Air-powered Lego car hits the street

The perfect do-it-yourself gift for budding designers and architects during the holiday season has to be Lego. The small blocks of plastic with millions of design outcomes have entertained many a child since the early 1950s. Now an ambitious duo has snapped together 500,000 pieces of the stuff to create the world’s first air-powered Lego roadster.

Whereas the air-powered Lego roadster isn’t on the scale of the full-size X-Wing fighter or the musical level of the Toa Mata Band, it is most definitely up there in terms of innovation and creativity.

The open-aired Lego mobile, designed by 20 year-old Raul Oaida of Romania, is somehow magically powered by a top secret amalgam of Lego pieces and pump parts. With a mechanical design arrangement that would make even the most hardcore of automotive engineers drool, the Lego-mobile is driven by four orbital engines, each holding 256 pistons, or 64 per Lego engine block.

Though Gizmag tried to get more information on the drivetrain, horsepower, and torque ratings, Melbourne entrepreneur/fund raising partner, Steve Sammartino was unwilling to divulge design secrets or specs at this time. We can tell you that through some Lego air-powered magic, the car is capable of hitting a top speed of 30 km/h (18 mph). The team is quick to point out the car's speed was purposely kept low so as to avoid tiny Lego explosions from within one of the 256 Lego cylinders.

Not everything on the vehicle is Lego. According to the team, load bearing components, including wheels, tires and steering control mechanisms are of a metallic nature, as are the air pressure gauges on the console. However, items like doors, the steering wheel, seats and even the low profile transparent windscreen all appear to be 100 percent Lego-based.

Funded by over forty investors via a crowd-funding exercise, the Lego mobile is but the first in a series of bigger projects for the duo of Sammartino and Oaida.
You can see the air-powered Lego hot rod in action in the video below.