While most drag racing records have been the domain of internal combustion engines, plenty of barriers remain to be broken for a new crop of electric vehicles which are becoming quarter mile pioneers of their own.
The world’s quickest electric vehicle on a drag strip at present is a motorcycle, with Larry McBride cutting a 6.940sec. time in 2012.
On four wheels it is drag racing legend Don Garlits, whose new dragster has run 7.526sec., but is designed to be the first to break the 200mph (320kmh) barrier in an electric dragster.
But those times might soon have a challenge from a Western Australian man keen to eventually produce Top Fuel-style performances from electric power.
Michael Fragomeni is the man behind the Top EV Racing team, who hope to send their dragster down the track for the first time later this year after five years of research and development.
“As we unveil the car on the race track, we’re to bring the car up to speed incrementally and safely, satisfying licensing requirements,” he said. “Then as we start to apply the power to the track in record-setting blasts, it’ll get interesting with over 21,000nM of torque on tap.”
The team has a chassis ready to be fitted up with their electric power plant and are also focusing on promoting solar-charging.
Fragomeni is preparing himself for the driver’s role, having attend the renowned Frank Hawley Drag Racing School in the USA.
The team has also received an early boost off the track, being nominated in the 2014 Commonwealth Bank North West Metro Small Business Awards.
“It’s great to see we are being noticed in our preparation stages and it highlights the extensive work we’re putting in now to get this to life,” Fragomeni said. “Trying to get 3000 horsepower with insane amounts of torque to hook up to the race track will be simply brutal.”
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