Great Transcontinental Electric Car Race - 1968

Shortly after Arizona Public Service's historic 1967 cross country trip in a
MARS II Electric Car, equipped with fast charge Lead-Cobalt Batteries, Wally Rippel, an engineering student of the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH) in Pasadena, California, contacted Electric Fuel Propulsion Inc. to see if EFP would sell a $600 set of Lead Cobalt Batteries (120 volt, 292 ampere hours) and an EFP Electric Motor to CALTECH.

EFP agreed to supply these and other things for Wally's Volkswagen Bus, whereupon Wally issued a challenge to the engineering students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts to a coast-to-coast pure electric car race, something that had never been done before. The challenge was immediately accepted and race preparations begun by the students of both schools. MIT ordered the same size Electric Motor from EFP, a $20,000 set of Nickel Cadmium Batteries from Goulton Industries and obtained a General Motors Corvair passenger car to be used as their race car.

While the engineering students worked on their vehicles, EFP laid out a route across the country and made arrangements with 30 electric utility companies to supply 50 kW power to the transformerless on-board fast chargers mounted inside the vehicles.

The race started on August 26, 1968, each vehicle starting from its own campus, and ended on September 4, 1968. The CALTECH Voltswagen was the winner, crossing the country in 210 hours and 3 minutes. The MIT vehicle was close behind with a driving time of 210 hours and 33 minutes.