Watch what happens when a group of gearheads get delirious in the desert with remote controls and a high-flying Toyota.

Curtis Guise is Patrick's kind of people. A remorseless desert racing fan, Guise spends his spare time filming high-speed vehicles raging through remote Western locales and perfecting his truck. Once in a while, he smashes a car into smithereens.
Guise, along with his partner, Klaus Rasch (who runs Race-Dezert.com, a great site for desert racing fans), shot and edited DezertPeople: The Movie, a popular video and DVD of dust-soaked trucks and buggies bouncing over awful trails, bounding over dunes, and smacking into each other at ridiculous speeds. Rubbing is racing. So is crashing.
The follow up to "DezertPeople" will include a serious jump, and subsequent crash of one unlucky Toyota.
Along with two buddies, Jake and Josh Barritt, Curtis took a serious time killer -- turning a 1982 Toyota Camry into the world's most bizarre RC car -- and turned into a bona fide blast. Watch Friday's show to hear Guise explain the method behind the destructive madness and see an actual RC Toyota up close. Click on the video clips in the Video Highlights box to get a taste of the remote-controlled mayhem, right down to the final, 50-foot leap.
The interview
Patrick couldn't hold his horses until Friday, so he gave Guise a call to get the skinny on how this insane project came together. Here are some excerpts from the interview.
TechTV: Where did the idea come from?
Guise: I started thinking of it a long time ago, but then I saw it on Junkyard Wars and decided it would be cool. They called it "car jousting." Nothing high-speed, just ramming each other in a circle. We thought we might stick a person in one car, and control the other with remote controls. We ended up sticking with just the RC.
TechTV: Who built the RC Toyota and how long did it take?
Guise: My friend Jake bought the radio controls. He and I found the car for $170 and took it to his brother's house, where he has a shop. We all worked on it. Josh did a lot of the fabrication work; he got the brakes working and figured out how to get the hydraulic brakes working. He's a mechanic. I did any welding that needed to be done.
That car took maybe four or five nights, working four or so hours a night. The car we're bringing on "The Screen Savers" took one and a half nights.
TechTV: Why did Jake get to drive?
Guise: He used to race RC cars. I was so worried about filming [the action], I never even drove it. I had the camera mounted inside the car. The car was probably only running 30 minutes or so before we rolled [the car] the first time.
TechTV: Where did you get the RC controls?
Guise: A regular hobby shop. It's a control that uses three servos rather than two. Everybody asks how we got big enough servos to turn the wheel, throttle, etc. They're just regular hobby servos, and we took the springs off the throttle.
TechTV: How did you work the brakes?
Guise: We took a hydraulic cylinder, mounted it to the floor, and bent the brake pedal around so we could run a bolt through both the pedal and the ram end of the hydraulic cylinder. Then we had a switch (activated by a servo) that let the air out of the tank and into the cylinder. It's not actually hydraulic, it's air-powered. The cylinder only lasted for about 10 pumps of the brake pedal before it was emptied. We checked and refilled it periodically.
TechTV: What was the toughest part?
Guise: The steering was kind of tough. We kicked around a few ideas before Josh came up with the fan-belt pulley. They used a bike wheel and chain on "Junkyard Wars." We wanted ours to be able to slip, so the winch didn't rip off the pulley.
TechTV: What do you do when you're not shooting or editing racing videos?
Guise: Trying to build my new 95 T100 truck that I'm setting up for pre-running. Either that or working on my other business, Juice Designs, a graphics, decals, and Web design company.
TechTV: What's next?
Guise: We have this Celica we just built. It doesn't move very fast and first gear doesn't really work, so it takes awhile to get up to speed. But once it's going, it'll get up to 70 or so. A friend of ours has an '85 Chrysler with a V8. We might get that for $100. Then we can get a second set of controls, rig both the cars up, and crash them around. Or jump them side by side. Anybody want to join us? We could have a demolition derby with RC cars!
TechTV: Where can people get your videos?
Guise: Go to Dezert People. The first flick, "DezertPeople: The Movie," is for sale. If you can make it to Southern California, you can go to the premiere for "DezertPeople: SecondLap," or pre-order "DezertPeople: SecondLap" on the website.
Racing links
According to Patrick, if you're curious about the desert racing thing, you should go see a race. If you live out West, there's probably a race within a few hours of your home. This page contains links to all of the desert racing sanctioning bodies and race schedules. Off-Road.com has coverage of all the major SCORE races, including great pictures.