The history of General Motors is littered with almost-great cars that always seemed to come up short. The Pontiac Fiero is the perfect example, a lightweight, well-balanced mid-engine sports car that could have been a contender, had GM simply dropped a decent engine in it. But the 2.5 liter “Iron Duke” was underpowered and prone to catching fire (at least in the earliest models) forever tarnishing the reputation of the Fiero.
So what better car to yank out the engine and replace it with an electric motor and battery pack? That’s what John Metric did to his ’84 Fiero, and over the past weekend, and in the process he set a new NEDRA class record of 9.89 seconds @ 134 MPH.
The world of electric vehicle drag racing has been slowly growing and includes an eclectic collection of cars and people as varied as the “Black Current” electric Beetle to the “Warp Factor II” EV Camaro. This summer promises to deliver a whole lot of EV racing action, and I plan to cover as much of it as I can. These full-body electrics are finally starting to delve into the single digit range, and while they’ve got a long way to go to catch up with Top Fuel dragsters, EV drag racers are bound to become a more common sight on the race track.
Source: Gas2.0
