What do you do when you have the need for speed and are an electrical engineering student?
If you're Georgia Tech's Dustin Sloan and Trenton Charlson, you trick out a Barbie Jeep with some serious speed.
Georgia Tech recently interviewed these students about their latest project.
“We like the idea of taking children’s toys and upgrading them with a more powerful means of propulsion,” said Sloan, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student.
And with 250cc motor from a log-splitter, that's exactly what they did. Under that unassuming pink plastic go-cart, the two managed to pack the new larger engine, a steel frame, hydraulic brakes, a new gas pedal and components needed to steer this speed demon.
Did we mention that the final product's engine can hit 30 mph? Not bad considering the original only cruises at about 5 mph.
“It’s very touchy on the gas, braking, and steering, but gives a good deal of control,” said Sloan. “You can even drift in it and power slide.”
The whole project was completed at the RoboJackets shop space and is not their first experience creating some surprisingly powerful transportation. They had previously put a chainsaw motor on a tricycle and posted the end-result to YouTube.
Sloan visited 11Alive and showed off how the jeep works.
That video was posted in April of 2017 and has just under one million views.
