There is a lot of chatter about electric cars these days, and the subject has become something of a political football as it is bounced back and forth between warring ideologies. For muscle car lovers, it can be all-too-easy to mock low-power, overly-expensive electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf. But that misses an important point; electric vehicles can be really fast, and really fun.
If you don’t think this all-electric ‘85 Pontiac Fiero doesn’t look fun, you’ve got a serious case of Haterade. And chances are, the 9-seconds it takes this Fiero to get down the quarter-mile is a lot faster than your Mustang or Camaro will ever do.
AutoblogGreen reports that the DC Plasma electric-Fiero, which belongs to John Metric, set a new class record at the National Electric Drag Racing Association race. The mid-motor EV went a best of 9.89 @ 134 mph.
It beat out the Lemon Juice Chevy S-10 electric pickup in a heads-up race, by less than two-tenths of a second. Sure, it is missing that muscle car roar, but the Fiero and S-10 both light off of the starting line thanks to the instant torque of electric motors.
Drag racing is on the cusp of entering a new era as many gearheads and car guys gravitate towards the potential of all-electric vehicles. There is even an electric Camaro called the Warp Factor II gunning for single digits this spring, coming within a tenth of a second of 9’s last year. Though still in its infancy, electric cars hold a lot of promise as future performance vehicles.
We’re not saying they’re going to replace big-block dragsters anytime soon…but they’re catching up pretty fast. Are there any performance cars you’d like to convert into an electric dragster?