Bracket racing a Nissan Leaf - Current Attraction.

We did not want to steal the other thread so we have started this one.

First event of Test and Tune went.....Outstanding.

A bit of background history, Tammy and I have been racing for over 20 years, We have Drag raced a ICE Door car (me only), a rear engine Dragster, a 7 second 180 MPH Blown Front Engine dragster and a few years ago some converted electric motorcycles. This was our first electric door car and Tammy's first time in a door car of any sort.

Our expectations for this event...none. We had hoped for 1/8 mile passes that were consistent and in the 11 second range and around 65MPH. Tech inspection went smooth as they had seen us a few years ago with the electric motorcycle and even with the Front engine Dragster.

We made 7 passes, 4 by me and 3 by Tammy. My fist pass was in the 11 second range at 62 MPH. 11.00. Mmmm maybe a 10 second pass if I get the batteries "happy'? yup. A 10.98 AND a 10.99 and a 10 98. All at 62 MPH.

WOOF that is consistent.

Tammy's turn. Since she is 50 lb lighter than Fat Ed we would expect better times. A 10.94, a 10.93 followed by
a 10.94. all at 63 MPH. The local Bracket racers better look out....next time.... we race! More later!!!

Wow, that is _very_ consistent!

What do you mean by 'get the batteries "happy"'?

etracing said:

A bit of background history, Tammy and I have been racing for over 20 years, We have Drag raced a ICE Door car (me only), a rear engine Dragster, a 7 second 180 MPH Blown Front Engine dragster.

Click to expand...

I found this very interesting as I too have run door cars for 20 years, and a 187 mph blown FED [Pontiac powered]. My current ride is a Honda Fit EV, which is deadly consistent as well [16.14 @ 94.99 - 1/4 mile]. I look forward to seeing your bracket race results.

Mike

I told you the car would shine on 1/8th mile strips.

drees said:

Wow, that is _very_ consistent!

What do you mean by 'get the batteries "happy"'?

Click to expand...

We found this out with the electric motorcycles. Once you make a pass or two the chemistry in the batteries "wake up" and the rest of the passes for the day will be very, very consistent.

blownb310 said:

etracing said:

A bit of background history, Tammy and I have been racing for over 20 years, We have Drag raced a ICE Door car (me only), a rear engine Dragster, a 7 second 180 MPH Blown Front Engine dragster.

Click to expand...

I found this very interesting as I too have run door cars for 20 years, and a 187 mph blown FED [Pontiac powered]. My current ride is a Honda Fit EV, which is deadly consistent as well [16.14 @ 94.99 - 1/4 mile]. I look forward to seeing your bracket race results.

Mike

Click to expand...

Hey Mike. Good to hear from another FED driver. and a Pontiac no less.

The track loved the EV, the other racers...not so much...

etracing said:

drees said:

Wow, that is _very_ consistent!

What do you mean by 'get the batteries "happy"'?

Click to expand...

We found this out with the electric motorcycles. Once you make a pass or two the chemistry in the batteries "wake up" and the rest of the passes for the day will be very, very consistent.

Click to expand...

I think what happens is the batteries warm up and the internal temps equalize. I've also found that the lithium pack on my E-bicycle puts out a bit more voltage right after charging to 100% and equalizing. Do you let the car charge to full and EQ right before a race?

LeftieBiker said:

Do you let the car charge to full and EQ right before a race?

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Yes we will do a full and equalizing charge before the event. We keep the chemistry active with a trickle charge between rounds.
We have found that the car does not care if it has 100% or 72% charge, the run times are consistent as long as the batteries stay in
a active state. I am sure some of the consistency is the Nissan Computer control.

Our next event will be on the 27th. We can not wait!


E&T

Dead on consistent. Very NICE! Very impressive.

We must have an official racer car....it has numbers.

Our NEDRA class and voltage Division.

Back to foot brake racing.
Since we had not foot brake raced in over a decade we had a simple goal in our first big bracket race, win a round.
This was a $2400 race so some of the state’s heavy hitters were here. The no box category had 34 cars at one of
the best IHRA tracks in SC. Most of the cars were purpose built race cars with a few street driven vehicles like ours.

The track was familiar with NEDRA and the only question they had was the SP designation on the car. They liked the
idea of a Street production class.

Current Attraction performed as we had hoped. All the runs were very consistent with a total spread of only .03 seconds
all day on our dial in. My reaction times were all good as the car launched very consistently, much better than most of
our earlier ICE bracket cars.

We made it through the first round beating a Mustang. Then we won the second round, the third, the fourth and made it
to the Semifinals before losing by .014 second on the total package.

It was an outstanding day. The staging track official remembered us for our Blower car days and had picked us to win
the event. Maybe next time.

It was good to be back racing.

Later gators!

Nice!

What kind/size wheels do you have on it?
I've been trying out some Infiniti G35 wheels on my Leaf, and I find that it introduces torque steer on acceleration/deceleration. Have you noticed any torque steer with the new wheels?

garsh said:

Nice!

What kind/size wheels do you have on it?
I've been trying out some Infiniti G35 wheels on my Leaf, and I find that it introduces torque steer on acceleration/deceleration. Have you noticed any torque steer with the new wheels?

Click to expand...

These are 1999 SVT Ford Cobra rims. 17x8. We have not had any torque steer issues.

You may want to measure the roll out of each tire. You may find one larger than the other. Also check for a bad shock.

EV Ed

Great write up of your outing. The cat will soon be out of the bag about EV's and how consistent they are.

etracing said:

These are 1999 SVT Ford Cobra rims. 17x8. We have not had any torque steer issues.
You may want to measure the roll out of each tire. You may find one larger than the other. Also check for a bad shock.

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Shocks are fine. I put the original wheels/tires back on & confirmed that there is no torque steer with them.

I went with larger-circumference tires (P235/50R17) on these rims (17x7.5 front, 17x8 back), so that's probably the cause of my problem. What size tire are you using?

garsh said:

etracing said:

These are 1999 SVT Ford Cobra rims. 17x8. We have not had any torque steer issues.
You may want to measure the roll out of each tire. You may find one larger than the other. Also check for a bad shock.

Click to expand...

Shocks are fine. I put the original wheels/tires back on & confirmed that there is no torque steer with them.

I went with larger-circumference tires (P235/50R17) on these rims (17x7.5 front, 17x8 back), so that's probably the cause of my problem. What size tire are you using?

Click to expand...

I have 205/50R17 front and 225/50R17 on the back. Just enough to give it a little rake.

etracing said:

I have 205/50R17 front and 225/50R17 on the back.

Click to expand...

If you feel like experimenting, try swapping your fronts & backs & see if you notice any torque steer.

Another issue I'm having - I have to disable the stability control. Otherwise it kicks in whenever I take a high-speed curve (40mph+). Quite unsettling.

If I could get confirmation that both of these problems are due to the larger circumference rather than the tire width, I'd feel a bit better about keeping these wheels - I'd just get different size tires for them.

garsh said:

etracing said:

I have 205/50R17 front and 225/50R17 on the back.

Click to expand...

If you feel like experimenting, try swapping your fronts & backs & see if you notice any torque steer.

Another issue I'm having - I have to disable the stability control. Otherwise it kicks in whenever I take a high-speed curve (40mph+). Quite unsettling.

If I could get confirmation that both of these problems are due to the larger circumference rather than the tire width, I'd feel a bit better about keeping these wheels - I'd just get different size tires for them.

Click to expand...

We can do that, but will not be going to the track again for a few more weeks.

I will let you know.

EV Ed

etracing said:

garsh said:

If I could get confirmation that both of these problems are due to the larger circumference rather than the tire width, I'd feel a bit better about keeping these wheels - I'd just get different size tires for them.

Click to expand...

We can do that, but will not be going to the track again for a few more weeks.

I will let you know.

Click to expand...

That would be great!
If you can reproduce the torque-steer and the high-speed cornering stability control issue with the higher-profile tire, then I'll feel pretty good that that is the problem. And I'll start searching craigslist for some lower-profile rubber.