**Beating the Tesla Plaid in a Drag Race: Can Anyone Do It?**

We're here to answer that question and show you why building an EV to beat the Plaid is easier than you think. No, we don't need cutting-edge technology or over 1,000 horsepower to accelerate at record pace. The reason for it is huge - 4,766 pounds.

You see, a huge power-to-weight ratio is all that matters when it comes to acceleration. And it's already been done many times by enthusiasts who've been building fast EVs for decades. They've even created their own competition events in the National Electric Drag Racing Association (NEDRA).

In 2013, an electric Mazda Miata called Assault and Battery ran the quarter mile faster than the Plaid at just 9.12 seconds. A year later, that same car was converted to EV mode, breaking the nine-second barrier with a zero-to-60 time of 1.5 seconds.

Assault and Battery used batteries and controllers capable of delivering 2,000 amps to its electric motors, making a combined 1,335 pound-feet of torque at the wheels. The total cost to build Assault and Battery was just $30,000 in 2014 - less than quarter of the price of a Tesla Plaid.

Unfortunately, there are some limitations to building an EV that can beat the Plaid. Record-breaking times were on drag slicks, not street tires, and it wasn't even street legal. It's not something that could be driven from the track like a Plaid or in a pro-street conversion class where cars need current registration, license plates, and insurance.

So, does built, not bought lose the battle? Frickin' heck no man! We're not letting Elon win this one. If you want to be the first person to build an EV that beats the Plaid fair and square, all you need to do is fight fire with fire.

Here's what you do: get yourself a Tesla model S motor capable of 400 kilowatts for just $12,000 each. Put that into an internal combustion chassis of your choice, and then you should get a good power-to-weight ratio that can step on the Plaid with. Of course, you'll still need a battery to make all that work.

Maybe the big brain move is just wait and buy a reg Plaid, put that drive line in an all-wheel-drive Pontiac 6000, and you should have no trouble beating the Plaid at the strip and riding home in style.

We did it guys, we figured it out. That's what this is going to be in a few years. Come back at 20 years, and you'll be like "yo, they're doing sick swaps like this." Jerry Barry was the first one to say it - I wasn't the first, but you know.

Thank you guys so much for watching this episode of B2B. If you like the stuff we do, please subscribe and like that really helps us out. It's a freeway to let us know that we're doing good. So we appreciate it. We love you guys so much. We thank you for watching.

Follow us on Instagram @donutmedia, follow me @JeremiahBurton, and until next week, bye for now.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- The Tesla Plaid has ascreamin' 0 to 60 timeof 1.99 seconds.The thing is,electric conversions havebeen beating that timefor over a decade.So today we're gonna figureout how you could possiblytake an internal combustion engine carand convert it into an EV to beat a Plaid.Let's go!(upbeat music)- Big thanks to off the recordfor sponsoring today's video.Happy Thanksgiving.While you and the familyare watching the big game,the police are out thereserving hot and fresh ticketslike it's grandma's stuffing,but unlike grandma's stuffing,you don't have to eat the cost of a ticketjust to be polite.Down, down, down, downloadthe off the record app,and they'll connect you witha local trustworthy attorneyto fight the ticket on your behalf.Off the record of successfully contestedover 70,000 tickets.So their money back guarantee makes sense.Unlike the raisins in grandma's stuffing.Who puts the raisins in there?Register now and use code DONUTto save 10% off your first ticketat OFFTHERECORD.com/DONUT.(chiming music)- If he didn't know,electric powered carsaren't new to going fast.With their instant torque,electric motors are great for accelerationand homemade EV conversionshave been running Plaid timesfor almost a decade.That's 10 years.So why isn't every enthusiastconverting their mom's minivaninto electric drag monster?Well, just like the Plaidsamazing acceleration figures,there are one or two asterisksattached to the built,not bought plan.To understand why let'sstart with a closer lookat the technology that produces the Plaidsof ludicrous acceleration.♪ Got my twin Glock, 40's. ♪When we made our originalepisode about the Plaid,we discovered something surprisingabout the figures Tesla is claiming.They're all true.If you want to nerd outabout the Plaid a bit more,click here,but the foundation forall that speed boils downto two parts.You've got the motors driving the wheels,and the batteries powering the motors.Now the Plaid has three electric motors,each capable of producing 340 horsepowerat 350 pound feet of torque.Specifically, these arethree phase induction motors,and each has two main parts.You got a stator that remains stationary,and you got a rotor that rotates.See that.Whoever invented that was a wise cookie.He wasn't trying to convince youwhere it's like the opposite of stuff.You want to be here,wanna think on your feet.What's something that meansthe opposite of something?The stator is a bunch of copper wirecoiled along three separate paths.An alternating electrical currentis passed through eachend of those three paths,but out of phase with each other.That's why it's called three phase.Alternating current changes magnitudeand direction periodicallyso it can be represented by a waveform.The period is the wave length.The height on the Y axis is the magnitude,and the direction alsoknown as the polarityis shown by whether the waveis above or below the X axis.If you add two more electrical currentsthat reach their peakmagnitude at different times,those currents are outof phase with the first.That means in a three-phase stator,the electrons are passing along the wiresat slightly different times.And the combined effect of thatis a rotating magnetic field.Inside the stator is the rotor.Now this has a central output shaft,which is surrounded by metal bars.Rotors like this are sometimescalled a squirrel cage,because a long time ago,that was another term forwhat we call a hamster wheel,or what we call in the south,frickin' squirrel cage.Guys, leave a comment down below,thanking me for getting out of Florida.But a rotor would make apretty crappy hamster wheelbecause each of the barsis slightly twisted.So they're not parallelto the output shaft.Positioning the bars that way meansthat the rotating magneticfield produced by the statorinduces a flow of electricalcurrent in the bars,causing the whole structure to rotate.If you ever get confused,just try to think about this.You have electrical current,that's put through a wire,that's creating a magnetic field.When you phase that current,you get a rotating magnetic field.When you have a rotating magnetic field,that's the same as taking a magnetand moving it over a wire.So that induces current.Those two magnetic fieldsinteract with each other,producing a force thatcauses the rotor to spin.One of the benefits ofusing an induction motoris that the stator androtor don't need to bein physical contact forthe flow of electricityto produce rotation.Since they aren't touching,they aren't creating friction,and that means an inductionmotor can spin very quickly.The previous model S motorswere capable of 18,000 RPM,but because Teslas don'thave a transmission,the motors have to spend fastto create the wheel speed necessaryfor record breaking acceleration.18,000 wasn't good enough for the plaid.Oh no.So to get its motors up to 20,000 RPM,Tesla had to get fancy.- And talking about some ofthe sort of details behind it.It's something we're really proud ofis the new carbon-sleevedrotors for the motor.So this is the first time that,to the best of our knowledgehas been a production electric motorthat has a carbon over wrap rotor.Carbon and copper have at very differentrates of thermal expansion.So in order to do acarbon over wrap rotor,you've got to wind it atextremely high tension.It's a very hard thing to do.We actually had to design the machinethat makes the rotor.And it's single speed fromzero to 200 miles an hour.So it's just like the carbon over wrapactually holds the rotor,basically holds the rotor together.It's like madness.- That's because there'scentrifugal force at 20,000 RPMis trying to expand the squirrel cage,and the carbon fiber sleeve prevents itfrom punching through the stator.That adds cost, of course,but it's hard to argue with the results.It combined power output of760 kilowatts, 1020 horsepower,and 1050 pound feet of torque.Of course, to actually getthose motors spinning fastand making power,a lot of electricalcurrent needs to be sentthrough the stator.To accomplish that, thePlaid's battery includes 7,920individual cells,which store a 100 kilowatt hours of juice,but having a big battery thatcan hold a lot of charge,doesn't guarantee speed.Obviously the size of your fuel tank,doesn't determine your zero to 60.Unless you have a reallybig and heavy fuel tank.It's like lot of fuel and it'slike really big and heavy.Like something we'reprobably very familiar with,us and me, and you,and people who are familiar with the show.You know, like just something that's like,what is something that's like super, superlike big?Your mom.The Plaid's battery alsoneeds to be able to senda lot of electrical energyto the motors all at once.That's down to the batteries amperage.The amperage of an electrical device,like a charger or batterydescribes how much currentit can flow at a time.The flow of electricityis a bit like water.So consider a garden hose and a fire hose.The pressure of the water comingout would be like voltage.The amount of water is the amperage.That's why you'll hear people say,it's not the volts thatkill you, it's the amps.But that's not really true,'cause you have to have both of them.They're mutually exclusive.In fact, a current as low as 50 milliampscan stop your heart,but only if the source has enough voltageto overcome the resistance of your body,or about 17 volts.A home charging station for an EVlike Tesla's wall chargerhas an output of 48 amps at 240 volts.So you should definitelynot take one apartand start licking stuff.The Plaid's battery has anoutput of 2300 amps at 462 volts.That's how it can keepthose three motors spinningup to 20,000 RPM.But to do that,the Plaid still needs two more things.A sexy driver and a sexy passenger.The battery and all the conduitsthat send electricity tothe motors have to be coldto provide maximum current.Temperature determines how wella material conducts electricity.So the Plaid doesn't usea glycol and water fieldcooling system with a radiatorlike in an ordinary car.Instead it uses a refrigerant based systemand heat exchangers that workmore like air conditioning.Tesla's cooling system is estimatedto provide six to seven tons of cooling.In case you're wonderingwhat a ton of cooling is.That's the amount producedby one ton of ice.Also all that juice in the battery,well that's stored as direct current,and that means the Plain needs not one,but two types of electrical converters.One AC to DC converterto get electricity fromthe charger to the battery,and a DC to AC inverterfor each motor to convertthe power from the battery.Not only does that haveto create the three phasesof alternating current,that the inducts your motor needs,they also need to controlthe flow of that currentbased on a requested vehicle speed,and they need a high enough power capacityto provide all the electricitythose motors need to reach 20,000 RPM.The motors, the battery, the cooling,and the sophisticated power invertersmake the Tesla Plaid sound like a miracleof cutting edge EV technology,which it is.So do you need cutting edge EV technologyto beat it in a drag race?No, no you don't.If we did,we wouldn't be making a videofor all the poor enthusiasts out there.We're here for you guys.That's what we're here for.You see a huge reason whythe Plaid needs all that techand over a thousandhorsepower to accelerateat its record paceis because it's huge.4,766 pounds.You think I'm gonna do twofat mom jokes in one episode,no way buster.Love fat mamas,but Tesla needs to listen up.Not everyone needs four doors,a comfortable and luxurious interiorwith lots of sound deadening,or the latest self-driving technology.If you've got grit from aSIF suspension and big stickytires,a flat torque curve that youget with an electric motor,and no gear ratios to worry about,acceleration boils downto power and weight.The Plaid has a power to weight ratioof one horsepower for every 4.7 pounds.That means if you want tomake your own EV to beat itin a drag race,that's the number you got to shoot for.And it's already been done.Many, many times.Turns out there's an entireinternational communityof enthusiasts who've beenbuilding fast EV's for decades.Just like their dyno burning cousins,EV drag racers have theirown competition eventsin a sanctioning body calledNational Electric DragRacing Association or NEDRA.They were so close to just being nerda,and that would been (beep) sick.It turns out that in 2013an electric Mazda Miatacalled assault and batteryran the quarter mile faster than the Plaidat just 9.12 seconds.A year later,that same car was a first Ev conversionto break the nine second barriercompleting a run just 8.9 secondswith a zero to 60 of 1.5 seconds.Assault and battery usedbatteries and controllerscapable of delivering 2000amps to its electric motors.And those motors made a combined1,335 pound feet of torqueat the wheels.Prices on EV equipment havebeen steadily dropping,but even back in 2014,the total cost to buildassault and batterywas just 30 grand.So there you have it.The way to beat a Plaid at the drag stuffreally is built, not bought.And at less than quarter of the price too.For the first time in B2B history,something turned out a lotcheaper than we expected.Pretty good, pretty frickin' good.Unfortunately, they'rejust like one or twolike little details that make winningwith a car like assault and batteryfeel a bit like cheating.First is record breakingtimes were on drag slicks,not street tires.Speaking of street,it also wasn't street legal.It's not really somethingthat could be drivento and from the track like a Plaid,or like something from thepro street conversion class,where the cars do need tohave current registration,license plates, and insurance.So does built, not bought lose the battle?Frickin' heck no man.We're not letting Elon win this one.If you want to be thefirst person to build an EVthat beats the Plat fair and square,all you need to do isfight fire with fire.Here's what you do.You go get yourself a Tesla model S motorcapable of 400 kilowattsfor just 12 grand.Each one of those weighs 275 pounds.It makes combined 1070 horsepower.You put that into theinternal combustion chassisof your choice,and then you should get agood ol' power to weight ratiothat you can step on the Plaid with.Of course,you'll still need a batteryto make all that work.So maybe the big brain move,which is just wait and buy a reg Plaid,put that drive line in anall wheel drive Pontiac 6000,and you should have notrouble beating the Plaidat the strip,and riding home in style.We did it guys.We figured it out.That's what this isgonna be in a few years.Come back at 20 years,and you're going to be like yo,they're doing sick swaps like this.Jerry Barry was the first one to say it.I wasn't the first,but you know.Thank you guys so much forwatching this episode of B2B.If you like the stuff we do,please subscribe and like.That really helps us out.It's a freeway to let usknow that we're doing good.So we appreciate it.We love you guys so much.We thank you for watching.Follow us on Instagram @donutmedia,follow me @JeremiahBurton,and until next week.Bye for now.