TheCrusaderisthecherished mascot of ARHS who is always at events and rallies to get the students pumped up.

This year, there will be one more reason to keep your eyes on the Crusader when he rolls up in his sick new ride, the Crusader Mobile!

That’s right. This year, the ARHS mascot will be cruising in a vehicle sporting the signature school colors, purple and gold.

The mastermind behind the creation of the vehicle is Gianni Brattesani ’21 whocreated it as a final project for the engineering program at Riordan with help from his teachers and his father Stephen Brattesani, DDS.

Gianni said, “I decided to make something big that would be cool to give to the school and really leave my mark here at Riordan.”

Walking past the fab lab, students and faculty may see it just inside the door in all its glory. The seat of the cart is a chair from the cafeteria with the metal legstaken off to add some Riordan flair.

It may just look like a normal go kart, but the Crusader Mobile is extremely advanced and has a variety of functions. The ride has a working speaker system with a microphone.

It can be controlled remotely, shoot fog from the back, and make smoke rings; and yes, it has lasers.

“There’s two lasers in the front so people in the stands will see lasers driving in front of the vehicle,” stated Stephen Brattesani.

With a project as advanced as this, things are bound to get pretty expensive and time consuming.

“It took us around 100 hours to put it together and cost $3,000 to make,” said Gianni. “Home Depot actually donated $1,500 of the cost,” added Stephen Brattesani.

There has been some concern about the wheels making markson the new gym floor, but Gianni has thought of everything.

“We bought special solid- rubber wheels to prevent the cart from making any marks onthe gym floor,” stated Gianni.

The debut date of the Crusader Mobile has not been determined yet, so be on the lookout.