Perpetual Motion Delorean?

An anonymous reader writes "An electric-powered Delorean that can supposedly go "hundreds of miles" at speeds over 100MPH without stopping to recharge will be tested today beginning at 8am at the Nashville Superspeedway. They claim the vehicle uses 12 standard car batteries, so the invention appears to relate to recharging the batteries." I found a website offering current updates on the demonstration of this perpetual motion device: it appears they've suffered mechanical difficulties and cancelled the test.

Comments

What is this? Hoax? No Details?

[jsimon12]

Seems to be nothing other then an electrically powered Delorean? People have been converting gas powered vehicles to Electric for years. If this is some sort of perpetual motion machine is doesn't say how it works on the site, in any detail. So that would lead me to belive it is a hoax.

Re:What is this? Hoax? No Details?

[JabberWokky]

If this is some sort of perpetual motion machine is doesn't say how it works on the site, in any detail.

That's because the only person who mentioned perpetual motion was the Slashdot Editor. Michael put it in the title of the Slashdot story - neither the article nor the site says *anything* about perpetual motion. The stats related in the article are:

'hundreds of miles without recharging'' and can reach speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.

Which is scientifically plausable, if exteremely unlikely. It may well be a hoax, but they seem to be putting their money where their mouth is. We'll see when the thing is finished being demonstrated. It certainly would be a breakthrough, and while very rare, they do happen at times.

If it were a perpetual motion device, I wouldn't even give it the benefit of the doubt. As it is, I just give it doubt. :)

--
Evan (no references, but I think the car's stats might be SciFi)

Re:What is this? Hoax? No Details?

[Idarubicin]

As the parent post observes, this is obviously a sham.

I want to know--why has nobody on Slashdot mentioned the most important point?

If the car "can run coast to coast without ever...being charged" and "at the end of the allotted time period the battery bank will still register a FULL CHARGE condition", why does it need a battery bank in the first place?

If, as the Tilley Foundation web site states, "Your battery system will be fully charged at all times while in use", why do we need the batteries at all?

Slashdot's new tagline

[nizo]

"Hoaxes for nerds". Or is it "Hoaxes that matter"? Remember, don't let reality interfere with a good news story.

Re:This should be under a better heading...

[Hans Lehmann]

Tesla did some interesting work, but he never "sucked power out of the environment" without spending far more energy than he ever got back. The reason we Nerds poo-poo these stories is simply because they defy the laws of thermodynamics. This inventor shows all the usual symptoms of a perpetual-energy kook:

"The Government/Big Oil/Big Auto knows that this really works, but they're trying to suppress it."

They create mumbo-jumbo terms like "electromagnetic vacuum", that sound plausible to the average sucker investor that never bothered to take a high-school physics class, but are nothing but a bunch of crap.

They're constantly stalling, while promising that their invention will be ready after "just a few more tweaks."

When they are asked to demonstrate it under controlled conditions, they'll always come up with a story about "bad vibes from all these skeptics", or in this case "we've just got some bearing problems."

Anyone that invests in this company deserves to lose every penny they own.