World's first turbine powered Batmobile hits roads

When it comes to customisation, some people really push the boat car out. Batmobile Check out this homemade road-legal Batmobile, based on the caped crusader's motor from Tim Burton's 1989 film Batman. The 20ft long vehicle is powered by a Boeing turbine engine originally used on a Navy aircraft. Casey Putsch from …

[Lamont Cranston]

Are you sure that's road legal?

I can't see any wingmirrors.

Still want, though.

[Flugal]

Wing mirrors

You don't need wing mirrors to be road legal. A rear-facing camera and a screen displaying the image is sufficient, as with a handful of road cars.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Flugal

In the UK, as a minimum you need a driver's side wing mirror and either an internal mirror or a passenger side wing mirror to be legal. These cannot be replaced with electronic equivalents. In the US the laws vary from state to state. In NJ for example the law is exactly the same as the UK, and even explicitly states mirrors in the law, so electronic equivalents are not acceptable. In NY the laws are a little more strict, but essentially the same.

Not sure what state you are talking about in your case though.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, neither is half of the most recent electric cars then...

Most recent electric cars use cameras instead of mirrors.

In any case, I am pretty sure this violates the road legality limit for noise at least in the EU. Not sure what is the limit in the US though.

[Anonymous Coward]

In the US...

Both the noise, machine guns and the bit that drops the bomb out of the nose are legal.

[Richard Ball]

pink panther

Looks like it drives about as well as the 1970s pink panther car.

[LauRoman]

Car Dock

You know he buit that car only so he can have a cool iPad dock.

[Anonymous Coward]

And all he could do was 55mph?

What a disappointment. I was hoping he would at least leave the highway patrol eating his flaming afterburner.

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Sir

Didn't you hear the update on this?

Apparently some joker put some road bumps near the exit and foiled his next super-slow getaway :)

[Real Ale is Best]

Road legal?

Not in the EU. It would never pass the noise regulations.

[sisk]

Yes

Unfortunately, it passes noise regulations here. I would have to say that we have wanna-be gangstas around here who pump thier bass louder than that (though, admittedly, that could be a trick of the gain on the video). More than a few times I've covered my ears in pain when one passed within 30 feet of me. I don't know how they can stand to drive like that.

[Z80]

Road legal

Shirley it must be too loud to be legal I thought. I quick look on wikipedia suggests the laws in the US apply to overall traffic noise and not individual vehicles. So, carry on Batmobile-drivin' dude.

[strangefish]

nice

but has it got a lamppost lassoing baterang for those tricky tight left turns? :¬)

[Peter 66]

First to say?

.......but thats how american cars get round corners...................que down voting from our colonial friends

[Mediocrates]

sorry, no downvoting

"but thats how american cars get round corners"

And it's a damn lot of fun! Almost as good as driving a speedboat off a barn roof.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fun!

As much fun as it would be, they tried it on Mythbusters. Apparently there's no such thing as a steel cable strong enough to actually do it. Too bad. I was all set to make the neccessary modifications to my SUV before that episode.

[Anonymous Coward]

Exhaust on the sides

So a nice turbo-shaft setup with an gas turbine from a heli?

Now the exhaust pipes are on the sides and normally gas turbine exhaust will be at 600-700C or more.... how the hell did it become road legal; if the dude would be overtaking someone he would scortch his/hers car!

PS. What's the MPG on it :P My minature gas turbine for a rc jet burns 300g of fuel / minute xD

[TeeCee]

Re: Exhaust on the sides

Thank you for pointing that out, I now want one.

Having a 700 degree stream of exhaust exiting to the side has just gone to Number 1 on my "fun with cyclists" list.

Of course it's wrong. The exhaust should come out the back, with an afterburner on it.....

[Peter H. Coffin]

For what it's worth...

Chrysler solved this problem in the 1950s when they were testing-marketing their turbine car. by using a regenerator. This used exhaust heat to warm up incoming air to the turbine, which not only cooled the exhaust to safe temperatures, it also increased the fuel efficiency in the process. I'm not suggesting that this car does that, but that it's not an unfixable problem...

[Tom 260]

Seat belts?

He didn't seem to be wearing a seat belt or racing harness, so I'd say not road legal. Just looked on wiki and it seems only in New Hampshire you don't commit an offence by not wearing a seat belt in the front.

[sisk]

Loophole in the seatbelt law

You are not required to wear a seatbelt in some US states if your vehical doesn't have them. Mostly the loophole only applies to antiques built before seatbelts were universal. I'm not sure if it applies to a home built car like this or not. That'd be a question for a lawyer.

[Ru]

Wholly convenient, Batman

Awesome phrase.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not really that impressed

Nice project but the only thing vaguely unique about it is the bodywork being a copy of the batman car, and that's just bodywork. The important stuff has been done before, e.g. Marine Turbine have been building a jet motorcycle for years now, the Y2K, Jay Leno even has one, and there have been plenty of turbine pickups and the like done. Vaguely interesting and a nice marketing piece but other than that, meh.

[stucs201]

Ok thats the turbines sorted...

...well one anyway. Now what about the atomic batteries?

[Anonymous Coward]

I never understood how that one worked

Not that anything really made sense in the old 60s Batman series, but atomic battery powered turbines? Seriously, WTF?

[Steve X]

atomic battery powered turbines?

It's called a hybrid...

[Mediocrates]

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

"but atomic battery powered turbines? Seriously, WTF?"

No, the atomic batteries powered the headlights.

[Number6]

Turbine + generator

Reduce the engine size a bit, and have a turbine powering a generator/battery combo with electric motors to drive the wheels. Chuck in some regenerative brakes and it might turn out to be fairly efficient. If the turbine is designed along the lines of the old Meteor radial jet engines then it could even be low stress and last a long time.

[Anonymous Coward]

Congratulations

You just designed the current Jaguar concept vehicle which was recently featured on el Reg.

Next?

[Shades]

@AC: Damn...

...You beat me to it!

[Shades]

Jaguar

I believe this is exactly what Jaguar have done recently with the C-X75, although sadly the micro turbines won't be making their way into the production model.

http://www.reghardware.com/2011/05/06/jaguar_to_produce_c_x75_supercar/

[Anonymous Coward]

more efficient with a piston engine

Gas turbines have their strengths, but fuel efficiency isn't one of them. Compare the Brayton, Otto and Diesel cycles to see why.

[Daniel Bower]

Sorry...

...but does it blend?..

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm

Would not want to stop behind this at traffic lights - it would BBQ the front of your car :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually...

...Jay Leno melted a car front bumper when some fellow parked too close behind his Y2K bike. He actually put some LCD with rotating warnings saying "stay back, hot fumes" or something equivalent.

Who cares about mileage when it drinks diesel or kerosene? As the Joker said, "I like dynamite, and gunpowder... and gasoline! Do you know what all of these things have in common? They're cheap!"

[Reticulate]

A bit old hat.

Rover did a gas turbine car more than 60 years ago.

[chr0m4t1c]

Oh yes

If there's anyone I would trust to build a safe, reliable gas-turbine car then Rover would be the very people.

At least you wouldn't be able to hear the rattle from the dashboard over the engine.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm somewhat disppointed.

After not reading the headline carefully, I was expecting a wind turbine powered batmobile - an considerably more whimsical mode of transport.

[tempemeaty]

Beautiful

I was wondering if and when anyone would ever do this. I always thought it would be cool to have a real batmobile with a real-deal engine like this.

[Charles E]

Legal yes, but undriveable

That car looks like it has a ground clearance of about 4 inches, it would need perfectly flat roads. It wouldn't even make it out of my driveway. Looks like it has a top speed of about 35mph too. If I ran a racing shop and made this, I'd be embarrassed.

[Gil Grissum]

Hmmm

This auto definitely wouldn't make it out of my driveway here in Atlanta. Not sure what the local PD would think seeing this going down the road. I do know that the ladies would rather love it. I'm guessing that was the real point of doing it anyway.

[Anonymous Coward]

Its not real until the Stig tests it,...

and can it go over a speed bum[.

[Chris Ward]

The 1966 TV Batmobile was turbine powered

The TV Batmobile as driven by Adam West was turbine powered. The film company bought a prototype of a turbine car from Ford (though I might be wrong and it might have been Chrysler) and adapted the body by adding the fins, the bodywork and the paint. They had the "real thing" in the essence of the car. Making various scences and sound effects easy to film. (The Wikipedia article says that the turbine might have been added by Chuck Barris, but agrees the turbine was for real. And the car could be driven for a maximum of 15 seconds at a time.)

The rest of the series was a very well told joke. Which I loved as a kid. But the car was (as far as the turbine went) for real.

.

[WonkoTheSane]

@Chris Ward

The TV Batmobile was originally a 386 cubic inch V8 powered Lincoln Futura concept car, sold to Barris for $1.00. (Lincoln are indeed a division of Ford Motor Company)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Futura

A company in the US now has a license to make replicas of it, for $150,000 a time!

http://www.buybatparts.com/joomla/index.php/replicas

(Black Helicopter because Bats has one of those too)

[Gerrit Hoekstra]

Yes, but can it reverse?

Mine's the coat with the Coward Club membership card in the pocket.

[Ian Ferguson]

Stealthy!

What?

I said STEALTHY!

WHAT???

[ElReg!comments!Pierre]

Turbine, road-legal?

Better avoid curves in slippery wheather then. Actually, better avoid slippery weather altogether.

[kain preacher]

What

Am I the only one disappointed that it did not hit triple digits ? With that much horse power I'm expecting to see tires smoking .

[Arctic fox]

That panting and moaning you can hear is..........

.............Jeremy Clarkson having a "private moment."

[sideshow]

"an iPad for GPS navigation and avionics."

It flies, too?!

Holy cow.

[Anonymous Coward]

Capstone Turbine

I'd rather have a real range-extended electric vehicle with a Capstone turbine generator (http://www.capstoneturbine.com/prodsol/products/). Give me a decent minivan, with a 30kW Capstone, a traction battery capable of 20 miles travel before needing the turbine, and give me 30 amps of 120/240VAC 60Hz off an inverter, and that would not only be a good daily driver, but you could use it as an RV on weekends as well.