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Stuck on a desert planet with two blazing suns and a less than seemly reputation? Might as well blast around in a hovering hot rod! But you've only got 2,500 galactic credits, what vehicle do you choose? The SoroSuub Corporation X-34 Landspeeder, of course!

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For those not familiar with the Star Wars universe, the X-34 Landspeeder was Luke Skywalker's transportation of choice while he was stuck on the Outer Rim planet of Tatooine before he joined the Rebel Alliance and learned the Jedi arts. Why are you reading about nerd stuff like this on HOT ROD? Because we're going to tell you how to make your own landspeeder! DUH!

Andy Cohen of Junkyard Empire and owner of Andy's Auto Parts in Bladensburg, Maryland, is a lifelong Star Wars fan and has always wanted an X-34 of his own. But movie props like that don't grow on trees, so he had to make one himself. Good thing he's friends with Tommy Bostic of Damascus Motors, another big Star Wars fan and master fabricator. One Halloween not too long ago they did just that—built their own X-34 Landspeeder. But first, some history...

SoroSuub Corporation X-34 Landspeeder

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.... there was a galactic vehicle manufacturer that made a popular landspeeder. That manufacturer was SoroSuub Corporation and that landspeeder was the X-34. The X-34 was a 3.4-meter long, repulsor-lift hover craft capable of reaching speeds of up to 250 km/h that comfortably sat one pilot and one crew. It featured holographic instrumentation, easy to use foot controls, and three air-cooled turbine thrust engines. Capable of up to one meter of levitation, the X-34 could easily glide over rough terrain in style! The X-34 was the terrestrial civilian landspeeder of choice until the X-38 was released, at which point resale values dropped considerably. This was good news for young, bored and broke galactic hot rodders.

How ILM Built the Real X-34 Landspeeder for Star Wars: A New Hope

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1973 Bond Bug

Photo: National Motor Museum/Heritage Images via Getty Images

The real deal X-34 was built by British design company, Ogle Design, in Letchworth and was based off the Bond Bug—a three-wheeled, fiberglass-bodied micro car sold in Great Britain between 1970 and 1974. It sat two, had a 29hp engine, and could reach speeds of up to 7 6mph—equivalent speeds of popular and cheap "saloon" cars of the day. The impracticality and comparatively high price of the Bug made them more of a fashion statement than a realistic commuter or family vehicle, though.

To achieve the hovering effects seen in A New Hope, Industrial Light & Magic attached mirrors to the skirts of the X-34 and mounted a broom to kick up dust (George Lucas called this "the force spot") for far away shots. Up close, it was mounted on a large swing arm that could be edited out or hidden with fancy camera angles. A little gelatin on the camera lenses helped too. Of course, Luke Skywalker wasn't some well-to-do politician's son from Coruscant (center of the Galactic Republic), so the X-34 was painted to look like a weathered and patinaed galactic rat rod.

How to Build a Replica X-34 Landspeeder

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Building a replica X-34 isn't as impossible as it seems, if you know the right peopleor person. That person is Daniel Deutsch, a master prop maker for Disney in Orlando, Florida. He built his own replica X-34 in 2007 and it was popularized on the interwebs by the likes of Kanye West and Joey Fatone. Tommy reached out to Daniel who was more than happy to let the Junkyard Empire guys come down and make their own X-34 body using his highly detailed, handmade mold.

The body work is the hard part, even in if you are friends with Daniel. Fiberglass chop mat is sprayed into the individual pieces of the five-piece mold, then the mold needs to be assembled with fiberglass chop sprayed inside to join the separate pieces. The whole thing needs days to cure and be demolded successfully. Once you get that far, let's hope you can fit it in your van if you need to transport the body to another shop—Tommy had to chop six inches off one wing of his X-34 to get it safely back to Maryland.

Once back in Maryland, it was a simple matter of harvesting the running gear (minus one front wheel), motor and battery out of an electric golf cart. Well, there was also the challenge of making the characteristic windscreen. Tommy had to suspend a sheet of plexiglass over carefully placed and constantly adjusted propane heaters to get the complex curvature right. All that is held together with a simple, yet sturdy aluminum tube chassis and voila! A little paint, some LED lights and simulated patina later and Andy and Tommy were ready to roll into Halloween in Skywalker style!

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