this obviously bright electrician lady might be able to help me out with the charging needs of perhaps as many as 8 Teslas at once come this July when we will stage these exotic electric sports cars over at the NWH Systems forklift facility, conveniently just 5 miles away from the Wayland home. The NWH Systems branch manager, a supporter of NEDRA, has given me permission to bring the Teslas into the warehouse for a safe haven (away from prying hands and eyes) to be recharged after their 160-200 mile road journey down to Portland from the Seattle area - and hopefully some Teslas from a points south of Oregon as well. The NWHS Systems forklift shop has lots of 480V 3 phase power for the wall of forklift battery chargers used to juice-up the numerous forklift batteries, but there's only one lone 240V single phase outlet used for a welder in the shop. I asked AnneMarie if Fox Electric had any hefty sized line transformers in the 10-15 kw range that could step down 3 phase 480V to multiple 240V secondaries, and she just laughed, saying they had 'anything' anybody would need to supply and convert juice from any power source! She added that such transformers were very heavy and asked if we had a forklift...then I got to laugh! I told her that there was no money to be made, but that with her company's sponsored help, history 'would be made'. I also told her about the benefit nature of this race and the Autism fund raising thing that was a big part of the EVent.

I've since been in contact with her and have sent her the NEDRA link, and links to various EV drag race videos. OK, that's it for now. Stay tuned for more EVent updates!

See Ya...John Wayland

PS: In addtion to being able to charge up at the forklift shop, the Wayland home (aka the 'EV Juice Bar') can also provide juice. There are twin 240V outlets, one 30 amp and one 50 amp, located in the backyard two car garage sized EV shop, and there's a third 240V outlet outside near the shop's driveway. A fourth NEMA 1450 type 50 amp outdoor outlet is being installed at the house's attached garage driveway, so there will be four high current charging ports for visiting EVs. In addition, for lighter duty charging, the EV Juice bar sports numerous 120V outdoor outlets.

TEG · 03-22-2009, 10:21 AM

Hello again! It is great to see you on this forum.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Plasma Boy

...hefty sized line transformers in the 10-15 kw range that could step down 3 phase 480V to multiple 240V secondaries...

Isn't it more typical for industrial 3 phase to step down to 208V not 240V?

Plasma Boy · 03-22-2009, 11:13 AM

Hello TEG and All,

>Hello again! It is great to see you on this forum.

>Quote:
>Originally Posted by Plasma Boy View Post
>...hefty sized line transformers in the 10-15 kw range that could step down 3 >phase 480V to multiple 240V secondaries...
>Isn't it more typical for industrial 3 phase to step down to 208V not 240V?

Thanks for the warm reply.

Yes, typical indistrial type 3 phase 480V supplies also have single phase 208V legs. It's my understanding that the Tesla chargers need 240V, not 208V. This is the reason I asked about a special BIG transformer or two. With a tranformer, a 3 phase 480V input can be used on the primary winding (that would have three sets of windings for each phase, while triple secondary windings will give single phase 'whatever you want'...in our case, we would be using transformers that give multiple 240V single phase outputs. For a 30 amp 3 phase 480V feed, such a transformer should be able to output three, single phase 60 amp 240V circuits.

As an example, the typical 480V 3 phase power transformers inside the 24V, 36V & 48V high current (110-250A typical DC output) forklift battery chargers I work on all the time, usually have such triple wound primaries that take-in 3 phase power, with three low voltage/high current independant secondaries - each making single phase power that is then rectified. The three DC legs are tied together to make the high current DC.

You could also step up the 208V single phase to 240V single phase, again, with a transformer brought in for the job. The reason I want to go from 480V 3 phase, is that we already have, I think 8 twist lock wall sockets at 480V -30 amp, on the charger wall, ready to feed the brought-in conversion transformers. In any EVent, AnneMarie told me it's something they do all the time, so she's evidently well versed in what I am asking for.

See Ya...John Wayland

DaveD · 03-22-2009, 07:09 PM

As one of the Seattle Tesla owners who is planning to attend Wayland Inv. IV, I greatly appreciate the effort you're making to provide us with enough power and safe Roadster accomodations! You can tell AnneMarie that she is welcome to take a drive in my Tesla, as are you. It won't be as thrilling as the White Zombie, but it's the least I can do for your hospitality.

James · 03-22-2009, 08:03 PM

I will also be installing my HPC at the new Green Car Company store in Portland Oregon. That store is projected to open in May 2009, so it will be available for Tesla Roadster recharging during the time period of the Wayland Invitational on July 24-25.

240 volt / 70 amp and a 3.5 hour recharge if your Tesla is empty.

vfx · 03-29-2009, 09:09 AM

Hi John,

Watched your recent video where you went to Lith and broke all those records. Congratulations on your successes. Your laudable activities made me wonder about the top 1/4 mile prize.

Is anyone mounting an effort to actually beat the big boy's ICE times? I imagine that such a racer built from the ground up might look a lot different than a conventional dragster since the weight can be spread out rather than in a single ICE chunk.

Is anyone doing this? Who would sponsor these efforts (GE?, Tesla?) How close are they to the best times recored? Any cool tech about it?

Thank you for all you are doing!

scottfe · 04-07-2009, 10:18 PM

My Radiant Red Roadster was delivered last week and I put 220 miles on it in three days. James has talked this event up in the Seattle area and if there's room I'll likely be joining the caravan down to Portland as well. It sounds like you've thoroughly addressed the issue of charging while we're down there. My only concern is charging along the way. But that should work out fine and be part of the fun. At least I'll be in good company! So I'm looking forward to it. I'll be doing the Seattle-to-Portland Cycling Classic earlier in July, so I'd be making two trips to Portland in one month without using a drop of gas!

-- Scott Ferguson --