Driveable Lego car takes to Melbourne streets
Romanian-built all-Lego Super Awesome Micro Project hits 30km/h and runs entirely on airA car made entirely of Lego and powered by an air-driven Lego engine has taken to the street for its inaugural drive.
The Super Awesome Micro Project (SAMP), as it is dubbed, is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Steve Sammartino and Raul Oaida and was initiated from a Tweet asking for investors to fund the mysterious “world-first project”.
Potential investors were sent a quirky prospectus saying the project would offer “no fiscal return” and was “high risk and may fail”.
Oddly, 40 willing patrons stumped up the $25,000 needed to build the Lego car and, 500,000 pieces of Lego later, SAMP became a reality.
Built in Romania and flown to Melbourne for its road test, the hotrod-styled Lego car is powered by a series of four orbital engines totalling 256 pistons.
The Lego-built engine runs on compressed air and can propel the vehicle to around 30km/h. The designers said they dared not go any faster for fear of a ‘Lego explosion’.
Load-bearing elements, some chassis and steering components and the wheels are “non-Lego”. Check out the video and be impressed by just how much of SAMP is constructed from the tiny plastic building blocks.
“Just 10 years ago, none of this was possible. The tools didn’t exist. The internet is a gift,” said SAMP founder Steve Sammartino of the project.
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