Drag racing legend “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, on the 50th anniversary of Garlits’ historic first official 200 mph pass in 1964, will attempt to drive the first battery-electric dragster to exceed 200 mph on a ¼ mile drag strip.
The Quest Dragster will be powered by a 1500 kilowatt array of lithium polymer (LiPo) batteries producing an equivalent horsepower rating of over 2000 HP powering a General Electric DC motor via 3x Zilla controllers.
These specs are very similar to those used by the first electric vehicle to break 200 mph in the quarter mile! The Rocket bike made history May 4, 2012 with a record run of 6.940 at 201.37 mph.
The bike was built by Lawless Industries and Orange County Choppers with Lawless also supplying the electric powertrain for the Quest SR-37 Dragster. Where the bike used A123 high-performance Nanophosphate lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries the dragster will use a lithium polymer (LiPo) battery pack supplied by HighTech Systems LLC.
The title of World's fastest Electric Car in the quarter mile is currently held by Dennis Berube's Current Eliminator V dragster with an elapsed time of 7.956 @ 159.85 MPH. This record has stood since December 30th 2007. Power came from Altairnano lithium-titanate batteries via an early version of the same GE 13 inch DC Motor used by the Lawless Rocket and now the Quest SR-37 Dragster.
