The Latest

We got an email from Lady Bee, burner name, that we were not accepted for the burning man art grant. A slight let down, but we push on. They did mention that our piece made it to the final round and had some encouraging words for us. Since then, our designing has made some significant progress and we have established teams throughout the USA to construct parts of the vehicle to be brought together in the northern desert of Nevada. The teams are located in San Francisco, Tuscon, Chicago and New York.

We are also working on a new look for the vehicle, instead of the old boxy aesthetic. The new design is based off of the great pyramids of Giza. This will give the structure more strength and will allow us to trade off for lighter materials. The upper deck structure will be constructed in Tuscon. The dimensions and technique are still in arbitration. We are beginning to look at bamboo and lashings. Bamboo is known for its high strength to weight ratio and it is also a renewable resource, I think.

We also are working on designing the vehicle so it is up to code and meets burning man's guidelines and standards. This will involve assuring them that the vehicle is safe, mechanically sound and is lit properly. We will have to apply for two licenses for day and night time playa cruising.

Below you may view our new design. Note: the dimensions are not to scale. it should be longer and more rectangular.

Acquiring New Parts

Last weekend was spent in Maine searching for parts and pieces for the project. The search was for materials for the base structure, which will hold the axles together and which we will will build upon. And also sprockets and supports. View the pictures of the sprockets on the Flickr link below. There you will also see pictures of the wood pieces that will be used for the structure base, along with pictures of the mill they were cut from. The whole process to produce the timber beams could be considered eco-friendly. The tree the wood came from was selectively cut, unlike conventional clear cutting practices. The transportation from the wood lot to the mill was less than a mile. I did drive the wood to down to NYC but that I was doing anyway. Below is a video of pops hauling out the wood to put in the truck. In all honesty, this method is not very eco-friendly...but it is fun to watch.