Reefa Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 An air-powered car built of Lego, that can reach a top speed of around 20km/h (12mph) has hit the roads of Melbourne. A car made from Lego blocks and powered by air. It was built by an Australian entrepreneur and a Romanian technologist who used more than 500,000 pieces of Lego to complete the car.The crowd-funded project began with a tweet asking people to invest in an "awesome" start-up.Four air-powered engines and 256 pistons, all built of Lego bricks, enable the car to move. Everything bar the wheels is made from Lego.The creators were worried about a large Lego explosion Co-founder Steve Sammartino told the BBC that he was "neither a car enthusiast nor a Lego enthusiast"."What I am is a technology enthusiast and I wanted to show what is possible when you crowd-fund an idea and use young talented people," he said."I met this crazy Romanian teenager on the web and we came up with the idea but I knew that I couldn't afford to fund it," he added.So he sent out a late-night tweet which read: "Anyone interested in investing $500 - $1,000 in a project which is awesome and a world first tweet me. Need about 20 participants." The engine is powered by air Forty Australians offered cash and the Super Awesome Micro project, as it is dubbed, was born.It took 18 months and a lot more money to build, said Mr Sammartino.The car was constructed in Romania by him and his business partner Raul Oaida and then shipped to Australia where large parts of it needed to be rebuilt."We drove it in a suburb of Melbourne. The engine is fragile and the biggest fear was a giant Lego explosion impaling passers-by," Mr Sammartino told the BBC.For the time being he has no plans on expanding the fleet."I've been up to my neck in Lego for four weeks and my fingers are still sore so I'm not keen on building another one just at the moment," he told the BBC."This can't have been an easy thing to make, let alone to make move. The engine in particular must have required some innovative thinking," said Matt Saunders, deputy road test editor of Autocar magazine."It doesn't look too comfortable though, and I wouldn't want to drive it very far. Or into anything by accident. Using Stickle Bricks in the crumple zones would have made for much better crash performance," he added.Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25446912 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nIGHT Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 :eek:I hope they won't build a woman powered by lego! That is totally nSane! <_< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turk Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 (edited) The world's first life-sized, driveable Lego car has hit the streets of Melbourne.Internet entrepreneur and marketing expert Steve Sammartino managed the project with the help of young Romanian student Raul Oaida.In an interview with ABC News 24, Mr Sammartino said Mr Oaida was a technical genius."He did all of the design work, built the engine, built the car... he is the technical mind behind it. He really is capable of anything," he said.The engine of a car built out of 500,000 pieces of Lego.Photo: The engine has four orbital engines and 256 pistons that are powered by compressed air. (Josh Rowe/Super Awesome Micro Project)The black and yellow vehicle has been constructed almost entirely from half a million pieces of Lego.The engine has four orbital engines and 256 pistons that are powered by compressed air.Josh Rowe/Super Awesome Micro Project"The only things that are non-Lego are the four load-bearing struts and the wheels," Mr Sammartino said."Other than that, the entire engine is made out of standard Lego pieces, as is the steering wheel and drive the shafts and the steering column. All of the mechanical parts are actually made out of Lego."Mr Sammartino said even the lumbar supports for the seats have been made out of Lego."I must point out that those seats are probably the most uncomfortable seats in automotive history," he said."But in order to stay pure to the project we wanted to make sure that all of the things including the seats and the clunky steering wheel – which is also uncomfortable – were made out of Lego.It doesn't go all that far, but just the mere fact that it does go is quite something... It's really a technical experiment to show what's possible in a connected world.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p19Xr4KnVS8Internet entrepreneur Steve Sammartino"If you're going to do a project, you may as well really go the whole hog."While the car might look flashy, Mr Sammartino said the vehicle was not going to set any land-speed records."It doesn't go all that far, but just the mere fact that it does go is quite something," he said."It's really just a technical experiment to show what's possible in a connected world."The astounding vehicle is also ecologically sound.Mr Sammartino says it "runs on a reasonably eco-friendly substance known as [compressed] air."http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-23/world27s-first-life-sized-lego-car-driven-on-the-streets-of-me/5173106 Edited December 23, 2013 by 7h3Pr3d47oR Spoiler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Orus Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Posted double topic - Threads merged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorel Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 The engine is awesome!!! :o ...and, moreover, it works!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nIGHT Posted December 24, 2013 Share Posted December 24, 2013 Now if they could build a giant lego house that is made of very big lego parts that will be something! It will be a movable house that you can take anywhere for camping or for disaster relief. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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