Battery Beach Burnout—Electric Car Drag Racing

Friday night the boys and I spent some hours immersed in a weird mix of high-octane drag racing and electrical engineering geekery—the Florida Electric Auto Association took over a "run-what-you-brung" drag racing event as part of their Battery Beach Burnout weekend. The venue was one Countyline Dragway, an 1/8 mile strip of pavement in the middle of the woods in northwest Dade county. One of the competitors brought this homebrew 240 volt electric bike, with 20 batteries driving a shifter kart tire hard enough for a smoky burnout - in the picture I'm holding the brake down to keep the bike from moving as he tensions his drive chain, which unfortunately broke on his first run of the night.

The following picture is of a Porche 912 with an improbable modification: two DC motors inline and hanging out of the back like a rocket engine. This car set the Countyline Dragway electric record at 67 miles per hour at the 1/8 mile.

There were a number of non-competing electric vehicles there as well, including a Scion xB running on 500 or so laptop computer Lithium-Ion batteries. And then there's the Milwaukee car, formerly featured on Monster Garage—a 1962 Chevy powered by 384 Milwaukee cordless drill batteries:

It was an interesting and eccentric event for both the gearheads and the geeks, to be sure.

Three Comments So Far

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October 27, 2010
Ben Branch says:
Just a note, the electric Chevy is a 1962 model and uses 384 batteries. I wish I was there on the night, looks like you guys had a blast :)
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October 06, 2011
Eiki Martinson says:
Thanks Ben, looks like you're right! I've corrected the post.
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July 20, 2012
D. Morris says:
Why is it that I feel an urge to find a China manufactured copy of a Chevy, such as a Chery QQ and then buy Harbor Freight out of stock of their replacement power tool batteries?

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