Motorsports

High Tech vs. Low Tech Showdown at Brainerd Motorsports Park

CHATTANOOGA, TN – Throughout history, people have always asked the question: “what would it be like if Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali met in both their primes?”  Comparisons of legends against the latest phenomenon have always left us to ponder the what ifs.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a Tyson vs. Ali heavyweight match up but […]

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CHATTANOOGA, TN – Throughout history, people have always asked the question: “what would it be like if Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali met in both their primes?”  Comparisons of legends against the latest phenomenon have always left us to ponder the what ifs.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a Tyson vs. Ali heavyweight match up but we did have some fun this week putting together a flat out drag race between a low tech for this day and age 1971 Dodge Challenger and a 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack Electric.

On paper the numbers suggest this could be an equal race.  The 71 weights a thousand pounds less and has 150HP more than the new contender, but the future has some advantages.  Electric motors don’t have the same torque curve the old school Hemi has.  Every bit of power and torque is available the second you touch the throttle.  Just for fun we ran them against each other few times and the old school charger ended up with some fuel pressure issues that wouldn’t let us declare an overall winner.

We did bring in two guests to help with our High Tech vs. Low Tech grudge match.  Edward Parker from Mtn. View Dodge and Matt Welch owner of Pandora’s European Motorsports.

The new Charger impressed me, and even the engine sounds I felt like fit. The car sounds like something from Tron.  “It’s got 670 horsepower, 627 pound feet of torque. And as an instantaneous, it’s also got which we just tested, a PowerShot, which gives you an immediate 40 more horsepower at the front as you hit the gas or not. The gas pedal, the electric pedal,” says Parker.

Matt has raced motorcycles professionally, and worked for various teams in Nascar and the Indy car series. We talked about the future of racing and how the next generation will never have the frustration of rebuilding a carburetor and they will end up programming cars on laptops and devices instead.  I had to ask with his experience, do you thin we will ever see an all-electric Daytona 500 or Indy 500?  “I don’t know that we will see a, race of that caliber that’s all electric. Maybe in my kids lifetime, but maybe not ours,” says Matt. “We’re definitely headed that direction. I think in five years, half of my showroom will be electric. I think half of your showroom will be electric. Like it or not, it’s coming.”

Comparing this new tech to the low tech, I can take the engine out and have any performance shop in the world rebuild.  I can make upgrades, changes and ultimately make it a street cruiser or full out race car.  But what happens when the motors or batteries die in the electric?

“You have to bring it back to the dealership. Once you’re done with it. The dealership will send it back to the factory to where it’s basically recycled, and they’ll take the parts that are good and refurbished them and then put them back out, parts. But it’s completely recyclable. You can’t turn around and rebuild it like we can these like the carburetors. There’s nothing you can do with that” says Parker.

My personal concern with electric cars is that it will be similar to your cellphone and will have to be upgraded and replaced every few years.  The technology is obviously still too new to be sure, but like it or not – electric cars are most likely here to stay.





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