A Functioning, Life-Sized Hot Rod Made of Legos

In the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia a new car has been born. Unlike other cars built from steel, carbon fiber and other industrial materials, this machine is built from Legos.

Named the SuperAwesomeMicroProject, the venture, which started as a tweet looking to raise capital, has culminated in the first life-sized, fully functional, air powered Lego car.

Built by Raul Oaida, a 20-year-old Romanian genius, and financed by the guile of Steve Sammartino, the Lego hotrod is composed of 500,000 bricks. Aside from the body, doors, seats, steering wheel and hubcaps, the car also features four incredible, all Lego engines. Composed of 256 pistons, each orbital engine contains all of the elements needed to drive the cars power train. What’s more, the car runs on an abundant fuel—air.

While much of the car is composed of plastic blocks, Oaida opted for more traditional materials when building the car’s load bearing components like its wheels and tires.  Additionally, the car features air pressure gauges that appear to be store bought.

In the end, Oaida’s SuperAwesomeMicroProject can reach a staggering 30km/h (18mph), not exactly hot rod speeds but definitely impressive enough to earn a place among the most inventive and creative DIY engineering projects of the year.

As for those who ponied up cash for the development of this project, it appears as though they may have lost the entirety of their investment. Oaida and Sammartino haven’t expressed any interest in commercializing this project, which is unfortunate for all of us. I mean, who wouldn’t want their very own air-powered Lego hotrod?

Images and Video Courtesy of SuperAwesomeMicroProject