

Dark Horse: the story of the all-electric 1968 Mustang - jgrahamc
https://www.theverge.com/2015/4/1/8320189/zombie-222-electric-car-1968-mustang-texas-mile

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nsxwolf
With that headline I was expecting a story about Ford (or someone) building an
electric Mustang in 1968.

~~~
njloof
People have been hand-converting cars to electric power since the 70s, but the
lead-acid battery technology of the time was miserable. Too heavy, plus poor
deep cycle performance. As the Tesla story trending on HN right now says, the
modern electric car is a battery story.

~~~
sanoli
Still, the headline remains poorly written. You read it and think Ford built
an electric car in 68, and you go there to find out about it, why it flopped,
how it ran, etc.

~~~
keithpeter
The mention of LEDs had me checking for the date until I realised that the car
was a rebuilt one. Should have known really given the size of lead/acid
batteries from late 60s.

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jared314
Resurrecting the "cars of the future" of the past[1], with an all electric
powertrain, also sounds like a neat idea.

[1] Example:
[https://i.imgur.com/KSOjCEJ.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/KSOjCEJ.jpg)

~~~
nitrogen
The car looks right at home under the "carport of the future" of the past,
which, like the car itself, looks strangely current.

~~~
Shivetya
Reminds me of some of the pictures from OMNI, how that magazine inspired me
back then

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sitkack
[https://archive.org/details/omni-magazine](https://archive.org/details/omni-
magazine)

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olivermarks
Electric vehicles have great torque and are ideally suited to rapid
acceleration up to the 150 mph range - after that, just like the drag racing
world, things get a lot more expensive and complicated.

I could buy off the shelf speed parts for a 351 windsor powered mustang and
build a 9 second street car for around 10k so this article has a certain
hubris. I'm an electric car fan, but I'm getting a little tired of all the
giddy writing about super fast electric vehicles and how they are doing things
other vehicles can't.

In both the ICE and the electric world we are making staggering progress in
terms of performance and efficiencies.

In the ICE world there is no substitute for cubic inches to go fast, in the
electric world the batteries are the limiting factor. Garlits has failed to
break a 200mph quarter mile so far despite serious efforts (he was first to
200 in 60's drag racing) NEDRA is really worth following for the development
end of electric but it's still early days for electric performance.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL82_22BKYk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL82_22BKYk)
great bit of video of Garlits arcing out which ended his most recent attempt.
Horizontal firewalls and instant kill switch are a very big deal in electric
vehicles

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frik
The car that is known as the current Formula 1 Safety Car, has an all-electric
twin:

Video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gFGX43vubM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gFGX43vubM)
("Petrol vs Electric" by BBC Top Gear UK)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-
Benz_SLS_AMG](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_SLS_AMG)

Mercedes SLS AMG Electric Drive (2013) priced at $544,236.

    
    
      The production version of SLS AMG E-CELL includes four 
      synchronous electric motors rated 392 kW (533 PS; 526 hp) 
      and 880 N·m (649 lb·ft), 400V 48 kWh lithium-ion battery 
      from Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains. 
    

The SLS car is also produced with a gasoline engine:

    
    
      Mercedes SLS AMG's 571 PS (420 kW; 563 hp) M159 engine [...]
      "the world's most powerful naturally 
      aspirated production series engine" ever produced.

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SmellyGeekBoy
Related: Fifth Gear / Mud Sweat & Gears presenter Jonny Smith is converting an
Enfield 8000, a weird little British electric car from the 70s, into an all-
electric street legal dragster. He has a blog here: [http://www.flux-
capacitor.co.uk/](http://www.flux-capacitor.co.uk/)

(no affiliation, just a fan)

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ams6110
I don't really understand the high-performance focus of electric car
advocates. Sure it's an impressive technological achievement, and interesting
on the race track, but I'm not going to buy a Tesla or anything else on the
basis of a breathtaking 0-60 time.

For the mainstream market, though there's certainly a minimum performance
requirement (keeping up with normal traffic) the much bigger practical concern
is range.

~~~
mikeash
I think there are two reasons for it.

First is that it's _easy_. Performance comes naturally to an electric car.
Electric motors provide high power and torque, are easy to control precisely,
don't need a multi-gear transmission, and lose very little efficiency with
more powerful motors. Tesla's Model S has a 0-60 in under six seconds not
because it has to, but simply because it can, and it's relatively easy to do.
Lots of people don't care about performance, but lots of people do, so if it's
easy to satisfy that second group, why not do it?

Second is that it's part of countering the reputation of electric cars as bad
cars. Electric cars have long been seen as small, uncomfortable, and slow. Now
we're seeing that they can be fast. Not just fast, but brutally fast. The best
way to correct a misperception isn't merely to show that it's wrong, but to
show that it's _extremely_ wrong. It's not necessary, but as before, it's
relatively easy, so why not?

Also note that range and acceleration go hand in hand to an extent. The larger
your battery is, the more power you can draw from it, all else being equal.
Part of why the Tesla P85D can do 0-60 in just over 3 seconds is _because_ it
has a 85kWh battery that gives it 250 miles of range. You wouldn't be able to
draw 515kW from, say, a 100 mile battery.

