Colin Furze, the guy who made real versions of the wildest weapons in Sekiro, has now turned his attention to Overwatch, and specifically Junkrat's ultimate ability, the RIP-Tire. In the game, it's a spiked tire with a pullstart that Junkrat can steer toward his enemies—and which explodes violently when it reaches them. In real life, it doesn't blow up, but otherwise it's wonderfully close to the mark.
The project starts off looking like it's going to be a fairly primitive build—a tire and a chainsaw aren't exactly rocket appliances—but before long it's all metal lathes and plasma cutters and 3D printing and a thing that goes "pop" and makes a bunch of sparks when you push a button. And after a multi-week building process compressed into about nine minutes of video, it is done!
There are a few compromises in the design, aside from the lack of actual weaponization. A wheelie bar trails behind the tire in order to enable it to move—otherwise, the engine would just spin inside of it—and because it wouldn't be able to actually roll on the spikes, Furze adapted them to a spiked fender instead. And while the throttle is controllable remotely, the tire can't actually be steered, although it can be smashed through panes of glass and old fences.
As he says at the end of the video, there's more to come: Two more videos are lined up that will demonstrate the full destructive capabilities of the real-life RIP-Tire once it's properly cranked up. I'll add those to the post when they're up. In the meantime, dare to compare Furze's creation with the original RIP-Tire down below.
