Jump to Lightspeed with Road Squadron

“Punch it!”

What would Star Wars be without the vehicles that transport our heroes and villains across the stars? From iconic ships like the Millennium Falcon to fan favorites like the Ghost, Star Wars is full of memorable vehicles, many becoming beloved characters unto themselves.

And the same is true for vehicles from a galaxy much closer than far, far away and much more present than a long time ago. That’s where Road Squadron comes in, a fan “carfighter” group where vehicle enthusiasts modify their Earth-bound vehicles to represent some of our favorite ships and characters from Star Wars. At Star Wars Celebration Anaheim 2022, Road Squadron showcased their cars for all to see, and took time to speak with StarWars.com.

Shawn Crosby (“Obi-Shawn”) is the founder of the group, which started in 1999. And it’s proved quite popular. “We have the best time, we’ve been doing it for more than 20 years,” Shawn says. “We’ve gone from being a scrappy little group of two to, like, eight, to now…over 300 people.”

While his last car, a Nissan 350z called “The Z-Wing,” ended in a blaze of glory (its engine finally gave out), Shawn quickly moved on to yet another mod, this time inspired by Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Jedi starfighter, called “The G-Wing.”

“In a lot of cases, we’ll pick a character or a ship we really like and use that as a theme,” Shawn explains.

In modding the cars, Road Squadron members often start designing in Photoshop. This includes schematics that detail the taping and line work that goes into the cars’ transformations. “It’s a process,” Shawn says simply. And the process can take a while. For Crosby, his G-Wing took about three months. For father-son duo Jeff and Sparrow Donoho, their Ghost-inspired vehicle was a two-year labor of love.

“The longest amount of time was all the little striping tape,” Jeff says. “I had to tape off the entire car, which took forever.”

“I helped with painting all of the colors,” Sparrow chimes in. “It was, like, day-to-day, ‘What color is it today?’ And my cousin Christina made the different little decals.” The car features several nods to the Star Wars Rebels series, including Ezra’s jacket logo, Sabine’s phoenix symbol, and more.

And what made them pick the Ghost? Just like the beloved Ghost crew itself, for Jeff and Sparrow (and the rest of their relatives who pitched in), it comes down to family. “Well, I’m always truckin’ around family,” Jeff laughs. “And Rebels was amazing.”

“It was a family effort,” adds Sparrow.

For Anna Sawyer, family was also a theme that inspired her to join Road Squadron, but also a trip to Celebration Orlando in 2017. “I saw all the cars there, including the Hot Wheels Darth Vader…