2001 Early

Motor

Dual Warfield 8 inch series-wound motors. (225 lbs.) Series-parallel switchable high current wiring added. Motors can be configured wired in series with one another or wired in parallel with each other.

Drive type

Direct drive, no transmission. Motor shafts connected with splined coupler between front and rear motors. Electric reverse added. A front motor field control contactor was added (left photo) that is normally open, closed when forward travel is selected, but opened to separate the field from the armature during reverse contactor engagement. The front motor reversing contactor setup is shown in the right photo. The upper black cube is the control relay for reverse. The green rectangle on the reverse contactor set is the mount for two small microswitches that monitor the physcal movement of the contactor's tips in case of welding.

Driveshaft

Two piece driveline with center carrier bearing. Front and rear driveline loops.

Rear axle

'57 Ford nine inch axle setup out of a V8 Chevy LUV minitruck. 4:11 gears. Locked minispool. Air shocks & traction bars.

Wheels & Tires

Front - Eagle 5 spoke 13 x 5.5 alloys with 4 bolt Nissan rear drive offset and 175/50/13 Nitto Exit GS radials.

Rear - Eagle 5 spoke 14 x 6 alloys with 5 bolt Ford front drive offset and DOT street legal Nitto 'Extreme Drag Radials' (22" dia.).

Batteries

28 12 volt Hawker Genesis 16ahr @ 336V nominal, 378 lbs. total pack weight.

Controller

Godzilla 1200 amp programable controller. Contactor controlled series-parallel shifting added. Three high current contactors (left) configure the motors in series with each other, or in parallel with each other. The two matching 'Kilovac EV250' contactors with the positive and negative labeled cables are the parallel contactors, while the larger single 'Albright SW200' contactor on the right with the gold plated connectors is for the series mode. The series-to-parallel upshift was controlled via the small white steering wheel thumb button located near the three o'clock position on the steering wheel's right spoke (center), while the parallel release button was dash-mounted and located between the Emeter and the 12V system analog meter (right). The green pilot light just above the parallel release button lit up when parallel mode was engaged. Microswitches on the throttle pot. box interfaced with these buttons...here's how it worked. The throttle had to be a the zero position (white microswitch at bottom of the pot. box in the last photo) in order for the controller current to drop off, and in order for the steering wheel upshift button to be placed 'active' in the circuit. Pushing this button would then latch the small control relay below the pot. box which would complete the command to pull-in the parallel contactors. The black microswitch at the top of the pot. box would not allow any contactor switching at full throttle.

Car launches with motors wired in series with each other for full controller amps through both motors and highest torque, then when the throttle is momentarily let off and the button is pushed, it reconfigures the motors for parallel wiring to impress higher voltage across each motor for top speed power.

12 volt system

by Optima YT, no DC-DC. The addition of the series-parallel motor contactors required a rework of where the 12v system battery was placed, as shown in these before and after photos. A 12V system circuit breaker was added, and a 50 amp charge port was incuded to better facilate the external charging needed for the baby Optima.

Other Mods

Custom License plate replaces generic one.

Car weight

2036 lbs. (est.)

Races and EVents

3-10-2001 Sat. ...Las Vegas Drags (1st ever)...best ET 14.312 @ 85.64 mph with battery failure 150 ft. before finish line. 1/8th ET 8.887 @ 72.40 mph, 60 ft. 2.077. Photos bellow...(left) On the road to Las Vegas with EV sidekick Marko Mongillo. (right) Returning into southern Oregon with the waning sunset as a backdrop:

7-14-2001 EV Awareness Day...White Zombie on display.

Carnage

  1. Blew up Hawker at Las Vegas races on 2nd run.
  2. Cracked Ford 9 inch ring gear, broke ring gear teeth, and destroyed spider gears.

Plasmaboy Quotes

  1. Pre Las Vegas races "With fresh batteries, a more aggressive rear gear ratio for better out of the hole acceleration, the pair of smaller diameter 8 inch motors that can rev way higher than the old 11 inch motor could, and with the ability to switch from series mode to parallel mode at around 75 mph, the car should be a rocket, and I am predicting a 12.7-12.8 second run at around 105 mph using street radials (Nitto Extreme Drag Radials)."
  2. Pre Las Vegas races "It was always a balancing act... put in a low enough ratio to get strong out of the hole, and there goes the top speed. This was how the car acted with the 4:11 ratio and those really low profile baby wrinkle wall drag slicks. It lunged out of the hole, even getting sideways a few times, and it had good 60 ft. times, but the ETs were in the 14 second range with speeds of 89-90 mph. When I effectively raised the ratio by installing the much taller Nitto Extreme Drag Radials, as I expected, I lost it at the launch with worse 60 ft. times, so the hole shot was worsened, but once the car began to roll and the controller jammed full power out, the car accelerated much stronger, and the ETs dropped to the low 13's and the trap speed nearly hit 100 mph. I knew that if I could have it at both ends, the car would easily dip into the 12's and top well over 100 mph."
  3. Post-Las Vegas "I only had two runs at Las Vegas. The first one was terrible with a tire smoking launch that reduced my 60 ft. time to more than 3 seconds and with 40+ degree batteries that pooped out before the end of the run. The second and last run was with slightly warmed up batteries that were still too cold, but they had way more power in them than on the first run. I got a strong launch that brought the nose up a bit, and the car pulled hard.... then, I shifted from series to parallel, and the car continued to pull very hard. To me, it felt very much like a mid to low 13 second run. I blew a battery about 150 feet short of the traps, coasted across the finish line, and in spite of this, turned a respectable 14.3! Had the battery not failed, it would have been an easy 13.5 or so for just the second run. In EV drag racing while using lead acid batteries, as the day goes on and as the batteries heat up, the times get quicker and quicker. There's little doubt in my mind, that had things been different that night last weekend....warmer weather, better track conditions, proper current limits being adhered to, etc., that the Zombie would have dipped into the 12's."