George Lucas was a huge gearhead, growing up in the Central California car scene filled with hot rods and foreign sports cars, not unlike this Porsche 718. Surround one with stormtroopers and the influence of cars on Star Wars becomes clear.
Car culture seeps through all of the director's early movies, like the Lola T70s in his first feature THX 1138 and all the hot rods of American Graffiti.
We knew there were other gearhead touches in Star Wars, like a race of desert people named after desert racing motorcycles. We already had the Millennium Falcon's inspiration worked out, but we never had any one thing to point to with the Landspeeder.
Obviously, we don't know for sure what the inspiration was for the Landspeeder, but when you look at it it's suddenly hard to imagine anything else.
Oh, and those stormtroopers? They're cosplayers from the 501st Legion, raising money for Heart Kids at a car show in Tasmania this February.
It looks like a fun time.
Photo Credit: Mike Rowe