Star Wars never had cars. Sure, there was the Landspeeder, and the Speeder Bike, but both point to a lack of wheels a long time ago. So those who want to drive around a Star Wars craft are left to their own imagination to come up with one. This is exactly what [Obi-Shawn], aka [Shawn Crosby], did to build his Z-Wing.
The Z-Wing is a modified Nissan 350Z which he picked up used on Craigslist. Owning the thing outright is important, since he’s about to chop it up and spit it out like a picky Rancor. But it also left him with some extra cash to use on the modifications.
This isn’t just a paint job; the sides of the car boast sets of blasters, R2D2 is riding in the trunk, and the inside looks and feels like a cockpit. We really like the external components, which are clever reuses of common goods. For instance, the hub caps are pizza pans and the blasters are baseball bats. The greebles (thanks to our own Brian Benchoff for bringing that word to our consciousness) on the trunk lid are made up of all kinds of items, like interesting-looking portable speakers, and even a Star Trek computer mouse.
The interior is decorated with a hologram projector prop (currently Boba Fett is on speed dial), and a spot over the glove box for a light saber and tablet computer. The shifter for the Z-Wing is a gaming joystick and just above it is a really juicy piece of custom work. It’s a 24V artificial horizon. This is a common flight instrument that makes the pilot aware of an airplane’s orientation to the earth. Obi-Shawn converted it to work with a weight. So taking fast turns, stopping, or accelerating all affect its orientation.
The steering wheel is another interesting customization. The top portion has been cut out and thumb buttons added to the ends. This looks and feels very much like a sci-fi control yoke. Right now the buttons are for show but his plan is to connect them to strobe lights on the side blasters.
The newest addition to the Z-Wing are a pair of motors on the back. These really came together well considering the source material. The cone is a flower pot, the partitioned cylinder which lights up red is a carousel from a slide projector, and the blast shields are iris control gears. This kind of assembly is indicative of early Sci-Fi movies and is a tribute to the thoughtfulness Obi-Shawn used in his build.
Camped out on the trunk lid is a faithful reproduction of R2D2’s dome. It spins freely, and has been stolen a few times. Usually getting it back just involves a walk around the neighborhood until the knucklehead that is carrying the thing around is spotted.
Obi-Shawn has been doing this for a long time. In fact, this is his second build, the first used a Honda Del Sol. That had to be retired when the mileage climbed too high. He spends a lot of time going to events for charities like Children’s Hospitals. This is in conjunction with the 501st, the Rebel Legion, and the R2 Builder’s club. A showpiece like this would be wasted sitting in his garage, and we’re glad that he spends time brightening people’s lives by showing it off, and letting them sit in the driver’s seat (like Hackaday’s Jasmine Brackett is doing above).
But even between events you can see it driving around the Los Angeles area. We ran into Obi-Shawn at a Hackaday Meetup in Pasadena. He uses the car as his daily driver and when we found that out, there was a huge contingent who cleared out of the pub and paraded to the parking garage for a tour of his work.
This is very, very cool. Very well done, and put to good use. Kudos!
Just one suggestion: perhaps installing some method of securing poor R2’s head so it doesn’t keep getting stolen?
Battery powered spinner, sound card, and spark generator? Nice LOUD blaster hit and a fast spin and short circuit will make most people leave it alone.
He’s considerable more secure than on the last car, and hasn’t been stolen from there. He’d ben removed by brute force off the old car by 20-year-old sk8rbois that should have known better. :P
Is R2’s head movement controlled to move during driving? If not, that will be a nice addition!
He was on my previous vehicle. I’m teaming with a Middle-School robotics team to make this a class project, so he will be quite mobile soon!
Rebel, the camera he used! Hilarious that is!!
That’d be illegal in most of EU. In case of an accident those gizmos can cause death or serious injury to pedestrian or cyclist. Think first, then act. Hacking is a wonderful activity but it should be done with respect to safety of you and others around you.
then what about that wooden fixture on top of the food concession van from the movie short circuit?
remember when the van went under a bridge and the sign on top fell off onto the road?
Well in the UK the only car that i really see with some sort of fixture is the red bull car, and that has the can secured in two places with (what look like) large bolts.
http://thumbsnap.com/s/wAaOeCDV.jpg
Would fail an IVA now as a radically altered vehicle, wouldnt be allowed on the road.
Care to elaborate? One purpose of the IVA is to allow the registration of radically altered vehicles!
It would fail because the chassis has been radically altered from factory and probably wouldn’t accrue enough points to pass (as a guess, i can’t tell whats under the skin) It would have to go through a BIVA and hope to pass that and run on a Q plate.
And yet (strangely) motorcycles *are* legal in most (all?) of EU. Can you imagine the kind of damage a flying human body can do to a pedestrian or cyclist in case of a motorcycle accident?
Perfectly legal in Japan, if they let this monster on the streets:
http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/05/van-meets-spaceship-japan/
I’m far more worried about the car causing death or injury to the pedestrian. I don’t see anything on there that wouldn’t count as “extended crumple zone”.
Oops. That monster isn’t street legal, but there are others that are only somewhat less crazy that are.
I always mod with respect. In my case, as a current bicyclist and former motorcycle courier, I worked with the California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles Police Department to avoid any mods that break the law. The side guns feature lights to call attention to themselves, and large items are either securely mounted or “break-away”. In 20 years of the project, I’ve never had an issue with the mods conflicting with safe operation, even in California, the only US state where “splitting lanes” for motorcycles is legal.
+1
“both point to a lack of wheels a long time ago”: R2-D2 used small wheels under his legs. And, ironically, BB-8 *is* a wheel. I wonder why wheels are good enough for the droids but not for the cars.
Probably because repulsorlift can’t fit inside small droids? R2 did have rocket jets for flying but for some odd reason he never used it once in OT and used it a lot a few decades earlier in NT.
“Probably because repulsorlift can’t fit inside small droids?”: And yet they can put a faster-than-light drive in an X-Wing.
Or perhaps its cause it was a movie?
“Or perhaps its cause it was a movie?”: Jack, Jack, Jack. How could you be so naive? Star Wars is an accurate documentary of events that occurred a long time ago in a distant galaxy.
Well, the original trilogy is, anyway. Episodes 1 through 3 are just crappy stories.
:-) :-)
There are droids with repulsor lifts. They scale with the weight that is being lifted.
It wasn’t uncommon in the extended universe, and may have featured on a few of the background droids in the movies.
Looks like a Storm Trooper magnet to me
Still not the droids they are looking for.
Can the Astro Droid repaid the vehicle, and perform complex calculations for hyperspace?
I’m only kidding, awesome build. It would be awesome to one day have tech that can automatically repair damaged machines.
No HUD? Pfft. ;)
Someday, when I have the extra cash for it. Unless you’d like to donate to the project; I do 160 unpaid volunteer charity events a year with the car,usually dressed as Obi-Wan Kenobi at kid’s hospitals and community events, and would appreciate the help. ;)
I have been lucky enough to see this beauty on the street in the greater LA area and it has been a treat every single time.
So dorky. So embarrassing.
Dude, I believe you would fit in real well in those fun-kill nations of the EU.
What happens when the passenger airbag deploys? Do you get a metal plate launched into your face?
Mind = blown? I’m impressed with the “budget” he’s worked with on this project…it’s way beyond any of my nerd projects. If nuclear Fallout (4) comes, I want this guy on my scrapping team. ;)
I wonder if the diagnostics is OBD II kanobi or ODB wan kanobi ?
I think the parts close to his R2 is over the top…
Obi-Shawn Crosby is also a talented voice actor and a DJ. He hosts “Docking Bay 94” and “Good Morning, Tatooine!’, both on a sci-fi radio station called Krypton Radio, and plays a leading role in their new upcoming sci-fi adventure series, “Halfway Home: Adventures in the Asteroid Belt”.
Like the idea, kinda like the outcome, but honestly there’s way to many things that are too obviously ‘attached later’, i think it would look much better if he spent an afternoon trying to make things seem more original too the car, now it looks like he just bolted on some random things for 2 weeks and called it done.
The “added later” look is for two reasons:
Firstly, Star Wars, unlike Star Trek or other space properties, features a universe of cobbled together and jury-rigged hardware like the Millenium Falcon, X- and Y-Wing fighters and other ships. The things I’ve added on have been carefully considered, often mounted temporarily until I get the look I like.
Secondly, I can only work on the project when I have extra time and funds, so the project has been grown over a couple of years- work one weekend, then not for a while. This is my daily driver, so it needs to be in a functional state at all times and not sidelined, and I use it for a lot of charity appearances which most of my expendable money goes to support.
When I get my standard Rich and Famous Contract, I’ll plan a completely one out from the ground up, likely using a Tesla chassis and powertrain as a base. Unless Tesla wants to donate a car to the project before then. Elan? ;)
If his name is Obi-Shawn, and the car is a Z-Wing, why did he put the Imperial crest on the side vs. the one for the Rebel Alliance? Nitpicking, I know…
Not the Imperial cog, but the Republic one. The Imperial has six spines, and the republic eight.
That said, the model for my car was Obi-Wan’s Eta-2 Actis-class interceptor from Episode III. If you view the ship in that film, you’ll notice that both his and Anakin’s fighters foreshadow what we will come to know as the Imperial cog.
The bloody movie isn’t even out yet and I’m all ready sick of this starwars crap.
Thanks for the tremendous writeup, guys! It was a true pleasure to meet you all, and to have the car appreciated on an artistic level as well as pop culture.
Obi-Shawn, you rock! And your charity work is awesome too!!
awesome