by HoTWire
25. September 2008 21:36
I for one am looking forward to our Mad Max future, where we fight for petrol and drive around in a post apocalyptic desert world in wild and outrageous machinery. Finally the ability to stuff a Toyota 1JZ-GTE engine in a Morris Marina will become a useful survival skill.
However some people are taking steps to ensure that when/if the oil runs dry young (and old) men (and women) will be able to prove their speed on the quarter mile. The National Electric Drag Racing Association in the US of A does exactly what it says on the tin, it races electric powered cars. As you'd expect where there are drag races there are people shoe horning engines into retro cars.
One of the more widely known cars is White Zombie, a Datsun 1200 owned and run by John Wayland of Plasma Boy Racing. One of the great things with electric cars for drag racing is the fantastic acceleration, 0-60 in 2.9 seconds for this particular vehicle, topping out at 114 mph as it crossed the line 11.46 seconds later. Not bad for what started out as engines from a couple of fork lift trucks.
Talk is cheap, so check out these videos of the car in action :
Okay here is some more talk about how it all works :
So that has got my little brain going, do we have many/any in the UK? What would it take to build one?
In the mean time read more about White Zombie, including full specs, here : http://www.plasmaboyracing.com/whitezombie.php
Also be sure to check out the NEDRA here : http://nedra.com/
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