Man Builds Turbine Powered Batmobile

hasanabbas1987 writes "Casey Putsch, the famous car restorer, puts a new meaning to the word 'Fanboy' as he builds a Batmobile and powers it with a Boeing turboshaft engine taken from a drone helicopter. According to Casey this is the only one of its kind and even Bruce Wayne would've been proud of his work. Internal mods include an iPad in the dashboard which serves as an avionics system and GPS coordinates."

Re:

[maxwell demon]

When did you people stop being content with a simple rickroll? This is why Slashdot needs a "delete for spam" option.

Well, a "disable links" option would be sufficient, and less easily abused.

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[geekprime]

How about a don't show me posts from this IP address option? Don't tell me what it is, just don't show me its posts.

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[maxwell demon]

In the given case, the post came from a logged-in user. Therefore your foe list should be sufficient for that.
Also, blocking a certain IP wouldn't do much good for dynamic IPs.

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[nharmon]

Get an ax!

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[wjsteele]

That's not a good example, as the Terrafugia is allowed to be driven on the road according to NHTSA. It has now been cleared for air and road use due to certain exemptions it has received specifically due to those challenges of making a dual use vehicle.

Here is the news release on it: http://www.terrafugia.com/news_media.html [terrafugia.com]

Bill

Re:Is street-legal: All Roads are Open.

[ElectricTurtle]

Too bad everything is basically the opposite of what you say. You do not (necessarily) need licenses for private roads, especially not from the government. If there were restrictions on a private road they would necessarily be *private* and you'd need whatever authorization the road's owner required. Licenses are a requirement to operate a vehicle on public roads in the US at a state level, and they are also only half of the picture. "Street legal" refers not to licenses at all but to vehicle registration. Vehicles must meet safety, emissions, and other standards determined by each state before they can be registered. While some vehicles are exempt from these standards it is usually because they have been grandfathered in from earlier periods of vehicle manufacture before given standards were implemented.

The doctrine of open roads is not that anybody can drive anything, but rather that other persons/agencies cannot impede others on public roads for reasons in excess of legal frameworks such as licensing, registration, and traffic laws. It's meant to prevent discrimination or attempts at passive harassment such as trying to block roads or certain persons or classes of persons. Your legal interpretation is not borne out in any case law I assure you.

I am not a lawyer and the above should not be construed as legal advice.

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[ElectricTurtle]

You're basically trying to justify the continuance of behavior that was acceptable before laws changed because there weren't laws before there were laws. It's a ridiculous sort of argument that doesn't work in any Western civil society. There was a time when you didn't need pilot licenses to fly or ships' masters licenses to operate heavy commercial vessels, that doesn't mean the same holds true forever. You do either one now and you'll end up on the losing side of a court battle and fast. The same is true

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[filthpickle]

That isn't a Viper. I think it's a Cheetah.

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[ailnlv]

looks like a puma to me

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[Jarik C-Bol]

hey Griff, what's that mexican lizard that eats all them goats?

Wayne Huh?

[nharmon]

Okay, but the Dark Knight would be a little more careful about protecting his identify than risk being outed by putting his real family name on the dashboard MFD.

Cool but....

[shoehornjob]

Loud as hell and you'd figure it would go really fast but NO. I bet the people he passed on the road were like "WTF I done seen the batmobile".

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[PopeScott]

I would imagine it CAN go fast as hell, but he was on the road. Not like he could open it all the way up. I would like to see some track footage. Loud as hell? Umm yeah It a helicopter turbine wtf did you expect?

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[ElectricTurtle]

It probably could go faster, but it would require a closed course and/or special permits. It's not like he's magically immune from all traffic laws on public roads like Batman.

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[ryanw]

If I were a cop and saw this dude.. I'd pull him over and say, "Um, let's see how this thing fairs on the freeway.."

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[lee1]

Immune? At least in the TV show Batman was scrupulous in following all traffic laws and wearing seatbelts, sometimes to Robin's annoyance.

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[wwphx]

There was an episode of the original series where one of the villains plants a bomb in the batmobile set if the speedometer hit 60 MPH (or something, like 5 over the limit) and Robin was learning to drive. Bats was very preachy making sure Robin obeyed all traffic laws including the speed limit, so the bomb remained unboomed and eventually discovered.

Nice!

[liquidweaver]

Dude needs to buy a really nice batman costume PRONTO and upload videos of ordering at drive thru's.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[Legion303]

That ought to work out just great:

"HI I'D LIKE A (160dB turbine whine)"
"WHAT?"
"(inaudible)"

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[whargoul]

Enough of that you sick fuck

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[rossdee]

What horsepower is that engine? There were no stats on his homepage.

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[slinches]

Probably somewhere between 300-500hp. It appears to be a Boeing T50/502 [boeing.com]. Although, I wouldn't imagine it's all that fast on the 1/4 mile. Turboshaft engines are designed to operate at a constant speed and are very inefficient when used like a piston engine.

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[ultranova]

Probably somewhere between 300-500hp. It appears to be a Boeing T50/502. Although, I wouldn't imagine it's all that fast on the 1/4 mile. Turboshaft engines are designed to operate at a constant speed and are very inefficient when used like a piston engine.

That's just the matter of using the right transmission [wikipedia.org] for the job. Or, failing that, a generator and an electric engine to actually turn the wheels.

Horsepowers = acceleration. If this equation does not hold, don't blame the engine.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Well generally speaking with turbine power you get really terrible throttle response. I imagine you'd have to be really careful with this car because once you got up to speed it's probably very difficult to stop. With turbines everything works in a delayed slow motion kind of way. It takes a long time to spin up to speed and a long time to spin down.

I imagine it's probably capable of pretty fast speed but I doubt the aerodynamics are designed properly or even tested and you would really want that done be

The bottom

[RebelWithoutAClue]

The bottom must be hell on bumps.

/. ed

[jonahbron]

Link is a bit slashdotted. Google Cache to the rescue. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:eMZHEQ4ntkUJ:www.kbiii.com/putschracing/%3Fp%3D50+Turbine+Powered+Batmobile+site:kbiii.com&hl=en&gl=us&strip=0 [googleusercontent.com]

Cool

[TheRecklessWanderer]

Well that is pretty cool but if it doesn't go as fast as a rocket then what's the point?

Want

[SMoynihan]

I know what I'm asking Santa for this Christmas...

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[datorum]

thx for modding me down, humor is a strange thing

Affred needs to get to the BatCave

[Bodhammer]

And fix the slashdotted server!

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[spitek]

v. slasdotted - action of non-agravated DDOS by means representation on slashdot.com n. failed pile of server poo

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[snsh]

And fix the slashdotted batserver!

FTFY

Video of vehicle

[Animats]

Youtube video of the thing [youtube.com]. Very nice.

It looks like the interior isn't finished. The right third of the dashboard is still open, with cables hanging out, and there's a keyboard stuffed in. So they're still debugging. When he parks the thing and closes the canopy, it gets quieter, so the turbine noise is being dumped into the cockpit. No wonder he wears noise-cancelling headphones.

what is the MPG?

[Joe_Dragon]

5? and I don't think the BP has jet fuel.

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[CompMD]

Jet-A at my local airport is $4.03/gal.

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[demonbug]

Jet-A at my local airport is $4.03/gal.

Wow, that's cheaper than diesel.

Anyone know if Jet-A works in a VW?

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[CompMD]

It will work. Like AC says though, you can get in trouble for not paying road tax. Also, the price varies wildly depending on where you live and who you buy from. In the Chicago area Jet-A is between $6.60 and $7.00, San Francisco area is $5.90-$7.60, and in KC $4.25-$7.10.

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[wagnerrp]

It should be able to run on diesel or gasoline without much trouble. If it burns, you can use it. Fuel isn't injected until you actually want it to burn, so you don't have to worry about knock and pre-ignition like a gasoline motor. As long as its properties are such that the injector can aerosolize it properly, and it's not a slow burn, it should work fine. The problem is the stuff that doesn't burn. Additives like cleaners and solvents may screw up the fuel line and injectors. Any particulate like s

Ipad powered?

[ManuelH]

Ipad powered batmobile at 0:29 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nZSBpFMWk-M#at=29 [youtube.com]

Very Cool!

[DaMattster]

It has the sleek coolness factor of the bat mobile but totally has no stealth whatsoever. You can probably hear that thing coming from a mile away! Nevertheless, I am glad to see that America still has some engineers!

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[wjsteele]

The F22 is loud as hell too, but you can't hear it coming until you're dead!

Bill

Neat-o... but impractical and noisy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I said "Neat-o". A word right from the 1960's and 70's.

Turboshaft engines make absolutely TERRIBLE car engines.

They only run in a very tight RPM range.
They are noisy as fuck.
They produce copious amounts of heat and must be properly cooled (like in an aircraft that when moving can provide a constant high volume source of ram air to cool the engine).
They guzzle fuel at a breathtaking rate.
They only survive a fairly small fixed number of startup/shutdown cycles before the "hot section" must be overhauled

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[dr2chase]

You seem to have confused "terrible" and "awesome".

multilingual pun time!

[dkleinsc]

It seems like Mr Putsch here has pulled off quite a coup.

Yes but...

[Strange Ranger]

This looks really cool and certainly puts out some impressive noise. But it's hard to get excited when there's no info on horsepower, MPH, time to 60mph, or any other interesting facts.
But mostly watching him cruise at 8mph is just frustrating.

OK dude, very cool. You put a ton of effort into building something really neat. But with all that engineering and noise it needs to do more than act as a lone parade float. Would love to see you racing it through the Nevada desert....

Kudos for

Atomic Batteries plz

[mustPushCart]

Now all he gotta do is build some atomic batteries and he can go 'Atomic batteries to power!.... Turbines to speed!'

Good solution against tailgaters

[wvmarle]

Good solution against tailgaters. The hot exhaust of the turbine will take care of them!

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[wjsteele]

Why... when it's built by you for your own personal use, patents and copyrights don't apply.

Bill

does it work?

[hesaigo999ca]

I would like to know if it works, and if so, what is the top speed of the vehicle, as well as how well does it handle on turns etc....

Ohio!

[gozar]

I was laughing at the look of it driving down the highway, thinking to myself how out of place it looks with the farm houses and silos. If only he was a little farther north he could have passed some Amish buggies.