Ben Preiss
Edit
| Embed Video: |  |
 Published: Aug 1, 07 Views: 3,507 With battery cell technology improvements adding more power per weight electrics are coming closer to liquid fuel cars. The KillaCycle, an electric drag bike, posted the fastest quarter-mile time by an electric vehicle, 8.16 seconds — that’s 2.36 seconds off the nitromethane world record for drag bikes set by Larry “Spiderman” McBride last year.  Straddling a 619-pound motorcycle, Scotty Pollacheck tucks in his knees and lowers his head as he waits for the green light. When he revs the engine, there's no roar. The bike moves so fast that within seconds all that's visible is a faint red taillight melting in the distance.
Pollacheck crosses the quarter-mile marker doing 156 mph; he's traveled 1,320 feet in 8.22 seconds, faster than any of the gas-powered cars, trucks or motorcycles that have raced in the drag sprints on this weekend at Portland International Raceway. It's particularly impressive given Pollacheck is riding a vehicle that uses no gasoline and is powered entirely by lithium-ion batteries.
Electric vehicles are making their presence felt at amateur drag races across the country, challenging gas-powered cars and motorcycles. The "amp heads," computer geeks and tree-hugging environmentalists driving the electron-powered vehicles are starting to kick some major rear end.
Pollacheck and his bike — dubbed the KillaCycle — are part of a growing movement that's exploiting breakthroughs in battery technology and could soon challenge the world's fastest-accelerating vehicles in the $1 billion drag-racing industry.
(news.yahoo)References: nedra, news.yahoo Filed In: |
