Why is the Cloud Car such a freak?

The Cloud Car is a freak. It's a weird vehicle, but not a bad one like the AT-PT. We'll take a look at this on today's Star Wars Legends lore video!
Music by Unfound
Star Wars Cloud Car featurette
• Star Wars Episode V: T...
Bespin Cloud car gameplay
• Star Wars Battlefront ...
***
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[@JaelaOrdo]

I like to imagine it’s the pilots ed ship, can’t trust whoever’s being trained to not screw up so there’s a second cockpit.

[@jacobi-vision3249]

@@RandomVidsforthought no it’s Ed he’s talking about pilot education

[@RandomVidsforthought]

@@jacobi-vision3249 Ok i'll remove the reply

[@RandomVidsforthought]

@@jacobi-vision3249 Delete your reply too

[@theencolony5595]

@@RandomVidsforthought nope

[@RandomVidsforthought]

@@theencolony5595 What are you his friend?

[@andrewbryant4259]

In Dark Force Rising, Han or Lando quips something along the lines of "using the Falcon's main drive in atmosphere won't do New Cov's flora any favors". This has led me to believe that repulsor lifts would be used almost exclusively in atmosphere in most cases as main drives were too harsh on the environment. This would go double for Bespin's atmosphere, in which highly explosive Tabana gas was being mined. Idk that's just my theory though

[@EckhartsLadder]

Great theory. Don’t remember that line if I’m being honest!

[@Sanngetall_Korax]

@@EckhartsLadder In a Star Wars novel featuring Rogue Squadron (or perhaps Wraith Squadron) in the New Republic Era. Wedge Antilles and his squadron were using TIE Interceptors to infiltrate remaining Empire space territory. At some point, Wedge explains that the use of main engines could harm the atmosphere of a planet and some form of wildlife (perhaps even humanoids)... That's why spacecraft rely only on repulsors for atsmospheric flight. P.S. : If I remember well, it was in the X-wing book series.

[@CrazynToughKiwi]

@@Sanngetall_Korax I think you’re thinking of TIE Defenders, in which case it’d be the Isard’s Revenge book

[@stevenscott2136]

"Um, sir? I think we just lit the entire atmosphere on fire."

[@Hannezia]

RPG supplements also mention the prohibited use of spacefaring engines in atmosphere. I think the Elrood sector laws does it.

[@KingCobraLolcow]

Fun fact: The cloud car was one of Harrison Ford's first ideas before launching Ford.

[@KingCobraLolcow]

The concept was essentially the same. 1 wheel would be tied under each pod for the vehicle.

[@hgill257]

Sir I’m gonna have to ask you to leave

[@KingCobraLolcow]

@@hgill257 Why?

[@hgill257]

@@KingCobraLolcow the joke was too funny

[@pokemon1895]

Wow.

[@leviwarren6222]

In canon, the cloud car was built in such a way as to separate horny young Amish boys from their dates. The cloud car found its popularity among the worried parents of amorous Amish youths and was quite adept at separating the little sinners during long space car rides in which, in any traditional spaceship, the young couples ran the very real risk of coming into physical contact with one another. George and Jane would have had the opportunity to set Judy up with that nice Saturanian boy if they had purchased her a Bespin cloud car instead of a normal space sedan. Now they have an early grandson and a daughter collecting space child support. Should have bought a cloud car.

[@justindunlap1235]

That made me laugh from the bottom of my stomach, space Amish needs to be cannon.

[@rushthezeppelin]

Amish would be using natural mounts. Mennonites on the other hand would totally use this.

[@justindunlap1235]

@@rushthezeppelin it's possible that space Amish wouldn't use anything more modern than a liquid fuel rocket, none of those newfangled repulsors or hyperdrives.

[@tombaker8481]

And yet some of them STILL got prenant and had to marry earlier than the normal 14ish...

[@johngancarcik5682]

🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣 the more I read the funnier it gets 🤣 😂 💀 gg take my like

[@mdxque8393]

I don’t get design, but I do like the color. Too many white or gray starships, I don’t care if it’s “realistic”, orange, purple, and blue are more eye catching and interesting.

[@hgill257]

Blends into the clouds

[@blackc1479]

@@hgill257 huh. Good point. Adapt to the environment. And agree about it being a nice change of pace.

[@TheSuperRatt]

People like color. If not every car on the road is white, gray, or black, why should every starship? People customize every aspect of their car today, I don't see why the same wouldn't hold true for starships.

[@JayJayFlip]

Paint is expensive tho

[@MonkeyJedi99]

I keep hearing it as "clown car", which would really aid its role as a taxi. One repuslorlift vehicle to transport an entire panoply of costumed entertainers

[@Zepimo123]

I absolutely love the cloud car. I love the sci-fi taxi look, pure 1980s sci-fi goodness

[@romigithepope]

I think you’re absolutely right. It was designed as a taxi but was adapted into basically a police squad car. The design reminds me of the the Twin Mustang.

[@d3ltaohniner261]

Just saw one of those yesterday at the museum in Dayton, Ohio.

[@ratkeep]

@@d3ltaohniner261 love that place

[@darthvader4594]

Considering it can fly in a gas giant with no problems i say its a good vehicle.

[@SephirothRyu]

Well, yes, but so can a Tie fighter. And a bunch of other things. I won't mention the Millenium Falcon since if ANY ship were specially modified for that planet, it would be that one (given its owner history). But plenty of normal ships seem to be able to do just fine there.

[@cgi2002]

Hell people are seen to be able to walk around outside in the atmosphere of a gas giant. There is no shield seen surrounding the city, so it can be assumed to be very high altitude. No ship is ever seen flying deeper into the atmosphere (in games often going deeper was fatal) so flying around at city level is really nothing special.

[@jkleylein]

@@cgi2002 I would think the 10 times Earth gravity would be a bit of an issue as well, but that seems to have flown under the radar in Star Wars.

[@cgi2002]

@@jkleylein gravity tends to do that alot in SW, as it seems every world they visit always seems to have roughly 1g of effective gravity dispite few of them fitting the mould for planets with that level of gravity.

[@something2424]

Assuming the repulser lifts are on the bottom of each pod, I theorize that they could generate lift independent from eachother, allowing the yaw and roll of the craft to be near instant, combine that with the aerodynamic design, and I could see these things well out maneuver any of the boxy blocky spacecraft that interloped around their patrol.

[@danielkorladis7869]

yeah, I would imagine it's pretty nimble

[@Thefreakyfreek]

@@danielkorladis7869 in the game battlefront 2 it is very very nimble

[@SHADOSTRYKR]

I think the Cloud Car is clearly inspired by the F82 Twin Mustang. With one pilot and one gunner the two roles could be focused on by each pilot separately for maximum efficacy.

[@26th_Primarch]

Yep I'm pretty sure that was true.

[@user-do5zk6jh1k]

The F-82 didn't have a gunner. It had 2 pilots for extended missions

[@dawsonreum8096]

Are you talking about the Mustang or cloud car in the second sentence? If you are talking about the Mustang then it was actually made to extend the range of the aircraft, as at that time they did not have a fighter with the required range.

[@mortyjhones4068]

Having a sperate gunner and pilot only makes sence if the 'Cloud Car' is alot more heaverly armed than we see in files and games. we are talking lots of stand off/guided munitions. Most likley we are talking about a Pilot and Navigater combo. I suspect that the Landmarkless exspance of bespin means that you have all the problems of Deep sea Fliying and so need a crewmember consantly checking wind speed and other stuff , espeshaly if for some resion you are out of LOS of cloud City itself, so you don't get lost and then when the power pack fail's, fall to an agernising crushing death.

[@AdmiralBlackstar]

@@user-do5zk6jh1k Originally it did, but it was repurposed as an all-weather interceptor after the war, replacing one of the pilots with a radar operator.

[@julianbecker4351]

it also makes sense to use the cloud car for prisoner tranfer, no change that the prisoner could free himself and gain controll over the craft if he sits in another pot

[@millenniumf1138]

Since the Bespin Guard are the police of Cloud City, this actually makes a LOT of sense. Maybe the twin-pod design is specifically the police version and civilian versions are single-pod with single and multiple seat variants. Perhaps the twin-pod version is the fourth iteration, and Storm I - III are all single-pod variants of the twin-pod Storm IV. Lots of interesting directions to go with this!

[@Kurayamiblack]

I always imagined this was the case. The 2nd pod feels to me like either a place to store and transport extra gear or to isolate something during transport. I wouldn't be surprised if Bespin prisons had a docking bay where only the prisoner side docks and the guards come and get him lol I also imagined each pod being able to be released from the connecting arm/engine of the ship allowing 1 ship to become two during evasive maneuvers or retreats. Or to drop off the contents of the other pod (basically the entire other pod itself) into unconventional locations without having to land or stop. Like, if the pilot has the skills to reach the drop point while under fire but can't afford to stop moving to actually make the drop off. I mean, considering it's use is expected to be limited to Bespin itself which is not a military operation and is mostly a mining facility with a city on it, I imagine most of it's versatility to be aimed at lending support in those environments. Scout ships with urban utility

[@danielkorladis7869]

@@millenniumf1138 I think it's kind of like a Ford Crown Vic in that it's mainly used as either a cop car or a taxi, both times when some separation between driver and uh... passenger... is desired.

[@caseyhart9916]

I've always thought that the difference between cloud cars and regular airspeeders was high altitude endurance. Airspeeders are built for terrestrial-type planets, where they can make short surface-to-surface hops and set down nearly anywhere if they have to. Coud cars, on the other hand, are built for gas giants, where, not only is there no surface to land on, but the distances between installations can be much greater.

[@danielkorladis7869]

I like this reasoning a lot

[@williammagoffin9324]

Such a design isn't without precedent, the F-82 Twin Mustang featured such a twin design.

[@CroMagnon123]

I absolutely love the cloud car, it just makes me feel nostalgic

[@SoulBlazer08]

I love how Battlefront 2 poked fun at the Cloud Car, and yet made you fly one. "Anything but a cloud car!" ;)

[@carnage0685]

Wait, how did it poke fun at it?

[@SoulBlazer08]

@@carnage0685 In one of the missions you need to escape from an imperial base, and they first reject a Cloud Car and then finally take it as nothing else is available. ;)

[@carnage0685]

@@SoulBlazer08 Oh, you mean the new game. I thought you meant the original, lmao, because there was a cloud car in that and for whatever reason the 2nd seat shot an absolutely absurd amount of missiles. I was always really confused as to why this strange car was so obscenely powerful.

[@SoulBlazer08]

@@carnage0685 Sorry for the confusion! But the Cloud Card actually isn't bad in the new one either. ;)

[@carnage0685]

@@SoulBlazer08 It happens a lot with those games, lol. I wish they could have given it a different title to distinguish them from the original versions, but ah well. Also, what can the cloud car do in the new battlefront 2? I'm assuming it's not blatantly overpowered, because that would be kind of weird. I think it being overpowered in the original game was some sort of joke, perhaps even an inside joke.

[@seanahmed9079]

The Cloud Car was waaaaay ahead of it's time, socially distancing it's pilots in order to avoid any infectious diseases!! Cloud cars of today should take heed

[@brandonchapman4532]

The cloud car was actually my very first Lego set that began my love for the Lego Star Wars sets So it has that going for it

[@KRBrickBot]

My first too! It's kind of odd LEGO keeps making them in red as it seems they decided it's closer to the reddish-orange brick color LEGO doesn't have than LEGO's orange.

[@DavidLLambertmobile]

Kenner had the regular orange version then later the "trainer" or command type car with 1 side just a stub. They are rare but you see them on occasion in Bespin shots.

[@QalOrt]

The Cloud Car is pure 1980s Sci-Fi goodness.

[@dericplummer9272]

I always loved this vehicle. I didn't know i got so much criticism. I always loved how wierd it was and how it was such an effective introduction to cloud city. Really conveying the vibe of the place.

[@HeadsFullOfEyeballs]

4:31 I always took "cloud car" to be a marketing term more than a formal classification. So a "cloud car" would be a small in-atmosphere craft designed with an emphasis on style and originality and "sporty" flight characteristics.

[@liamcullen3035]

Nice analysis! Very thorough, I liked this video very much. I can easily see the original cloudcar having been a taxi with larger pods to accomodate more passengers (possibly even an asymmetric design, with a small pod for the pilot and a larger pod for up to 8-10 passengers), and then the variant seen in the movie being scaled down for security patrols, escorting incoming ships (as seen in the movie), and for potentially arresting individuals (I'm sure one of those pods could have a lightless compartment for locking up vagabonds!).

[@LoneTiger]

In the Star Wars RPG books, the ships / vehicles classifications were quite clear by toughness and power output: Air speeders -> land speeders -> walkers -> star fighters -> freighters -> capital ships. So in power, an air speeder can fly, but its power output prevents it from doing a lot of damage to bigger class targets, cannot fly in space, has no shields.

[@Anfidurl]

So I'm going to put in my 2 cents here as there's one angle I didn't see mentioned. A lot of the ships in the main trilogy are inspired by 20th century aircraft in one way or another. The cloud car has always reminded me of the P-38 Lightning or the F-82 Twin Mustang - both twin cockpit designs for long range patrol. Two of most critical systems like engines, and more than one pilot for long range inter-island operations in the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean. Bespin is an island in a vast expanse of nothing. Hence long range patrol is totally a possibility. Also Bespin is a gas giant, meaning some sort of repulsor failure would be decidedly unhealthy. The paint scheme of International Orange also reminds me a bit of maritime rescue. Lifejackets, safety equipment, the US Coast Guard, etc. I'm not sure if that is the intention, but dang if the design cues don't set a MOOD. Idyllic Art Deco island in space. Where nothing bad could happen... 😂

[@recurvestickerdragon]

4:31 My theory is that it's only a cloud car if it came from the clouds of Bespin. Otherwise, it's just a sparkling airspeeder.

[@sardonicspartan9343]

I appreciate they went with a different look for different planets, cultures and thier vehicles.

[@nickvinsable3798]

There is another factor to consider: the key difference between Cloud Cars & other various Air Speeders is #2: even Repulsers have their limits and, primarily due to the fact that Bespin doesn’t have a solid nor liquid surface (i.e. its much like Jupiter & the other gas giants), it needs to be limitless EXCEPT #1: all air-speeders, even “cloud cars”, aren’t pressure sealed, thus they’re incapable of being in space & such…

[@christopherg2347]

Two factors for using it was the production capacity and use as pure police vehicle. Under the empire, Star _Fighter_ construction and even parts construction would be highly regulated. It will not be the same for speeders and cars. If somebody had made this vehicle for taxi usage, then the Cloud City police could have adopted it. Range, carry capacity, redundant and thus reliable lift systems, ready availability - all factors in procuring it for the Police.

[@ryanedgerton1982]

Concept: the two-pod Cloud Car was actually originally conceived of as a training vehicle for pilots. A veteran pilot would man one pod, a rookie would man the other, and control could be switched over to the veteran pilot at any time if things went south. It's a bit like how some cars used for driver's ed have a secondary break pedal in the front passenger's seat for the instructor, only with the Cloud Car it would be an entire secondary cockpit. As simulators got better the two-pod design fell out of favor and was repurposed, leaving us with the Cloud Car in its modern role(s).

[@mrstabtoxic]

Still my favorite vehicle in star wars battlefront 1 classic.

[@fucker1714]

it looks like that because they could sell more toys while easily manufacturing it.

[@galexeqe]

It always looked like a very claustrophobic vessel to be in

[@roadhouse6999]

I love how Star Wars KZbinrs are all titling their videos increasingly chaotic things.

[@BON3SMcCOY]

Loving these Justin videos where he's just shititing on vehicles. Ton of fun.

[@commiecomrade2644]

I like the idea that these were some kind of efficient buoy design. I always imagined that the atmo of cloud city - at least under the city - was thicker and that these cars could more easily and efficiently travel at lower levels if they were filled with a lighter inert gas. It would also be a great way to provide safety with a way for a disabled craft to have a lowest possible atmosphere that the craft would fall to because of these inert bags of gas. Just a thought. The double hull design is for the redundancy you mentioned and maybe its easier to cool and balance. Like the engine in the middle is capable of refilling the buoys in flight by some kind of atmospheric collector.

[@monday24seven61]

Love the videos, keep up the great work eck!

[@toasteghoste9290]

I could see it being used to transport prisioners too. Or if for some reason you had two races, were one breathed oxygen and the other breathed say... nitrogen... Not sure if thats a thing though.

[@thomasjenkins5727]

I think part of what makes Cloud Cars distinct is that they have blimp-like properties that come into play when flying through the more dense sections of a gas giant.

[@tonylastra4353]

The sudden stopping of footage in this is jarring and kept making me think my ohone was lagging

[@simplemanboba]

The cloud car was super fun to fly around in the Bespin map of the og Star Wars Battlefront.

[@ZephrusPrime]

Many -many years ago in the 80's, I had the little match box diecast toy of this. I never liked it and I couldn't figure out why it was designed like that.

[@prussianhill]

Not sure if #askeck is still a thing or not... but I was thinking about your video as to why the Venator was not used by the Rebel Alliance, because the Venator did not fit into rebel fleet doctrine. But I was thinking this didn't match with the Rebel tendency to use anything they could lay their hands on. I was thinking about museum ships when I thought that maybe the Venator was not used because of a specific maintenance issue. On earth, the closest thing approaching the physical size and complexity of the Venator main hanger doors is a main gun turret on a battleship. And when these turrets are no longer maintained (ie battleship becomes a museum ship) the turrets will seize in place. Freedom of motion could be restored to these systems, but the cost would be cost prohibitive. My thought was, maybe the Venator main hanger doors suffer from the same problem. That the main hanger doors on derelict Venators seized in place, resulting in the main doors being inoperable. There are other hanger doors, but I think the ability to rapidly disgorge starfighters was a unique selling point on the venator, without which perhaps the Venator might not have had a place in the Rebel fleet (aside from a source of parts to upgrade other ships. What are your thoughts?

[@darkdruidsvale]

i can actually see this as a thing, and even if they did have 1-2 of them they would probably be relegated to spec-ops missions because of the cost of getting them operable again, another issue i could see with them could be just the sheer volume of fighters they could dump out, the rebels probably wouldnt have enough pilots and fighters to fully man a venators fighter wing so the need of ever deploying them would be minimal, alongside the hit and run tactics a venator would likely have to spend a decent amount of time to retrieve all of its fighters after a fight which would give the empire time to deploy ISD's with modern shields and weapons to bear on the relatively old ship

[@darkdruidsvale]

a bit more thought also gave me the idea of how they could use a Venator even with the rebel doctrine, if the Venators acted as aircraft carriers and dropped hyperdrive equipped fighters a jump or 2 from multiple targets and have the fighters rendezvous with it later you could avoid the retrieval speed issue almost entirely. though the costs of fixing the doors could outweigh the benefits of just scrapping the ship for parts, the real question then would be if the Venators Hyperdrive is more fuel efficient than the fighters it would be carrying, with their supply issues the Venator could become quite vital in fighter transport from one "front" to another

[@cd5sircoupe]

I dunno about that take on Venators... I think it's a stretch to assume the bay doors seized or whatever. And I see this often but people tend to quote the maximum # of fighter/crew capacity and that being a hindrance to the Rebels. From what I understand, those numbers were rarely ever the case if we're talking about lore sooo... we know these guys mod the fuck out of stuff, so why can't they mod these mama jamas? Don't get me wrong, I would've loved to see it, but obviously they were introduced post OT and clearly they haven't really been adopted into the Comics/Novels canon at this point yet. I think it would have made a ton of sense to have 1 or 2 of them if not more in the fleet. Let's say there's a mission, your Venator releases the wing of fighters needed, they jump the 2-3 systems over to complete the mission, they warp back & land. Boom, done. Hell, Phoenix Cell went so far as to get a Quasar Fire carrier, which is a bona fide dedicated carrier and not a ship of the line, to service their fighters more efficiently. There's certainly space for Venators in the Rebel fleet.

[@mittensfastpaw]

Honestly every world needs odd little vehicles littered about. Makes the world feel more alive.

[@Dennis-vh8tz]

My guess would be that Bespin Motors was already producing a single pod vehicle, and connecting two pods was a pragmatic way for them to produce a larger vehicle without overstretching their limited resources.

[@jpritchett42]

Watching all of these close-ups of the cloud-car, I was struck by the visual similarity between a cloud-car pod and Lando's "Lady Luck". I have to imagine the irl designer of the Lady Luck used the Cloud-Car as inspiriation.

[@sebastianalvaradocolon5983]

Friednly remainder that the one cloudcar under the control of Iden Versio single handedly destroyed 3 star destroyers and a tibanna gas refinery.

[@Jakenw001]

For whatever reason I’ve always loved the cloud car. No clue why, just do

[@bobaklan7436]

The cloud car is in many ways, like the rebel snow speeder. Its intended purpose is as a civilian vehicle, but can be modified with weapons for more of an offensive approach.

[@robhou5353]

It's a response to that 80's videogame that had a 2 pod space ship with 2 independent thrusts and lasers that you and your best pal played for hours at your local arcade!

[@Xuligoon]

Cloud cars were very unique looking to me

[@kevinj3680]

I think the double cab makes perfect sense as a security vehicle. Police or security usually have a partner anyway, for backup, additional witness, things like that. If you have a 2 cab vehicle, each person has their own gear/personal items in their own cockpit. On a long patrol, or say a 24 hour shift, one person can sleep while the other stays alert. If attacked, 1 shot can't take out both pilots, which could happen with more traditional single cockpit builds. 2 cockpits side by side also greatly increases your field of view, something very important for police and security. Makes for a kinda silly looking vehicle, but effective in my book. That's my opinion at least.

[@joejaboy]

I would note that in the original Rogue Squadron video game, you cannot choose the v-wing on missions that take place in space. There aren't many of those, but the example that comes to mind is the mission "The Jade Moon" which is a mission that takes place on a moon that has no atmosphere.

[@GammaAKF]

I always liked it because it reminded me of the F-82 mustang twin. Most fighter planes have a single pilot seat, which is all well and good until you have a long duration CAP or a long distance escort flight. Most large, long-range aircraft require a co-pilot to prevent exhaustion of your pilot. The F-82 was made to have a fighter escort that could escort bombers over a long distance or long-range scouting sorties. I'm guessing they have a limited supply of pilots and ships to perform air patrol, and having a second seat greatly increases the duration the aircraft can fly. It also doubles your fuel supply if each pod has a tank.

[@otminealnamer1385]

Given that much of Star Wars is inspired by WW2 stuff, you can apply some of the logic there. The F-82 Twin Mustange was effectively 2 P-51 fuselages put together on one platform, and the purpose of it was as a very long range escort fighter - One pilot would be awake while the other slept or rested. Since Bespin is a gas giant, with no place to land or bail in the event one pilot is incapacitated, it's much safer to have one pilot be able to take over if such a thing happened. Likewise, it extends the effective patrol time of the cloud car, where pilots take shifts without having to land, providing the cloud car is fuel-efficient enough. A final benefit to a place like cloud city is that cloud city has a limited population - instead of many cars out on patrol in short shifts, you can have fewer loitering around for longer. A dual-pilot vehicle makes perfect sense for a place that's basically nothing but air, and it's logical to assume a cloud car would be built for long flight periods. The reason for dual-pod is probably redundancy, as it's easier for control surface tractions to be manufactured in redundancy in that configuration than in an inline form. Makes it cheaper and quicker to manufacture(important to cloud city, which cannot produce its own materials), without sacrificing any reliability. The only criticism I have towards the design is the lack of wings, which would make it safer in the event of engine failure, and the fact it looks rather flimsy, but it could be some star wars super metals making that unnecessary for all I know.

[@russellharrell2747]

Why does the cloud car have twin pods? Why does the TIE fighter have huge vertical wings? Why does the X-wing have s-foils? It’s all rule of cool. And it’s all very cool.

[@thatblastedsamophlange]

I remember having this as a kid, and I've always liked it.

[@holeshotshane5692]

Second Star Wars Lego kit I ever built was a Bespin cloud car. Love that weird little thing

[@zack875]

It really only makes sense as a taxi or science vessel where one occupant is doing something not related to flight operations or where it needs 24hr service - 1 pilot sleeps while another takes a shift. We see similar designs in Mechwarrior/Battletech battlemechs as well where one pilot focuses on some tasks and another in another. But it also sort of strikes me as the P50, a vehicle designed by absolute economic design principles taken to absolute extremes.

[@Neawoulf]

My guess always was that there is a base model, something like a single seat cheap repulsor craft for civilians, like a "flying tractor" or a repulsor cargo lifter or something. The cockpit design reminds me a lot of a certrain agricultural aircraft, the AT-402 Air Tractor. And maybe Cloud City Security bought some of those base model machines and modified them to be a twin seater with a seperate engine block for better performance and that second fuselage. Kind of like some of the obscure modified ww2 twin fuselage airplanes (F-82 Twin Mustang or BF-109 Zwilling).

[@lynngreen7978]

Repulsorlift technology was, of course, invented in the distant future, in a distant galaxy, but due to a strange incident, where half of all living organisms in the universe vanished for a period of about five Coruscanti years, the technology was thrown back more than 35,000 years before the Battle of Yavin. Little known fact.

[@tannermaynard5991]

So a few nations actually tried this concept out in real life. The US had the f-82 or xp-82 that was a twin seater of a similar design. It was basically two p-51s welded together. Germany also did the same thing with the bf 109z. At least the Germans toyed with the idea, I don't know if it ever came into any significant production. Was just thinking that whatever the real life rational was for doing this might give some a little more insight to the cloud car design.

[@angeloinfinity3054]

honestly this video made me like the cloud car more, good job eckh!

[@theskullboy8700]

Iden: when I said we needed a ship I should’ve been more specific Del: it has weapons what more do you want Iden: for it not to be a clown car

[@jamesk370]

It looks like it should have been a training vehicle -- instructor in one pod, and the student in the other.

[@averagetacoenjoyer681]

Playing Empire At War and listening to eck in the background never gets old

[@willjoyce5013]

Ah the V-wing, by far my favorite in-atmosphere craft to fly.

[@oneproudbrowncoat]

Minor correction: repulsorlift is for use in *gravity*, and not necessarily in atmosphere.

[@lohdhshs]

I remember when I was a kid I had an old 2003ish Lego Cloud Car, I think it came with a Lobot minifigure.

[@pirobot668beta]

I assumed they were 'trainers': Student in one cockpit, Instructor in the other. Simple upgrades to make them a fighter...pilot and gunner.

[@biostemm]

It would be a practical design for areas where there may be issues with speeder-jacking or perhaps issues with disease - keep the passenger isolated from the pilot. I also think that the repulsorlift and thruster are the most expensive parts of such a craft, so just tacking on an extra compartment is much easier and cheaper to construct...

[@MegaCrimsonKnight]

A benefit I can think of is it would be a very small target to shoot for an enemy fighter. Like the engines for example are TINY and you'd need to be a crack shot to hit those. Not to mention if it does some sort of spinning maneuver I could see it throwing off enemy targeting since the craft is comprised of too fuselages.

[@davidsmigielski5358]

Iden: When I said we needed a ship, I should have been more specific. Del: It has weapons! What more do you want? Iden: For it not to be a cloud car.

[@richardrobinson1651]

I collected Hasbro Titaniums back in the day. Along with the Snow Speeder and OG Cylon Raider, the Cloud Car are my definite favourites.

[@colinmoore7460]

I read somewhere it was based on 2 old hair dryers glued together at the nozzle. The cut off wire became the blasters. The air intake became the cockpits. It may be wishful thinking.

[@quicklikeaduck6089]

Due to the nature of the Bespin planet surface, to crash land is certain death. In a context where getting back to an artificial environment like Cloud City in the event of an emergency is your only hope, redundant systems make a lot of sense.

[@YouHaveReachedBob]

Considering what a bombastic place Cloud City is, it kinda makes sense for them to have cool looking vehicles. Like Dubai with their Lamborghini police cars. Style over function.

[@MrBulletwood]

I do like the added Battlefront 2015 gameplay as well. It would be strange to not see that here for obvious reasons. It even reminded me about how the imperials also had a blue-colored Clown Car as well

[@volksdude1970]

The reason behind the design (in universe) was because it was simply an attempt at preserving the style of the Old Republic. Notice how most ships and craft during the Prequel Trilogy were rounded and more streamlined looking, some even looking like hand built craft. We didn't really see the rigid and square shaped "mass produced" ships until episode 3. A better way of looking at it is a modern company liking the style of an 1950s car, and applying the same style to their modern tech. One could also say that Bespin could have been highly influenced by the culture of Coruscant or Naboo, and so tried to mimic the designs. It could also suggest that Bespin Motors could have also stuck with hand building them, much like how Rolls-Royce still hand crafts their cars in real life.

[@vapor_jem]

The Cloud Car is just a pair of *flying shoes.*

[@Jacques_the_Rooster]

LOVE the design since I first saw the masterpiece called The Empire Strikes Back. Unique yet simple and irresistible - at the very same moment.

[@TheLeatheryman]

Used to love getting in these things in the old Battlefront game

[@inigobirden2155]

It is not completely unusual for vehicle design to be largely aesthetically driven sometimes even in military applications, it certainly is a design that feels inspired by the surroundings of Cloud City and Bespin so I can totally see a ship designer native to the planet making something like that.

[@frigginresulrum]

It looks like the combat pod grew out of the old concept art toys that were released.

[@mm-yt8sf]

"ok, everyone out of the clown car. err i mean cloud car" :-)

[@SnowyNightFlyer]

The first ship ever inspired by two sneakers laced together.

[@The1stImmortal]

The dual pod design may mean the ability to have different variant pods on the secondary side - the security model is obviously duplicating functions and stocking weapons etc but a civilian model may have a driver pod with guidance and fuel etc with the secondary pod having more space for more passengers, like a taxi. Perhaps other variants may have small freight areas (equivalent to a van or small truck on today's roads) That may also lend itself to police purposes for mission-specific pods - prisoner transport, breaching equipment, tactical support, etc. Obviously in a traffic control/defense context you have a dual pilot/gunner version for escorting and possibly attacking incoming vehicles, as well as performing observation.

[@mewts5025]

Thanks to Battlefront 2015 the nickname Clown Car stuck to my mind so much that i now actually misread Cloud Car as Clown Car

[@jatzi1526]

I always assumed it was based off of the F82 Twin Mustang. A real fighter that was literally just two P51s connected to each other. Looks derpy as hell but it was real and it even saw combat in the Korean War. It was made so that pilots could rest during long patrols or escort missions

[@DavidLLambertmobile]

Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy bit about Cloud Cars is clever 📺.

[@bmxdoe]

It looks like it's a tired pair of shoes, about to get thrown around a power line

[@I_Love_Quokkas]

Agree it probably was a form of taxi or pilot trainer that they slapped a blaster on. If needed, in universe, I suspect one pod could have been swapped out for a dedicated prisoner cell, cargo, or anything else. To me that just makes sense.

[@nicostrabac768]

Just liked immediately for 2 reasons. 1) I simp for lore. And 2) I simp for lore

[@jaxonblack8021]

Battlefront 1 cloud city flashbacks. Rushing to its spawn point so you could win in the Star Wars equivalent of a motorcycle side car without the motorcycle except there is two of them and they are connected via stick.

[@AdmiralBlackstar]

Huh, I always thought the design was inspired by the F-82 Twin Mustang, which like it sounds was originally two P-51 Mustangs stitched together and had two fully redundant cockpits. This was so they didn't have to worry about pilot fatigue on long escort missions. It also carried more fuel as bombers often out ranged their escort fighters. It didn't get to finish being produced during the war, but during the Cold War the unfinished units were completed as all-weather interceptors (the new state-of-the-art jet fighters that they transitioned to a little too rapidly could be a little dodgy in rough weather at the time), with one cockpit being modified for operating the new radar systems, including the "long dong" radar attached to the center wing.

[@ClarkKentai]

All I know about the Cloud Car is that all my friends banned me from using it in our split-screen games of Star Wars Demolition. I got into the habit of using the special weapon (a Carbonite freeze shot) to immobilize them and dropping a fully-charged (and therefore target-seeking) Thermal Detonator right next to them. Shit was glorious.

[@gudspellar3605]

Now that you have done a video on the worst looking ship in childrens toys... it does make sense in a lot of ways in canon. I can see it being a design that had a sale at some point and Lando locked in a contract at a very good price for a craft that was unique looking and did all he needed it to do. One of those needs for Lando would be to stay under the radar and having a military craft that looked civilian in nature would help keep a low profile with no one feeling intimidated when visiting.

[@Freesqare]

It's the Homermobile. One side for you, one for the wife and kids

[@booomkalani]

The combat variant looks like something that would be in the 1980 Flash Gordon movie.

[@truegodaries]

Such a cool spaceship. Truly a one of a kind vessel.

[@TheGahta]

Yeah it has a unique look and feel, quite fitting as an introduction to cloud city

[@officialswordmaster3069]

There was a similar design in real life, in the Korean War fighter, the twin mustang, which was basically just a pair of P-51s joined by a central wing.

[@dembro27]

Stick two oversized coffee beans to an engine and BAM!