Chevrolet eCOPO Camaro Pops an Electric Wheelie on Its First Pass!

Check out what we caught! The literal first-ever run of the Chevrolet eCOPO Camaro, an all-electric drag racer, and it’s popping its wheels up! To reiterate: The photo you are looking at from January 26, 2019, is the first time this all-electric dragster has ever been on a drag strip. Our resident photographer Brandon Lim just happened to be at Arizona’s Wild Horse Pass drag strip because yours truly and my cohost Jethro Bovingdon were filming a new episode of Head 2 Head. Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Back to the run, the eCOPO ran a 10.14 on its first launch, before eventually dropping the time down to 10.03 at 138 mph. Does this bode well for the future, or what?

A little background: The SEMA darling eCOPO is a joint venture between McCue & Lane Electric Race Cars and General Motors. Patrick McCue is a high school shop teacher in Washington State. The motors and batteries were designed and manufactured by GM in Michigan, and then McCue and his team integrated them into the eCOPO in Washington. The dual-stack motors bolt right up to any transmission that can handle a Chevy LS motor. Think of it as a concept crate motor. The eCOPO uses the normal COPO’s TH400 three-speed automatic transmission. The eCOPO was built to run in the NHRA’s Stock Eliminator class.

Output is “just under” 800 horsepower, with each motor producing 317 lb-ft torque, for a combined total of 634 lb-ft. The car uses a 32-kW-hr battery pack with enough juice for three full-burst launches. However, the eCOPO team uses a car-specific 11-kW charger to make sure the Electric Blue beastie is fully charged for every run. Why? “Voltage is the limiting factor in RPMs,” says McCue. The more RPMs, the more speed. Anecdotally, I’ve noticed that—for instance—a fully charged Tesla Model S launches better than one that’s a bit drained. Moreover, the car has an adjustable ramp rate, which controls how quickly the electrons hit the motors. That first run, the rate was set at 50 percent. The later runs were 100 percent, and the torque simply overwhelmed the Mickey Thompson drag radials.

I reached out to former Camaro chief and newly appointed head of engineering for all things electric at GM, Al Oppenheiser, for a comment. Oppenheiser says, “As Mary [Barra] and Mark [Reuss] have made clear, we are transitioning our company into the next generation. A world of zero emissions, zero crashes, and zero congestion. The eCOPO is an example of what can be done to a traditionally internal combustion sport in a world of zero emissions.” Al adds, “And hey, how about that instant torque?” How about it, indeed? Want to see the eCOPO Camaro pop wheelies and try to crack into the 9s with your own eyes? McCue and his crew will be running it (with wider tires) at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California, starting February 7.

 

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