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August 27, 2008

CarDomainTV: AC Propulsion eBox

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

The AC Propulsion eBox won the award for the greenest track car at the Ultimate Track Car Challenge back in June. Josh kindly gave us this little demonstration while we were out at Buttonwillow. 

June 10, 2008

The Greenest Track Car

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

I had a feeling the eBox would win our "greenest" track car trophy, but I didn’t realize it would be so reliable throughout the day, and so fast. Josh took me on a quick drag run (and this is after the car had been beat on all day) and I can attest firsthand that this electric Scion is quick! It pulled happily all the way to 90mph before Josh backed off, and all the while the car was totally quiet.

The AC Propulsion conversion, done to first generation Scion xBs, costs close to $50k. But the car has a range of 150 miles and the recharge time is quite short. AC Propulsion didn’t do anything special to prepare for the track event. Other than the electric conversion, this is a bone stock xB, including the suspension. It helps that Josh (a vehicle product engineer for AC Propulsion) is a very skilled driver–he normally pilots an M Coupe track car.

Between sessions Josh took the eBox back to his little tent, plugged the car in and ran the AC to bring the battery temps down. Then he’d go back out onto the track and flog the little car some more. It ran in all four sessions, then Josh charged it up once more, hopped in and drove home to Monrovia, which was about 130 miles away.

What did the other racers think? Everyone loved it, and Josh got a big cheer when he got up on the podium to accept his trophy (he also scored third place in Shop Junior Varsity).

So how exactly did it win the "greenest track car" trophy? Well, we had John Fabijanic from Cal Poly on hand to determine the winner, and I have his full methodology after the jump.

eBox

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