Mitch and I are both members on another forum. He lives between Austin and where I live. About three months ago, I stopped at his shop and saw the Zombie in person. That is one impressive machine. He is currently working with his battery supplier and making some modifications to the car to run it in the Texas Mile again next March. They hope to break 200 mph!
And on the Tesla...Mitch ran Zombie against one at a drag strip in San Antonio and left the Tesla eating dust. I've seen the video; it wasn't even a close race.
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I don't know why but there is literally zero interest from me in performance electric cars, they don't do anything for me. It's like comparing a finely tuned machine to a Kia. They both might do the job but one has no soul.
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Until you can drive one cross country, filling up along the way, I wouldn't consider one. It IS interesting though, and I'm glad there are commuters who will buy them in the meantime so they get further developed. Until then, I'm sticking with internal combustion.
Until you can drive one cross country, filling up along the way, I wouldn't consider one.
But often do you drive cross country?
I drive no more than 20-100 miles per day about 360 days a year. Those few days that I drive more than that, on vacation etc, I could rent a gasoline car and still be saving on gas the remainder of the time.
I would love to own a Tesla.
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I don't know why but there is literally zero interest from me in performance electric cars, they don't do anything for me. It's like comparing a finely tuned machine to a Kia. They both might do the job but one has no soul.
I believe the vast majority of the population has no interest in a car's soul. Doing the job cost effectively is the first and only concern.
Personally, I hate so-called "performance" cars and big motorcycles because I don't want to hear them. I don't want to hear you coming home at 2 am. I don't want the music in my car drowned out by your car 2 lanes away. I don't want to know you started your engine when I'm 2 blocks away.
There's too much unnecessary noise out there, if all vehicles can eliminate motor noise that would be a fine thing indeed.
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I love the sound of a big V8 as much as anyone, but anything that can pin me to my seat going 0-60 in 3 seconds has my vote regardless of how little sweet noise it makes.
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Originally Posted By: vocatx
Mitch and I are both members on another forum. He lives between Austin and where I live. About three months ago, I stopped at his shop and saw the Zombie in person. That is one impressive machine. He is currently working with his battery supplier and making some modifications to the car to run it in the Texas Mile again next March. They hope to break 200 mph!
And on the Tesla...Mitch ran Zombie against one at a drag strip in San Antonio and left the Tesla eating dust. I've seen the video; it wasn't even a close race.
That is so neat vocatx. I wish I could hitch a ride in that beast.
Of course this would leave a Tesla in the dust. It has 200HP more than the Tesla sport model. Twice the motors would do that...hehe.
Once the technology for batteries ramps up (and Elon Musk is already working on it), traveling cross country with little or no recharge will be possible. As with all new technology, this will be economically inaccessible for most people for some time, but in 20-25 years, the car combustion engine will be another relic like a SPAD S X111 is to an F-16.
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Originally Posted By: F4UDash4
Originally Posted By: Raw Kryptonite
Until you can drive one cross country, filling up along the way, I wouldn't consider one.
But often do you drive cross country?
Not often, but *I can*. My wife puts about 25k+ miles a year on her car. Several hundred miles in a couple of days is common. I don't see how these things could do anything other than basic commuter/around town driving. You can't reliably take off for a weekend trip, or just over night, and expect to find a charge station when you need it. Don't these still need to charge over night?
David, the White Zombie was the inspiration for Zombie 222. In fact, the White Zombie's owner is an active participant in testing/development for Blood Shed. (If you haven't read the article, Mitch calls his shop The Blood Shed, and the car is a development of Blood Shed Motors.)
Mitch told me that if driven 'sensibly' the Mustang has a range of 150-200 miles with a recharge time of 30 minutes. His battery supplier (a German company with a factory in Austin...can't remember the name) is building him a battery now with more endurance which will extend the range and also develops more power to hopefully enable them to break 200 mph next spring. The current battery pack sits in the space where the original gasoline tank went in the Mustang. When he opens the trunk it looks like something from Star Trek with LEDs blinking, etc.
I'm not a fan of these modern electric cars myself. I've read that producing a Prius results in more pollution than a regular car produces in it's lifetime, and more than is produced building more than one conventional car. BUT, if you can take 'old iron' and re-engineer it to run electric then you have actually recycled MOST of the vehicle. Plus, 'old iron' has character...something modern cars are totally lacking in. I've often wondered how much pollution I've actually saved by driving the same vehicles for most of my lifetime over buying a new one every four years or so.
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