My school is looking at building a new car, right now we have two cars, one runs on 6 10lb 12v batteries and the other 4 of the same ones, since they take so long to charge on trickle we have to sets so we have 24 (4 spares) and those take 2 people the night before the race to charge and I want to use lithium ion for this new car. In the Tampa Bay area we have 3 advanced battery cars, all lithium ion, and they charge in 30 min, and only 1 set is needed and they all still go full speed around the track the whole race so I just have a few questions about them.
I know in the South we will move to the Open advanced battery, we run "outlast Sb12220" batterys, each 12 volts and about 10lbs each, our car runs 6 of them for 72v, we would run one more but our motor can't handle 84v. We have not been able to do any testing, mainly since we don't know how. We don't plan on making our #80 car lithium ion, you've seen it run and can see why, but on our new car are building.
Ryan,
At the next race talk to the Electrocutioners (cars #8 and #90) about their Lithium battery packs. They can tell you how to make them and what you need to make them work. If Cliff is there, pick his brain, too. All those guys are really friendly and helpful and will answer your questions. I'm a fabricator and mechanic; they are the electronics wizards.