Wayland’s Words

There’s a saying, ‘when it rains, it pours’…this an appropriate statement to describe the way things are falling into place for me this year. I think pretty much everyone knows that Exide Batteries helped make it possible for White Zombie to be the first street legal electric car to break 100 mph in the 1/4 mile, and, to crack the 12’s, sponsorship I very much appreciate. The 40 lb. Orbital Blue Top 12V AGMs never once failed under the extreme duty they were subjected to…read that 2500+ amps at the switch-over ‘hit the button’ mode. This year, my relationship with Exide continues. The batteries are destined for Purple Phaze and Blue Meanie.

Exide has provided me with a fresh pallet of 60 Blue Top Orbitals. Unlike the last time I received a pallet of batteries where it took lots of muscle and trips back and forth from the back of my work service truck down to my backyard EV shop packing battery after battery, this year I simply used my electric forklift, slipped the forks under the pallet, then took the whole thing at once into the shop…way cool! The little Hyster J30BS 24V lift truck didn’t even break a sweat lifting the 2400+ lb. load.

Finally, the 204V Blue Meanie upgrade is underway. 17 of the Exides and a Zilla Z1K controller will pump up the muscle of my favorite EV, and, extend its light duty range of 25 miles, to 30-35 miles. Leaving the 156V level behind, it’s time for my super dependable, super powerful DCP Raptor 1200 controller to go. Anyone wishing to own a piece of Blue Meanie and desiring to have a huge EV grin plastered to his face, the first $1500 takes it away. This controller is one of the early models that delivers on its 1200 amp promise, and sold new for $2300 or so. It’s in near immaculate condition, save for a wear mark on the cover where the 9 inch ADC was a bit too close and rubbed through the finish a bit.

Purple Phaze is becoming a very exciting project! With all the new Orbitals on hand, something snapped in my brain. I’ve decided to go after Rod Wilde’s Maniac Mazda class MC/A world record of 12.07 @ 110 mph, with a 348V, Zilla powered, wrinkle wall equipped, 13″ variable timed motor fed Datsun minitruck! I may be waking up a sleeping giant here, and if we get close to achieving this, Maniac Mazda might come after us to put us in our place, but I do think it’s possible to take the crown away with what I’ve got planned. As to Rod’s killer class MC/B run with the same machine at 11.2 @ 108 mph…well, that one’s going to be safe for quite a while.

Oh, did I say ‘Zilla powered’? You heard that right. I’m very excited to announce that Otmar and I, as we’ve done in the past, are once again collaborating. Cafe Electric has stepped up to sponsor the Purple Phaze project with a 2000 amp Zilla Z2K controller. Doing the math, 29 Exide Orbitals loaded down to 7.2V per module at 2000 amps (per Rudman’s load testing), comes in at a whopping 417.6 KW, or 560 hp from the battery pack…yeah, I’ll take that.

The four man crew that will be behind the Purple Phaze project will be myself, driver and codesigner Tim Brehm, Rich ‘Mad Man’ Rudman, and Jim Husted of High Torque Electric. Others are helping as well, including Otmar and Father Time, the latter who’s making custom aluminum motor pieces. Rudman will be used extensively for his expertise in all things battery charging-battery management, and will be very helpful in the work with the variable brush timing on the monster 13″ motor.

We will take the project through planned steps. The first goal, is a 156V version with a single string of 13 Orbitals. The MC/D record stands at 18.2 @ 71.86 mph…that should go bye-bye pretty quickly, as I expect the truck to run a mid 14 at this level. Getting a world record for Exide is job number one. Then, it’s on to the full blown crazy stuff at the 417 KW level.

Looking forward to a fun electric drag racing season….

See Ya……John ‘Plasma Boy’ Wayland

If one has three Zillas, is that called a Tri-Zilla?

Back on 4-12 I wrote:

Stay tuned for Friday’s announcement of a lighter, higher voltage, higher powered White Zombie.

Well, Friday came and went, then a second Friday came and went...oh well, lots of out of town fork lift work, family stuff, and well, life in general. I also had to wait to see just how something was going to turn out before I made this announcement. Anyway...drum roll please....

White Zombie has a new battery sponsor. It's a name that used to be synonymous with White Zombie and it's one that is still attached to the SC/A class record set back in 2000 with a 13.1 @ 99 mph run. Though I still have a strong relationship with Exide (read on), my street legal tire burner is getting its power ratcheted up once again, but this time, it's dropping 400 lbs. in the process!

I'm pleased to announce that I've received full battery sponsorship from Hawker and their newest division 'Hawker AeroBatteries' for White Zombie! The car will drop 350-400 lbs. of weight (compared to the current 288V version sitting in my shop) and should gain extra hp!! I'm using the Hawker AeroBatteries model AB 29, a 24 lb. 12V AGM with a short circuit current of 2400 amps. With just 672 lbs. of batteries and with about 50-60 lbs. in other weight savings (the lighter Siamese 8 motor, the aluminum drive line, etc.), the new 336V White Zombie will weigh about 200 lbs. less than the 240V Exide powered version that ran 12.99 @ 101 mph last May. With more hp and higher revving ability on tap, a vibrationless drive train, a free turning rear axle setup (brake drag has been eliminated), and ~ 2300 lb. curb weight, the car should run mid to low 12's this year at terminal speeds in the 107-110 mph area.

With a 336V, 29 ahr pack, White Zombie will still be driven to and from the track and should have a street driving range of around 30 miles per charge. The second higher positioned battery rack at the rear of the trunk will be eliminated, as it is no longer needed, freeing up space in the trunk. This will help clean up the overall look of the car.

Once again, Rich 'MadMan' Rudman has stepped up to help this year, as Manzanita Micro is providing a BMS for the new 28 module 336V battery pack to keep the new Hawker AeroBatteries in balance.
The new Hawker / Hawker AeroBatteries sponsorship, sponsorship from High Torque Electric...my expert electric motor buddy Jim Husted's shop, sponsorship from Dutchman Motorsports, sponsorship from Cafe Electric, and sponsorship from Manzanita Micro, are all very much appreciated.

Exide batteries has also stepped up this year, so stay tuned for more Plasma Boy Racing news to be announced.

See Ya...John 'Plasma Boy' Wayland

The new motor is coming along as scheduled. Jim has done a great job so far, as usual. The armatures from the two Warfield 8’s are in remarkably good condition, as are the fields. The shafts, however, aren’t too happy…good thing they’re going to the metal scrap pile. The center aluminum coupler, made from one of the original shaft end bells, fits outside one of the motor cases and inside the end of the other one, machined just so to make the two pieces go together like one long housing. We are modifying it further with air passage reliefs so that a single central fan can be used instead of two as previously planned….a bit more efficiency is gained by reducing fan drag at high rpm, and we both believe the one fan will pull in air nicely through each brush end bell’s cooling slots. If never street driven, we could probably race without the fan at all, but White Zombie is a street driven machine. With 24 Orbitals at 288V, no more brake drag, a new lighter aluminum drive line, and all the vibration gone, the car should have a respectable street range per charge in the 40-50 mile area. With the brake drag we had in back now fixed, and before it became motor-less, the car stuffed with all 24 batteries was super easy to push and it rolled easy, like Blue Meanie does…that improvement alone, should help better the car’s 1/4 mile time and speed.

Today, I’m off work, so I can get some much needed EV stuff done. I’ll be at Dutchman Motorsports to discuss slip joint spline options, so Jim and I can make the call to the motor shaft maker and give him the type of male splines to machine into the shaft’s output end.

Once the motor is ready to be put together, I’ll go the Redmond, Oregon to Jim’s ‘Hi Torque Electric’ motor shop, camera in hand to capture the assembly process. When it’s essentially put together, we will run the motor on just one armature and field section, and time it’s brush end bell first while we measure and record rpm and current at certain voltage. Next, the same will be done with the second armature and field section powered by itself, and we’ll adjust that end bell until we get the exact rpm and current at the same voltage. In theory, both end bells should end up positioned exactly the same as to the number of degrees advance, only on opposite sides of the field center point to get these results. I’m hoping the Siamese 8 will pull about 1200 amps @ 7000 rpm on a sagged 165V potential. Last year, at ~6500 rpm at 101 mph, the twin 8’s pulled 1200 amps @ 155 sagged volts (volts at the motors). The peak power was when I hit the button and pulled ~ 2500 amps @ ~130V at ~ 3000 rpm, or ~ 325 KW. I’m not sure what’s going to happen when I hit the button with a 288V pack, but it’s safe to say it will be done at higher rpm levels and at a higher series mode speed. I’m thinking it will still sag each Orbital down to 6.5V or so at 2500 amps, so that comes out to 156V @ 2500 amps for ~390 KW. That’s 522 hp of electrical consumption, but distilled to ‘delivered hp’, probably around 300, maybe a bit more.

In any EVent, it should be fun. More updates to follow…

See Ya…..John ‘Plasma Boy’ Wayland