Some time in early 2019, Tim Berry released a new droid onto the world…

Well, not exactly a new droid, but a smaller droid!

Rogue One came out in 2016 and in the background there was a new droid known as the A-LT. This was a tracked droid with a dome similar in size to R2. It looked like a fun droid, a droid that might be good running round a race track. So Tim set about making a smaller version that might be fun and easy to make.

After designing a drive system a hunt was on for some off the shelf gears that might be suitable. One was found that was around the correct size, but not quite. A quick calculation to determine the scale of droid that would mean the gear was usable was done, and the 39.1% droid was born!

Tim got to work finalising the design and in April of 2019 opened the Facebook group up to a select few to start building these droids. Later that year, R2UK2 was scheduled to happen so it was decided that this was going to be the inaugural race meet of Formula 39.1.