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Ever Wanted Your Own Land Speeder?
An anonymous reader writes "Be the first on your block to drive on of these! a StarWars Land Speeder. This used to be a 1988 Ford Escort and only has 880 miles since built." This is a surprisingly impressive conversion.
It's better than the ones from the films .... you can't see the wheels.
This isn't the Escort you're looking for...
Scoundrel? I can live with that...
Impresive?
As compared to what?
But anyways that is impresive wish they said more about how it was built though (ie. in progress stuff like the mechwarrior tree fort)
I'd do something interesting, but my server can't handle a slashdotting.
So, the escorts sucked, and if you put a fancy decoration on it, it's still a piece of shit...
Or, as they say around here, if a cat had kittens in the oven, you wouldn't call em biscuts.
oh yeah, could you just imagine
The interior is pure Ford Escort, though. The guy could have put some better seats in the thing, and reworked the dashboard.
One of those there X-wing fighters... I wonder if the US Navy would be kind enough to donate an F-16 so I could do a simmilar conversion. Maybe not... but I bet I could pick up a surplus Mig for a bargain.
next
Before bidding, know that the Ford Escort already had 102K miles on it before it was "upgraded."
- Smiley =)
"Never put off for tomorrow what can be avoided altogether"
How does this work in the US? Or is this just a backyard car?
This is very well done! I would love to bee seen sitting in LA rush hour traffic in this thing! It is too bad the LA D.O.T probably wouldn't put it past inspection... But what a cool mod!
:)(smile)
Well, in Europe (Italy to be more precise), where I'm originally from, there are *extremely* strict rules that define what is street legal and what is not (for example, most kit cars are not legal despite the fact that they've been tested, because you're building it yourself, so you can't, say, use the crash tests from a different one, because the manufacturer is different).
;)
Something like this would probably be laughed at before even starting the application process
Just curious, what are exactly the regulations that define street-worthiness in the USA? I'm thinking about things like
- safety (if I want to install an impaling device on the front of the car, am I allowed to? or what about the always fun side-mounted scythe blades?)
- safety (if I want to install a 10 foot tall flagpole that will make my car 99% flip over in a turn when there's wind, can I do it?)
- safety (if I take my average car, install a couple thousand pounds worth of 'mods' and its braking distance shoots up fourfold, is it a problem?)
- safety (what about being able to evade an accident? if my 'mods' make my car drive like a barge in a river, is that ok?)
- safety (what about if sharp pieces of my 'mod' become unglued when going over a bump at speed, take off, and shatter the windshield of whomever is following me?)
- safety (what about seatbelts? what if it rolls over?)
I don't want to spoil the fun, but really, if a car doesn't pass *all* of the above (and more) IMHO it shouldn't be classified as 'road worthy' regardless of how cool it looks...
just my 2c
-- the cake is a lie
When I see a biker in full leather chaps and that fringey stuff I always think, man that's a real lifestyle choice.
If I see you driving this thing I'll think the same thing.
I'm not sure that I would respect you anymore or less than the biker though.
Oliver's army is here to stay Oliver's army are on their way And I would rather be anywhere else But here today
We were promised something... Now, just where the hell are all the flying cars?!?
is a car which speaks the binary language of moisture vapators.
seriously, this isn't the car you're looking for.
you want to go home and rethink your lifestyle.
/usr/bin/awake/too/long
One owner. Sold in Mos Eisly. With ample room on the back for two droids.
"We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
Cop: Son, do you realize you were going 45 in a 25? License, and, um, registration please.
Obi Wannabe: These are not the droids you are looking for.
Cop: What?
Obi Wannabe: Move Along.
Cop: Get out of the car and place your hands where I can see them...
C8H10N4O2 | Developer > Code
I think every european starwars fan will have a lot of trouble getting this car on the real road here in europe. All custom cars have to be individually tested by a traffic safety institute approved by the governement before you are allowed to drive in it anywhere outside your own (oversized) backyard. But then again, it would look pretty in my garden next to the R2D2 fountain and Ewok treehouse...
Only 880 miles on it? (Ignore the 102K behind the curtain.) Seller is suggesting that an escort will run for 182K miles? Yeah. Does look cool though.
How will we pay for insurance on this? With credits?
But really, serious question: would the insurance rates be at all affected by driving this? The link mentions it's "street-safe" but there's more regulations on driving than just having this required component and that required component.
"This work of art on wheels features... a reliable 4 cyl engine"
RRRRiiiight. On an Escort. Gimme a break.
What would be nice is if one put hovers on it (like hovercraft), possibly damped the noise a bit, then it would be a real speeder.. I believe our current technology could make a working replica of the StarWars speeder if we wanted, we could even possibly exceed what the speeder did in Starwars... I've seen quite a few personal hovers but these tend to look more like golf cars and sound horrible.
Anyone else want to put on a wookie cusatome and drive around flipping people off?
Tie fighters show up all the time on ebay, but I haven't found an X-wing yet.
-tpg
Anyone want to guess how much Lucas will demand in royalties from this sale?
that is quite possibly the coolest thing i've seen in my life.
My last car was a 1988 Ford Escort. I don't see where someone would equate "Escort" and "speeder" in their minds, but whatever. At least they made it look better. :)
After sailing up into the air, after crashing through the windscreen, the young Jedi realises his speeder dosen`t have seat belts.
This guy is going to get screwed.. I bet he wont even get 10k for it, and it sounds like he's expecting over 100k .. Since he didn't put a reserve on the auction, if the highest bid is 7k, he'll have to sell it for that much. Ouch!
This thing... Needs some work. The dimensions appear a bit off. Nose too long, pods not quite the right size. Others have mentioned the obviously Ford dash. A trip to Dakota Digital could have quickly solved that. And a Grant steering wheel would have been nice. After spending this much money, they could have at least grabbed the seats out of an Escort GT.
And what's with the nose? There is no reason to have those huge cutouts for the headlights. Either put them behind the grill, or let the grill roll up when needed ('69 Camaro among others). Please tell me it has this feature, and they were just rolled up for the pictures.
Finding a competent glass shop isn't always easy. If you can find a Corvette specialty shop, you might be okay. Otherwise, you are stuck with boat shops. And most of them are more worried about the structural repair than the appearance.
Still, a fun link for a Saturday afternoon.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Then and only then will I be able to complete my transmogrification into the Comic Book guy from The Simpsons.
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
Basically, it becomes a kit car if you take components from multiple cars. I don't see anything to suggest that with this car, although the windshield looks a bit suspicious.
If he's just added plastic and such like, it probably counts as a 'body kit'. The rules are very different for that. The handling should be pretty much the same for example.
It's been on a road for a while, so presumably it has passed any yearly mechanical test, so there's nothing very untoward here.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"I'll give props to anybody willing to drive this thing regularly and to places other than a convention. You know damn well it going to hide in the garage until the next Movie comes out so and then go right back in, so don't even bother placing a bid. And as for US driving regs, can the thing survive a 5-10 mph collision? Emissions standards?! Riiiight...
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Yeah, that's what I want. A car that will attract Star Wars geeks. Yes indeed this car does make a statement, unfortunately that statement is "I live with my parents and regularly masturbate over a life size cardboard cutout of Carrie Fisher from Return of the Jedi". If you want to make sure that you'll never reproduce buying this car will work better than anything short of castration.
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
Alternatively, you could just drive it around East L.A. real slow blasting Eminem on the sound system (once you installed one :).
You can bet your ass the first time I get pulled over I'm gonna say, "These are not the droids you're looking for," and pray that the cop finds it funny instead of realizing I just insulted his intelligence. =)
My
Limekiller
this would work great for my pizza delivery job.
High bid : darthvaderx
but im not sure that its street legal everywhere in the world, here in quebec city im not sure its legal. well we'll see
It's too bad that Ford isn't building electric cars or else you could make a nearly silent model and still register it as a domestic car.
But I still like it. Now, if I could only figure out how to turn my Dodge into a street legal Guntank (from Mobile Suit Gundam)...
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
What a disappointment!
One future, two choices. Oppose them or let them destroy us.
Any geek wanting to buy this POS I hope are good with tools and think driving is just a way of getting from point A to point B. The new Fords are bad enough let alone something from 1988.
A quick check from Edmunds suggests 1990 Escort are valued around $1000. Says something about their worth.
My neighbor has a newer model Focus and Explorer and they're frustrated with the breakdowns and dealer headache. Reliability aside my gut instinct tells me a 1988 Ford Escort is gutless and drives like crap. Add the extra weight of the trimmings and this thing handles like a steel tub. Outside of mebbe a geek parade this thing can't be that much fun to drive.
(* it used to be a frigging Ford Escort. How much more could he fuck it up? *)
I had a Ford Escort once. It indeed was a P.O.S. I had to write "NOT TO CLOSE" on the back because it would stall if I stopped on a hill and roll backward. It had an aluminum head-block that cracked every six months.
If Richard Petty sins too much, an Escort is what God and/or Satan will give him to drive around in the afterlife.
I hear that the *only* reason Ford sold Escorts is that by law the average gas milage on *all* cars a vendor sold had to average a certain gas milage. Ford sold Escorts to simply keep the average down so that they could sell more fat trucks. (This is why they had wimpy engines). They practically gave the things away and people *still* did not take them often enough.
People would rather pay the same for a used Toyata with 55K than a new Escort. The post 55K is better in a Toyota than the first 55K on an Escort.
They should make something that is half mini and half go-cart, then the engine would have decent pull. Don't try to dress it up as a real car, because Escorts ain't real cars. I hated renting the damned things too. It is a lawnmower in car body.
Table-ized A.I.
It's the newer models that are in demand now, not these old ones. I shall probably have to sell it at a loss.
1200 is all I can offer you.
Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
Bust out the high end stereo system and blast the StarWars anthem as you cruise around town... I'm sure it'd have the same affect as having the Black Plague or Ebola... "Chicks? We don't need no stinkin... ch-- No, actually, we DO need some chicks... BOB!! CANCEL THE BID BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!"
You need a FREE iPod Nano
I forsee a new contestant for the Darwin Awards.
My friend and I were driving down the road and saw this bad boy parked on the street. I had to jump out and get a photo:
1 0
http://kevfinn.com/photos/index.php?PhotoCatId=
Seriously, it's amazing.
-Kev
An anonymous car body builder writes... /.'d
I'm highly sceptical that anyone but the builder of such a thing would find this SO interesting as to have it
Or did Cmdr Taco make the highest bid and now has Buyer's Remorse (or sobered up) and is trying to gen up a higher bid to get off the hook? Hmmm?
And a quick Google search using George Lucas' exact words reveals that not one person on the entire internet has bothered to make a transcript of that. Slackers.
You can recreate the design of a vehicle from a movie, sell it, and no one minds. Create some original clip art of the same vehicle and try to sell it and you will must certainly face jail time. Strange how it makes a difference when computers are involved.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
check out the retracted bid comments on the bid info page of the auction
So Ford pulls the plug on electric cars, but they're allowing this out?
Forget hearing about how cool their trucks are; we need to a commercial with Ford's CEO William Clay Ford, with a public apology for building the Escort that transmogrified into this.
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
Isn't it just cool that it's been built? Sure it's an Escort under the shell, and you could fix the interior but the guy is just a fiberglass man (remember that).
But this bugged me:
or let the grill roll up when needed ('69 Camaro among others).
Yeah; that is all we need, a land speeder with the right headlight up during the day and the left one up at night.
Get your Unix fortune now!
They destroyed my front two tires, brand new and when I left 0 tread was left.
(interesting side note: the Ohio E-Check was lobbied to the state by the company whom owns the facilities. When the state wanted to pull out because of complaints the company pointed out that it would be better if the citizens paid their $20 fees instead of the state paying as the contract demanded millions)
I personally think that something like e-check is a good idea but it's failed for two reasons. One, anyone paying 20 bucks to the attendant can pass; yes bribery. And two; if your car is a pollution machine like no other you eventually become exempt if you show receipts saying that you paid over $2000 (I believe) to try to fix it.
I wish we could fix our pollution problems but those two examples show how politics and money just undercut honest efforts, even if they are only half way honest.
Get your Unix fortune now!
The bidding is already up to $7,000.00 US. I tell you...Luke really got ripped off! I guess that's what happens when you have to leave the planet in a hurry.
Why not? Have you seen some of the things people do to cars? Remember the Cougar XR14? (that was an XR7 with TWO front ends, you couldn't tell if it was comming or going) How about the Dickmobile? (if you have to ask...just do a search on google for the pix. And I think there was a Pussymobile too. Maybe it had a headon with the Dickmobile?). I wonder who ended up with the TV Batmobile by the way? How about the Black Beauty? One more...Do you remember the Forchevamchrysvagon? That was the "anycar" made for a bank car loan tv ad.
I like the idea of being able to run the MAC OS with VMware.
This wouldn't be allowed in Australia. No Jedi stuff there.
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
Friend of mine has done something in the same vein, if not as dramatic (tho the "guns" do get second looks from passing highway patrolmen). See it at http://www.shawnandcolleen.com/shawn/Pages/hwing/
BTW Shawn's car won "Best Hall Costume" at LOSCON in 2001.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
i bumped it up to that 7000 mark. i bet one of the original bidders has a proxy bid of 100000 placed already and will be the final winner at whatever the final price is.
Yeah, probably because no one wants to sell their X-wing...
--Forest C. Adcock--
In California, all it takes to register your car is insurance (no problem..for liability only insurance, no agent needs to see the car), and emissions-testing.
That's it..no safety inspection, no nothing. You could drive a tree as long as it passed smog. toss a couple lights on there so the Man doesnt hassle you..maybe a license plate..two if you're feeling generous.
It's a little more rigorous in other states (probably because they have actual weather which might cause cars to deteriorate.. rust? what's that?)
Only thing with this particular craft is that it looks a little wide - as long as it fits in the lane, seems okay to me.
lol..the brain cancer machine...
e ll phone_000411.html
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/c
Unfortunatelly, you see a couple of 'jets' at the rear of the car that stick out sideways. The inspection definitely doesn't like sticking out bits that may cause problems with other vehicles or pedestrians.
My last land speeder had a small swithc in the hood that in one position made it solid while the other position it wobbled easily like all the shocks were removed..
I want that switch!
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Shucks ....
and I was just gonna subit:
"Bin Laden or non-Bin Laden?"
.
(David Bowman, EVA near HUGE Monolithic Win-PC in orbit around Jupiter) "My God - its full of Malware!"
(Puts on whiny voice) "What a piece of junk!"
You must think in Russian.
[Image]. Looks a bit tattered though.
I choose to remain celibate, like my father and his father before him.