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Small fusion reactors can be superuseful even without taking into account space travel. From battleships to trains to large aircraft to small aircraft...

to DeLoreans

If you remove the last letter, you get DMC, a.k.a. DeLorean Motor Company. And if you replace the first letter you get YMCA.

Fight for your bitcoins!

Considering that DeLorean Motors is still in business and they are even looking at restarting production, it is an interesting comparison to make. Admittedly that the company is certainly no longer under original ownership of any kind and that being a shareholder of the original company was likely a bad idea, the company still seems to have some amazing life and seems to be a company that can't quite die even if it is a Zombie of sorts.

The better comparison that has been often used for Tesla has been the Tucker Corporation, although Tesla has produced far more automobiles than Preston Tucker ever did. The only sales figures I can find reliable about the Roadster is that about 2500 were produced over its model lifetime, with about 2500 Model S vehicles that have been produced.... still less than what John DeLorean was able to produce before he got into trouble.

It will be interesting to see if Tesla can genuinely break out and become a "real" automobile company. Hundreds of other people have started "automobile companies" of some sort or another and have largely failed.

Perhaps the flux capacitor has a temporal crystalline structure? That, or the year 1985 did...

Now, where's that Delorean???

If you lost yours, they are popular enough that you can still buy them new or refurbished (at least here in Texas). They've got electric models too.

There's a picture on one of the archery discussion sites of an arrow from a target bow piercing the door of an SUV.

Native Americans bow draw weights were typically much greater than is typical today (~80 pounds) and iron or steel trade points had pretty much completely replaced stone and rawhide points w/ any group which had contact w/ European traders long before the late 1800s.

But, if memory serves the fuel tank was down between the arms of the frame?

Ah, here we are:

http://www.lotusespritworld.com/images/history/Delorean/Delorean_02.jpg

The body of a Delorean is fairly thin SS304 and the fuel tank itself doesn't look to be especially durable:

http://store.delorean.com/p-6552-fuel-tank.aspx

Tricky shot, but probably impossible.

• NASA doesn't want to be dependent on a single vendor, and would like two systems, from two vendors (a smart move, which will reduce the chances of long outages in the event of a design problem, as happened with the Shuttle, twice, but which cuts in half the number of flights you can expect to sell to NASA),
• NASA doesn't seem to have a budget sufficient to fund full development of those systems,
• NASA will only be buying a few flights per year to the ISS, for some time to come,
• the budget for purchasing those flights has already been announced ($6 billion over 5 years), and
• that budget is far lower than NASA's own estimate for building a single man-rated system (Orion + Ares I).

You can't just go to the marketplace and say, "I want to buy rides in nuclear powered DeLoreon, and I'm willing to pay standard cab fare rates in the D.C. Metro Area, oh, and by the way, half of them should be rides in nuclear powered Porche, which I'll buy from your competition, instead of from you, oh, and I only want three rides per year," and expect that to actually happen.

However, everybody involved might be banking on the notion that NASA has now backed themselves into a corner. They won't have an option other than to buy from the commercial market, once Ares I and Orion are shut down. NASA will be forced to pay "market rates" for these launch services. If NASA doesn't fund the launcher development, and only buys 1 or 2 flights per year from each vendor, the per-flight market rate is going to be about a billion bucks. Don't like the price? We'll give you a discount, if you buy 30 flights per year so we can achieve economies of scale.

The other potential up-side is that private launch firms probably have some market opportunity to sell to other countries which would like to have improved access to the ISS, or other crewed access to space, but which have a reluctance to fund their own system development. Japan (HOPE-X, and ESA (Hermes) are obvious candidates, having previously tried to build a crewed spacecraft, but potentially other nations such as India, which might elect to direct their R&D budgets toward in-space activities, rather than reproducing the ability to get there).

It also appears that NASA may be transferring the technology from Orion to a private company. This idea was apparently floated under the name Orion Lite, with the idea being a quicker access to the ISS by reducing the capsule's life support requirements to a few days (down from a few weeks).

But even by Apple's standards, its handling of news about the health of its chief executive and co-founder, Steven P. Jobs, who has battled pancreatic cancer and recently had a liver transplant while on a leave of absence, is unparalleled.

Indeed, very little of the matter comprising Steve Jobs is still Steve Jobs. The man's like a rebuilt Delorian. Am I the only person that shudders when he closes all of his speeches with "Remember, there's a little piece of all of you inside me"?

I guess if I ran a cult I'd be asking for new organs from my younger zealots too.

here's the link I forgot...

http://www.delorean.com/

Thanks for posting that. I never would have thought of trying "delorean.com"

here's the link I forgot...

http://www.delorean.com/

> and getting the DeLorean's back on the street.

They're already doing that.

They DO offer engine kits to improove on the bhp side. See here: http://www.delorean.com/performance-engine.asp

If not, you can always order it after-market: http://www.delorean.com/dmcstore/onlinestore-searc h.asp. POST prevents me from linking, but search for flux capacitor. :) Too bad they don't offer a Mr. Fusion!

The best place to buy a delorean: http://www.delorean.com/dmcstore/byod.asp

The best place to buy a delorean: http://www.delorean.com/dmcstore/byod.asp

If not, you can always order it after-market: http://www.delorean.com/dmcstore/onlinestore-searc h.asp. POST prevents me from linking, but search for flux capacitor. :)

I love those things too, and if I weren't an unemployed college student, I'd be trying to get my hands on one.

IIRC, only the US versions (which were probably the majority) were severely underpowered. The European ones weren't exactly speed demons either, but they had around 170 hp as opposed to the 120 hp in the American ones. 170 hp is actually a pretty good result for a 2.8l engine from the early 80s. Our '85 Ford Scorpio had a 2.8l Cologne V6 which produced around 150 hp. And for additional comparison, the Porsche 924 ranged from 110 hp in early US models to 170 in the '88 Turbo version. This power reduction, as well as softer and higher suspension (and the 85mph speedo!) were appearantly a result of idiotic federal regulations at the time.

Still, more powere is (almost) never a bad idea though, so I'd love to see something more powerful in the new DMC.

Personally, I'd rather spend ~$20k and get an unmodified DMC-12. They crop up on eBay from time to time. Plus, you can order a Flux Capacitor (enter item code 18851985).

Sure, and a few engineers can always start their own car company. I wish them luck against the entrenched power of Detroit.

The shame. Wasting all that precious fuel on some nuclear reactors. I mean, how many DeLoreans can we power with 140kg of plutonium?

On another note, check out the possible 25th anniversary DeLorean!

First I took an old DeLorean model car...

Then...

First I took an old DeLorean model car...

Then...

I've driven two different DeLoreans in the past, and no, they're not speed demons. However, they DO look cool as heck.

You can find a LOT of information on the car at http://delorean.com. Good hour of reading or so.

with an original output of 130bhp

Which is why if you look here (middle picture, bottom row) you'll see that the speedometer only goes to 85.

Hey, wait a minute...I think we need a petition here. Spielberg should edit the BTTF trilogy and have Doc Brown say, "IF this baby reaches 88 miles per hour, you MIGHT see some serious shit."

That way we can make sure the film is historically accurate and all.

It's not that rare. You can buy a brand new DeLorean from the DMC. Only runs about 30 grand -- not too bad for a "Rare" car, eh?

I do hope that's a joke. The stock V6 PRV engine was designed by Peugot, Renault, & Volvo (hence its name, PRV) with an original output of 130bhp. Hardly powerful, and definitely not Chevy-built.

From Delorean Motors UK:
It's a Peugeot Renault Volvo V6 (PRV-6) 2849cc Bosch K-Jet fuel injected SOHC 90 degree V6. It's a US emission-controlled amalgum of the Renault 30 and Volvo B28 engines. It's often mistaken for a Renault engine due to the belts, pulleys, alternator and water pump using the Renault configuration, but the internals are common to the Volvo engine. The transmission is a slightly modified version of the R30's (both 3-speed auto and 5-speed manual). The gears are taller and the transaxle is rotated through 180 degrees for rear-mounting. The PRV-6 has been a popular choice among kit-car enthusiasts for years due to its flexibility and availability. The 3-litre 24 valve version of the PRV-6 was in new production cars up until only a few short years ago, for example in the Citroen Xantia V6 and Renault Espace V6.

Delorean Motors offers upgrades for this engine.

One of the reasons (excuses?) John Z. DeLorean gave for the stainless steel skin on the automobile that bore his name was that it would never rust, thus avoiding what DeLorean saw as built-in obsolescence in cars made by conventional manufacturers with conventional materials. He backed that up by advertising a 25-year warranty on the car's body.

It might not be easier, but wouldn't it be a significantly better investment to build cars meant to last as long as possible rather than cars meant to be thrown away?

That's correct. The RF wavelength it emits is so slow that it can only be recieved with a frequency counter that's been retrofitted with a DeLorean brand (tm) flux capacitor.

Hacking the IBM PC/XT and IBM DOS is no easy task..

Persoanlly I'd go straight to the source and buy mine from the Delorean Motor Company. Of course, us poor college students can't afford anything more than Ramen noodles, so I'll stick with this.

-Mr. Fusion

Persoanlly I'd go straight to the source and buy mine from the Delorean Motor Company. Of course, us poor college students can't afford anything more than Ramen noodles, so I'll stick with this.

-Mr. Fusion