DDFTTW

Why was it important to push the care in the beginning? Much of the power was provided by the initial push, so it's not so impressive at all actually.

Very little of the speed came from the initial push. The cart can have problems starting from zero, but once it starts going it really goes. It did accelerate throughout the clip until the very end when he applied the brakes, with a remote control of course.

Completely irrelevant dude

to go faster than the wind, people say that you have to use gears

and eat healthy

do you need to have a rpm limiter on the propeller?

Really this is as simple and as counter-intuitive (at first) as the yo-yo along a table & cotton reel examples.

Basically the cart is being _pushed_ by the wind, and uses the rotation of the wheels to turn a propeller which pushes against the wind even more and allows it to move a little faster than the wind which is pushing it.

Most people seem to assume that they see a windmill (turbine) which powers the wheels.

Obviously it is remote controlled, but that doesn't mean it is also powered. It would certainly be easy to fake, but that doesn't mean it is. There is no reason to fake it since it can actually be done for real. This video proves nothing, but theory does.

Yes it IS the same. The blades of the propeller moves in an angle to the wind in excactly the same way an iceboats sail does. The only difference is that since the propeller is rotating the car itself is allowed do go downwind directly although its "sails" does not.