On Jun 24, 2015, at 3:14 AM, Chris Tromley via EV <[email protected]> wrote:
> I continue to be baffled by the drag guys' fascination with comparing a > highly - and specifically - modified > race car to a stock-and-standard high performance OEM car. Teslas aren't why Weyland built the Zombies. I think this is the first time he's raced a Tesla, and it's _far_ from the first race he's won (and won big). Nor was the outcome ever in any doubt by anybody who knows about these things, just as there wouldn't be any doubt about the winner of a race between the high school all-state champion and somebody on the Olympic team. > Sure, the > racer can go to the store just like the OEM, but that is not what it was > built for. They completely ignore the value of all the time it took to get > the race car to the point where it could beat the OEM. Actually...that's probably most of what matters to Weyland and his crew. They're doing this because they love doing it. The end product is nice, but the process is at least as important. > They also ignore the fact that if Tesla knew they were going to go drag > racing and could prepare for it, they could simply swap controllers and do > a few other minor tweaks and be in the hunt. I wouldn't be too sure. The first order of significance in drag racing is power-to-weight...and the Mustang is a lightweight car and the Tesla's battery pack and wiring probably isn't capable of delivering the wattage necessary to match the ratio the Zombie has. After that, it's mostly about traction -- of not breaking the tires loose. There almost certainly isn't enough room in the Tesla wheel wells for tires that can compete with what I'm sure they've got on the Zombie. (And they've almost certainly "tubbed" the Zombie, doing body work to put in bigger fenders and shorter axles so as to fit really big wheels and tires...how's that supposed to work for a Tesla?) Could Tesla engineers design and build a race car from the ground up that would beat the Zombie? I sure would hope so...and I'd love for them to do that. I'd like to think that, with the right budget, a team like what they've got at Tesla should be able to build an electric dragster that would best even nitromethane-cooled top fuel dragsters. They're doing the "quarter mile" (1000 feet, not 1320) in about 3.7 seconds and cross the finish line at 330 MPH. What kind of controller swap and other minor tweaks do you think it'd take Tesla to be in the hunt for _that?_ > This whole exercise seems rather > childish. If that's the case, then _all_ amateur racing for all time is and has been childish...and amateur sports, and all hobbies, and so on. Why would you waste time with paint and canvas when a camera is so much faster, easier, and accurate? And isn't that the point, after all? To have some fun? I mean, these guys have built the fastest '60s-era Mustang _ever,_ and it's an electric vehicle. In what alternate universe is that _not_ effin' awesome? And why would you ever want to visit that universe, let alone live there? b& -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 801 bytes Desc: Message signed with OpenPGP using GPGMail URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20150625/34e40e99/attachment.pgp> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
