DragRacing
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Chevrolet's electric Camaro race car packs an 800-volt battery
Chevrolet has introduced a new concept car designed for drag racing, and it's not an entirely new model: it's an electrified version of the COPO Camaro. Aptly called the eCOPO Camaro, it's based on the 2019 version of the Chevy classic and has an electric motor that can provide the equivalent of over 700 horsepower and 600 lb-ft of torque. Chevy believes it can reach a quarter mile in under 10 seconds. Its standout feature, however, is probably its 800-volt battery pack. That's twice the voltage of the battery packs in the Chevy Volt, the Chevy Bolt EV and Tesla's vehicles.
Watch Faraday Future's prototype race Bentley, Ferrari and Tesla
Faraday Future is going more than a little overboard with promo pieces for its production electric car ahead of its January unveiling, but its latest clip at least has some substance. The fledgling automaker has posted a video showing its prototype EV drag racing against some hot competition: Tesla's Model X P100D (the obligatory electric rival), Bentley's Bentayga SUV and Ferrari's 488 GTB. It won't shock you to hear that Faraday Future's car wins each of these showdowns (why make the video if it lost?), but that's good news for acceleration junkies. It means that FF's vehicle is quicker off the line than even the Model X, which can hit 60MPH in 2.9 seconds using Ludicrous Mode.
Daily iPhone App: Drag Racer World roars out of the gate
Drag Racer World is an iPhone title that sits in a weird place: It's a racing game, but then again it's not. This one's all about drag racing, which isn't so much about steering and speed as much as it is just about hitting the next gear when you need to, and the exact specs of your car. In other words, this is more of a role-playing game than a racing game, where you level up a car rather than a sword-wielding hero. It's really fun, even if you're not a gearhead. As usual, XMG has created a colorful and well-designed game, and the mechanics are simple enough (you just start out shifting gears at the right time and hitting nitro when you need it) that it's very pick up and play. As you progress, however, things get more complex, letting you buy more cars, tweaking them until they're perfect with lots of different parts, and racing up through a career mode. The game is very much a freemium title, and that may turn some people off -- you need to buy everything in there with in-game currency, and if you're not patient, you may occasionally find yourself frustrated by a lack of credits. But there's plenty to earn between the standard campaign, the daily challenges, and even races against friends. Drag Racer World is a really well-done title that offers a nicely social, very addictive, and genuinely different take on what a racing game can be.
Dyson's engineers head off to the races, create dragsters using spare parts, DC-16 motors (video)
Dyson engineers certainly know a thing or two about creating innovative vacuums and fans Air Multipliers, but did you know they've also dabbled in the world of high-speed racing? Such is apparently now the case, as these folks were tasked with building go-kart drag racers out of spare parts, resulting in a variety of wheeled wonders viaing for the fastest run on a makeshift strip in the office. Of course, there was a catch -- all of the dragsters had to use the motor from Dyson's DC-16 handheld vacuum in a battle for maximum torque. We won't spoil the outcomes for you, so scroll down to catch a video mashup of all the hijinks in the video below.
Rice University nanodragster rolls on carbon buckeyball wheels, lives life .0005 inch at a time
Drag racing and nanotech seemingly go together like peanut butter and... very small rocks, but that hasn't stopped a team of researchers at Rice University from creating a microscopic car dubbed a "nanodragster." Its wheels are buckeyballs, the rear composed of 60 carbon atoms each, while its front wheels are made of p-carborane. This gives the car more grip at the back, meaning it'll pop wheelies just like a real dragster -- though only when running on a road paved with gold. Even then it doesn't go very fast, just .0005 inches per hour, meaning for those 1,327,000 days it takes to cover a quarter-mile its driver is free.
Power tool drag racing -- why didn't we think of this?
As much as we support the use of power tools in safe, supervised areas far away from us, we can't help but admire the crazies responsible for this year's Power Tool Drag Racing event. The basic idea is to take a hand-held power tool, mod it up a bit (or a lot), and let it race against other devices in its own class down a plywood track. Hilarity ensues, and the contestants have some pretty amazing entries this time around. MAKE is on the scene, and the event seems to be providing just as much mayhem and adult beverages as were implied. If you didn't make it down Sunday you'll just have to hope they make this an annual event, since it really is so totally punk rock.[Via MAKE]
