Mike Fragomeni, the founder of Top EV Racing, is developing a beast of an electric dragster with the goal of competing with its noisy, ground-shaking counterparts – top fuel. Yes, there’s nothing quite like having your pants shake as the nitro cars blast past you but it is entirely possible that this “solar powered” dragster can be as fast or even, dare I say… faster than the nitro cars.
Why do I say this?
Mike states “Top Fuel cars slip their clutches for at least the first half of the racetrack, and they’ve got 5000, 8000 hp, now they’re saying up to 10,000 hp on tap, and they slip the clutch till two-thirds of the track,”. “So, they’re not using that power fully at all, and we all know you’ve got to rev up an internal combustion engine greatly to make torque. An electric motor makes 100 per cent torque from practically zero RPM.”
And who doesn’t like torque.
Mike has the goal of breaking eight world records (for speeds and elapsed time over various distances). There is one number that stands out among the goals: 612 km/h: half the speed of sound. Vehicle specs include numbers like 5000 hp, or over 3.5 MW RMS, with a dedicated transporter including 6 kW of PV panels (the vehicle is solar charged), and a custom-built 100 kWh lithium ion battery array to store the PV energy for fast-charging the dragster.
Mike also points out that the lithium ion battery array contains the equivalent of more than 20 kg of TNT in electrochemical energy density. “If there is a short circuit, say we smack a wall at 500 kilometers an hour sideways and that battery pack short-circuits, we have a potential 20 m fireball explosion, much like the nitro cars, with my head just 30 cm away from the battery packs,” he explains. “So, the composite container of those cells means a lot to us in strength integrity.”
Pretty cool, huh?
So Mike is a super high-achiever with a vision. But he’s a “somewhat” regular dude, just like you and me and he does that all-important “execute” thing that many folks don’t. Don’t forget that part: taking “action”. It’s really important. So as you move forward not matter what you’re working on, execute on your vision and goals and don’t just do it a little. Take massive action and you might be surprised with massive results.
You can read more about Mike’s vision and execution here: http://www.topevracing.com/
