Wayland Invitational IV Electric Drag Races!

[Palpatine]

NEDRA EV drag racing event, Portland OR July 2009

It's your personal invite! The "Wayland Invitational IV" electricdrag racing EVent is happening again this year at PortlandInternational Raceway (PIR), July 17th & 18th. Come see what electricpower is all about as NEDRA (National Electric Drag RacingAssociation) hosts this EVent. Electric vehicles (EV) from the newestproduction cars, to 11 second street rides, to all-out drag 7 secondbikes and rails will be pushing the EV performance envelope for 1/4mile acceleration prowess.

Hmmmm. Seattle to Portland, distance 180 miles.
Range of Tesla Roadster is 240 miles.

Electric drag racing event is July 17-18, 2009
Delivery of Tesla Roadster Sport is estimated for late June or early July.

This could be interesting.

 

[TEG]

Yes, it would be great to see what a real owner's Sport model can pull off in the 1/4 mile there!

 

[Plasma Boy]

Hello to All,

OK, it's my first post to the Tesla forum. The opening ' Hello Plasma Boy' paragraph had asked 'Why not make your first post today by saying hello to our community in our Introductions forum.'...yet I was unable to find a specific category titled 'Introductions forum' to post to...thus, here I am.

For those not familiar with who I am, my name is John Wayland, and I have been designing, building, driving, and racing EVs since 1980. I helped co-found the National Electric Drag racing Association (NEDRA), and currently own two electric Datsun 1200s and a Honda Insight hybrid....OK, I also have an electric garden tractor and at the last count, four board type scooters. I am also a big fan of the Tesla Roadster!

I'd like to invite all of you to join in the fun and excitement of the July 24th & 25th 'Wayland Invitational IV' electric drag races this summer in Portland, Oregon at PIR.
We’ve already gotten several commitments from Tesla owners who will be bringing and racing their rides. I'd be honored to have as many Tesla owners...with or without their cars, here at this race that's shaping up to be the biggest electric drag race of the year! Please visit the NEDRA web site for more details, feel free to answer this post, and or email me back as well.

I am fairly successful at attracting media to my EVents, and expect at least one of the major car mags to be covering this race. It would be quite exciting to have a large group of Teslas in attendance. The forklift company I work for, NW Handling Systems, always supports our EV drag racing and has offered to set up the forklift shop to charge as many Teslas as necessary off their wall of juice normally reserved for the bank of forklift chargers. The NWHS shop is a short 5.5 miles from the Wayland residence (aka The EV Juice Bar).

See Ya...John Wayland

National Electric Drag Racing Association
Welcome to Plasma Boy Racing, home of White Zombie, the world's quickest street legal electric door slammer in the 1/4 mile drag.
Oregon Field Guide — Electric Drag Racing · Oregon Public Broadcasting

 

[graham]

Oh! You are the White Zombie guy!

Welcome!

 

[doug]

Welcome John,

Of course many of us know who you are.
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/elec...worlds-fastest-street-legal-electric-car.html

I know of at least one Tesla owner that plans to attend your event (assuming his car is ready in time).

 

[Plasma Boy]

Hello to All,

Oh! You are the White Zombie guy!

Welcome!

Yes, I have decloaked and admit, I am the White Zombie guy. Seriously though, thanks for the welcome!

I am pretty excited that there will be several Teslas at the race, and so are all my other EV friends. We all think it's a great car, we all respect its out-of-the-box 1/4 mile capabilities, and I know all of us are looking forward to having a chance at running down the 1/4 mile with a Tesla! My car is fairly well known at the track, and at past races they've seen the likes of Killacycle (7.8 @ 168 mph electric drag bike) as well, but to see 'the' Tesla in person and watch it take out a few muscle cars and or hot imports, will be a real treat for all!

I am still working on aquiring a lithium sponsor for WZ, and if I do, look for a high 10 second run out of this little 'ol Datsun! If the sponsorship doesn't come through, even with its tired 2+ year old lead acid pack the car should still be able to run low 12s (it ran 11.8 when the lead acid pack was fresh).

In addition to my Datsun, Mike Willmon's low 12 second Pinto is coming down all the way from Anchorage, Alaska to be at this race. From southern California, my friend KD and his lithium powered Cobra replica and perhaps a lithium Mustang, too, are coming. We have asked flim maker Chris Paine to bring his Tesla as well, and are hoping he might also bring a film crew while he's at it. I will be contacting Car and Driver's Ted West to see if the mag wants to cover this race as a kind of 'Ted West revisits the West' kind of thing (East coaster Ted West wrote the story of WZ for the May 2007 issue). Anyway, it's stacking up to be a very BIG electric drag race!

Please feel free to let me know if any of you can join us. Otmar (designer and builder of the Zilla .6 megawtt DC motor controller) is beefing up his AC controller that spins a certain AC motor, and is installing a lithium pack into his electric-only Insight. He and I are both working on an I-5 corridor charging network for those wanting to take an electric road trip in their EVs, with the race being the destination. I am working on media coverage of the trek north-to- south out of Washington state into Oregon of a group of Teslas, Oat has got the south-to-north section covered. In addition to showing the world that EVs can be quick and fast, with the Tesla's 200+ mile per charge capability (when driven sanely - not by Top Gear), why not demonstrate their range prowess as well and show the world that with a proper infrastructure (charging stations instead of gas stations), todays emerging EVs can also be used for longer distance travel as well!

Again, thanks for the welcome!

See Ya...John Wayland

PS: I invite all of you to join us at the NEDRA@Yahoo discussion list

 

[Palpatine]

John already knows that I will be in Portland, even if my Tesla Sport has not arrived yet. However, I have been told that Tesla Roadster Sport #1 will be out the door from Menlo Park in late June, so it should be ready in time.

 

[Joseph]

"Otmar (designer and builder of the Zilla .6 megawtt DC motor controller) is beefing up his AC controller that spins a certain AC motor, and is installing a lithium pack into his electric-only Insight."

The motor is an EV1 motor, as in the GM EV1.

 

[DaveD]

Hi John,

I've been seeing videos of the White Zombie for many years, and I'd certainly like to see it in person.

I'm Seattle-area Tesla owner, and along with James, there's a group of us owners that are giving serious thought to caravaning down to Portland for your event. In my case, there's no doubt that I'd be making the trip in a Tesla, since it got delivered a week ago. Doug can vouch for me.

As for actually racing it, I'll have to think about that a bit more. I don't doubt that my R/T would be embarassing, but I may be game by the time I get down there.

 

[malcolm]

Plasma Boy! Welcome.

How awesome is that!

 

[ToddLa]

Lets hope Tesla has the MC240 by July, or we are not going to roadtrip anywhere.

 

[Palpatine]

Lets hope Tesla has the MC240 by July, or we are not going to roadtrip anywhere.

Todd, we will have a Tesla HPC installed at the track that night.
Half of these guys are electricians or electrical engineers and PIR has a reserved area for electric vehicles.

 

[felix pius]

Thank you Plasma Boy, for your invitation. How much I would like to be present at this electric drag race! If only it wouldn't be so far away - it seems Europe is still a desert - regarding electric car races.

Cheers

Felix

 

[Plasma Boy]

Readying for the Wayland Inv. IV (or how do I charge all those Teslas?)

Hello to All,

We last left of with my announcement of the 'Wayland Invitational IV' races coming this summer July 24th & 25th here in Portland, Oregon at the PIR drag track. Here then, is an update on things. For those who do not know me well, I am an electric forklift technician by day and a crazed high performance electric car guy at all other times. I am employed by NW handling Systems, a full service forklift sales, rentals, and repair facility.

It's funny how I have a way of turning ordinary chance meetings into opportunities...it's something I have a bit of a gift for, I think. Witness the following:

I was at my biggest forklift account the other day, a food service warehouse (Arby's, Wendy's, Burger King to name a few) with large area cooler and freezer rooms. There was a traffic accident a mile or so away where one of the vehicles had run into and destroyed a power pole, subsequently taking out the warehouse's three phase power. Their LARGE outdoors diesel generator had kicked on and with the turbo whistling away and the diesel barking loudly, the warehouse was running on standby power...to the tune of 400 kw continuous! I looked at the data plate on the minivan sized generator and saw that ominous rating and thought to myself, "That's the same amount of power it takes for my little Datsun to make an 11 second 1/4 mile pass." Of course, this generator belts it out for hours on end, but hey, it was a fun spec. to note.

Anyway, after I went inside and began my work at hand, I saw the higher-ups doing a walk-through with an electrician holding a couple of high tech type meters, and took the opportunity to say hello, striking up a conversation with her. She introduced herself as AnneMarie, the 'Project Manager' for Fox Electric here in Portland. Knowing she was there due to the nature of the power situation at hand, I quipped at her,"That's quite the generator out there! 400 kw, Wow, that's the same amount of power it takes to sling my electric drag car to its 11 second 1/4 mile ET!" Like a cartoon character coming to an abrupt halt with the accompanying tire screech sound, the electrician as she turned and asked, "Electric drag car? Are you into electric cars? Do you know about the Tesla?" This opened the door w-i-d-e open, as I instantly went into my spiel about all things Tesla! As my mouth was running on the outside, on the inside my brain was figuring out that this obviously bright electrician lady might be able to help me out with the charging needs of perhaps as many as 8 Teslas at once come this July when we will stage these exotic electric sports cars over at the NWH Systems forklift facility, conveniently just 5 miles away from the Wayland home. The NWH Systems branch manager, a supporter of NEDRA, has given me permission to bring the Teslas into the warehouse for a safe haven (away from prying hands and eyes) to be recharged after their 160-200 mile road journey down to Portland from the Seattle area - and hopefully some Teslas from a points south of Oregon as well. The NWHS Systems forklift shop has lots of 480V 3 phase power for the wall of forklift battery chargers used to juice-up the numerous forklift batteries, but there's only one lone 240V single phase outlet used for a welder in the shop. I asked AnneMarie if Fox Electric had any hefty sized line transformers in the 10-15 kw range that could step down 3 phase 480V to multiple 240V secondaries, and she just laughed, saying they had 'anything' anybody would need to supply and convert juice from any power source! She added that such transformers were very heavy and asked if we had a forklift...then I got to laugh! I told her that there was no money to be made, but that with her company's sponsored help, history 'would be made'. I also told her about the benefit nature of this race and the Autism fund raising thing that was a big part of the EVent.

I've since been in contact with her and have sent her the NEDRA link, and links to various EV drag race videos. OK, that's it for now. Stay tuned for more EVent updates!

See Ya...John Wayland

PS: In addtion to being able to charge up at the forklift shop, the Wayland home (aka the 'EV Juice Bar') can also provide juice. There are twin 240V outlets, one 30 amp and one 50 amp, located in the backyard two car garage sized EV shop, and there's a third 240V outlet outside near the shop's driveway. A fourth NEMA 1450 type 50 amp outdoor outlet is being installed at the house's attached garage driveway, so there will be four high current charging ports for visiting EVs. In addition, for lighter duty charging, the EV Juice bar sports numerous 120V outdoor outlets.

 

[TEG]

Hello again! It is great to see you on this forum.

...hefty sized line transformers in the 10-15 kw range that could step down 3 phase 480V to multiple 240V secondaries...

Isn't it more typical for industrial 3 phase to step down to 208V not 240V?

 

[Plasma Boy]

Readying for the Wayland Inv. IV (or how do I charge all those Teslas?)

Hello TEG and All,

>Hello again! It is great to see you on this forum.

>Quote:
>Originally Posted by Plasma Boy View Post
>...hefty sized line transformers in the 10-15 kw range that could step down 3 >phase 480V to multiple 240V secondaries...
>Isn't it more typical for industrial 3 phase to step down to 208V not 240V?

Thanks for the warm reply.

Yes, typical indistrial type 3 phase 480V supplies also have single phase 208V legs. It's my understanding that the Tesla chargers need 240V, not 208V. This is the reason I asked about a special BIG transformer or two. With a tranformer, a 3 phase 480V input can be used on the primary winding (that would have three sets of windings for each phase, while triple secondary windings will give single phase 'whatever you want'...in our case, we would be using transformers that give multiple 240V single phase outputs. For a 30 amp 3 phase 480V feed, such a transformer should be able to output three, single phase 60 amp 240V circuits.

As an example, the typical 480V 3 phase power transformers inside the 24V, 36V & 48V high current (110-250A typical DC output) forklift battery chargers I work on all the time, usually have such triple wound primaries that take-in 3 phase power, with three low voltage/high current independant secondaries - each making single phase power that is then rectified. The three DC legs are tied together to make the high current DC.

You could also step up the 208V single phase to 240V single phase, again, with a transformer brought in for the job. The reason I want to go from 480V 3 phase, is that we already have, I think 8 twist lock wall sockets at 480V -30 amp, on the charger wall, ready to feed the brought-in conversion transformers. In any EVent, AnneMarie told me it's something they do all the time, so she's evidently well versed in what I am asking for.

See Ya...John Wayland

 

[DaveD]

As one of the Seattle Tesla owners who is planning to attend Wayland Inv. IV, I greatly appreciate the effort you're making to provide us with enough power and safe Roadster accomodations! You can tell AnneMarie that she is welcome to take a drive in my Tesla, as are you. It won't be as thrilling as the White Zombie, but it's the least I can do for your hospitality.

 

[Palpatine]

I will also be installing my HPC at the new Green Car Company store in Portland Oregon. That store is projected to open in May 2009, so it will be available for Tesla Roadster recharging during the time period of the Wayland Invitational on July 24-25.

240 volt / 70 amp and a 3.5 hour recharge if your Tesla is empty.

 

[vfx]

Hi John,

Watched your recent video where you went to Lith and broke all those records. Congratulations on your successes. Your laudable activities made me wonder about the top 1/4 mile prize.

Is anyone mounting an effort to actually beat the big boy's ICE times? I imagine that such a racer built from the ground up might look a lot different than a conventional dragster since the weight can be spread out rather than in a single ICE chunk.

Is anyone doing this? Who would sponsor these efforts (GE?, Tesla?) How close are they to the best times recored? Any cool tech about it?

Thank you for all you are doing!

 

[scottfe]

Intro

My Radiant Red Roadster was delivered last week and I put 220 miles on it in three days. James has talked this event up in the Seattle area and if there's room I'll likely be joining the caravan down to Portland as well. It sounds like you've thoroughly addressed the issue of charging while we're down there. My only concern is charging along the way. But that should work out fine and be part of the fun. At least I'll be in good company! So I'm looking forward to it. I'll be doing the Seattle-to-Portland Cycling Classic earlier in July, so I'd be making two trips to Portland in one month without using a drop of gas!

-- Scott Ferguson --