# Electric Jr Dragster with a bit of history



## nedrapr (Mar 9, 2011)

Just finished building our Jr Dragster. It's actually a restoration. Electric Louie originally built the Jr back in 1999. At the time, it did a 25 foot burnout and then a 92 mph exhibition run. This may have been the jr dragster that influenced the decision that electric Jrs could not run against gassers because it ran so quick. The NHRA reversed the rule a couple years ago.

By the time we took delivery of it in February it was pretty much stripped. We basically got the body, frame and tires. There wasn't a rear axle or electric parts left except the meters, shunt and contactor.

Here is what it looked like after it arrived from California.










We disassembled what was left and started from scratch. I sent the brake system out to have it rebuilt and polished and started ordering parts from KTA Services and Motivational Tubing.

I emailed Jim Husted to see if he had a motor. He had a 7.2 inch Prestolite on the shelf so he rebuilt it and sent it out. Jim did a fantastic job. He tapped holes in the sides for motor mounts, extended the tail shaft and drilled the end plate for the tach sensor and balanced the armature as well as all the other cool mods he does, then gave it a nice paint job with his signature. I found an unused 1K Zilla with HEPI pedal for sale on the EV Tradin Post. 72 volts of Odyssey batteries were donated by The Green Commuter.

The roll cage was really tall since the kid who raced it before was over 6 feet so we had AutoFab Race Cars chop it down 4 inches and they did other mods so Jake could race it. We outfitted it with new electric components and axle. The 17 inch slicks were replaced with 19 inch slicks and polished aluminum wheels.










Jake wanted the frame painted red to match the motor. We rattle canned it with Rustoleum and I polished up the aluminum parts then we reassembled it and wired it up.










We kept the body's original paint job since it was in great condition. The lightning bolts are perfect. The dragster didn't have a nose so I had to find something close from Motivational Tubing and modified it to fit.










It's ready to race. We tried racing it at the Power of DC. It passed tech but the rain shut us down before we could stage.


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## albano (Jan 12, 2009)

Great job there Chip, can't wait to see it in action.


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## jr dragster (Oct 11, 2010)

COOL !!!! To bad your not closer my daughter could race your son.What gears are you running front and back. Im playing around with gears right now may try 48 rear 11 front.


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## nedrapr (Mar 9, 2011)

Thanks! All we need now is a trailer to get it to the track  A little detail we haven't resolved yet. We have 60 on the rear and 15 on the front. I've calculated 70 mph at 5000 rpm with that set up but I'm not sure what the RPM is with that motor. The only way for us to really get a baseline on it is to test it out. It would be fun to race another electric. You're getting good results with yours!!


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## east2la (Nov 11, 2015)

I know the thread is old, but what is the progress on this Jr. Dragster? Thnx


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## Grumpyoleman (Mar 25, 2018)

My son an I are converting a 7.90 junior to electric for my grandson (9 yrs old) and are using a warp 9 motor with zilla 1K controller. We would appreciate any help you might provide with sprockets and chain sources as well as any other tips and lessons learned you could provide.

Thank You


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