Air-Powered Life-Sized Lego Car Designed by Romanian Student Raul Oaida (+Video)

Perhaps one of the coolest inventions of 2013 is the Lego car, which runs on compressed air. It has a Lego engine, Lego interior, and almost everything made out of Lego, more than 500,000 of the tiny building blocks.
Air-Powered Life-Sized Lego Car Designed by Romanian Student Raul Oaida (+Video)
A car made of more than 500,000 pieces of Lego, designed by Raul Oaida, a 20-year-old Romanian student, and funded by Australian entrepreneur Steve Sammartino. (Screenshot/Steve Sammaritino/YouTube)
Naveen Athrappully
12/24/2013
Updated:
12/24/2013

Perhaps one of the coolest inventions of 2013 is the Lego car, which runs on compressed air. Raul Oaida, a 20-year-old Romanian student, is the technical wizard is behind this invention.

Steve Sammartino, an entrepreneur from Australia who was particularly impressed with the idea, funded the project. The car was built in Romania and then shipped to an undisclosed location in Melbourne, Australia, where a large chunk of it needed to be rebuilt. Apart from certain parts like wheels and gauges, the car is made from Lego bricks and took about 18 months to complete.

Dubbed a “Super Awesome Micro Project,” by its creators, this hot-rod design was built with more than 500,000 pieces of Lego and 256 pistons. There are four orbital engines also made from standard Lego pieces with the top speed coming in the range of 12-18 miles per hour.

It consists of two small tanks that store compressed air. The car works when compressed air is released into the pneumatic engine, which in turn propels the drive shaft. Sammartino told the BBC that he was “neither a car enthusiast nor a Lego enthusiast” and “What I am is a technology enthusiast and I wanted to show what is possible when you crowdfund an idea and use young talented people.”

Although the founders are not sure what the future holds for this automobile, they welcome offers to display it in auto shows and exhibitions, having received plenty of attention and admiration from the public.

Liberte Media writers contributed to this report. Liberte Media is an online agency that focuses on increasing user engagement through search engine optimization, pay-per-clicks, social media marketing, and content management.