Scotty Pollacheck on the KillaCycle set the overall world record for an electric vehicle in the 1/4 mile, once again, while Eva Hakansson on her ElectroCat set the 48 volt division street-legal electric motorcycle record. What a perfect birthday present for me at Bandimere Speedway.
Here is a terrific video by Steve Ciciora from this weekend at Bandimere.
(You can go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbi1RhgRrxk if the above link doesn’t load)
Read about it in Eva Hakansson’s blog:
and in this great article by Christine Jerritts in the Denver-Motorsports-Examiner
We have the very latest and most powerful “F1″ cells from A123 Systems. (AONE on the NASDAQ) We are working away building a very lightweight and powerful new battery pack for the KillaCycle from these cells. These are, in fact, the most powerful cells ever produced on the planet by anyone, so they should make the KillaCycle go much much faster on the drag strip.
We plan to make a few other improvements on the bike at the same time that will result in a total weight reduction of over 150 lbs and a power increase to 560 HP. Hopefully, with the weight reduction, the poor tortured motors can take this. 
(Still looking for sponsorship for help with an upgrade to brushless motors, by the way.)
For motor upgrades 2 things to think about…
1/ Do not rule out modern induction motors with variable voltage variable frequency electronic controllers. These have been used as wheel motors in EVs.
2/ For high efficiency perm mag motors try…
http://www.turbopowersystems.com
They also do alternators, and I once saw a spec of
50kW (yes, 50 kilowatt) in the size of a car alternator.
Cheers.
The hard part is to convince them to build a one-off 1000 HP (750 kW) system. Lots of folks build 100 kW systems, but no one builds big, compact, short duty-cycle systems.
What about the original Buckeye Bullet AC induction motor. Maybe they would let you use it?
As I recall, they used either one, or possibly two, AC Propusion drive systems. They are about 150 to 170 kW each. (200 to 230 HP) but the inverters are very large in size and cannot fit on a motorcycle. (Bout the size of a _very_ large suitcase.) We need 1000 HP in a compact package.
AC Propulsion seriously considreed building a 1000 HP drive package specifically for the KillaCycle. They _wanted_ to do it, but they just couldn’t justify diverting the time and money away from their pressing business needs. Basically, they had to be “adults”, even though they didn’t want to be, and take care of businees before they could allow themselves to have “fun” doing a 1000 HP motorcycle drive package.
If you want the ultimate electric motor, I can provide it. Just give me the specs for a free quote. For extremely high power I suggest a brushless PM multipole design using FeCo laminations and a Halbach magnetic array.
Any idea when/where these cells will be available for purchase?
The cells in the KillaCycle are standard production A123Systems 26650 M1 cells. You can purchase a developer’s kit from A123Systems here.
The M1 cells are used in Dewalt 36 volt lithium ion cordless tools.
I meant the “f1″ cells mentioned in this post. A123 Systems have not responded to my emails, unsurprisingly. Also, have you talked to Zytek/Bosch/Magneti Marelli about a brushless system? All three developed extremely light-weight brushless motors for F1 KERS. Maybe they would be interested in sponsoring your upgrade.
If you guys aren’t going to respond to my actual question, about the F1 cells, then delete the comment to which you erroneously replied talking about M1 cells.