The bike, piloted by top fuel drag bike champion, Larry "Spiderman" McBride, is the first electric vehicle to break 200 mph in the 1/4 which is a historic first for EVs.
But after arriving back at the pits it was apparent the rear tire needed to be changed. During the repair it was discovered a thread was stripped in the wheel which cost the crew more time as the track was baking under the mid-day sun. Larry became concerned the track would be to hot to make a record breaking run. Fortunately, some passing clouds came through and cooled the track down.
After putting the bike back together, Larry headed back out to the track where he nailed the 6.94 second run at 201 mph! When he arrived back in the pits Paul Sr from American Chopper called to congratulate him on the successful run.
The bike has a 250 pound, 355 volt lithium battery pack built by Derek Barger of High Tech Systems. This is the third pack he designed for the drag bike and the best one yet. The pack has a capacity of 14.2 kW that can produce 1340 horsepower! The drag bike's motor is a 13-inch GE upgraded by NEDRA record holder Dennis Berube. The motor war originally designed for 36 volts but now handles voltages as high as 400! Feeding the massive amounts of current to the GE motor is a custom built 4000 amp Zilla speed controller designed by Otmar Ebenhoech.
Images: NEDRA
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