
Life-size Lego car runs on air - yitchelle
http://theage.drive.com.au/motor-news/lifesize-lego-car-runs-on-air-20131219-2zmyr.html
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brc
The car itself is fascinating. The article is very weird. Instead of talking
about the obvious challenges of building a full size Lego car, plus a working
compressed air engine, it contains discussions of the local car industry
closing down?

I hope this particular project shows up somewhere else, and some of the
techniques used are explored in depth. When James May built a fall sized Lego
house there were many structural problems to solve. These are interesting to
just about anyone technically minded.

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bitwize
_The car itself is fascinating. The article is very weird. Instead of talking
about the obvious challenges of building a full size Lego car, plus a working
compressed air engine, it contains discussions of the local car industry
closing down?_

The Australian press is... funny. They have a tendency to hunt for drama and
scandal.

~~~
joecurry
The _Australian_ press? Try _all_ press.

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hiharryhere
As some have said it is indeed compressed air. I'm fascinated by the engine.
You can see the Lego parts whirring away in this video

[http://youtu.be/_ObE4_nMCjE](http://youtu.be/_ObE4_nMCjE)

~~~
lh7777
Anyone familiar with the orbital engine design they're using? The wikipedia
article about it is pretty sparse and I didn't find anything better in a quick
web search.

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pant
Really unbelievable...! But I can not understand how it gets its power. In a
"normal" car there are pistons who makes ignition.Here what?:P ... The only it
says about it is "runs on air". Anyway still beautiful...

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stoolpigeon
I assume it runs on compressed air, is slow and can't go far. It was funny to
me that they article explains that the owner raised money to pay Romanians to
build it for him and then later takes a tone of complaining about auto
manufacturers closing local operations.

~~~
secstate
Haha. I'm glad I'm not the only who did a double take when the Melbourne man,
who we were led to believe completed the project, simply asked people for
money and then hired a teen in Eastern Europe with peanuts to build the thing.
All the while talking about the ills of out-sourcing.

Fantastic project, but what a strange, article.

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MattGrommes
"Like many cars on the mainstream market, the Lego project was built abroad -
by the Romanian “teenage tech genius” Raul Oaida, who was 17 years old when
the project commenced. The car was then shipped to Australia once completed."

So really, Raul Oaida should be the one with his face in the news.

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jentulman
The site for the project is a bit sparse on details bit can be found here
[http://www.superawesomemicroproject.com/](http://www.superawesomemicroproject.com/)

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yaddayadda
Call me extremely underwhelmed.

Regarding the claim that it, "runs on air", details?

Regarding the statements,

> "The project was more to show what’s possible in a connected society."

and

> "The project is considered by Sammartino to be a timely wake-up call for
> automotive manufacturers, in light of recent announcements from Ford and
> Holden that they will close down their local operations." I personally
> believe the Wikispeed SGT01 and OScar are more impressive in these areas.
    
    
       - http://wikispeed.org/2013/09/setting-up-your-own-wikispeed-shop-wherever-you-are/  
    
       - http://www.theoscarproject.org/

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SchizoDuckie
The more I see about this the more i'd like them to post pictures of the
insides of the engine and the transmission.

Looks nice and all, but I'm gonna call shannanigans on this until I see a
gearbox/drivetrain

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gghh
better article at wired [http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/12/air-powered-
lego-hot-ro...](http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/12/air-powered-lego-hot-rod)

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Globz
This is fascinating, I always been a huge fan of Lego and this project is
simply amazing! I wish we could get more details related to the building
process.

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nimble
Now let's see it turn around and go _up_ the hill.

