World’s Fastest Electric Car is a 1972 Datsun
Out on the dragstrip, one hardly expects the car kicking ass and taking names to be an old ‘72 Datsun 1200. Especially when the losers are driving BMWs, Corvettes and Ferraris. But those guys didn’t get pwned by any ol’ Datsun…this one’s electric!
It seems a bit like a paradox. Drag racing is flame-dipped muscle cars with bikini-clad hood ornaments spread over the hood. Electric cars, not so much.
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But John ‘Plasma Boy‘ Wayland’s White Zombie is a game changer.
It goes from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds! In fact, it can take a quarter-mile in 11.46 seconds reaching a top speed of 114 mph – that’s a world record. And it’s street-legal.
The White Zombie is powered by two motors; motors that are usually used to operate forklifts. It’s filled up with over 60 batteries that occupy both the trunk and the back seat. All of this gives the White Zombie about 300 hp, and the ability to beat every combustion engine it comes up against.
It takes about 20 minutes to fully charge the car, and it can get up to 40 miles on a full charge.
So how does a ‘72 Datsun knock down a souped up Corvette? Well, electric vehicles have an abundance of torque and they have it all from a standing stop. So they just explode off the starting line.
I think it’s safe to say that the future of racing is green.
Image: dragtimes.com
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March 25th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
[...] via World’s Fastest Electric Car is a 1972 Datsun : Gas 2.0. [...]
March 25th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
I was amused by the narrator’s comment (at the end) that the car doesn’t emit one ounce of air pollution. Well not quite. Didn’t he notice the huge clouds of toxic smoke when the car does a burnout when it approaches the starting line? And besides, the electric engine may not emit air pollution directly, but unless it’s 100% recharged from nuclear power plants, it’s powered by fossil fuels somewhere on the electric generation grid.
March 25th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Tesla & Wrightspeed don’t beat this car in a quarter mile? Go Datsun.
March 25th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
The car uses electricity which is created by burning fossil fuel which dissipates when transmitted across wires to the track. This may not be as efficient nor environmentally sound as a combusion engine.
March 25th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Only 40 miles on a single charge? It may waste everyone else off the line, but it’s no good for endurance racing.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
The electricity is likely generated from coal plants. This doesn’t make the car any more green than a regular gas guzzler.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Do you really think you could possibly employ filtering as efficient as they use on coal or oil power plants on your average car? That’s what makes electric cars clean. Not that they don’t emit fumes. The energy it consumes *is* cleaner.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
@Veritaba
Actually, electric vehicles are greener than typical gas powered cars. In the future you should probably pause for a moment before you spout opinion as fact lest you appear foolish (again).
March 26th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Wow people, time to read up on how electric vehicles compare to gas engines in terms of emissions:
http://gas2.org/2008/04/08/without-clean-electricity-plug-in-vehicles-arent-so-hot/
March 26th, 2009 at 12:14 am
uhh, for everyone saying that it still pollutes because the electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels, it does, but electric motors are much more efficient than an ICE can ever hope to be. If you also think about all the things required to get crude out of the ground and refined, etc, etc rather than burning coal (which we already do) or coming from a nuclear plant you see how stupid it is to use gasoline to power car engines.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:46 am
you are aware that top fule dragsters are combustion engine vehicles right? that they can run sub 8 second 1/4 mile times?? there are 10 second street cars as well…
March 26th, 2009 at 1:43 am
To all the people saying, “OMG! It uses coal somewhere along the line”…
Yes, it MAY use fossil fuels, but the plants are far more efficient than car engines. Also — this is the first step in going green. Electricity is the best medium for energy since it can be produced in a green way (solar, wind, thermal, water..etc). Gas cannot be used in a green way.
Batteries can be recycled as well… so there’s very little waste going on with electric cars and once the batteries (or capacitors) are improved they’ll recharge very quickly and go many miles.
March 26th, 2009 at 1:59 am
“and the ability to beat every combustion engine it comes up against.”
No. 11 seconds is fast for sure, but combustion engines can make the run in about 4.
March 26th, 2009 at 4:02 am
Hmmm 60 batteries huh.. Lets NOT forget what it costs as far as carbon footprint in the making of a battery. Mining materials to make the battery, shipping the raw material to processing plant, energy to make the battery, shipping battery to seller… the list goes on. Now when those batteries are past their rechargeable life span where does all that waste go?? Hmmmph electric cars are in no way greener than a clean burning gas fueled car.
March 26th, 2009 at 4:08 am
Don’t forget the OZONE
March 26th, 2009 at 5:35 am
All the people whining about how the electricity comes from power plants…
Power plants are an order of magnitude more efficient than internal combustion engines, even with transmission losses.
March 26th, 2009 at 6:41 am
I won’t dispute that electric cars could be greener than internal combustion engines (has anyone done an analysis of the pollution costs of battery manufacture?) but I DO dispute the narrator saying the cars are 100% emission free. They’re not.
March 26th, 2009 at 6:46 am
[...] world’s fastest EV is a ‘72 Datsun with two forklift electric motors and 60 batteries. It can blow the hubcaps off a Corvette. Plus [...]
March 26th, 2009 at 8:49 am
You naysayers seriously need to pull your head out of your Arse! The FACTS are that every gasoline ICE powered car on the road is 15% energy efficient. All the heat coming out the exhaust and radiator, so hot you can cook food on it, you paid for it at the bowser. A kw/hr of energy cost approx the same be it out of a wall socket of in liquid form. There’s a perfectly logical reason why EVs cost 1/10th the cost per mile compared to any ICE…they use 1/10th energy to do the same work.
March 26th, 2009 at 10:22 am
[...] Фотография ребенка, который услышал впервые Одна из самых быстрых электрокаров – машина 1972 года Ученые из США обнаружили на земле [...]
March 26th, 2009 at 10:59 am
I want to see this Datsun drag race against the Eliica.
Eliica Electric Car Accelerates Faster Than a Porsche 911
http://gas2.org/2008/12/27/eliica-electric-car-accelerates-faster-than-a-porsche-911/
March 26th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Clayton B Cornell. Do you know by chance who owns that site you are quoting from?
March 26th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Everyone seems to forget about hydroelectric power. An to Charles, that toxic smoke is from the burning of the rubber from the tires. There is no way to stop that unless you don’t do a burnout.
March 27th, 2009 at 3:16 am
Now all you need to do is get a bit better mileage, slap it on a production line and we’ll be back to the future in 1972.
March 28th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Your Car is very cool. Rock on!
While the car is not polluting the air, the production of electricity probably is. Hopefully in the future our electrical production will be as clean as your Car!
March 28th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Come-on, get with it. Are fossil fuels/coal the only way to generate electricity? What about water turbulance/solar/wind etc.
March 29th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Not all electricity is produced from coal. Can you say, “Hydroelectric Dam”? If this is being raced in the west, chances are the electricity is coming from that source, so the carbon footprint is WAY lower than with coal. Think about it people.
March 30th, 2009 at 7:18 am
@Clayton B. Cornell: You need to read up on the differences between PHEV (Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles), HV (Hybird Electric Vehicles) and EV’s (Pure Electric Vehicles)
The article you pointed at was merely comparing CV’s (Conventional Gas Powered Vehicles), HV’s and PHEV’s
None of the data covered pure EV’s (PHEV90 is the closest) AND it assumed it’s based on the national grid, which a mix of generating sources but primarily from coal… pure production EV’s tend to be lighter than hybrids (mine’s between 5-600 pounds) therefore you can expect their electricity usage to be less than a PHEV90 once the weight of the gastank/motor is removed.
Sometimes ya’ gotta read past the headline/first paragraph and look at the data…
Most of the responses have covered the efficiency advantage on EV’s, but to add, a funny thing about EV’s — mine gets about 200 MPGe off of coal/nuke, but give me a green energy source and that skyrockets to between 5-600 MPGe. As soon as I can get renewable electricity, my 10-year-old EV gets immediately makes a big jump greener. That’s something you just can’t do with an ICE — they get dirtier with age as they get out of tune/wear out.
To be honest, it does disturb me greatly that miners are buried alive/mountaintopping/nuclear waste is generated to power my EV, but it is the lesser of two evils (blood-oil from the Middle-East). We (US) import 2/3rds of our oil, and I’ve cut my personal oil usage by over 2/3rds with a minimal increase in my electricity usage.
March 30th, 2009 at 10:56 am
[...] Via :: Gas 2.0 [...]
March 30th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Mike: “Actually, electric vehicles are greener than typical gas powered cars. In the future you should probably pause for a moment before you spout opinion as fact lest you appear foolish (again).”
How about you practice what you preach, d—.
March 30th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Love all the idiot posts….There are ways to plug up an electric car and still be green…uhh let’s see….solar, wind, hydro. Gas is out….people just need to wake up and realize that the oil cartels and big businesses are keeping us where they want us. In THEIR POCKET. Gotta break free and quick being small minded, and led like cattle.
March 30th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
What many folks don’t realize is that during off-peak hours, usually at night, the energy grid actually produces excess power which goes unused. Because of the way most power plants work, its not efficient for them to shut down during this time so they keep on pumping out watts even if its not being used.
I charge my electric car overnight taking advantage of lower off-peak rates but best of all, I’m not really contributing to increased emissions. I’m just using the energy that’d otherwise go to waist.
March 30th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Hey Jerry..just keep putting the good word out…we know what the real deal is…let the pre-hominid cromags learn how to walk upright..Maybe then we can teach them how to build a fire also..We’ll see..wake up folks its time to evolve!! This is a positive step in the right direction..the right to be critical on this matter is only held by the the person working harder to achieve better..Monk
March 31st, 2009 at 3:29 am
Damn impressive.
20 minutes to fully charge and go 40 miles. Perfect for city driving.
And if it is charged using solar panels in your backyard or something, holy moly. “Free” driving.
March 31st, 2009 at 1:25 pm
I love the ignorant programmed moron response “the electricity comes from fossil fuels” blah, blah.
Hello, solar power is FREE and uses no energy to make energy. 100% more efficient than ANY gas car.
Wake up people. And even when it comes from the grid it still is 90% better than burning oil.
April 1st, 2009 at 2:16 am
If we all actually stood up to the power companies who continually burn coal because of their lack of desire to convert to a cleaner source, the electric car could be almost carbon neutral. I personally get my electricity from a local wind farm and, if I were to drive an electric car, there would be no pollution released at any point. Maybe if we all were able to get our own solar panels and electric cars, we would be self-sufficient and could stop being a slave to the power and fuel companies. Just think about never having to worry about a blackout again.
April 1st, 2009 at 9:34 pm
This story is about an electric car and owner who lives in Portland OR. The vast majority of electricity produced in the NW United States comes from hydro. Nearby Seattle gets 90% from hydro. Having an electric car in the NW makes great sense for this reason as well as the rest of the US. The carbon footprint for the 1972 Datsun would partially come from the production of the batteries but it’s nothing like what you get from a dirty gasoline or diesel car/truck. Calculating carbon footprints is is much more complicated than the simple example I gave above. Even electric cars charged from coal power plants are less polluting than gas or diesel rigs.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Gas and oil production are not without high costs to the environment including requiring significant electricity from the coal plants for acquisition, processing, and transportation. Electricity is used every step of the way to create and deliver gas.
The question is not if there is any impact on the environment but what is the relative impact. Electric cars are an efficient way to reduce the additional impact on the environment by cutting out the intermediate gas and oil production impact. The advantage of gas is not environmental efficiency but storage.
One can store immense stable amounts of energy in gas allowing for 1,000 mile ranges of heavy load carrying vehicles. The improved batteries in new electric cars are for commuters but aren’t much use to trucks or trains moving goods or large numbers of people.
It is matter of using the right tool or energy source for the job. You don’t get rid of the wrenches because the hammer does a good job.
April 18th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
actually the total electric car is less efficient. average ICE is roughly 20% efficient but newer ICEs are around 30% efficient. The electric is normaslly around 81 % efficient but you have to add roughly 30% efficient at the coal plant and 10% (90% efficient) for loss on the electric grid. Total electric is therefore roughly 21.6 % efficient vs newer ICEs at 30%. Plus coal is much dirtier than gas which all GW are quick to point out.
April 20th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
the only really green fuel on this planet is
the one that fuels our submarines and aircraft
carriers.
April 20th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Misleading title to this article, this ISN’T the world’s fastest electric car. It is the world’s fastest electric STREET LEGAL car. There are faster electric dragsters out there.
April 20th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
It’s water powered most likely. In Oregon and Washington most of our electricty comes from rain going through hydroelectric dams!
April 28th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
This car is not charged by burning fossil fuels. The car is in portland oregon and is charged by hydroelectric power.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:27 am
[...] in exciting new ways. The electric motorbike that rockets from 0-60mph in under a second, and a 1972 Datsun that just happens to be the world’s (second) fastest elecric car spring to [...]
April 30th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Those of you writing comments about electrics not being more environmentally friendly than ICE (internal combustion engine)cars better do some research and get your facts straight before posting.
When you burn a tank of gasoline, about 85% of the energy in it is wasted, mostly as heat, which comes in handy in winter but is otherwise useless. With an electric car about 85% of the energy from the batteries is converted to motion, which is what a car is supposed to do, move you down the road.
When you burn a tank of gas, all the matter in your gas tank goes into the air. The average car burns something like 2.5 tons of gasoline per year. Multiply that by the 240 million cars on US roads, and you realize why there is an air pollution problem.
Even if the electricity is generated from coal, the electric vehicle is still about 70% less polluting than an ICE car….and electric cars can be charged from electricity generated by hydroelectric, solar panels, and/or wind generators. These generate no point pollution at all.
May 2nd, 2009 at 10:14 pm
For all you fulks feeling great about burning gasoline becuase it’s better than the coal that charges Zombies batteries, the Pacific Northwest is powered largely by hydro-electric.
There’s a delicious, self-fulfilling irony in petro junkies insisting on hiding their heads in the sand.
May 25th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
For the smart people talking about fossil fuels. Not sure where you live but where I live in North Carolina our power comes from the river. Hydro Power so green to green my friends.
July 8th, 2009 at 3:36 am
I would still like to see the bikini-clad hood ornaments !
November 11th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
KILL THE SEALS AND START THE DRILLS! ALSO IF U WOULD LIKE TO GET TECHNICAL BATTERIES PUT OFF A GAS CALLED HYDROGENGAS YOU MAY OF HEARD OF IT.ITS LIGHTER THAN AIR AND IS HIGHLY FLAMMABLE ITS ONE OF THE NUMBER ONE CAUSES OF BATTERIES EXPLODING AND MELTING PEOPLES SKIN.ALSO BATTERIES DISCHARGE HYDROGEN GAS EVEN IF YOU VEHICLE IS SHUT OFF. YAY GASOLINE!
November 12th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Maybe the electricity used is from coal or nuclear but, It might also be from a damn, solar panel or windmill. With the ICE, the gas basically got there one way and it has to spew in order tow operate. The conscientious E-racer can decide no to pollute while a gasoline powered racer has no such option.
December 31st, 2009 at 7:21 pm
i cant belive forklift motors can take the amps?
pleas send me a part list and sorces..
so ther can be more cars like this, demand for
these parts will increses prodution , reduce cost.
February 1st, 2010 at 9:08 pm
1200 goon ftw!!! i heard about this and also am curious as to what drives this electric race vampire! i watched the vid and saw all he put into it but not how it was made. that info would be great to see. i drive a 77 b210 and would love to make something to rival this beast!