Running on Lithium

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"Once you've had a taste of electric power you never want to go back", says electric car pioneer, John Wayland. As the tension builds for the Saturday night drag race, the electric car owners geek out over battery packs and AC adapters; the guttural revs of engines are accompanied by the clean hum of lithium. John picks out a beautiful red Corvette to annihilate. And as his converted Datsun blows the doors of the gas-guzzling muscle cars, he shatters the myth of the slow, dull, and boring electric car: "These days driving with gas feels primitive". 'White Zombie' may come alive every Saturday night at the drag race, but it's also John's reliable daily driver, running on 3 cents a mile. "It's nice to know that we are going down the road free from dependence on foreign oil," he says proudly, "we run on American-generated electrons". His sleek conversion is a far cry from the boxy electric cars of the 80s: "batteries oozing with corrosion and wires hanging all over the place". And John's cars were an inspiration for backyard engineers and the industry alike. "Unfortunately electric cars in the past have been promoted on the basis of guilt", says NEDRA director, Roy Lemeur, "we want to sell something based on fun". Ever-eager to build a sleeker, faster, sexier electric car, the industry learned a lot from the cottage industry that flourished on the race tracks. "The guy who builds our motor controllers, used to use other peoples and they blew up all the time", says John, "he designed a better one and now makes his living from it". For John, the electric car is not only a thrilling ride into the future, but it's a fulfillment of the dream of clean air that he has had since he was five years old, waving goodbye to the exhaust fumes of his parents. "A lot of people talk about it, but they don't walk their walk. I do".