These days there is a lot of talk about electric cars, and most automotive enthusiasts seem to cringe when the idea of an electric-powered vehicle is brought up. And in fairness, at least on paper, most electric cars sound pretty lame. They have a limited range, long recharging times, and they are horribly, horribly slow, to the point where 0-60 would be better measured in minutes, than seconds. There are exceptions to this rule, like the Tesla Roadster and Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid, but they are beyond the means of most Americans.

Right now though, electric cars are evolving at a rapid pace, and not just the commuter car kind. Electric drag racing has been around for a while now, but it is gaining new found momentum thanks to one man and his electric Camaro.

That man is Ron Adamowicz, a Connecticut business man and drag racing aficionado who is making waves with an EV Camaro drag car named “Warp Factor II.” Sponsored by Haiyin, a Chinese manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, Ron and his Camaro are showing the world that clean, green speed is here to kick ass and take names.

That big red button engages the overdrive transmission system to help the EV reach top speed.

Ron has been into drag racing his whole life, and for a few years he was heavy into the biofuel business as well. But as an avid watcher of business and politics, Ron eventually migrated to electric vehicles, which he sees as the future. The problem was interest; sure, the hippies and environmentalists would get on board with electric vehicles, but what about the average guy who has owned nothing but American cars his whole life? What about the rabid motorsports fans who dismiss EV’s as slow and boring (because, let’s admit it, most of them are.) Those are the people Ron wants to convert.

So what better way than to take a classic American icon like the Camaro, and convert it into a quick, quiet drag car that will blow your doors off? That’s exactly what Ron has done, starting with an ‘81 Chevy Camaro that has been heavily modified for drag racing by the famed Scrivener Performance.

Make no mistake about it; this is no half-assed drag car, but the real deal, from the tubular control arms to the 12-point roll cage to the racing seat and harness. And yet you won’t find any rip-roaring, fire-breathing big block under the hood of this Camaro, but rather two battery packs (one under the hood, one in the trunk area) powering two high-torque electric motors currently packing 215 volts. Over the winter Ron and his team, Team Haiyin EV Racing, plan to upgrade to new, more powerful Netgain Warp drive electric motors that produce a whooping 288+ volts per motor.

Now all this talk about volts and electricity probably has you saying “But how fast does it go?” Very fast, actually. To date, Ron’s best run in the Camaro is 10.08 seconds down the quarter-mile. But with planned upgrades, including, two new motors, a new battery pack that weighs half as much but provides even more power, and a new Evnetics controller setup, Ron believes that he will break into the 8-second range with ease.

Racing an electric car is a different experience from your traditional ICE-powered racer though. “It’s instant torque,” explains Ron. “At 0 RPM we have 2,000+ ft-lbs of torque on tap and the horsepower doesn’t kick in until farther down the track.” That has limited top speed, but Ron found a way around that by using an overdrive transmission, which he manually kicks in via a button on the steering wheel. “This way I have power throughout the quarter-mile,” Ron explains.

Instead of a big block engine, the electric Camaro relies on large battery packs and complicated controllers to dole out massive amounts of torque.

And in the 2,650 pound Camaro, 2,000 ft-lbs of torque is a lot of power. Ron has plans to further lighten his car too with a fiberglass roof, lighter battery pack (from 600 pounds to 300 pounds) and lighter rear end. That is all well and good…but how does the Warp Factor II Camaro perform on the track? How long does it take to recharge? These are the questions you are no doubt asking yourself.

Well according to Ron, a full recharge only takes around 45 minutes, and each run down the 1,320 only shaves about 4-6 volts off of the pack’s charge. That means with the current 4000 amps / 215 volts, Ron can make approximately 4 runs down the track before needing to “top off” on electrons. How is that for efficient?

By next spring Ron hopes to be in the 8’s with his electric Camaro, which would propel him to the top of the chars in the EV racing world. The Team Haiyin Warp Factor II Camaro is the vangaurd of a new direction of drag racing. It may not have the deafening roar we all know and love of today’s dragsters, but this new field of competition means new opportunities for going fast in a different way. Because in the end, it doesn’t matter how loud your car is, just how fast it goes. And chances are, Ron’s clean Camaro is a hell of a lot faster than yours, and he’d be happy to take you to the track to prove it.