82-YO Don Garlits is working on hitting 200 mph with an electric drag racer. Don't think he's made it yet plus on this run his chute didn't open. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea4igN8Thtg"]DON GARLITS 7.25@184mph SW-37 electric dragster - YouTube[/ame]
In a way, this makes me think of the current F1 cars. The engine change for 2014 resulted in a different sound and they're quieter. Lots of fans are complaining it's not F1 anymore and it's not exciting without the scream of the V8s that were dropped at the end of the 2013 season. Someone commented on this electric dragster "Is it really drag racing if it's silent?"
Thanks for posting it Steve. Its is cool, but for any who goes to drag races this just isn't it. I don't watch them on TV very often because you have to be there to really get the full experience. Filling the ground shake and the sound of an engine about to tear itself apart is what makes it exciting. A cousin use to take me when I was young, I guess thats why its in my blood. My younger son and I when to a test and tune to watch a friend run his drag bike. When we were leaving he said "Dad thats thats the most senseless form of racing but theres nothing like it!". He is right its all American brut force! And we both love it.
It was cool but not really like real drag racing as described in the above post. I did see a guy on a "PINKs like" show called Pastime where the people had to guess the time the car would run. They had a fully done up drag race car Vs a Chevy S-10 electric with a bed of batteries. They all picked the race car and the little truck destroyed him by at least 5 cars if not more. The launch was exactly the same, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, Green Gone. When I say gone the truck just disappeared from the camera shot. They did not have a sound delay and you could hear one guy said "Holy S**t" I want that truck and the other guy said F-ing A that things a rocket. Instant full TQ FTW.
That's very cool, but like Steve alluded to, part of the experience of a drag race, or monster trucks, or anything of that vein is the NOISE. It's just not the same. Thank goodness he didn't get hurt when the chute didn't open--Don Garlits killed in an electric drag racer would set that experiment back, oh, like, permanently.
I think the difference here is it's an electric version of, specifically, drag racing. What other type of racing usually comes with the same level of ground shaking roar? I'm happy with the current F1 cars, don't mind the change. On the other hand, I don't go to the races, I watch them on TV. Electric drag racing is still racing, obviously, but delete the noise and I imagine you've removed a HUGE part of the reason people go to the strip to experience the races, so to speak, rather than just watch.
I went to BIR in my early days and it provided foundational validation regarding displacement+rpm :biggrin5: - the profound power made the ground move and the air shimmer. Sometimes it was as if primal deities were speaking through the flames crackling out of those beasts! Big-*ss 8 cylinder mayhem. YAY! The electric launch was still a nice "launch"....... An electric Harley Davidson is an apt comparison regarding a lack of emotional provocation I daresay.......blech.