Electric car convention opens today at Cape airport

Some are tired of spending their hard-earned money on gasoline, others want to protect the environment, and many see building electric cars a business opportunity.

While they have different motivations, about 145 people will be in Cape Girardeau this weekend to learn more about converting cars to run on electricity at the Electric Vehicle Conversion Convention at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

The convention will include two free public events: electric car autocross and drag races at 4 p.m. Friday and an electric car show from 1:45 to 4:45 p.m. Saturday at Capaha Park. Following the car show, participants will embark on a driving tour through the city led by a police escort. They'll leave Capaha Park traveling down Broadway to Main Street. From Main Street they will follow William Street to Drury Lodge.

Attendees represent 13 countries, including China, England, New Zealand, Denmark and Germany.

Cape Girardeau entrepreneur Jack Rickard and former automotive magazine writer and editor Brian Noto have been producing an online how-to video and blog series on electric car conversions. They've done more than 100 shows on their website, EVTV.me.

"A viewer said it would be really cool if you did a build school, so we said, 'Just come down and we'll have a get-together.' It's just grown from there," Noto said.

The three-day event, which includes several technical how-to sessions, begins today at Rickard's hangar at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. Tonight's attendees will hear remarks by documentary filmmaker Chris Paine, who directed "Who Killed the Electric Car?" The 2006 film explores the creation, limited distribution and ultimate destruction of the General Motors EV1. This year, Paine released "Revenge of the Electric Car," which follows four entrepreneurs from 2007 to 2011 as they fight to bring the electric car back to the world market.

About 50 cars will take part in drag races organized by the East Coast Electric Drag Racing Association at the airport Friday evening.

"It's going to be fun. You're going to see cars going really fast. You'll see cars you didn't think could go 100 miles per hour go 100 miles per hour," said Ron Adamowicz, CEO of the International Electric Drag Racing Association and director of the East Coast Drag Racing Series.

Cape Girardeau is the farthest west the organization has ever raced and the first airport it will race at, he said. However, racing on airport runways is common in Europe, Adamowicz said.

Racers will use the east ramp and taxiways at the airport, not the runways keeping the airport open to traffic, airport manager Bruce Loy said.

After drag racing gasoline-powered cars for nearly 20 years, Adamowicz made the switch to electric car racing about a year-and-a-half ago.

"I did not want to provide the Middle East with any more of my money," he said.

Racing electric vehicles is a cleaner, more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional drag racing, Adamowicz said.

"We want to show an alternative to old-school drag racing," he said. "We can have fun and go just as fast in electric drag racing."

The 1981 electric converted Camaro that Adamowicz drives, called Warp Factor II, can go 128 miles per hour in 10.08 seconds, he said.

In addition to drag racing Friday, the Sports Car Club of America's St. Louis Chapter will host electric car autocross racing at the airport.

mmiller@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent address:

Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, Cape Girardeau, MO