PHASE I : DESIGN

The most important part of any build is the design & planing stages. I spent nearly three months researching everything I could find on the original movie car and on any cars built for the theater. Unfortunately there wasn’t much to find. Therefore, I started with the basic needs for our production; self propelled driving, opening wings, working headlights and if possible a lifting mechanism for going over the cliff. I coordinated with the set designer & director to assess not only the mechanical needs, but very importantly the size restrictions for our set and stage.

Using reference photos and a small Corgi Model car, I created a scaled model on sketchup. I cannot stress enough how useful having the small model car turned out to be for this project.

Using reference photos and a small Corgi Model car, I created a scaled model on sketchup. I cannot stress enough how useful having the small model car turned out to be for this project.

I did rough calculations on the size of the stage and set. Then figured the minimum space to fit (4) Actors and came up with an approximate 6/8 scale 12' version of the car. The original movie vehicle was a little over 17' in length.

I did rough calculations on the size of the stage and set. Then figured the minimum space to fit (4) Actors and came up with an approximate 6/8 scale 12' version of the car. The original movie vehicle was a little over 17' in length.

The basic design is a little more squat nose than I'd like, but a large part of the original 17' was in the nose cone, and I just couldn't scale down the cockpit any further if I were to fit all the actors.

The basic design is a little more squat nose than I'd like, but a large part of the original 17' was in the nose cone, and I just couldn't scale down the cockpit any further if I were to fit all the actors.

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Phase II : Drivetrain & Mechanics