Topic: Idea: "$500 my ass" electric car domination
Ok, so Lemons allows teams to spend an unlimited budget to buy an electric drivetrain and batteries to put into a $500 car. I know there are some Lemons racers who have considerable financial means, so I am surprised that I haven't seen anyone attempt the following yet.
1. Buy $500 pickup truck
2. Buy Tesla electric motor and axles. Install this in the pickup truck, replacing the original engine and transmission.
3. Buy 2 Tesla battery packs. Get the 100 KWh battery packs that normally wedge into the chassis of a Model S. And, for each battery pack, rig up a version of the Tesla onboard charging system that works without the rest of the Tesla car.
4. Buy a forklift
5. Day before race day: use the forklift to load both battery packs on your trailer. Take them to a Tesla supercharger and charge them.
6. On race day: Use forklift to load one battery pack into the truck bed and connect it to the truck's electric powertrain. Ratchet strap the battery pack to the truck bed.
7. For fueling, use the forklift to bring the second battery pack to the hot pits. Quickly use the forklift to remove the old battery pack and install the new battery pack in the truck bed. (You may be able to speed this up slightly if you bring 2 forklifts).
8. Use the forklift to bring the your discharged battery pack to the paddock, and load it into your tow vehicle.
9. While your teammate is on track using the new battery pack, drive your tow vehicle to the nearest Supercharger (there is one kinda near Sonoma), and refill the battery pack.
10. Bring the charged battery pack to the track, and go back to step 7.
If you can (a) swap batteries fast, (b) bring enough batteries and tow vehicles and teammates, and (c) make the battery last on track for a good length of time, you could probably get competitive results. But, the hilarity of bringing forklift(s) to Lemons to "fuel" the car just seems like it would be really amusing. And, of course the complexity of it all means that the whole thing can grind to a halt when the forklift breaks, and then there is a line for the Tesla Supercharger, and the tow vehicle gets stuck in traffic on the way back from charging the batteries, and so on.