First Life-Sized Lego Hot Rod Runs on Air (VIDEO)

Dec 19, 2013 03:22 PM EST | Jordan Ecarma

This remarkable vehicle is composed of some 500,000 pieces and only reaches 18 mph.

The first drivable car made of Legos has been built in Romania and test-driven in Melbourne, Australia, USA TODAY reported.

Steve Sammartino, an Australian entrepreneur, and Romanian Raul Oaida, a self-taught technology guru, are the Lego car's inventors.

"I'm teaching him about business and he's teaching me a bit about physics. It's a really nice mash-up," Sammartino told the Daily Mail.

The bright yellow Lego car was test-driven carefully in a Melbourne suburb.

"We were scared of a Lego explosion, so we drove it slowly," the inventors said on their site.

Sammartino began crowdfunding for their Super Awesome Micro Project in February 2012. Around 40 people helped to fund the project, which cost £11,200, or more than $18,000, to build.

One of the patrons is blogger Trevor Young.

"I think ultimately you get involved with something like this because it's such an awesome idea and good things might flow from it," he said.

Made almost entirely of Legos, the car has "four orbital engines and a total of 256 pistons," all composed of Legos; just the tires and some load-bearing parts are not made of plastic blocks. The car engine runs on air, according to the project site.

Also, "It's a Hot Rod design, mainly because hot rods are cool," the site says.

Sammartino believes the car is proof that eco-friendly technology can be built and an inspiration for new ideas.

"What really matters in the world now isn't so much the new technology," he told the Daily Mail. "It's people having access to the technology. It's about people using their imagination to put things together in ways that people haven't thought of before. That's where the real power is."

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