Best dad ever tunes son's Lightning McQueen Power Wheels [Video]

Best dad ever tunes son’s Lightning McQueen Power Wheels [Video]

By Deborah Netburn

Aug. 11, 2012 12 AM PT

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The most beloved dad on the Internet this week? That would be Sean Burgess, the professional breakdancer turned professional car tuner, who spent months fixing up his 5-year-old son’s Lightning McQueen Power Wheels toy -- and made a video to document it.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Evan got the drivable Power Wheels toy when he was 2, and by the time he turned 5 he had worn through the plastic wheels that come with the car.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Luckily for him, his dad is co-owner of the Northern California tuning &amp;lt;a href=”https://www.fftec.com/”&amp;gt;shop&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; FFTEC Motorsports, and was willing to bring the little car into the shop to upgrade the plastic wheels to metal rims with rubber tires.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;That upgrade set off a whole series of modifications to the car including, as Sean writes in the YouTube caption field, an aluminum black half chassis, dual sealed gel batteries with an output of 24 volts, a 500-watt, 0.66-horsepower electric motor and a throttle-modulated, variable-speed control with reverse.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;In other words, Evan’s Lightning McQueen Power Wheels toy now has strong rubber go-kart tires and can go as fast as 7 to 10 mph.&amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Sean and Evan started working on the car in March. Sean said he spent about $600 in parts, not including the $250 he spent three years ago to buy the car.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;”I can’t quantify the amount of work,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “A lot of the time was spent teaching Evan.”&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;I asked Sean if Evan was able to pick up what was going on. Sean’s response? “My son is brilliant.”&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Sean said he took hundreds of pictures of his son helping him with the Lightning McQueen project. When it was all over he assembled them into the above video to show to friends and family how everything turned out. He sent the video to about seven people directly, and then posted it on a Bay Area car forum where he knew some of his customers might find it. He thought they’d be curious to see the results.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The video spread from there, and as of this writing has received more than 2.4 million views in less than a week. And it clearly touched a nerve. The audience has left almost 6,000 comments, most of them like this: &amp;lt;span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;span&amp;gt;”Now this is how you make your kid happy!”&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The video was one of the most viewed in the U.S. on YouTube this week, but was also on the most-viewed list for a number of other countries, including Indonesia, Canada, Hungary and Kenya, said Ken Allocca, YouTube trends manager.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Awesome tuner dads are loved all around the world.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;ALSO&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt;:&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href=”http://arstechnica1.netblogpro.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-backyard-roller-coaster-20120808,0,6142000.story”&amp;gt;Homemade, backyard rollercoaster freaks out the Internet&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href=”http://arstechnica1.netblogpro.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-biggest-3d-map-of-the-sky-20120809,0,3699754.story”&amp;gt;Way beyond Mars: Scientists release biggest 3-D map of the sky&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href=”http://arstechnica1.netblogpro.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-mckayla-maroney-not-imrpessed-20120809,0,6080896.story”&amp;gt;First meme of Olympics 2012: Gymnast McKayla Maroney is not impressed&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Follow Deborah Netburn on &amp;lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/#!/DeborahNetburn”&amp;gt;Twitter&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; or &amp;lt;a href=”https://plus.google.com/u/0/109675776633752908527/posts”&amp;gt;Google+&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;

Best dad ever tunes son’s Lightning McQueen Power Wheels [Video]

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