I know we haven’t posted a full wrap-up just yet, but I can tell you that yes, David and Otto and I made it safe enough to Los Angeles. Sure, David’s Mustang chewed up a whole set of tires and lost a headlight, somehow, but it made it and so did we, and I’m sure the required future therapy for Otto won’t be too bad. In LA, I met up with my wife, Sally, who flew out, and we took Otto to Disneyland for a little start-the-new-year fun. While there, we went to the new Star Wars-themed section of the park, which does feel like being dropped into one of those rugged Outer Rim planets with a peculiar mix of crude architecture with wildly advanced tech in beat-up, paint-chipped casings built into the walls.
One of the rides we went on was this Millenium Falcon ride that made you feel like you were really piloting the ship; it was pretty incredible. Also incredible was the length of the line to enter, but Disney’s experience designers made sure the whole labyrinthine length of the line was full of evocative props and details, some of which you can see in the pic up top. Because that’s a modified engine block and some piston rods, and I’m wondering if anyone here can possibly ID it.
This is tricky, because it’s clearly been modified to look like some kind of unknown space hardware from a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. But it’s definitely the top half of some smallish inline-four engine, and those piston rods, connected end to end, are definitely from something, too. Is that oblong port in the side original? Are those vertical fins in there stock, or added? Can this be identified? The piston rods are re-worked to look like some kind of wrench thing, but is there enough distinctiveness on them to be recognized?
This is a tough one! I’m very curious to see if anyone is able to pull this off.
Oh, also, Otto and I got to play a game of Dejarik:
I swear that kid cheated. How could he use his worm dude to snap my lobster guy in half so fast?
Anyway, please guess away in the comments! I want to know what that engine block half is from!
Connecting rod, not piston rod.
Piston rods *do* exist (steam engines mostly) , but those in the photo are not piston rods.
Have you been using AI to generate content?
One word: Thundercougarfalconbird
You mean like ‘Superthunderstingcar’?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riMHp28_cqw
I’m very happy you rewarded your son with some proper R&R after subjecting him to the move from hell.
You’re a good Dad, he is gonna have some fun stories going upward.
Looks like cylinder block from a 2nd gen Hayabusa engine.
Hayabusa = Falcon. Well done Disney.
The con rod looks out of this world…
So let me get this straight: Ford, eventually went into hyperspace vehicles after electric cars, but they were using engines from Suzuki? Well, the Taurus SHO did use a Yamaha engine, so there is precedent, I guess. Still, the Han’s Millennium Falcon definitely has that budget- car interior look to it. I wonder what engine you’d get in a Galaxie?
Seeing the hex bolts on the block has me thinking – Is that the style of fastener they would be using in the Star Wars universe or would a different style be the popular choice? What would they come up with to hold the parts together?
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… they invented JB Weld.
At one point Han and Chewie are fixing the Millenium Falcon using a “hydrospanner,” and Wookieepedia says that a hydrospanner is basically an adjustable-size socket wrench, so hex is certainly possible.
I distinctly recall seeing Phillips head screws on Light sabers. SO?
I’m thinking Suzuki Hayabusa cylinder block with the head face downwards.
It has that feel to it despite the makeup job.
This is correct. Not Yamaha like I was thinking.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/304433775686?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=mfGVFnKwT5e&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=R7hecVT9Tve&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
https://www.ebay.com/itm/313881178074?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=yKG8Ey31QoW&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=R7hecVT9Tve&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
Yeah, those images and the Disney one pretty solidly line up. Good job finding the listing. And good eye, CSRoad!
Thanks for doing the leg work!
Nope.
I entered “Correllian Light Freighter” into the does it fit tool on eBay.
No dice.
If anything can make a Corellian Light Freighter hit point-5 past light speed, it’s a ‘Busa swap.
Especially with the horizontally opposed eight cylinders.
Obviously those connecting rods are not a “wrench thing”.
To be fair, he did say “to look like some kind of wrench thing”, which it does.
I’m guessing you’ve never used a die to cut threads, or you would have recognized something like this: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Vo8AAOSwjYtiZH~j/s-l1600.jpg
OK it was a feeble attempt at humor (humour).
Thanks, I finally found out what that stuff in the tool box is for. (-;
I do apologize – my humor circuits must have malfunctioned. 🙂
And what does Hayabusa translate to?
Falcon.
This is the kind of SW Easter egg I love.
Somewhere an Imagineer felt a disturbance in the Force, as if thousands of voices cried out in unison, “I get it!”
“This is a tough one! I’m very curious to see if anyone is able to pull this off.”
Always with you, it cannot be done…hear you nothing that I say?
That would make sense, since Suzuki and Corellian Engineering had that 50-50 joint venture on Coruscant for years to build pumps, compressors, and small motors.
“I swear that kid cheated.”
Let the Otto win.
Dads don’t pull peoples’ arms off when they lose.
That must have been some kind of charmed childhood you had then.
It’s a Star Wars reference…
Looks like a Yamaha YZF? of some type.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/403989815650?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=RL0XZPZATbe&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=R7hecVT9Tve&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
Crosley? My mom actually drove one.
Millennium Ford Falcon perhaps? Extra fins to aid in cooling when jumping to hyperspace.