Life-sized hot rod driven by 256 Lego pistons

[Hrafn]

The Lego Car Blog just posted a life-sized, pneumatic engine driven, Lego hot rod:

[Junpei]

*oh2*

Words can't describe this.

256 pneumatic cylinders...

[Polo-Freak]

WOW

that's awesome

[1974]

But surely a lot of steeltubing and metal gears inside?

Not really cool. Just loads of money

[nicjasno]

Car has a steel frame and parts of drivetrain are made of metal.

The engines are based on the LPEpower i4 engine, but adapted by the builder to fit the special drivetrain.

[Meatman]

But surely a lot of steeltubing and metal gears inside?

Not really cool. Just loads of money

I agree. Covering up a rolling metal chassis with Lego bricks isn't very impressive. I would like to see this striped down and see all of the metal being used.

Edited December 18, 2013 by Meatman

[nicjasno]

The engine is the real star of this car.

[Junpei]

Oh. Well I guess I shouldn't have expected it to be all Lego... The engine is really great though, no non-Lego parts there.

[freakwave]

The engine is the real star of this car.

That's what I first thought as well, must be your engines :-)

I guess there's really a lot of steel in the frame... not really purist as the wheel-chair

[Saberwing40k]

Yeah yeah, the wheels and chassis are not lego, but still, a massive pneumatic engine moving a car like that? Incredible! I think we ought to hook these guys up with Burf2000, then we might be able to get a full lego one.

[Paul Boratko]

The engine is the real star of this car.

I am interested in seeing how the engine is connected to the rear wheels...

I like the amazing things that Burf builds better... Plus he builds them out of his own pocket...

Alex, would this car have to get a "push" to get it set into motion and then the motor keeps it rolling..?

[1974]

This might make the mighty Burf up the ante, no?

Paul, are you sure that that Simon does not get just a little economic help from TLG making those amazing vehicles?

I'd like to see the car in the OT get it's top speed verified by a second source though

But it's just still a real waste of money, imho. LEGO isn't made for stuff like that. But I'm sure we'll see a rocket going to the moon in just a short time (<-- note if you want to go the moon, better contact NASA instead of playing with LEGO)

get a full lego one.

Never. It's plastic. For some pretty good reason real cars are not made of plastic

[Paul Boratko]

This might make the mighty Burf up the ante, no?

Paul, are you sure that that Simon does not get just a little economic help from TLG making those amazing vehicles?

In one of the videos he posted earlier this year someone asked him(in the comments) about where he gets parts and he said that he ordered then from Bricklink.... This obviously made me assume that he wasn't getting them from Lego and was buying them himself...

[jorgeopesi]

Instructions please .

[Ape Fight]

Never. It's plastic. For some pretty good reason real cars are not made of plastic

Tell that to Lotus. Or Chevrolet (Corvette). Or the BMW with their new 'i' cars...

Personally I find this creation an amazing feat of engineering. Sure it has non-Lego bits supporting it, but then so do the models at Legoland.

Inspiring stuff, if I had a hat I'd take it off to the guys that built it.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Ape Fight

[kevman]

when will this be on rebrickable...hahaha

[DrJB]

I find it hard to believe ... and the whole idea seems rather bogus. The vehicle has real tires/wheels and most likely axles as well. Now, one should be able to run some simple calculations to obtain the kind of power the pistons deliver. It does not really matter how energy gets converted from pneumatic/electric into kinetic/mechanical (motion of the vehicle). What is important is the second law of thermodynamics (Yes, it does hold, even on Lego). The total power generated by the 200+ pistons must be larger than that needed to run the vehicle (thanks to fricion and other losses). I simply have a very hard time accepting only 250 pistons were needed. When you think of it, 250 pistions = 25x 8455 ... I should complete my calculation of energy balance and come back.

[Paul Boratko]

I find it hard to believe ... and the whole idea seems rather bogus. The vehicle has real tires/wheels and most likely axles as well. Now, one should be able to run some simple calculations to obtain the kind of power the pistons deliver. It does not really matter how energy gets converted from pneumatic/electric into kinetic/mechanical (motion of the vehicle). What is important is the second law of thermodynamics (Yes, it does hold, even on Lego). The total power generated by the 200+ pistons must be larger than that needed to run the vehicle (thanks to fricion and other losses). I simply have a very hard time accepting only 250 pistons were needed. When you think of it, 250 pistions = 25x 8455 ... I should complete my calculation of energy balance and come back.

I was reading through the comments on the youtube video and it was said that all of the load bearing parts were made of steel, but claimed more than 90% of the vehicle was Lego... Granted the wheels are a given that they cannot be made from Lego, but you can clearly see the steering linkage is some type of metal because there are nuts there... I was driving home today thinking about this and before I got home, I slowed down to exactly 20 M.P.H. and it does seem to be impossible for a Lego built car being run through 256 pistons running on air to do this speed, however, I can see once the car gets up to speed(by being pulled or pushed) on a perfectly level groud that it may be possible to maintain this speed...

I would really like to see a bit more about the inner structure and drive-train before passing judgement... I do think that it is really cool, but every website out there is claiming that it is built entirely of Lego and that isn't the case... I wish the creators of this would update their website with some more information or even some work in progress pictures to give more of an insight into how it was built from the start...

Tell that to Lotus. Or Chevrolet (Corvette). Or the BMW with their new 'i' cars...

Personally I find this creation an amazing feat of engineering. Sure it has non-Lego bits supporting it, but then so do the models at Legoland.

Inspiring stuff, if I had a hat I'd take it off to the guys that built it.

The models at Legoland also have to endure weather conditions and really are not trying to "Break new grounds" Heck even that huge X-Wing they unveiled in New York had a metal frame for structure integrity...

But if you're going to throw something out there for all to see and make a claim, then your claim should be 100% valid... Like I said though, I really would like to see more information on this...

Edited December 19, 2013 by Paul Boratko

[Gee]

Hmmm, not sure what to make of this.

I'm most in awe of the engine and the fact that it can power something that large. The body, whilst impressive, is probably less so as it is just massively upscaled. Sometimes working on a large scale can be easier than working a lot smaller - easier to fit detail in etc.

Would love to see some more shots of the drive train etc.

[nicjasno]

Raul Oaida said to me, that in romania, the car went closer to 25mph, but that during the transport to australia the engine was collapsed and warped. So he had to rebuild it there a bit and after the rebuild it didn't run as well.

Whoever thinks that pneumatic engines are not strong, has never expirienced how powerfull the lpepower i4 actually is :)

[Rockbrick]

the engine is the star indeed.... defiinately very lego-esque as no centre-point steering even if they did have the space to do it...

I would be interested to see the gearing - possibly a chain drive and most definately some sort of clutch to apply the power to the drive train (possibly connected to that big lever you see in between the seats)

Engine reminds me of old aircraft engines.... As for the power to weight ratio of LPE power - surely a powered glider is a possibility ? (as long as only the engine is Lego LPE and the compressed air in lightweight carbon fibre tanks or the frame of the plane itself)

Edited December 19, 2013 by Rockbrick

[DrJB]

Sorry guys but ... the more I read about it, the more 'bogus' it seems to me. Everything I know/learned tells me this is not possible. As for the 90% lego claim, is the percentage weight-wise or based on the number of parts. It looks to me that the lego parts are just a skin over some metallic structure. I'd love to hear about those involved in actual vehicle design (as I) and get their take on this. Furthermore, one missing piece of information is what is the source of energy? Granted, the vehicle runs on air, but where is the compressor that provides such air? Is it made up of small tiny lego compressors too? If so, those need electric motors to spin them. Then, where are the batteries? .... must need SEVERAL motors and batteries as well. Unless the vehicle starts with a canister of compressed air, runs 20 meters, then stops. Can't go against some fundamental physical laws ...

Edited December 19, 2013 by DrJB

[Rockbrick]

Nothing that complicated DrJB ! .....if you check the website you can see they have a compressed air cylinder in the back of the car

ideally it would have some sort of KERS system to run compressors and store the air inside a tubular chassis.... ;-p

[Meatman]

Raul Oaida said to me, that in romania, the car went closer to 25mph, but that during the transport to australia the engine was collapsed and warped. So he had to rebuild it there a bit and after the rebuild it didn't run as well.

Whoever thinks that pneumatic engines are not strong, has never expirienced how powerfull the lpepower i4 actually is :)

How much air pressure do you figure would take to move the weight of this vehicle with a passenger before something in the engine breaking? What is the max air pressure that you can run through one of your engines before something gets damaged?

Sorry guys but ... the more I read about it, the more 'bogus' it seems to me. Everything I know/learned tells me this is not possible. As for the 90% lego claim, is the percentage weight-wise or based on the number of parts. It looks to me that the lego parts are just a skin over some metallic structure. I'd love to hear about those involved in actual vehicle design (as I) and get their take on this. Furthermore, one missing piece of information is what is the source of energy?

I would imagine that they just store the air in a refillable container. Supposedly the creator is going to reveal more very soon. Most likely after it gets it's desired views on youtube first.

[nicjasno]

I have been unable to generate more than 8 bars with my home compressor, so i was never able to fully test the limits.

But the maximum that could happen is the air starting to escape through the rubber ring in the piston and through the swithc into the surroundings. No explosion would occur.

Edited December 19, 2013 by nicjasno