Re: "Racing" the Duff Beer Electric Car
Been a while, and distressingly little progress, but other life-issues have been getting in the way.
We ended up opting for a huge AC motor that they use for full-size SUV conversions. We should have about nine times the power that we had at CMP. Probably enough to shred our old VW Rabbit transmission if we are not careful. We're also getting a fully programmable controller, so Robert and I can go about our lead-footed ways and not overheat it, because Ricky will only let us have a couple of hundred amps. The motor and custom transmission adapter plate are supposed to be here next week. The adapter plate has shipped. Time is getting tight, so I'm probably only going to have 12kWh of batteries in the car at a time because that's all that I can fit in the existing battery box (I originally wanted 18kWh). That should be good for something north of 35 miles, and we'll have three sets of batteries, so around 50 laps before we have to recharge. We're using two banks of three large drone chargers powered by big DC power supplies from Cisco POE IP Telephony switches. Much experimentation and thought has gone in to the charging system; if you charge or discharge lithium ion batteries incorrectly, then they catch fire and are very hard to put out. We also have a discharge monitoring system that will cut a pack off if it drops too low or is discharging unevenly.
I figure we'll have a morning session in which we turn about 50 laps, then take a siesta while charging completes, and then an afternoon session of about 50 laps. On Sunday we will repeat. If all of this actually works, then we'll have to use race budget for more battery packs until we can stay out all day. Unless of course all of this fails miserably, which is probably likely, although after the original incredibly sketchy setup lasted all weekend (for various definitions of "all weekend"), we're feeling lucky.
We will have regenerative braking, but not like a normal EV, it will be stronger and only used for primary braking at the end of straights, probably activated with a button. Batteries and controller will be liquid cooled, or possibly heated, depending on outside temps.
Battery assemblies will connect to power and cooling buses using 350A Anderson connectors and tractor hydraulic line disconnects, so theoretically we should be able to do a hot-pit refuel.
Shocks/springs/tires should be better, allowing us to stay on line in traffic without being a danger to ourselves and others. We will not be fast by any stretch of the imagination, but should be able to ditch the bicycle flags.
There's probably more, and it's going to be a scramble to get it done, but if most of this stuff works, then it should really kick ass.