Zombie History

------------------------------------2011 VERSION-----------------------------------

January 27th-30th, 2011, Portland Convention Center

Photo by John Wayland

Portland Auto Show (below) The giant 'Time slips Don't Lie' was a big hit among show-goers! This guy had to take a picture of it, probably to later show his disbelieving friends (that he had seen a low 10 second electric car)

(below, left to right)...The owner of the Skyline GTR we raced and beat in 2010, just happened to be at the show and was a good sport over the video that was playing on the flat screen we had set up. The look on everyone's faces as they watched the Zombie easily blow away the powerful Nissan, says it all!

  • Motor:

    'Siamese 9' dual armature. Carried over from 2010 with no changes, other than a rebuild in April. (see 'Carnage' below)

  • Drive type:

    Direct drive. Electric reverse.

  • Driveshaft:

    Single piece all aluminum driveline from 'Inland Empire Drivelines'. NHRA required Driveline loop.

  • Rear axle:

    Dutchman heavy duty Street/Strip Ford nine inch rear axle setup with 31 spline racing axles, & CalTracs traction bars.

    Strange aluminum differential housing with Detroit locker. New taller 3:50 gear set replaces last year's 3:70 ratio.

  • Wheels & tires:

    Front - American Racing 'Torq Thrust D' 15 x 4 two piece alloys with 5 bolt Nissan/Ford bolt pattern and 145/65/15 Continental EcoContact LRR radials.

    Rear - American Racing 'Torq Thrust D' 15 x 8 two piece alloys with 5 bolt Nissan/Ford bolt pattern and 225/50/15 BF Goodrich 'G Force' Drag Radials' (23.9" dia.).

    >

  • Batteries:

    192 Dow Kokam lithium manganese nickel cobalt polymer cells configured at 2P96S make up the Zombie's 355V, 21.3 kWh high current battery pack. Each cell is 3.7V, 30 ah nominal with a continuous discharge rate of 20C, and a 40C 10 second rating for a maximum of 1200 amps from each cell. The cells are arranged in paralleled pairs, so the battery pack can safely output 2400 amps.

  • Controller:

    Zilla Z2k 2000 amp controller. Quick-pull emergency disconnect.

  • 12 volt system:

    Unable to get a DC-DC converter to live more than a day or two in the demanding Zombie application (100V swings from 300V-400V and the killer spikes from the 2000 amp HV controller) a second unassisted 40 ahr Thunder Sky 13.2V battery w/4 ch BMS board was located under the hood. Placed in parallel with the existing 40 ahr Thunder Sky in the trunk compartment, this added about 16 lbs. to the car's weight, but it beefed up the unassisted 12V system supply to 80 ah capacity. With 100 miles driving range, the single 40 ah battery wasn't enough to run things for hours on end.

  • Other Mods:

    Other than the taller rear end gear ratio change and the addition of a second 40 ah 12V system battery, there were no new changes for 2011.

  • Car weight:

    2364 lbs.

  • Races and EVents

    1-27 thru 1-30, 2011... Portland International Auto Show

    February, 2011... Retro Cars magazine

    Both White Zombie and its brother Blue Meanie had been featured in the UK's super cool 'Retro Cars' magazine in their January 2009 'Power Issue' (see White Zombie History 2008 'PR and EVents' section). The pair of hot electric '72 Datsun 1200s must have left a lasting impression, as a couple years later they resurface here. Marko Mongillo's rad '59 electric Fiat 600 'Fiamp' on far right also included. Coffee cup stain courtesy of JW.

    3-18 thru 3-20, 2011... Portland Roadster Show

    The Pin-up Dolls took a liking to White Zombie at the Portland Roadster Show.

    4-8, 2011... Friday Night Drags, PIR, Portland, Oregon

    These are the caliber of muscle cars the Zombie races against. The fabulous 56 Chevy couldn't hang with the little Datsun that was running mid-10s.

    This was the only time the Zombie hit the drag track in 2011. The guys at FabTek said that proper scaling of the car might be good for a .2 second reduction in the already impressive 60 ft. times of 1.58 that the Zombie usually nailed on DOT drag radials. We did the scaling which required full suspension tuning, then headed to the track. The first run netted a 1.4-something 60 ft.! Unfortunately, the motor was unhappy and arced and sputtered, so it was only a high 10 second run. The next run's launch was crazy with an amazing 1.33 60 ft., but the Zombie only ran a mid-10 with sparks flying and the motor sputtering again. The third run was the nail in the coffin as the motor went into full failure mode, and we were done for the night.

    FabTek's prediction was spot on, and we dropped from our best 60 ft. of 1.58 to that 1.33 ... without resorting to drag slicks, running on the street legal drag radials we drove to the track on! That's a .25 second improvement. Considering the Zombie's three nearly identical 10.2 second runs from the Fall of 2010 - the best ET of 10.258 that had a 1.62 second 60 ft. could have been a 9.96 ET if the 60 ft. had been 1.33... the 9 that got away?

    4-23, 2011... Rosedale Green Festival, Rosedale Elementary School, Hillsboro, Oregon

    6-11, 2011... 'Cruisin' Sherwood' hotrod car show, Sherwood, Oregon

    This was a fun hotrod show, and the Zombie turned quite a few heads. Note the T shirt a vendor was selling to the typical gas crowd. If they didn't like eco-friendly electric cars already, they probably really got upset when they read the specs of the Zombie's stand-up that read '0-60 in 1.8 seconds'!

    6-25, 2011... 'Greenwood Classic / SEVA Gasless on Greenwood' hotrod car show, Seattle, Washington

    2010 broke the streak of 6 years in a row due to the Zombie undergoing heavy mods at the time, but it returns to the Greenwood Classic in 2011 making it's 7th appearance at this annual car show that always draws huge crowds.

    (above) With its new 21.3 kWh lithium pack installed in mid-2010, the Zombie has up to 100 miles range per charge @ 55 mph, and about 80-85 miles at higher freeway speeds. This was the first time we drove the Zombie up the I-5 freeway system 350 miles round trip to the Greenwood car show in Seattle. Even though Portland and Seattle are 175 miles apart, we decided to leave the trailer at home and relied on oportunity charging along the way. The good folks at 'Bob's Lil Car Hospital in Kelso, Washington, let us do a prearranged pit stop to charge off their 240V - 50 amp welder circuit. The pack was still at about 40% capacity when we pulled in after 52 miles of freeway driving.

    (below left) You can see Seattle's skyline in the horizon as the Zombie demonstrates it's the only low 10 second electric drag car that's also a fully street legal car capable of this kind of range. The green graph on dash display shows a ruler-flat top edge as all 192 cells are nicely equalized. (below right) Note that we don't crawl to prove the range, and occasionally even get warned by the GPS (see red zone) we are breaking over the posted limit!

    7-9, 2011... 'OEVA EV Awareness Day', Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland, Oregon

    The Zombie and Gaylen's quick Lithium-powered electric quad on display together.

    7-29 thru 7-30, 2011... 'EV Seminar', Electricians Union Hall, Kent, Washington

    The Zombie was on display at this two day event. Note Plasmaboy's silver Insight destined to be a 400 mile per charge EV crusier 'Silver Streak' and already sporting the custom AC/DC plate!

    8-6, 2011... 'Blueberry Festival', Mossy Rock, Washington

    Plasmaboy Racing team member Gaylen Aust hails from this small town that puts on a country celebration that includes great food, great pies, and a fun parade. The Zombie was invited to join in and got to cruise along with tractors, firetrucks and Mossy Rock entertainers as part of the festivities.

    8-14, 2011... '27th Annual NW Datsun Owners Show & Shine Picnic', Blue Lake Park, Troudale, Oregon

    The summer of 2011 was packed with car shows! Following the previous weekend up in Mossy Rock, Washington, the Zombie returns to Oregon to take part in the annual Datsun party at Blue Lake just east of Portland in Fairview. Several other Datsun 1200s made it to the show.

    9-10, 2011... 'Cars in the Park', Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon

    This was an enjoyable EV show to be part of, in front of the Portland Art Museum on a beautiful Fall day!

    9-16 thru 9-17, 2011... 'Susan B Komen Health Fair', Convention Center, Portland, Oregon

    White Zombie on display at the Portland Convention Center

    11-4, 2011... 'Revenge of the Electric Car', movie premier at the Hollywood Theater in Portland, Oregon

    White Zombie is part of an EV gathering and joins movie director Chris Paine at the Portland premier EVent.

  • Carnage:

    At the PIR test & tune night in April, the Siamese 9 motor blew up after three hard passes. We had surmised it was from over-temping the motor, as it does not have an internal fan - we had talked about an external cooling blower, but it had not yet been installed. The motor was pulled the following weekend and disassembled to reveal melted armature windings in both the front and rear sections!

    Left - to - right (1) The dual armature stack not looking good! (2) Close-up of the melted armature windings... 2000 amps and no cooling = bad ju ju! (3) New armatures pressed onto the shaft, installed and the rebuild nearly done (4) Finished and ready to go back into the Zombie.