Electric Dragster: 1978 Ford Pinto Sedan “Crazyhorse – el Pinto Loco”
May 29th, 2008In, France: First All Electric Light Aircraft Flight, I wrote:
You won’t see a plug-in Boeing 747 anytime soon. But this reminds me of the freaks who wanted electric cars so badly (over the last couple of decades) that they couldn’t help themselves. So, at great expense, they converted conventional cars to run on electric power, and the results pretty much sucked. (I know, someone with a lead acid powered Pinto dragster is going to slap me on the face with a white glove over that last statement.)
Well, I knew it would happen, eventually.
Mike wrote in. He’s the builder and owner of an EV Pinto dragster in Alaska. He wrote:
Took me a while to catch up. I don’t have white gloves, would you prefer leather 😉 They’re kinda greasy though from pulling the engine out of the Pinto, heh heh.
The only argument I would have is that the results haven’t sucked. On our second day at the track Monday and we turned in a 12.72 second 1/4 mile time slip at 97 mph. As you may or may not know the overwhelming first question I get from folks about my conversions is “how fast will it go” and a distant second is “how far”. See here in the states people don’t care about economy, you should know that. They are still happily paying $4/gal for gas and $4.70/gal for diesel up here. And there are lots of Diesel trucks here where I’m at. If people think 40 mile electric range sucks, wait till they’re paying $5 or $6/gal for fuel. Here in the states anyway you won’t dazzle them with range if the car is slow. But if its fast they’ll accept that the range sucks, its the same with a high performance gas muscle cars. People don’t drive their Ferrari’s or hopped up Camero’s to Fairbanks from here. They take the Prius. But for people like me that don’t drive to Fairbanks, we get by on 20 miles a day max going to and from work. Its starting to convince people, and all I have to do is wait as gas prices rise. Any why wouldn’t they (gas prices rise)?
My $0.02 worth….
Mike
Mike sent along some links about his EV Pinto dragster:
What happens when you dump 800 amps into an electric Ford Pinto? You win races.
1978 Ford Pinto Sedan “Crazyhorse – el Pinto Loco”
Photos of the Crazyhorse dragster at the drag strip
Alaska Crazyhorse Pinto EV drag race video
Thanks for letting us know about your EV project, Mike.
I think we’re clearly entering a phase where people are just going to start building Do-It-Yourself EVs in larger numbers. In 2008, EVs are going to trickle out from manufacturers. Within five years, they will be ubiquitous, with several models planned by the major automobile companies and startups alike.
When I wrote that the results “sucked,” what I really meant to express was that the range wasn’t sufficient. But, as you and others have demonstrated, 20 miles, today, right now, is very usable for some purposes, especially as the price of fuel increases.
