“The Super Awesome Micro Project”, as this has become known, is not a special effect. That really is a life-size car made out of LEGO, and it really is being powered by an engine made out of LEGO.
Built from 500,000 bricks, the engine (four orbital engines with a total of 256 pistons) uses compressed air to propel the car. OK, so it won’t hit the speeds you’d get from a real hot rod (it tops out at 20-30km/h), but a real hot rod can’t match this for fuel economy or awesomeness, either.
It was built by a Romanian kid and an Australian entrepreneur, and is currently turning heads in Melbourne.
Life Size Lego Car Powered by Air [YouTube]
Comments
16 responses to “Australian Lego Car Has Lego Engine, Actually Drives”
No, I’m pretty sure once it is all taken into account, a real hot rod is more efficient.
You can’t get much better fuel economy than something that doesn’t actually use fuel 😉
Well, energy in to energy out (which is what fuel economy boils down to), this has a *lot* less going in, being compressed air, and a lot less going out in both ways, compared to a real car.
There’s a good reason why air powered cars aren’t considered a viable replacement for petrol powered cars. Their inefficiency is just one of the problems.
But what if you could make one powerful enough to run an air compressor?
Then you would compress less air than you used. Conservation of energy partnered with wasted energy mean you couldn’t put as much in as you take out.
A fuel is something which stores energy. In this case, the energy is stored in compressed air, therefore the compressed air is the fuel.
Energy was put into this air by another system, which used fuel/energy derived from another source [likely coal->electricity]. The efficiency of the system isn’t necessarily better than an internal combustion engine.
Zero emissions != high efficiency/economy
Awesome! But, what happens if they hit a pothole? I hope there’s a little more than just normal lego bricks keeping everything together (like maybe some super glue).
1/2 million bricks! okay so using the average price per brick, got this from google which is currently $0.12 USD thats $60,000 in lego ALONE@!! i would rather buy car to do up LOL
(correct my bad maths or average pricing if necessary lol)
would hate to see what happens in a head on collision
Well,at least you won’t have to get spare parts to re-build it if you happen upon a collision as you’d just put them back together brick by brick.
I’d be more worried about the actual impact as there’s not a seat belt to be seen!
Or airbags for that matter!
That motor looks somewhat like a rotary engine from Mazda perhaps?
On the Contrary.. I can just imagine if a high speed camera were to be setup & played back in Slow-Motion during impact, Would be rather quite beautiful.
With a crash test dummy without other cars, it sure would be beautiful
Against a semi trailer…not so much.
Are they going to publish the instructions to make this?
no doubt it would be a shattering experience.
If it rains, do you have to build the roof?