Craftsman and metalworker extraordinaer MOLTENSTEELMAN debuted his 23-foot long and 12,000-lb. mechanical spider walker at Burning Man and I have to admit, this is the kind of machine that gives me nightmares. It is an eight footed walker that is powered by a 454 Chevy V8.
I'll just let the man himself explain how he got this giant beast to move:
The machine is powered by a 454 cubic inch chevy V-8 married to a modified TH400 trans coupled to two klune extreme under drive planetary gear boxes, uses a rockwell 2 1/2 ton military axle to supply power to the leg crank shafts, The final drive ratio is 125:1. The legs are supported on a 4 link system and uses 56 pivot points and 114 bearings..
It can also hold eight people and includes a freaking elevator to get individuals into the cockpit (?). It's 11 feet tall, eight feet wide and includes a roll cage just in case a giant lizard attempts to fight the spider and rolls it over. There is no word on just how fast this beast can go, as MOLTENSTEELMAN says the bugs have yet to be worked out to determine that figure.
Now what would be truly awesome is if it stored miniature spider walkers that could deploy on the fly like a escape pods. [Walking Beast via Gizmowatch]