Videos: Batmobile Replica 1989 Powered by a Boeing Jet Turbine!

Perhaps the most celebrated Batmobile after the1966 model from Adam West's Batman TV Show is the Anton Furst designed version from the 1989 and 1991 Tim Burton films.

And while collectors may seek the original Batmobiles featured in the movies, we're pretty sure that fans will take a special liking to this replica, which is up for grabs on eBay.

What separates this replica of the 1989 Batmobile, not only from the other clones on the market but the original as well, is that, according to the seller, it is the only turbine-powered car of its kind in the world.

Built and designed by Casey Putsch of Putsch Racing in 2011, the car was completed in 2011. Under the massive hood you'll find a Boeing turboshaft jet engine borrowed from military drone helicopter.

Putsch Racing says the engine, which can run on Jet A, kerosene, or diesel fuel, pushes out 365-horsepower (the seller doesn't say with which type of fuel), though we'll assume that most people will be more interested in the sound it makes and which you can check out in the videos below.

The replica tips the scales at approximately 2,800 pounds or just 1,270 kilos, and comes equipped with height-adjustable suspension. according to the seller, its street legal in the U.S.

Now for the bad news; even though the seller has dropped the price tag from the last eBay auction ($620,000), the car is still listed at a ridonkulous $520,000.

PHOTO GALLERY

VIDEOS

Read more In Cars

Microbe Promises to Turn Newspapers into Bio-Fuel

Scientists at New Orlean’s Tulane University have perfected a new strain of the bacteria Clostridium. Dubbed TU-103, this microbe is the first of its kind that can synthesise butanol from cellulose.

What does this mean for our readers? Well, imagine taking a stack of old newspapers or sugarcane waste and turning into useable bio-fuel for your car. TU-103 can take any type of plant or plant product and turn it into renewable, sustainable butanol.

TU-103 was discovered by David Mullin, an associate professor at Tulane’s Cell and Molecular Biology Department, postdoctoral fellow Harshad Velankar and undergraduate student Hailee Rask over a two-year period. The team is currently testing the microbe on bagasse, a fibrous waste material produced during the harvesting of sugar cane.

Mullin describes his work thusly:

“Cellulose is present everywhere: paper, grass, leaves, corn cobs, corn stalks and renewable agricultural waste products. It is available on a vast scale since things like corn stalks and corn cobs are usually thrown away.”

He continues:

"This discovery could reduce the cost to produce bio-butanol. In addition to possible savings on the price per gallon, as a fuel, bio-butanol produced from cellulose would dramatically reduce carbon dioxide and smog emissions in comparison to gasoline, and have a positive impact on landfill waste."

Compared to ethanol, butanol is a much better product. It uses the useless by-products from existing crop production, rather than needing crops to be grown specifically for use as fuel. It has virtually the same energy content as petrol / gasoline albeit with less CO2 and other harmful emissions. It’s a message echoed Jeffrey Sigler, professor of practice in Tulane University’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Department:

“Biofuels [like butanol] in general are better for air quality than gasoline. They burn cleaner. If agricultural waste products are being used as the feedstock in this case, it seems to me that this could be an important step toward reducing net CO2 emissions from these types of fuels, as well as minimizing land use impacts.”

Better still, butanol requires no special modifications to existing internal combustion engines to work as an automotive fuel. Unsurprisingly, Mullin has great hopes for TU-103 and the butanol as a future fuel:

“I really would like to see this process developed into something at a larger scale that people could utilize. I'm not really equipped to do that here, but if there was an industrial partner that had the capability to produce butanol on a large scale, it would give me some pleasure knowing that our research efforts in some way contributed to reducing the energy dependency of the United States on foreign oil.”

Is butanol too good to be true? I don’t have the scientific background to say so, but from the results Mullin and his team have been getting, it seems that both it – and the TU-103 microbe – could become a key part in our clean(er) energy future.


Read more In Cars

Video: Jet Skiing on the Roads of New York

Stuck in a neighborhood with enormous volumes of water doesn't exactly sound like an ideal setting for entertainment, or at least that is what most people would like to believe.
Some folks, however, found a way to make the best of a really bad situation. Like this guy who took out his jet ski and had a blast on the empty (pun intended) roads of Oceanside, New York after the passing of Irene.
Click past the jump to watch him in action.

VIDEO

Read more In Cars

GM's New App Lets you Call your Car

OnStar has announced a new mobile application for GM vehicles fitted with its RemoteLink system. The app allows drivers to search for a destination on their smartphone and send it directly to their cars via text message or voice mail. The system can store up to five endpoints.Once the driver starts up his or her car, the route will be readily available and navigation will be activated.
“RemoteLink’s navigation enhancement offers our customers another choice in how they get directions, whether they’re in their car, on their computer or using their compatible smartphone”, said OnStar’s director of advanced system design Steve Schwinke.
The enhancement is already available for download on Android and iPhone app stores.
So in a few years you will text or call your car, which by then will be driving itself, and order it to come and pick you up. Sounds a bit like a cheesy David Hasselhoff ‘80s TV series, unfortunately without the front mounted scanner bar or, most importantly, the money dispenser…

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Mercedes-Benz with LEGO to Create the Largest TECHNIC Model

When it comes to building LEGO, size does matter and with an impressive length of 38.6 cm (15.2-inches) from bumper to bumper and more than 2,000 pieces, the 1:12-scale Mercedes-Benz Unimog will surely be one heck of a challenge to build.
The LEGO Unimog 4000 was created to celebrate the Mercedes-Benz truck's 60th anniversary this year and it is available to buy from Argos and LEGO stores with pricing in the UK set at £154.99 (about €177 or US$255).
According to the Denmark based toy company, the TECHNIC series model is fully functional and features a front winch, optional snowplough, suspension, differentials, a four-wheel drive chassis, a gear block for increased ground clearance, and a detailed reproduction of the engine right down to the moving pistons.
Mark Hopkins, Unimog UK Sales Manager, commented: “While the Unimog is a necessity ‘workhorse’ for some operations, it is also a vehicle that captures the imaginations of those who drive and work them daily, so we are delighted to be celebrating our 60^th birthday by creating the most complex model in the TECHNIC range for Unimog enthusiasts to create and enjoy!"

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Feds Probe E65/E66 BMW 7-Series after Cars Break Free

U.S. safety regulators are investigating an estimated 120,000 BMW 7-Series sedans from the 2002 to 2008 model years (E65 and E66) after receiving a complaint from a consumer alleging a roll-away incident after parking and exiting a 2006MY BMW 7 Series.
According to the complaint filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [NHTSA], the vehicle was fitted with BMW's Comfort Access electronic access and ignition system and an electronic transmission shifter with the gear selector mounted on the steering column.
The shifter automatically puts the vehicle in Park under a variety of conditions, including after the driver has pressed the ignition button to turn the engine off.
The safety agency said BMW submitted additional reports describing other rollaway incidents in "similarly equipped" 2002-2008MY BMW 7-Series vehicles.
"Thus far, no cause has been identified for any of the rollaway incidents," NHTSA said in a statement adding that "a Preliminary Evaluation has been opened to assess the scope, frequency and causes of rollaway incidents in the subject vehicles".

Read more In Cars

Hacking your Car through a Smart Phone

Security consulting firm iSec Partners warns drivers that thieves could exploit smart phone apps that allow the unlocking and starting of cars remotely.

Researchers Don Bailey and Mathew Solnik have hacked the protocols some of these apps use and demonstrated how they can take advantage of them using a laptop.
According to Mr. Bailey, the whole process of hacking and improvising the signals these apps send – what he dubs “war texting” – can take as little as two hours.
Mr. Bailey will discuss the research at Black Hat Technical Security Conference in Las Vegas this week. Of course, he won’t name the products or provide full technical details of Mr. Solnik and his work until the software makers can patch them. GM, Mercedes-Benz and BMW all use the technology in one form or another.
Bailey and his cohort intercepted messages sent between the server and the target vehicle over standard mobile networks. He explains:
"We reverse-engineer the protocol and then we build our own tools to use that protocol to contact that system.”
Researchers at iSec think this is indicative of a more widespread problem created by the proliferation of “cheap and easy” mobile networking technology.
Bailey suspects that security considerations are often minimally addressed, thereby making devices using the technology susceptible to exploitation and misuse.

Read more In Cars