Question inspired by Back to the Future, obviously, so let’s use BttF’s time travel rules; the car has to get up to 88mph and be able to fit time circuits, cooling vents (that sucker’s nuclear) and flux capacitor in it. If you were doing it, which vehicle would you choose?
There’s a couple of obvious factors affecting the choice, no doubt you’ll think of more, namely - ability to accelerate. You don’t want to spend all day or need a loooong stretch of road to reach 88mph.
Reliability; the last thing you need is it breaking down in the past, especially if you need to get out of dodge.
Rugged-ability; the ability to drive off-road since where you’re going there may not be a road (gotta think 4th dimensionally about these things).
Affordability; it’s got to be something you can actually afford to get your hands on.
A Reliant Robin, of course! OK, it really doesn’t meet any of the criteria except affordability but it would just be a natural choice for me. It made a terrible space shuttle but this could be a chance for redemption!
This does raise the question of what happens if you hover-convert a three-wheeler…
As for me, I don’t know why but for some reason I’m imagining a Toyota pick-up truck as a decent candidate, the only problem would be that they’re none too spritely.
It wasn’t like the movie’s Delorean was lighting up the dragstrip. It looked like it took 15-20 seconds to get to 88.
I’d prefer a light 4X4 for usefulness in unknown destinations, but for coolness it should be something weird, like a Citroen DS, a Chrysler Turbine car, a Nissan Cube.
Given a real world situation, I’d make it out of a MD 500 helicopter. No need to worry about hitting pine trees or anything when you arrive.
I’d pick a 3/4 ton Dodge Pickup powered by a 5.9L Cummins Turbo Diesel, preferably a manual transmission with the mechanical injection pump. Simple, dependable, lots of power can be had with minor modifications (1000hp, if you’re crazy, so 88mph will be no problem), you can run it on fryer oil in a pinch, lots of room for the time machine equipment, and storage for other sundries.
It handles like a pig, though. Seriously, let’s not turn any more than we have to. Plus, it doesn’t really do cold well without some accessories. The past and future are warm, right?
The underside of a Delorean isn’t stainless. If the steel was absolutely necessary, the flux would capacitate only to the steel, and the body would time travel, leaving the chassis and occupants behind.
The flux capacitor may create a static time bubble centered on the device, perhaps, guided by the shape of the stainless steel, but there must be something more going on, because the car travels in time, but the ground under the tires does not. How does the field “know” the difference between car and not-car?
The study is further complicated because the license plate failed to time travel in the first experiment with Einstein. What if your arm was outside the window? Ouch! Instant amputation!
How far back are we going? I would think some sort of 50/60s muscle car would be the best. They are pretty cheap now, for a beater anyway, and parts are readily available and easy to work on. Some sort of V8 Mustang would be my choice, there’s enough power to get up to 88MPH and easy enough to get now and wouldn’t stick out too much if one went back after the mid 60s.
A Tesla. Badass acceleration, fewer finicky parts than an ICE, and no refined fuel concerns - anywhere you go, if you can construct a rudimentary generator, you can recharge it.
I’d probably go with a refurbished 1940’s jeep. Fairly rugged and durable, and less likely to raise questions if I go on a journey into the relatively recent past.
I’d go with an old Series Land Rover, for pretty much the same reasons. Also, they’re pretty much designed to be patched together with twine and bits of wood if needs be.
I’d make sure it had a diesel engine, though: you can get a diesel motor to run on pretty much anything at a pinch.
My first thought is a Hummer H1, although it does have clear downsides. Acceleration time would be less than ideal unless you go with the turbo diesel. MPGs would suffer, obviously. And it would cost quite a lot ($40k-$50k). But the reliability, ruggedness and coolness factor can’t be beaten.
I think the best option would be some sort of diesel SUV, preferably 4WD, as long as it has plenty of grunt to reach the required speed under poor conditions.
High clearance is better for handling obstructions on a rough reentry.
Clearance plus 4WD will help in time periods when roads are worse (or largely nonexistent).
Diesel engines are likely to be easier to keep running, and can take biofuel more readily.
Enclosed compartment provides space for more supplies and will be safer for carrying cargo or additional passengers than an open truck bed.
Doc says that the stainless “made the flux dispersal…”, then gets interrupted. He doesn’t say that it was strictly necessary. Perhaps the combination of bare metal, decent conductivity (low for a metal, but obviously much better than fiberglass or plastic), and low magnetic permeability of the body panels reduced the cabling required or something. Brushed aluminum might have been better, but AFAIK that wasn’t a stock body panel option at the time.
The displacement field can be seen to extend several feet in front of the vehicle, which seems to be its greatest extent. It does not seem to extend any significant distance into the surface (if any) on which the vehicle is traveling at the time of displacement, since it doesn’t leave holes. However, it does leave firetrails, and it does so without destroying the tires (and even if there are no tires), suggesting that the fire is local material. The fact that these trails appear only below the vehicle, and not at all points where the field interacts with non-displaced materials, along with the fact that the first visible energy discharge occurs at these points, suggests that some special interaction occurs there, even before the flux capacitor is fully powered. I submit that this is likely by design; Doc somehow contrived to produce an effect at those points that isolates the vehicle from the surface on which it is traveling.
These pre-displacement ignition points are slightly under 15 inches below the lowest point of the stainless body panels (I just went and measured), confirming that the displacement field can extend at least that far from the metal, so amputation isn’t guaranteed as long as your hand isn’t too far out the window. (Frozen fingers are likely, though.) As to the license plate–the rear fascia of a DeLorean is not metallic, and the harness roughly conforms to the metallic body panels and frame components; it’s possible that the plate, as the metallic component nearest the edge of the dispersal field, “shorted” the field at that point, carrying enough electrical current to melt it loose from the fascia. (The plate was still too hot for Marty to hold when he picked it up.)
