[VIDEO] Jay Leno Drives the Corvette-based Hot Wheels Darth Vader Tribute Car

“May the Force be with you” carries new meaning when you’re behind the wheel of this tribute car to tag/star-wars/”>Star Wars created by Hot Wheels.

Check out the latest edition of Jay Leno’s Garage to see the real version of Hot Wheels’ Darth Vader car that’s actually a drivable vehicle based on a C6 Corvette. Jay even takes it for a spin, pointing out that some people in Los Angeles didn’t even notice – too busy on their cell phones!

While the front end of the car does look like Darth Vader’s mask, it also reminds me of the front end of an antique train that our family saw during a railroad trip last weekend to the North Pole courtesy of the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, Tenn.

If you ever wondered what kind of car Star Wars characters might be if they were to join forces with the Transformers, this is it.

The Darth Vader car was built to celebrate Hot Wheels’ new collaboration with Lucasfilm, according to Bryan Benedict, senior staff designer with Hot Wheels.

Hot Wheels built it as a living, breathing (yes, the car does make the famous Darth Vader wheezing sounds) tribute to the Star Wars films, the latest version of which is scheduled to launch this weekend (in case you’ve been under a rock and somehow missed all the pre-movie promotion).

As we said, a C6 Corvette with a manual six-speed transmission gave its life to serve as the underpinnings of this Hot Wheels creation. Wow, to think that other 2005-13 Corvette owners could likewise transform our own cars into this masterful tribute to Star Wars – if we had a few hundred thousand extra dollars lying around (actually we don’t know how much it cost to build, but we’re sure it wasn’t a buck ninety-five)!

We were impressed with Mr. Bennett’s attention to details as he designed the car. He even notes that he used a real Bugatti Atlantic as major inspiration to pick up authentic design cues, though we’re sure the side pipes that look like light sabers have never been on another car before.

Incidentally, you won’t see this one-of-a-kind Darth V(ader)ette in the new Star Wars film – it’s just a tribute car to one of the most popular movies ever made. As Bennett calls it, the car is a “vehicular expression” of the movie character.

Could a Jay Leno “vehicular expression” be far behind?

Source:
Jay Leno’s Garage

Related:
Hot Wheels and Star Wars Introduce New Series with a Life-Sized Darth Vader Corvette
Corvettes on eBay: The Force is With This Star Wars Themed 1974 Corvette
Does the World Need a Sequel to Corvette Summer?