Bill Dube with his KillaCycle better watch his back 'cause ThunderStruck Motors has been setting electric motorcycle drag racing records left and right the past few weeks. On March 7, the team set a new NEDRA record of 11.693 seconds at 104.53 mph in the quarter mile for the 96 volt class with their Tron bike (it was actually powered by 93 volts for that run). After bumping the power up to 102 volts, they were able to back up their first run with a time of 11.561 seconds. Both runs were completed at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California and followed their record-setting run back in February.

We've placed two videoes after the break. One shows the Tron bike performing a burnout on its way to setting the NEDRA record. That event only allows electric vehicles, but the second, faster run was performed at Infineon's Wednesday Night Drags event where any motorcycle was welcome to participate. The other is from ThunderStruck itself. The bike is powered and sponsored by Lithium Technology Corporation. Way to represent, ThunderStruck!

Source: NEDRA and Motorcycle.com]

In mid-February, an electric bike built by ThunderStruck Motors and Lithium Technology Corporation raced a 1/8 mile course in 7.169 seconds, setting a new record of 93 mph in the 96 volt class. The previous record was 78 mph.

The electric drag bike uses 72 of LTC's 7.5Ah DD cells and has 2 kWh of available energy. Combine that with a bike the weighs just 53 pounds and you've got the recipe for a machine that will do the 1/4 mile faster than the bikes it was racing against, some of which had 240 volts of power. I'm still looking for a picture of the bike, but you can find the official announcement of the result after the jump.

Got a need for speed? Strap on a battery pack and his the track. That's the idea behind the Current Eliminator V, which set a new electric dragster world speed record in the National Hot Rod Association's (NHRA) Super Pro class of 153.6 mph at the Speedworld Motorplex drag strip in Tuscon last Saturday. The Current Eliminator V did the quarter-mile in 8.10 seconds at the hands of Dennis "Kilowatt" Berube. The dragster was powered by Altairnano's lithium-titanate battery packs. Berube is a founding competitor of the National Electric Drag Racing Association (NEDRA). As you might guess from the "V" following the vehicle's name, the record-setting zero-emission rocket is the fifth iteration of the Current Eliminator. The fourth version won "more prize money than any other dragster in Arizona" last year, competing "against conventional gasoline and alcohol dragsters," according to Altairnano.

[Source: Altairnano, Current Eliminator website, h/t to Domenick]

Sunday's New York Times has an article about the National Electric Drag Racing Association. According to the Times, the organization was founded by John Wayland and Roderick Wilde in 1997 after a few beers and coming up with an important sounding name. In 1999, the National Hot Rod Association accepted them into the fold and tracks allowed them to race. John says "before that, tracks wouldn't let E.V.'s run" and John thinks the world is changing as well;

Before, I would have said E.V.'s were a fad that would die out. ... This time around it's different. There's an interest in getting off foreign oil, there's global warming, there's oil prices and health issues. But most important, we have a battery.

You can watch John work on and race the White Zombie in the above video. Warning: if you still have perceptions of electric cars as slow and not for gear heads, they will be shattered.

Related:

• Are you kidding me? Woolsey and Eberhard drag-racing in a Tesla Roadster?
• Alt Car Expo 2007: Electric car racing with Michael Kadie and 2.S.S.I.C. (VIDEO)
• Huh, there's something funny about this funny car ...
• Fear the silent roar: Electric Dragin' electric car races hit San Diego in January
• White Zombie EV Datsun 1200 does 106 mph on the strip

[Source: New York Times, YouTube]

The Battery Beach Burnout is on for next weekend at Moroso Motorsports Park in West Palm Beach, Florida. The event is the season opener for the National Electric Drag Racing Association and is sponsored by Vectrix scooters. Drag racing starts Friday evening, and the schedule includes autocross, scootercross and EV show 'n shine. Sunday wraps up the event with an Electric Auto Association conference hosted by the Florida EAA chapter.

[Source: NEDRA]