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Power of D.C.

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doug

Administrator / Head Moderator
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Article on the Power of D.C. event yesterday: The Herald-Mail

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The whole weekend was a blast. That article is about the Saturday autocross. Sunday was the drag race. James will be pleased to know his car's world record quarter mile time is safe. My best time was 12.676. So close!

I have photos and video I can share, and a story about my car's refusal to charge Friday evening due to a error that Tesla emergency tech support identified as "moisture in the battery pack". The next morning it started charging fine.

CNN was prominently covering the drag race event on Sunday all day long. Hopefully we can soon find the video and print story that results from it. I wish I could remember the name of the reporter. BBHighway gave her an in depth interview and tour of his car.
 
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What were the conditions during that run? 100% charge in performance mode before the run? Tell me what you did prior to achieving that time.

Thanks

I was at 95% charge in Performance mode (210 ideal mile range in performance mode). Moderate humidity, about 80 degrees. I weigh 180 pounds. I let a 40 pound lighter Tesla owner drive my car for a couple runs, thinking that might be all we needed to give us the record, but his runs couldn't beat my time.

Each quarter-mile run used about 5 miles of range. Then I'd get back on the charger for a half hour before we were called to stage again. At that high a charge level, it's not pulling the full 40A, more like 15A as it was nearing full charge. So that half hour of charging only got me back to about the 210 mile range mark again (95% charge). That was a bit frustrating.

Also, at this track, there was no way to drive around the water box. It was wet for the gassers.
 
The CNN reporter was named Poppy. She does some sort of special reporting on green energy or something.

I didn't mention to her that I never watch CNN, so I've never heard of her show before. I took her for a short ride, and she seemed quite impressed with the acceleration, even in the brief bursts that I demonstrated.
 
One of 2008 owners beat the 2008 model quarter-mile time record, about 12.94 I think. I find that interesting that they could beat the 2008 record at this track on the same day I couldn't break the 2010 Sport model record.

You were competing against Scotty Pollacheck for the 12.643. The scary thing is that was his first time in a Tesla Roadster when he did that. And he only had a 75% charge.
 
The whole weekend was a blast. That article is about the Saturday autocross. Sunday was the drag race. James will be pleased to know his car's world record quarter mile time is safe. My best time was 12.676. So close!


Tdave,
One of my slips shows you actually did 12.672. I will work at getting some scans posted, it is a bit of a challenge getting a good scan due to the faintness of their printer.

My best time was 12.957 @ 103.42
 
You're right. I found that slip. My car did 6 runs over 3 hours...

1:25 pm: 12.672 @ 103.93 mph (2.016 60 ft) 180 lb driver (me)
1:30 pm: 12.693 @ 102.49 mph (1.971 60 ft) 180 lb driver (me)
2:31 pm: 12.704 @ 105.04 mph (2.054 60 ft) 135 lb driver (donauker)
3:17 pm: 12.721 @ 103.95 mph (2.078 60 ft) 135 lb driver (donauker)
3:23 pm: 12.676 @ 102.79 mph (1.973 60 ft) 180 lb driver (me)
4:19 pm: 12.715 @ 103.15 mph (2.003 60 ft) 180 lb driver (me)

Amazing consistency. Less than 5/100 of a second from best to worst. Perhaps also of note is that the worst 60 ft times were by the light driver, maybe due to more wheel slip on launch? Would 45 lbs make a difference there? I'm just speculating.
 
From discussion with the seasoned drivers I am convinced that the inability to avoid the water-box was a major factor. The 60 ft times and 1/4 mile speeds were much higher than those of the record.

Also interesting is the fact that my 60' times in Tdave's almost full performance mode charged Sport were almost identical to those in my own less than full standard mode charged 08. I do know that in at least one of those runs they very liberally hosed down the water box right before directing me through it (good the guy didn't hear what I had to say about that!)
 
Video Local News Story about drag race day:

Electric Cars Hit Top Speeds at Mason-Dixon Dragway

Well, this convinced me. I need to put my Roadster Sport on a trailor to Denver for the NEDRA High Altitude drags at the end of September. Scotty Pollacheck will be there and hopefully at the high altitude we can nail a 12.4 second 1/4 mile and put this out of reach until Tesla comes out with their next generation Roadster. :tongue:
 
Well, this convinced me. I need to put my Roadster Sport on a trailor to Denver for the NEDRA High Altitude drags at the end of September. Scotty Pollacheck will be there and hopefully at the high altitude we can nail a 12.4 second 1/4 mile and put this out of reach until Tesla comes out with their next generation Roadster. :tongue:

Man, this is why I really wish I had been able to set a record yesterday. I think it was my only chance. Would have been cool to hold the record, even for a month.
 
Now that my company is producing the Zilla controllers with Otmar Ebenhoech on our team, we are putting together a tentative plan to sponsor an annual NEDRA event in the Seattle area at Pacific Raceways. First event will be likely June 2010.

Maybe call it the Zilla Invitational or something like that.

My winter project is a GTM supercar (kit) electric drag racer. Goal is a 10 second quarter mile. Imagine this showing up at the Zilla Invitational...

We are putting twin Zilla2k-EHV controllers in there.
2,000 amps, 400 volts (max cutoff 429 volts).

http://www.evcomponents.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Z2K-EHV

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777 posts !!!
 
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