All you need is 500,000 Lego bricks, and you can have a brand new air-powered full-sized car, that moves as fast as a scooter. You don’t believe it? Well, the Australian guru Steve Sammartino and the Romanian genius Raul Oaida made it possible and they even drove the super cool vehicle on the streets of Melbourne. They called their project with what could only be the most suitable name for it, The SuperAwesomeMicroProject and showed the world that with some good old Lego and a lot of creativity, people can do wonders.
The super Lego car is large enough to fit a driver and a passenger, it has four orbital engines that power it, and uses 256 working pistons (?!) in order to keep the functional engine going. The vehicle can move at 20mph, and although the makers are convinced it could go faster, they are slightly hesitant to risk it so that they avoid a possible “Lego explosion”. If you’d like to see the car in its full glory, check out the video at the project’s website here.
Initially, the Lego car was built in Romania, but later on sent to Melbourne where it can currently be seen, looking like a true hot rod.
The project is yet another proof that through crowdfunding people can achieve anything- all they need is one brilliant idea. Initially the guys needed around 20 people to contribute to their experiment with $500 to $1000 each. The power of social media, however, proved to be much stronger, and in a matter of hours they were able to attract double the number of investors they needed.
Are we going to see hundreds of air-powered Lego cars circling the streets soon? Maybe, maybe.
Image (c) SuperAwesomeMicroProject
The LEGO-Explosion sounds intriguing. At least you could put it all back together if it falls apart. Keep a bag of spare LEGO pieces on hand. 🙂