# Can A Portable Gas/Diesel/Propane Generator Be Used To Power An Electric 1/4 Mile Track Car



## thewierdquestionguy (11 mo ago)

I have a LARGE donor car that I likely I will have a problem getting down the track without removing much of the weight. Having said that, I'm considering a Miller Bobcat 250 or Trailblazer, could they possibly deliver enough power to run a LARGE formerly Hemi powered 6 speed manual 2 door car down the track at respectable speeds? 

Yes, so easy question. Please provide engineering drawings, parts list, cost estimates, etc. 

Of course, Im only kidding about that last part, I'm newly fascinated with the E/V boom so, I'm simply exploring ideas with people that may have already considered them. Please go easy on me if I am beating a dead horse with this question and if I offend any E/V purist who are disgusted at the idea of powering an "Electric Automobile" with an onboard fossil fuel driven generator trust me, I see the obvious paradox and appreciate it more having written and read my own words. However, it is something that i have asked myself often, "If batteries are heavy, expensive and the biggest drawback of E/V's are the limits on range and power consumption of accessories, why not make a new hybrid but use a standby generator or welding machine for power?"

So, perhaps a track car isnt the best use of this idea, although laws governing track cars are less constraining than a car driven on the road. But an onboard generator could be employed to recharge a bank of batteries on an EV while a second bank powered the car, the EV's controller integrated with the charging needs and simply tells the generator when and which bank to power while the car scoots down the road. Fuel consumption would still occur but at a more modest rate, and range could be extended without stopping to recharge batteries. 

I always enjoy talking to people smarter than myself and having read a few threads I know Im asking a lot of you to come down to dumber plane of existence, but please set me straight. Big words don't scare me, as long as google still works, and my pride is self-healing, that's one of the benefits of existing on this lower cognitive level. That and SpongeBob.


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

Why do that when I have a 1.8Gigawatt coal plant to charge the batteries and your second "standby" batteries weigh as much as your welding genset?


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## lj516 (Mar 11, 2020)

thewierdquestionguy said:


> I have a LARGE donor car that I likely I will have a problem getting down the track without removing much of the weight. Having said that, I'm considering a Miller Bobcat 250 or Trailblazer, could they possibly deliver enough power to run a LARGE formerly Hemi powered 6 speed manual 2 door car down the track at respectable speeds?
> 
> Yes, so easy question. Please provide engineering drawings, parts list, cost estimates, etc.


Absolutely it's possible with a miller bobcat 250 but not alone. You will still need a lithium pack to support your overall output goals for hp and rely on the genset for extended range.

Are you in the market to purchase plans or a design?


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## cobratom (Dec 28, 2019)

What you are asking for is essentially a hybrid. 
There are a few hybrids out there that use turbine generators to provide auxiliary backup power.








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But the question is why? Are you trying to beat a Tesla Model S Plaid in the 1/4 mile with a Dodge Challenger chassis?
The Plaid will be hard to beat


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## Duncan (Dec 8, 2008)

Leave the generator!!
The whole idea of a 1/4 mile car is a lot of power for a few seconds - the generator is just unnecessary weight


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## TeZla (Feb 18, 2021)

something not mentioned here.

Talking about a drag car, you want lots of power for a short period of time. The more power, the faster you get down the track (Simplified)
With an EV, they have a huge benefit in the gobs of torque off the line, But to get all the torque, the batteries are discharging a HUGE amount of power in a really short amount of time.

With a hybrid, generally your talking about using a fuel engine to drive the car around most of the time, but using a battery to move the car around low speed, carparks, etc
The battery is small because it only needs to put out a reasonable amount of power and because it doesn't need huge capacity.

So, lets think about this like tanks of water. The drag EV battery has a huge pipe from the water tank (Battery) to the motor. It can flow a hundred gallons in 5 seconds, eg, really big pipe.
The regular EV only uses a firehose. Still able to move a decent amount of water, but nowhere near as much as the drag EV. Both water tanks could be the same size, but where the drag EV can empty that tank in 14 seconds over a quarter mile, running through the firehose of the regular EV, it'll take 2 hours to empty the tank and it'll travel 100 miles in that time.

now, lets add in your proposed generator, its like having a garden hose filling up those water tanks. Sure, the garden hose is always running and it'll fill either tank after 24 hours, But while your actively pulling water from those tanks? It'll add half an hour of extra 'capacity' to the regular EV, but compared to the massive pipeline from the drag EV's water tank, it'll barely even make a noticable difference, lets say 0.0003 seconds worth. So, if your only getting 0.0003 extra seconds of runtime/range, Is it worth carrying all that extra weight? will that extra weight counteract any extra run time you've gained because your now slower off the line and have more mass to accelerate/corner etc?

At its purest, your turning liquid fuel into electric power with a lot of waste heat and maybe 30% efficiency, then putting that into an electric motor through the tyres into the ground at maybe 80% efficiency. You could skip a lot of the conversion process, efficiency losses, extra complexity and weight and simply use that liquid fuel into a motor and directly through the tyres into the ground, just like drag racers have been doing since they decided horses were too slow. Or, optimise for pure electric power, then 'tune' your overall weight/range with the size of your battery. Then you consider is your battery big enough for one run only? then quick replace or charge at the pits, Or is your battery big enough for several runs, then drive to the local charger? A small battery can be charged pretty fast, so your 'fast charger' could be the big diesel 4wd that you towed your racer to the track with, that also has a generator in the back. Give it some time, eventually proper fast chargers will start to appear at racetracks and dragstrips, but I'd wager that's probably a decade away still.


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