Biff and Delorean

[GuruGuru214]

There's a few problems with that. First, an internal combustion engine and an electric motor work in completely different ways. You can't convert an internal combustion engine to be powered by electricity, he would've had to build an electric motor from scratch. Second, a nuclear reaction produces an enormous amount of energy. Given that there doesn't seem to be any extra energy released (considering that the DeLorean leaves fire trails behind, not an atomic blast) and that it absorbed a bolt of lightning with no ill effects, it can be assumed that 1. time travel requires the full energy of the nuclear reaction, and 2. there's nothing like a battery to store any excess energy.

Besides, have you seen an entirely electric car? Unless they've made some improvements on them, getting one up to 88 mph could be extremely difficult, if even possible.

[Shadowknight1]

Originally Posted by Spengler56

I would think if he can get trash to generate that much power he could it to run the car. He was able to get it to fly. And besides, he had all the time he needed, he had a time machine.

Doc didn't make the car able to fly. That's why there was a commercial for hover conversions. Mr. Fusion is a home energy reactor. It says so right under the name.


As a home energy reactor, the Mr. Fusion is most likely used to, as the name indicates, power homes. Also a great way to keep people recycling since it's run on garbage.

And as someone said, replacing the normal internal combustion engine with an electric engine would make NO sense. Remember. The DeLorean is a rear-engine vehicle. All of Doc's customizations are covering the engine. He'd have to rip out pretty much the entire back end of the time machine. Not to mention that the Mr. Fusion is stated to power the time circuits and the flux capacitor. Imagine if you will if Mr. Fusion powered the entire car. Now consider that Doc refuels Mr. Fusion after nearly every time jump(we don't know if this is always the case, but it seems to be). If Mr. Fusion has no power left after a time jump and the DeLorean is, say, in hover mode? The car would drop from the sky like a ton of bricks. So in the long run, keeping the engine running on gasoline was the safer choice. He just never anticipated Marty ripping a hole in the fuel line.

[Spengler56]

Originally Posted by Shadowknight1

Doc didn't make the car able to fly. That's why there was a commercial for hover conversions. Mr. Fusion is a home energy reactor. It says so right under the name.

Ya, I figured that, I just meant he got it done. I'm guessing there had to be a converter to get cars off gas if they could make them fly or make Mr. Fushion.

Originally Posted by Shadowknight1

As a home energy reactor, the Mr. Fusion is most likely used to, as the name indicates, power homes. Also a great way to keep people recycling since it's run on garbage.

And as someone said, replacing the normal internal combustion engine with an electric engine would make NO sense. Remember. The DeLorean is a rear-engine vehicle. All of Doc's customizations are covering the engine. He'd have to rip out pretty much the entire back end of the time machine. Not to mention that the Mr. Fusion is stated to power the time circuits and the flux capacitor. Imagine if you will if Mr. Fusion powered the entire car. Now consider that Doc refuels Mr. Fusion after nearly every time jump(we don't know if this is always the case, but it seems to be). If Mr. Fusion has no power left after a time jump and the DeLorean is, say, in hover mode? The car would drop from the sky like a ton of bricks. So in the long run, keeping the engine running on gasoline was the safer choice. He just never anticipated Marty ripping a hole in the fuel line.

I never saw the label, that answers that.

Why wouldn't Doc be able to open the engine hood and work on it? Are you saying he can't open the rear hood? Forgive me, I'm not too familiar with the design and how to go about about converting the car. (Now that I think about it, wasn't there a Texaco in 2015? Were they still running on gas?)

As for your third point, I guess it would depend how much power is left after each jump. You could say it would be same with gas though because people could get on the freeway with little gas and get into trouble. I'd assume there'd be a safety mechanism though. I didn't remember Doc saying Mr. Fushion powered the flux capacitor, just the circuits. Thanks for clearing that up.

[Shadowknight1]

Yes, there was a Texaco in 2015. And at one point, a robotic voice says "Checking oil", so I'd assume cars in BTTF's 2015 are still reliant on gasoline.

There is no "hood" on the time machine any more. The time machine's "garage"-built components are covering it.

[GuruGuru214]

Are you sure about that? I thought the hood was still there on fan-made reproductions of it. Speaking of which, apparently it's a huge pain in the ass to get under the hood on fan reproductions. Since those are just regular cars covered in useless props, imagine how difficult it would be to get in there if it was covered in functioning components.

[Spengler56]

Originally Posted by GuruGuru214

Are you sure about that? I thought the hood was still there on fan-made reproductions of it. Speaking of which, apparently it's a huge pain in the ass to get under the hood on fan reproductions. Since those are just regular cars covered in useless props, imagine how difficult it would be to get in there if it was covered in functioning components.

I wonder how Doc expected to perform routine maintenance.

[Shadowknight1]

Originally Posted by Spengler56

I wonder how Doc expected to perform routine maintenance.

I don't know. I could be wrong. But even if, like the reproductions, you are able to get to the engine compartment, it would still be too much of a pain to remove the engine out from under all of that junk.

[PrivateJoker]

I call fake. That is not Doc Brown in the picture. Looks like its merely his photo double so that newspaper clipping is non-canonical.

[PrivateJoker]

Originally Posted by Shadowknight1

Doc didn't make the car able to fly. That's why there was a commercial for hover conversions. Mr. Fusion is a home energy reactor. It says so right under the name.


As a home energy reactor, the Mr. Fusion is most likely used to, as the name indicates, power homes. Also a great way to keep people recycling since it's run on garbage.

And as someone said, replacing the normal internal combustion engine with an electric engine would make NO sense. Remember. The DeLorean is a rear-engine vehicle. All of Doc's customizations are covering the engine. He'd have to rip out pretty much the entire back end of the time machine. Not to mention that the Mr. Fusion is stated to power the time circuits and the flux capacitor. Imagine if you will if Mr. Fusion powered the entire car. Now consider that Doc refuels Mr. Fusion after nearly every time jump(we don't know if this is always the case, but it seems to be). If Mr. Fusion has no power left after a time jump and the DeLorean is, say, in hover mode? The car would drop from the sky like a ton of bricks. So in the long run, keeping the engine running on gasoline was the safer choice. He just never anticipated Marty ripping a hole in the fuel line.

Marty did not rip a hole in the fuel line! Why would he do that? The Indians attacked him because he looked like a cowboy, thats what happened in the movie!!!

[GuruGuru214]

Originally Posted by PrivateJoker

I call fake. That is not Doc Brown in the picture. Looks like its merely his photo double so that newspaper clipping is non-canonical.

What.

Originally Posted by PrivateJoker

Marty did not rip a hole in the fuel line! Why would he do that? The Indians attacked him because he looked like a cowboy, thats what happened in the movie!!!

Nobody said Marty went and ripped the fuel line open maliciously or anything. The fuel line was damaged while the DeLorean was in Marty's care.

[Shadowknight1]

GuruGuru, you messed up. What you should have said was that the fuel line was damaged while the DeLorean was in Marty's "care". You can't forget the sarcasm quotes. This is the same kid who, on numerous occasions, has left a freaking DeLorean(!) sitting on the streets of Hill Valley with the doors unlocked and, presumably, the keys still inside. If that bum in BTTF1 hadn't been so drunk, he would've taken the DeLorean to the nearest car lot and sold it.

[Jennifer]

Originally Posted by Spengler56

I would think if he can get trash to generate that much power he could it to run the car. He was able to get it to fly. And besides, he had all the time he needed, he had a time machine.

Doc's trip to 1885 was completely unprepared since the DeLorean was hit by lightning, the DeLorean wasn't equipped with 1885 in mind. In 1885, Doc and Marty had to get out of there quick because Doc would die in a week, making repairs or modifications impossible since it would take Doc longer than a week to do them with the equipment and materials he had available in that time period.

[Shadowknight1]

"Damn! It blew the fuel injection manifold...strong stuff alright. It'll take a month to rebuild it."

"A month? Doc, you're gonna get shot on Monday!!"

^^Yup.

[Michael J Fox is Canadian]

Originally Posted by Jennifer

Doc's trip to 1885 was completely unprepared since the DeLorean was hit by lightning, the DeLorean wasn't equipped with 1885 in mind. In 1885, Doc and Marty had to get out of there quick because Doc would die in a week, making repairs or modifications impossible since it would take Doc longer than a week to do them with the equipment and materials he had available in that time period.

Well not quite, he did have money from the 1800's so he was prepared for it. Which begs the question, how did he get all that money in his briefcase? Did he already do other time travelling prior to bringing Marty to 2015? We know he hasnt visited the old west yet as he says so but it seems it was on his agenda before deciding to destroy the time machine.

I'd imagine if not for buford shooting him, he eventually would have been able to repair the time circuits since he builds the trail from scratch.

[Jtucker1789]

Originally Posted by Shadowknight1

The digital speedometer has a label on it that says "SET FOR 88 MPH", so I think Old Biff could figure that out.

As for Biff coming back to 2015A, he DID. We didn't see anything change for Marty and Doc because, presumably, Hilldale is either unaffected, or because Biff is apparently dead in 2015A, the city has gotten back to normal. Marty and Doc didn't stay at the McFly house, so they didn't see that the family probably faded away as they probably wouldn't be living there.

.

Exactly, When Old Biff returns the Delorean back to Marty and Doc he does it because if he failed to it would result in a paradox. He would have also failed in his plan to become rich. Anyway, Biff starts to fade away in 2015 because he is possibly deceased in 2015..which is now altered because of his actions..this time has changed around Marty and Doc, but they leave immediately after so we do not see all of the changes.

[zounds!]

Originally Posted by Michael J Fox is Canadian

Which begs the question, how did he get all that money in his briefcase?

The Doc is crazy, he screws up timelines, steals plutonium, steals trains, makes deals with terrorists, burns down homes... so he probably just took the delorean to the old west and straight up robbed a bank.

[Michael J Fox is Canadian]

Originally Posted by zounds!

The Doc is crazy, he screws up timelines, steals plutonium, steals trains, makes deals with terrorists, burns down homes... so he probably just took the delorean to the old west and straight up robbed a bank.

But in part II, he specifically says he'll never get to visit his favourite historical year the old west so that implies that his first trip to the old west was after the lightning strike.

[Martin McFly]

Originally Posted by zounds!

He probably just took the delorean to the old west and straight up robbed a bank.

I wouldn't put it past him.

"Is this a holdup?"
"It's a science experiment!"

But I agree with Michael J Fox is Canadian, he clearly states that he regrets not visiting the old west which implies that he hasn't travelled there yet.

[Shadowknight1]

I wouldn't put it past Doc to have spent money to get a hold of some. Or maybe someone in his family collected it or something.

[Spengler56]

Originally Posted by Jtucker1789

Exactly, When Old Biff returns the Delorean back to Marty and Doc he does it because if he failed to it would result in a paradox. He would have also failed in his plan to become rich. Anyway, Biff starts to fade away in 2015 because he is possibly deceased in 2015..which is now altered because of his actions..this time has changed around Marty and Doc, but they leave immediately after so we do not see all of the changes.

If he did die before the events in 2015, wouldn't there be a time paradox? That means old Biff would not be around for the events that got him the almanac. Maybe the universe exploded as Doc and Marty left 2015?