# Swamp Rat 37 is Electric !!!



## LawlessEV (Oct 2, 2011)

The Lawless EV Racing Team is pleased to announce the Birth of Swamp Rat 37. This is an all electric, full sized
dragster being built at Lawless Industries that will be driven by the one and only Legendary "Big Daddy" Don Garlits. 

The car features a Brad Hadman 300 MPH + rated chassis, Weld wheels, Mark Williams rear, B & J transmission, GE series motors, Manzanita/Zilla motor controllers, High Tech Systems battery pack, and a few extra "go fast" goodies. 

It will make it's public debut at a National Full Throttle NHRA event in the very near future and will continue on the 2012 NHRA Full Throttle Circuit throughout remainder of the year. Upon completion of the tour the car will take up residence at the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, FL. Details to be announced.

"Big Daddy" was the first to take a car to 200 mph in the 1/4 mile and now wants to go 200 on electric power. Initial goals for the car are 6 second 1/4 mile passes at 200 + MPH.

This idea was the brainchild of Don Garlits and Mike Gerry. It was brought to life by our own Jeff Disinger. It would not be possible without the support of the following sponsors:

Dynamic Machine
Brad Hadman Race Cars
Crescent Electric
Don Garlits Museum of Racing
High Tech Systems
Manzanita Micro
Mark Williams
B&J Transmissions

and most certainly not without the tireless efforts of Mike Gerry!

Thanks to all of these folks we may be close to seeing something very special!

Shawn Lawless


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## dragonsgate (May 19, 2012)

Garlits still driving? That’s impressive. He must be pushing 80 by now. He was driving when I was a kid going to the drags and I am getting on in years myself. Post pictures as soon as possible.


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## LithiumaniacsEVRacing (Oct 9, 2010)

LawlessEV said:


> The Lawless EV Racing Team is pleased to announce the Birth of Swamp Rat 37. This is an all electric, full sized
> dragster being built at Lawless Industries that will be driven by the one and only Legendary "Big Daddy" Don Garlits.
> 
> The car features a Brad Hadman 300 MPH + rated chassis, Weld wheels, Mark Williams rear, B & J transmission, GE series motors, Manzanita/Zilla motor controllers, High Tech Systems battery pack, and a few extra "go fast" goodies.
> ...


It's about time this news gets public! Good Luck, I know your team will build an awesome dragster.


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## Tesseract (Sep 27, 2008)

LawlessEV said:


> ...Initial goals for the car are 6 second 1/4 mile passes at 200 + MPH....


Daaammmmnnnn. That's going to take about 1000hp, isn't it?


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## skooler (Mar 26, 2011)

Tesseract said:


> Daaammmmnnnn. That's going to take about 1000hp, isn't it?


nah, 1600 exactly ;-)


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## LithiumaniacsEVRacing (Oct 9, 2010)

Shawn I will be sending you an email. When Swamp Rat 37 is ready, I want to bring Warp Factor III to the track that day. I will travel anywhere.


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## albano (Jan 12, 2009)

LawlessEV said:


> The Lawless EV Racing Team is pleased to announce the Birth of Swamp Rat 37. This is an all electric, full sized
> dragster being built at Lawless Industries that will be driven by the one and only Legendary "Big Daddy" Don Garlits.
> 
> The car features a Brad Hadman 300 MPH + rated chassis, Weld wheels, Mark Williams rear, B & J transmission, GE series motors, Manzanita/Zilla motor controllers, High Tech Systems battery pack, and a few extra "go fast" goodies.
> ...


Shawn, who is building the motor(s)


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## mizlplix (May 1, 2011)

I was lucky to have caught SR1 at Bakersfield in 1959 when it was still running on carbs....It was the scariest thing I had ever seen, it did 180+ MPH. I was in love.

Miz


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## bakes (Jun 15, 2011)

I sure hope they build it with aero in mind like the last Swamp Rat


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## TerryH (Jun 9, 2012)

I saw this on the NEDRA site but have never seen anything else about it. I'm currently building an electric golf cart dragster that will have bodywork inspired by SR 31. No canopy but the rest will be similar. 102" wheelbase with 144v to start. We shall see how it goes.

I'd love, love, love to see this Lawless/Garlits project come to pass!!!


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## toddshotrods (Feb 10, 2009)

http://gas2.org/2014/04/25/big-daddy-don-garlits-begins-electric-dragster-testing-next-week/


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## jddcircuit (Mar 18, 2010)

I went and watched them attempt breaking 200mph yesterday in Bradenton Florida. What a great bunch of guys. I was so impressed by their commitment and dedication.

Unfortunately there were some technical difficulties throughout the day but the last run I saw was 184mph 7.5sec if I remember correctly. This might be a record but they were hoping for higher so not as celebratory as hoped.

I wish them the best of luck breaking 200mph. It looks like they will eventually.

I would expect some good footage to be showing up pretty soon. They had some of those quad copter cameras flying around all day.


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## rochesterricer (Jan 5, 2011)

Looks like the quickest run was 7.26 at 184.01 mph. Some info in this thread:

http://forum.competitionplus.com/showthread.php?t=11358&page=8

Also on their Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/questfor200mphonbatteries


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## toddshotrods (Feb 10, 2009)

I'm all for the old guy getting back in the saddle and tasting 200+ again, and doing it with electric, but I hate when people twist facts to market something.

They keep saying it will be the first EV to hit 200mph on the dragstrip - ummm, Rocket? Lawless Industries is on the side of the car, so it's not like there's going to be a big dispute about it. Smells like a PR stunt. 

EVers have been doing this since I've been involved in this. Someone is always claiming some honor, that is just a little to the left of the rightful owner's claim; and sometimes just blatantly false. Then, the best of the best never go head-to-head to settle it. Everyone just dances around each other, and plays the game. Then, they just kind of fade away, but continue boasting about their cobwebbed records, years later.

I heard someone - not Dube - recently claim that KillaCycle is the fastest motorcycle in the world; ummm, Rocket and/or Lightning. Big Daddy will be the first EV to hit 200MPH on the dragstrip; no, Rocket. (I think the) Mission R is the fastest production electric bike; no, Lightning. That (I think) the MB SLS-ED is the most powerful electric supercar; no, Rimac. That's just a sample, and the most blatant, but I hear these claims all the time.

Rant paused...


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## rochesterricer (Jan 5, 2011)




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## rochesterricer (Jan 5, 2011)

toddshotrods said:


> I'm all for the old guy getting back in the saddle and tasting 200+ again, and doing it with electric, but I hate when people twist facts to market something.
> 
> They keep saying it will be the first EV to hit 200mph on the dragstrip - ummm, Rocket? Lawless Industries is on the side of the car, so it's not like there's going to be a big dispute about it. Smells like a PR stunt.


Every time I've seen them make this claim they specify "the first all electric dragster to hit 200" or the "first four wheeled EV to hit 200." If they accidentally leave out the four wheel part, it isn't to deceive or downplay the Rocket bike.


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## toddshotrods (Feb 10, 2009)

Thanks for posting that - nice to have a firsthand account, but it sucks that you're not given proper credit.

I have major issues with a lot of what I see in electric racing, so from now on I am going to just try to share what I come across and keep my mouth shut. Over the five years I have been here, I have lost most of my desire to even race an EV. Maybe if I can just turn as blind of an eye as possible to organized electric racing efforts, and quietly do my thing I won't totally lose my taste for it.

Rant over, lip zipped, here's the latest (I've seen): http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014...-aiming-for-200-mph-run-in-electric-dragster/


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## RIPPERTON (Jan 26, 2010)

Don Garlits is totally sold on EV's, the build costs would be about the same as a Top Fueler but
1 Top Fuel run costs $50000
1 EV run would cost about $1 and do 6 runs on a charge.
They get to start all over again with performance like they are back to the 60's as far as top speed goes.
For Don, he gets to break all those records again.


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## Karter2 (Nov 17, 2011)

When they start really pushing the limits, they will be burning motors, controllers and battery packs the same way they pop blowers and drop pistons etc in the fuelers now.
Refueling may be cheap, but if you fry a few cells it will get spendy pretty quick


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## jddcircuit (Mar 18, 2010)

Getting to be a fly on the wall last week watching SW-37 was a great experience. I am an engineer/EV enthusiast not a big drag race fan but the Don Garlits name does get the attention of race fans from what I saw.

The Lawless crew was impressive to me. It was clear to me where the design and engineering was coming from and who was responsible for making it perform. Far from a footnote in my opinion.

Don Garlits did seem like a kid in the candy store. He shared some of his views about how the introduction of the electric drive train resembled the good old days where innovation and incremental improvements were going to happen rapidly.

I also like the what Don Garlits said to us about how top fuel has become cost prohibitive for most and that the affordability of a competitive electric drive was exciting to him. This guy seems to just want to see more competition period and this is a chance for that to happen.

Thanks
Jeff


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## rochesterricer (Jan 5, 2011)

Saw this posted on Facebook, for those who would like to see some specs:

This is the world's fastest EV dragster. We built the three Zilla 2K controller on this dragster and supply the PFC75 Battery charger to HTC systems for his exclusive charging of his battery packs.

This is THE power section of the Don Garlits Swamp Rat 37 dragster that set a single pass record of 7.258 seconds and 184.01 miles per hour on April 30 2014 at Bradenton Florida.

This picture shows 3 Zilla 2K controllers that can deliver 6000 motor amps to the 6 motors that are under the controller stack.
Each HTC Lipoly battery pack can release over 500 hp per pack.
The fastest run was run with the controller set to full 2000 motor amps and was limiting at about 3600 amp from the batteries. I am still trying to get the actual voltage sag and peak currents from Derek at HTC systems. But...3600 amps at about 400 volts is a honest guess at the consumed power, that's 1.44 mega watts. Or just short of 2000 Hp. We will be looking for why we did not get to a full 1800 amps per controller... there are still improvements to be made.... and I am sure Shawn and Don Garlits will find them.

We are proud to support the Don Garlitz Mike Gerry Quest for 200 on Batteries and we support Shawn Lawless of Lawless industries. 
Shawn is a true old time Friend of mine from our days on the Monster Garage shoot, and as a racer customer for chargers and controllers.

This is the Biggest drive Manzanita Micro has done to date. 
This is what I live for... 
Madman
Rich Rudman
Manzanita Micro


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## albano (Jan 12, 2009)

Don't want to say any negative comments here...but if Dennis Berube had those kinds of batteries and a extra controller he would easily done 200mph and maybe 6"s a few years ago.... And he don't even need 6 motors. Just a single or maybe two motors is enough for him to break the record.


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## Batterypoweredtoad (Feb 5, 2008)

albano said:


> Don't want to say any negative comments here...but if Dennis Berube had those kinds of batteries and a extra controller he would easily done 200mph and maybe 6"s a few years ago.... And he don't even need 6 motors. Just a single or maybe two motors is enough for him to break the record.


Well if my aunt had a **** she would be my uncle.


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## Karter2 (Nov 17, 2011)

albano said:


> ...if Dennis Berube had those kinds of batteries and a extra controller he would easily done 200mph and maybe 6"s a few years ago.... ..


 So, the question you should ask yourself is ... why didnt he use those batterys and controllers ??


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## toddshotrods (Feb 10, 2009)

Karter2 said:


> So, the question you should ask yourself is ... why didnt he use those batterys and controllers ??


I said I was going to keep my mouth shut, but oh well... 

Berube's last runs in Current Eliminator (CE) were in December of 2007. I came here in 2008, and LiPo cells were not available to the common man. When they became available, at all, it was usually through sponsorship. CE I-IV are listed as running on lead, V doesn't say.

IIRC, the S10 (I think it was called Smokescreen) was using CE's batteries when it ran in the 10s (I think).

Rumor has it, the S10 motor is in Rocket, so the assumption that Berube would have run 6s @ 200MPH isn't so far fetched...


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## Batterypoweredtoad (Feb 5, 2008)

No doubt Berube is a bad ass and deserves respect for it, but coulda shoulda wouldas being used by a fan to diminish a 3 second faster run is just silly.


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## Karter2 (Nov 17, 2011)

toddshotrods said:


> Berube's last runs in Current Eliminator (CE) were in December of 2007. I came here in 2008, and LiPo cells were not available to the common man. When they became available, at all, it was usually through sponsorship. ..


.?? kokam, A123, and numerous "RC" type LiPo battery's were in common use before 2007, and would certainly have been available to a serious professional outfit if required.
Killacycle was running an A123 pack in 2006
CE V (2006 ?) ran Altairnano Lithium cells.
Zombie was running lithium in mid 2007
I'm not suggesting anything other than builders make their choices and that dictates their results !


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## epyon (Mar 20, 2008)

Didn't that LMP from Drason do 205 MPH in a mile both ways already ? Or is this just the drag strip record ?


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## epyon (Mar 20, 2008)

[/QUOTE]

That is the coolest set up I have "EVER" seen !!!!!


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## toddshotrods (Feb 10, 2009)

epyon said:


> Didn't that LMP from Drason do 205 MPH in a mile both ways already ? Or is this just the drag strip record ?


We're speaking specifically about 1/4-mile drag racing here, and the Rocket dragbike was the first to _get there. _SW37 is aiming to be the first (four-wheeled) dragster to do it.

The thing about records is you can pick a class and claim to be "the first", long after someone else has actually been there, done that. 

I set a goal of going 200+ on Scrape (standing mile), not to break any records, but because it has been a personal bucket list item for years (on/in whatever kind of vehicle), just for the experience/to say I did it. I recently heard someone tell someone else that "Todd is going for _the record_"... I could probably search and find some obscure class and claim it, but I _personally_ give those honors to Rocket and Lightning, and am just attempting to walk in their mighty footsteps, with honor and humility.

Hats off to the real Kings of EV Speed, and (not that my opinion matters, but) I would have a lot more respect for SW37 and Big Daddy if he would publicly acknowledge that he's going where man has electrically gone before. It would be the _bigger_ thing to do, IMHO.


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## rochesterricer (Jan 5, 2011)

I honestly don't know why you keep harping on this Todd. It says right on Don's website "The Quest Dragster is designed and constructed to be the first battery-electric *dragster* to exceed 200 mph on a 1/4 drag strip." 

No offense man, but I honestly think this perceived slight to the Rocket dragbike exists totally in your head.


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## LawlessEV (Oct 2, 2011)

Todd makes an excellent point about ridiculous EV performance claims. I have had to deal with this since I started racing them in 2002. It is a very real phenomenon that some racers work the web to "protect" past performance figures that have been well surpassed as well as twist reality to claim some bogus "record"

As far as Rocket and Swamp Rat 37 are concerned.

1. The Rocket is the first and the only EV to run a 6 second 1/4 mile. It is also the first and only EV to run over 200 mph in the 1/4 mile. This was done back in 2012. Rocket sits in my office, updated and ready to go quicker and faster if someone bests either of these. It baffles me that Killacycle stills touts its self as the World's Quickest Electric Motorcycle when its almost a full second slower. There are electric bikes that are faster than Rocket for sure, but none that have touch it's raw power or acceleration rate.

2. Lawless Industries funded, designed, built, tested, refined, retested, installed, and tested the drive system in Swamp Rat 37 on the track. We also did final design and completion of the chassis and electrical system. Big Daddy is an honorable man. You will see many ridiculous claims on the web about Swamp Rat 37; who designed and built it, who owns it, what it will do, etc... These are not coming from either Lawless or from Big himself. This week we may very well eclipse the 1/4 mile runs of Rocket in both speed and ET. If that happens please remember where all that performance came from....


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## rochesterricer (Jan 5, 2011)

I don't think anyone will forget what you guys have done, with this project and previous ones Shawn(I'm assuming its Shawn running this account)


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## samwichse (Jan 28, 2012)

Hm... should've gone AC... there's a lot of wasted regen potential on that route.


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## slimdawg (Mar 7, 2012)

Regen is a joke . IMO


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## Karter2 (Nov 17, 2011)

samwichse said:


> Hm... should've gone AC... there's a lot of wasted regen potential on that route.


 This is a DRAGSTER !
regen has no use whatsoever on a dragster.


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## samwichse (Jan 28, 2012)

Clearly humor is wasted on the internet.


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## Karter2 (Nov 17, 2011)

samwichse said:


> Clearly humor is wasted on the internet.


 Not if it is presented "Clearly" !..
If you get it wrong , you just sound like a dummy 
That is what emoticons are for . 
Next time try a


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## samwichse (Jan 28, 2012)

Karter2 said:


> Not if it is presented "Clearly" !..
> If you get it wrong , you just sound like a dummy
> That is what emoticons are for .
> Next time try a


True, next time a smiley... I forgot about Poe's Law.


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## jddcircuit (Mar 18, 2010)

Looks like they tried again last weekend.



> NEDRA NEWS - Bradenton, FL (June 7, 2014) "Big Daddy" Don Garlits attempted to break 200 mph over the weekend but just fell short of that goal following a brush spring failure. - See more at: http://www.nedra.com/#sthash.mXt98KMV.dpuf


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