LEGO, the Danish toy company, has proved that its LEGO bricks are not only for building toys, but also for building cars that work. They proved this by creating not just any small car, but a Bugatti Chiron no less, complete with engine and all. This was their way of introducing LEGO Technic.
It all began with Lego’s assertion, “With LEGO technic you can build for real”. To show that it’s not just a tall claim, they actually went ahead and created a full-scale replica of Bugatti Chiron that costs around three million dollars. The car used over one million LEGO Technic pieces and the most difficult part was to get the curves of Chiron right. This itself took 13,400 man-hours to complete.
While the original Bugatti Chiron has a 1,479 hp engine, that can hit an astounding 60mph (96kmph)in under 2.5 seconds and achieve a mind-numbing261mph (420kmph)top speed on full throttle, the LEGO Chiron is great in its own way. It is packed with a 5.3 hp engine made from 2,304 LEGO Power Functions motors, which helps to accelerate it to an impressive 18mph (29kmph).
The LEGO Bugatti is also fitted with a working brake pedal, a speedometer and headlights powered by two batteries. It comes as no surprise that the car weighs a whopping 3,300 lbs (1,500 kgs).
Andy Wallace, Bugatti’s official test driver and former Le Mans winner, was invited to sit in the driver’s seat of this LEGO car and give it a test drive. The car was tested on the same track where the original was tested, that is, on the EhraLessien test track on the outskirts of Wolfsburg, Germany.
For something made out of plastic pieces, this is certainly a feat worth being mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records!