Thread: Electrathon - A Different Kind of "Hotrod"

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Just ideas;;As long as your running those wide fat tires,I would think making one of your drive wheels a free floater=then it would be one wheeldrive>that would save power{it not a standing start dragrace}. Also depending on the turns on a track,tire PSI could be added to lower rolling res..
Looks like fun. Love red!!! Not so much the number.

Golly, Bat, are you superstitious? When my son was racing he always ran 13. I've kept the number registered in case I ever got a second car again. Now I have two cars and needed a second number so I resurrected the 13. When I was racing stock cars years ago, my cars were hot lime green...

YUP,,, LOL both 13 an green I avoid,but not crazy like,I drove a #13 race car for another guy a shot time,it's bad luck had a lot more to do with how he put it together then the number. I had a paint job also a short time at first,on a English Ford Angla race car, Did red nose/white center/green ass. Britsh colors. Raced it 4 nites an got crashed in the ass< the green end. Fixed an repainted it > red/white/blue+ I won next time out. Never used green again LOL,And by the way never let peanut shells be in your pits. Actully I like bioled peanuts,but keep shells in a trashbag. A buddy was racing Speedworld,an dropped some shells in my pit! Pick your crap up,said I,,,FU he said,so I picked them up an dumped in his his race car seat,he LOL at that. But in his next race,he broke a rod. He said don't give him BS about that !! But on his tow home,his van broke also. I sent him a Bag marked "FOR Peanut Shells" what are buddys for,but too help !! LOL

Wow! Thanks for the compliments 34_40. I don't know if I'm any kind of master or particularly smart; I'm just a compulsive tinkerer with too many hobbies.

Don't sell yourself short Jim. You've shared mountains of information and knowledge just in this thread alone.

Sorry for the delay in posting. Since our last race on May 1, I have been going 6 or 8 directions all at once and frankly forgot to update here...

OK, the last race of the season took place on the oval at Plant City High School on May 1, 2021. My good friend Jerry Bristow flew in from Indiana to drive my purple car in the Open Standard Battery class and I drove the converted go-kart again in the Advanced Battery class.

In the first race, Rodney Schreck from Miami beat Jerry by one lap in the Open Standard class. In that same race, I was flogging the go-kart a bit too hard and only lasted 41 minutes. I coasted into the pits with a dead battery, credited with third place out of three cars in the class. Cliff Rassweiler #39 took first and the Fortuna car #444 was second.

I finally figured out that I had the wrong gear ratio in the purple car. Unfortunately, the motor sprocket I needed was at home on my workbench, so Jerry was stuck driving the second race with the same combination. The outcome was the same; Rodney simply outran Jerry and beat him by one lap. I did a little better in the second race than the first. I managed my wattage a little better and completed 56 minutes. Again I coasted into the pits with a dead battery. Cliff had only lasted about 9 minutes in this race before a blown tire sidelined him. The Fortuna car #444 had made multiple pit stops and dropped out about 5 minutes before me. I thought I might get a victory by default.

As it turned out, Jerry of course got second behind Rodney in the Open Standard Battery class. The Fortuna 444 car had run enough laps in the first race that she won the day by 4 laps over me in Advanced Battery class.

I don't think I have found all the potential in the little go-kart yet. I think it needs new rear axle bearings to start with. After that I may experiment with narrower tires to reduce rolling resistance. Only time will tell, but it sure is fun to drive!

Oh yeah. Here's a picture from that last race. I chose this one because I built every car in this picture. (Yes, I'm bragging again)

Bragging?
Brag as much as you want to.
You've got every right to brag about what you've achieved.

Post a picture of the go cart when you have time. Sounds like a lot of fun!

There are a couple of pics on the previous page in post #535 of the go-kart with and without the body panels. Here are a few more action shots from the Plant City race. The last pic was shot in the pits between races - you can see the motor location and the blue thing under my gloves and the seat belt latch is the 48 volt Lithium battery.

Are there any rules prohibiting a back up pedal drive?

What if the pedals spun a generator?

I don't know. I've never been asked that question. We can have regenerative braking, but I think all other means of battery recharging are prohibited during competition. I will need to look through the rules and see.

FYI - There used to be an event called Solar Bike Rayce (sic) where solar panels and human power were used as supplemental power to the batteries. Their race lasted 3 hours. It was a really interesting event and a tremendous challenge, but for some reason it disappeared about 10 or 12 years ago.

Thanks for the pics. Looks like it would be a smoother more comfortable ride than the bike tire ones?

It wouldn't be charging the battery, if it were shunted directly to the motor.

We had our 2021-'22 season opening race yesterday (9-11-21). After a brief memorial ceremony commemorating 9-11, 10 cars took the first green flag of the season. I took both of my cars to this race at Hillsborough Community College. Ryan Norden drove my purple "Silver Bullet" car #94 in the Open class and I drove the #13 converted go-kart in the Advanced Battery class.

The Open class was very competitive with 5 cars running closely all day. Ryan finished in second behind our good friend and sometimes teammate, Rodney Schreck. I got a third place out of three cars in the Advanced Battery class.

Since the last race I have made several adjustments to the go-kart to improve its handling. It performed pretty well, but I ran out of battery power at 52 minutes in both races. According to folks more knowledgeable than me about Lithium batteries, they need to be run through at least 5 charge/discharge cycles before they reach their full potential. I was using brand new batteries, so they did pretty much what was expected.

I'll post some pictures later if I can get some from somebody. Since I was busy driving one car and servicing both between races I wasn't able to take any myself.