So I’m checking Boing Boing for the umpteenth time tonight (in the middle of a casual project), when I see a new post about Maker Faire Austin: “Adventures in Time” teaser film. The accompanying screengrab looks interesting enough, so I clickthrough and start watching the video.

A lot of the footage looks like it came from the recent Maker Faire in San Mateo—the one that I experienced with my dad and Stephanie last May.

So they’re showing all of the familiar exhibits, and I’m wondering whether there’ll be any mention of the rubber band cars I’ve heard so much about—the ones that the husband of my mom’s college roommate, Mike Rigsby, will be demoing at Maker Faire Austin, and that my dad is building a life-size version of.

Sure enough there is…

…wow, my mom’s college roommate’s husband sent in a video…

…wait a second, that looks like the rubber band car my dad’s building…

…and that looks like my parents driveway…

…OH MY GOSH THAT’S MY DAD!…

…heh, the car automatically reverses…

…yep, that’s my dad (Brian Watt) waving at the camera. So cool.

Update: here’s the original video of my dad and his car:

I was on vacation (from work and blog reading) when he began posting about the construction of the car in earnest (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, and part 6 with original video), so I didn’t read about it until after I got back. Definitely check out parts 4 and 5, where he describes some of the initial structural failures and his subsequent engineering solutions.

Of course I’ve been meaning to blog about it, especially after seeing the work of art that is the car’s chair:

Serendipitously seeing my dad on a video linked to from Boing Boing was just the impetus I needed to finally write a post.

Here’s a photo of the finished product. This car is amazing!

Shameless plug: if you’re going to be around for Maker Faire Austin, Mike Rigsby, my dad (Brian Watt), and the human-sized rubber band powered car he built will be on hand for test drives. Definitely check it out!

• Introducing White Noise Lounge
• rediscovering making art
• Les plafonds du Louvre
• The art wall grows
• Bloc Party at the Greek Theatre

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