Electrathons (with video)

[drewjet]

I contribute our success to lots of testing and practice. I keep trying to find the weak link between races. Reliability counts for a lot in this event.

I will try and get some pics up tomorrow.

[drewjet]

Sorry, I never got a chance (forgot) to get pics of the Astro Setup.

Our next race was in Pensacola, FL at 5 Flags raceway. This was a 1/2 mile banked oval. I found that when I geared the Astro up for some more speed it took it out of it's efficiency area and the amps went through the roof. So I switched back to the Etek. It did us well and kept our undefeated streak going. We placed first overall.

[John in CR]

Drewjet,
Congrats on your continuing dominance!
John

[drewjet]

The new season starts tomorrow in Tampa at the Hillsborough Community College. If anyone is interested in going.

I spent the off season complettly redoing the car. Everything came off, rechecked all the welds and repaired. Lubed all up. Then since it was all apart it was time to upgrade the apperance. Out with coroplast and in with Alluminum, and a nice paint job.

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[drewjet]

Another race another victory. Although thias one was close. At 1 minute to the start of the second race I realized I had a flat tire, it took about 4 minutes to get it changed. So I started 7 laps down. In the end we pulled off the win.

[drewjet]

Another race another victory. This time by only one lap. Man they are getting faster and faster

[drewjet]

Start of another season, and another victory

[drewjet]

Another race another victory, by 1 lap

[jmygann]

what is the horsepower ? what do the rules say ?

[drewjet]

Horsepower can be anything you want. However everyone uses the same batteries so if you up the power you will run out of juice too early and loose. With that in mind the batteries holds about 750 usable watt hours, so you need to average 750 watts to last one hour. I will pull about 1500 to 2000 watts on accelerating and then coast as much as possible to get the average back to 750. The cycle analist is mandatory in my opinion, yet many drivers go without one, and they keep loosing. Maybe I should stop telling them how to beat me...Nah

[jmygann]

When choosing a motor for a tadpole single rider , one would look at time tested racing motors IMHO

I will request an Etec brushed for my Elf ... with LIPO's .. Would you agree

http://www.organictransit.com/index.html

[arkmundi]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrathon

An electrathon is a competition to go the farthest in one hour powered only by commercial lead acid batteries weighing no more than 73 pounds (33 kg) (two car batteries). The record is 62.05 miles (99.86 km) as of February 2011.[1]

This held some mild interest for me until learning that only commercially manufactured SLA batteries may be used. From an organization whose mission is:

To create and develop a sport that improves public awareness and understanding of electric vehicles through continuously improving vehicles and rules.

What a joke! I mean continuously improving where the main ingredient is fixed in the prehistoric era of batteries? ES ought consider the making of a completely new international race modeled on http://www.electrathonamerica.org, but lift this mind numbing rule.

[jmygann]

I think there is an experimental class .... but I think the Idea is to keep things equal in the regular classes

Could one use a 360 Nuvinci hub ??

[drewjet]

This held some mild interest for me until learning that only commercially manufactured SLA batteries may be used. From an organization whose mission is:

To create and develop a sport that improves public awareness and understanding of electric vehicles through continuously improving vehicles and rules.

What a joke! I mean continuously improving where the main ingredient is fixed in the prehistoric era of batteries? ES ought consider the making of a completely new international race modeled on http://www.electrathonamerica.org, but lift this mind numbing rule.

There is an experimental class where different types of lithium are allowed. We have used lithium a few times, and the loss of about 60 lbs was quite noticable. We tried to get others to join us but the lithium fear kept them away. We went back to lead as we are usually near the front anyways.

[drewjet]

When choosing a motor for a tadpole single rider , one would look at time tested racing motors IMHO

I will request an Etec brushed for my Elf ... with LIPO's .. Would you agree

http://www.organictransit.com/index.html

The Etek is a great motor if run within its limits.

I tried using a Nuvinci and I could get better acceleration, but I found it to have about a 8% loss of effiency

[jmygann]

8% .... wow

" Etek is a great motor if run within its limits."

I would assume 1hp or 740 watts .... is within its limits

If 50 volts or less , keep under 40 amps ??

[drewjet]

I would bet up to abot 5000 watts continious

[jmygann]

have you tried the mars or ETEK brushless ?

[drewjet]

have you tried the mars or ETEK brushless ?

Etek never made a brushless motor, it is made by Mars, now renamed Montenergy. i have one but it is on my motorcycle, I have never tried it on the electrathon, never felt the need.

[John in CR]

I haven't checked in on you in a while. So you're still dominating I see. Great job. What motor and voltage are you running? Regen braking? What's the typical distance and avg speed? Do you guys just run till the battery dies?

John

[drewjet]

we are still doing good, no longer dominating. A guy has showed up with one of the only factry manufactured electrathons. It is very low to the ground and very aerodynamic. He runs an AC motor. It is very fast, though we still beat him most of the time due to our better reliability.

We run 24 volts in the form of two Optima yellow top batteries rated at 40 AH (for the 20 hour rate). We usually get about 32 Ah out of them. The race is a 1 hour endurance race where everybody uses the same/similar batteries (1000 watt/hours max). The most laps win. For a motor I have found the Etek brushed motor impossible to beat, and trust me I have tried. I am currently waiting on a controller from Leo to run the transmagnetic brushless motor I bought from an ES member to see where it stands.

We do not use regen, I feel that I can coast better with a freewheel, plus most courses I almost never hit the brakes anyways.

[John in CR]

we are still doing good, no longer dominating. A guy has showed up with one of the only factry manufactured electrathons. It is very low to the ground and very aerodynamic. He runs an AC motor. It is very fast, though we still beat him most of the time due to our better reliability.

We run 24 volts in the form of two Optima yellow top batteries rated at 40 AH (for the 20 hour rate). We usually get about 32 Ah out of them. The race is a 1 hour endurance race where everybody uses the same/similar batteries (1000 watt/hours max). The most laps win. For a motor I have found the Etek brushed motor impossible to beat, and trust me I have tried. I am currently waiting on a controller from Leo to run the transmagnetic brushless motor I bought from an ES member to see where it stands.

We do not use regen, I feel that I can coast better with a freewheel, plus most courses I almost never hit the brakes anyways.

Beating the commercial built, that's great. Do they have car problems or electric drive problems? Since you run a CA what's a typical wh/mile...tight course or open course if significantly different? I'm curious what it takes to be competitive. Maybe there will be someone with similar vehicles at an alt energy fair I'm going to tomorrow, so I can brag what my friend Drewjet does.

John

[drewjet]

Our best ever was on a banked oval we went 33 miles in an hour (about 23WH/M). I think our lowest was 18 miles on a very tight track(about 42 WH/M).

[jmygann]

Best place to get the ETEK brushed motor ? Are there different models ? Where do the

Electrathon folks get theirs ?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Briggs-And-Stra ... 19d7778ffc

[drewjet]

You can find Etek motors on Ebay. I just bought one for $285 shipped.