Teams

Big Pianists

Garage Headquarters: Pasadena, CA

Driver: Max Knecht

Mechanics: Scott Truong, Geoff Glowalla, Eric Rubalcava, Chris Chavez

Nuts and Bolts:

When it comes to music, Chris Chavez, Geoff Glowalla, Max Knecht, Eric Rubalcava, and Scott Truong are going to make it big – literally big. They’re building a soapbox-sized piano to race on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. “We wanted to do something ridiculous,” says Max, the team’s captain and driver, “and riding a piano down a hill in a tuxedo was quite fitting.”

When this quintet of cutups gets together (which they’ve been doing since high school) the results are usually hilarious. And although none of them can claim to be a piano virtuoso, as a group they have a variety of skills to apply to their soapbox composition. Scott and Max study product design (at Cal State Long Beach and Art Center College of Design, respectively), and have had to build many prototypes for class projects. They’re counting on Chris, a philosophy major at UCLA, to get them in the right mindset, while Geoff, a member of the ROTC at Cal State Fullerton, provides the discipline to keep things on track. Meanwhile Eric, having already graduated from Vanguard University and working full time, offers the group some real-world perspective (and ready cash). With the racer almost complete, Max knows that it will be up to him to tickle the ivories, dominate the racecourse, and bring the applause to a crescendo. Trying vainly to keep a straight face while his teammates make jokes about “big pianists” in the background, Max vows, “We will win the crowd with our classiness and sophistication.”