The Crowd-Funded Car Made From Lego, That Runs On Air

What do you get if you take an Australian entrepreneur, a technologist and more than 500,000 pieces of Lego? The most amazing Lego car that runs on compressed air!

Steve Sammartino and his friend Raul Oaida had the idea to build a zero-emissions car made from Lego but unfortunately didn’t have the cash to see it through. Oaida turned to Twitter to help raise the money, tweeting a request for $500 to $1000 from about 20 people for an unexplained project.

Remarkably people responded to the plea and the money was collected. Sammartino sent an very crypic but also interesting prospectus, which now doubt caught their curiosity.

The pair used more than 500,000 bits of Lego, tyres, some load bearing pieces and gauges to create what they have called the Super Awesome Micro Project.

There are four orbital engines and 256 pistons, again made from Lego, which are driven by compressed air and allow the vehicle to reach speeds of around 20km/h. Sammartino explains that it has the ability go faster, however “We were scared of a Lego explosion so we drove it slowly,” he said.

The Super Awesome Micro Project was built in Romania and then transported to Melbourne, Australia for its big reveal.

Sammartino explained his motivation for wanting to do this project, saying 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.”

For now there are no plans to build anymore.

“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,” said Sammartino.

It looks fantastic and so much fun to drive. We’ll let you, the readers decide what is more incredible; the fact that it built from Lego, or that people were willing to pay for an unknown project!

[Image via happyq8]

SOURCE: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/12/air-powered-lego-hot-rod