Seatac, Washington racer and designer Steve Huff made drag racing history late Wednesday evening, just before the stroke of midnight, when he clocked the first-ever 200 mph pass by an electric-powered, four-wheeled vehicle at the Tucson Dragway in Arizona.
Huff, a previous MPH record holder in his Current Technology dragster before it was snatched by his childhood hero “Big Daddy” Don Garlits last summer, took his fresh new combination to Tucson with the aim of breaking Garlits’ record and, if all went to plan, perhaps eclipsing the magical double-century mark. But never did he and his team anticipate going 200 on just its second full run.
All told, Huff’s terminal speed was 201.07 mph, coming in 7.520-seconds.
Last season, Hueff’s dragster featured a single dual-stack motor and a pair of Rinehart 250 controllers — in the offseason, he teamed with AEM Electronics to completely revamp the combination, beginning with a new CD7 dash and VCU300 CAN-bus vehicle controller. At the same time, knowing the single motor just wouldn’t get the job done, a second dual-stack motor and pair of controllers were added. A 1.6 million watt battery — the largest battery of its kind ever built — producing 800-volts, 2,000 amps, and the equivalent of 1,700 completely silent horsepower.
At Tucson, Huff dialed the power up a mere 10 percent to achieve the 200 mph mark, leaving plenty of ceiling left in his quest to also become the first electric car into the 6-second zone.
To make noise of the distinction, motorcycle legend Larry McBride was official the first racer to secede 200 mph with electric power, doing so in 2012 on to wheels — Huff is the first to turn the feat on four wheels. And given the advances in technology, he certainly won’t the only one.