"The 'naked look' Zombie of 2014 was clean fun, but now it's time to get back to business!"
Photo courtesy of Ralph Ogata
'Siamese 9' dual armature. Forced-air cooling. Remains unchanged from 2014 in perfect condition.
Direct drive into Ford nine inch differential - no flywheel, clutch or transmission. Electric reverse.
Single piece all aluminum driveline from 'Inland Empire Drivelines'. NHRA required Driveline loop.
Dutchman heavy duty Street/Strip Ford nine inch rear axle setup with Strange aluminum differential housing, Detroit locker and 31 spline racing axles. Tall 3:25 gears, CalTracs and sticky drag radials take advantage of the electric motor's maximum torque at zero rpm for quick launches - 1.33 best 60 ft.
Left: Custom built 15 x 6 American Racing two piece alloys in front with Federal 165/45/15 tires.
Right: American Racing 'Torq Thrust D' 15 x 8 two piece alloys with 5 bolt Nissan/Ford bolt pattern. New flat style axle caps added. The well-worn drag radials were replaced with fresh 225/50/15 BF Goodrich 'G Force' Drag Radials' to handle traction duties in the rear.
192 Dow Kokam lithium manganese nickel cobalt polymer cells configured at 2P96S make up the Zombie's 355V, 21.3 kWh high current battery pack. The UHP (ultra high power) cells are 3.7V, 30 ah nominal with a continuous discharge rate of 20C, have a 40C 10 second rating for a maximum of 1200 amps from each cell, and are configured in paralleled pairs so the battery pack can safely output 2400 amps. With a manufacture date code of 2007 they are now 10 years old and have been in service since 2010. All cells are still performing 'as new' and are well balanced. The Zombie sees regular duty as a street car, with one particular weekly mixed 65 mph freeway and 45-50 mph twisty country road round trip. Returning to the garage after 54 miles, the pack is still at 342V, or 3.56V per cell (Vpc). With a useable discharge range from 4.1 Vpc (396 pack Volts) down to 3.0 Vpc (288 pack Volts), this backs up the 100 mile range claim well.
Zilla Z2k 2000 amp controller. Quick-pull emergency disconnect.
Meanwell high voltage model DC-DC feeding a 13.2V Thunder Sky lithium battery.
On May 29th the Zombie was the recipient of a new look, courtesy of PVS In-store Graphcs located in Portland. Wanting to acknowledge Datsun's rich racing heritage while returning to the EV racing theme, Plasma Boy decided to do his own version of the famed 'BRE' Datsun paint scheme, blended with EV graphcs and stickers.
In early 2015 the Zombie was still sporting the naked sleeper look, but ever since being part of the Historic Car Races at PIR (see Races and Events section of 2014) and after receiving hate mail over the un-stickered look, Plasma Boy couldn't get the BRE Datsun thing out of his mind.
Left: The famous #46 BRE Datsun 510.
Right: The idea for the new look began with Plasmaboy using Photoshop - cutting, manipulating, resizing and pasting the stripes from an image of a BRE Datsun 510 onto the naked image of the Zombie to visualize the idea.
The BRE 510s had a couple variations of paint scheme - either red on top or blue on top, with the top hood color folding over the fenders and becoming the top portion of the racing stripes. The Photoshopped Zombie below with a blue hood looked odd, as having just the hood colored didn't look right, and coloring the roof and trunk lid would be too much - the car is after all 'White Zombie', not blue or red Zombie. It needed to have just the right balance.
Plasma Boy came up with the idea of electrical bolts on the hood that would then fold over into the racing stripes morphing electricity with classic racing adrenalin. Below: Using original artwork files provided by longtime friend, fantastic cartoon artist and supporter Chip Gribben, Kevin took the yellow electric bolt from the Plasma Boy Racing logo and created new blue bolts for the hood:
It was great fun working at PVS with the guys, and especially interesting to see how the digital images on the work station computers were sent to the shop area where large format vinyl printers spit out all the pieces. Once the various decals were cut and trimmed, the next step would be application to the car.
PVS In-store Graphics does full vinyl wraps on everything from cars to buses, so the White Zombie project was a piece of cake. The guys are all fans of the Zombie, and it was fun working with them as they really wanted to put their touches on the car. Being part of the whole process and watching the transformation was a great experience.
Adopting the racing scheme used on the BRE Datsun 510 to the Datsun 1200 actually required some thought and bit of research. The placement and angle of the racing stripes for 510 didn't translate well to the smaller 1200. Using the same angle and top placement of the stripes from the 510 had them cutting across the middle of the 1200's smaller door instead of at the leading portion of the door as it does with the 510 (lower left photo), plus the angle of the stripes just didn't look right. With the stripes in the middle of the door, there was no room for the Plasma Boy Racing logo that was to be positioned similar to the racing numbers on the doors of BRE 510 sedans. Legend had it, that Pete Brock (BRE stands for Brock Racing Enterprises) mirrored the windshield's A pillar degree angle for the racing stripe, and the prepress computer programs verified that. When digitally copying and pasting the 510 racing stripes to the image of the Zombie, the angle was awkward because the degree angle of the 1200 windshield A pillar is different than that of a 510. We measured the 1200's A pillar angle, then tilted the racing stripes to mimic it. Instead of starting the top portion of the stripes where the A plillar meets the cowl as it is on the 510, we pushed that point forward to where the rear corner of the hood meets the cowl. That made it all fall into place where it looked right, and opened up the door for the Plasma Boy Racing logo. Below center & right: Additionally, in place of the midstripe 'BRE Datsun' we inserted 'White Zombie' in silhouetted font (center photo courtesy of Ralph Ogata).
Previous to the 2014 naked look, the Zombie had always sported a menacing Godzilla on its hood - a nod to the mighty .7 megawatt 'Zilla' motor controller and the monster attitude of White Zombie. We experimented with a couple of variations, then Kevin decided he needed to be belching what he is calling a 'FlameBolt' shown in the killer photo shot by Ralph Ogata.
The PVS In-store Graphics gang did a terrific job!
Ralph Ogata's images capture the new spirit of White Zombie so well!
2350 lbs.
Plasma Boy Racing supports EV education and displayed White Zombie at the UTI workshop.
The Zombie was still a street sleeper in the first half of 2015, and looked pretty tame among all the flashy rides at this year's show.
Two high performance alternative energy vehicles... one with stickers and one without - which one is quicker and faster?
We returned for our second year at this great EV show in Washington state.
Two clean white machines - electric hotrod vs classic American muscle. What a fun encounter this was! Note that the rare split window Vette has the identical American Racing Torq Thrust D wheels. The naked look Zombie had been getting mild reviews at other car shows since it's Texas makeover, but it's sticker-less clean all white finish made for a perfect photo op comparo with the Corvette! We found the car's owner, complimented him on his car and in good natured fun, asked if he wanted to race for titles - he said, "No thanks, I wouldn't stand a chance - I know all about your car!"
One week after the new 70s style racing look was done to the car, we displayed the Zombie inside the auto shop, then put on a few tire smoking runs in the parking lot - note all the cameras catching the scene.
The Zombie with its new racing look was driven to Oregon City to be part of the group of cool cars.
The Zombie returns for the 11th time to the biggest car show of the year. The 2014 'naked look' Zombie turned the car into a street sleeper and at last year's Greenwood show many missed the racy stickered look. The new 70s era 'race car turned loose on the streets' look drew a lot of attention!
The Zombie returns for the 11th time to the biggest car show of the year. The 2014 'naked look' Zombie turned the car into a street sleeper and at last year's Greenwood show many missed the racy stickered look. The new 70s era 'race car turned loose on the streets' look drew a lot of attention!
Photo courtesy of Maria Dixon
Marko Mongillo with his super cool '68 Datsun minitruck EV, Robert Thornton with his 'Wedgie' CommutaCar and Plasma Boy with White Zombie put on their own EV car show within this fun car show hosted by the Northwest Vintage Thunderbird Cub.
Wedgie was updated by Plasma Boy Racing with a compact lithium battery pack 1/4 the size and weight of the original lead acid golf car battery pack, but still giving 35-40 miles of range. Marko's Datsun truck has a 30 kWh pack, so we used a modded PFC20 as a DC-DC transfer to fill up Wedgie's small pack for its 25 mile return trip from Oregon City back to Portland - how cool is that?
White Zombie returned to this electric car show emblazoned in full decal mode after last year's more tepid naked look.
On a foggy crisp day, the trio of Marko's Datsun minitruck EV, Robert's super rad 'Wedgie' CommutaCar and White Zombie invaded this otherwise gasoline-fueled car show near the banks of the Willamette River in Oregon City.
From Summer through early Fall, every Wednesday night there is an ET drag racing & car show EVent at Portland Iternational Raceway put on by Beaches Bar & Grill. Though we did not race the Zombie in the 1/8 mile drags that was the backdrop of this over-the-top car show, we did have it on display among the 750 cool cars and hotrods that showed up!
The last public showing of White Zombie in 2015, was appropriately at the 'World of Speed' museum.
None. The Zombie saw a little track time in 2015, but there were no failures of any kind. It was shown at many car shows and EVents, and was driven extensively as an in-your-face electric hotrod.