Life-sized Lego car runs on air

What would you do with 500,000 Lego bricks? We'd probably fulfil a childhood dream and build the most uncomfortable bed the world has ever know.

Thankfully we've never got our hands on half a million Lego bricks, as no one needs a Lego bed, nor do we fancy having half a million instant-swears to step on.

A team with a vastly more informed idea of what to use this amount of Lego for is Australian entrepreneur Steve Sammartino and Romanian technology engineer (a self-taught teenager at that) Raul Oaida - the builders of this life-sized and 'functional' Lego car.

Having worked with Oaida to put a Lego space shuttle into orbit, Sammartino set about funding their 'Super Awesome Micro Project' in February 2012, casting out a tweet in the hope of finding some backers.

A total of 40 backers supplied them with funds for over 500,000 Lego pieces to construct the car. Designed and built in Romania over 18 months, the only parts of the car to be non-Lego are the wheels and several load-bearing elements. The Lego engine, which runs on compressed air, consists of four orbital engines and a staggering 256 pistons. Despite having a top speed of around 30km, the duo haven't pushed it to its limit for fear of a vast Lego explosion.

"Just 10 years ago, none of this was possible," said Sammartino. "The tools didn’t exist. The internet is a gift."

(Images: Josh Rowe/superawesomemicroproject.com)

(Via: Pocket-Lint)