There aren’t many materialistic things I want in life, but if I were to be given any one item on this green(ish) Earth without any limitations, I would 100% choose a $3 million Bugatti Chiron supercar. Or just any Bugatti supercar for that matter.
But as I’ve decided to embark on the noble quest that is journalism rather than trying to be a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, there’s only a 0.01% chance that I’ll someday get my hands on my dream car in this lifetime.
However, that chance may have just risen to 0.02% and it’s all because of LEGO’s latest publicity stunt.
To promote the Bugatti Chiron, LEGO decided to eschew the usual scale model replica schtick and go straight full sized. And by that I meant they built a full-sized replica of the Bugatti Chiron using only Lego bricks. Seriously.
This feat of engineering and childhood heaven took over 13,400 man hours, well over 1 million Lego Technic bricks to build, and not a single drop of glue. They did have to use an underlying metal frame but that’s so the car didn’t collapse on itself, so I’ll give that a pass.
The amount of attention to detail is astounding as everything from the steering wheel and headlights to the lavish interior was accurately modeled after the actual car. If the car were, you know, in LEGO form.
And the most astounding thing? It actually works.
We’ve built the impossible: a full-sized LEGO Technic @Bugatti Chiron …and it drives! #BuildforReal pic.twitter.com/8YPxk7miGZ
— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) August 30, 2018
Using 2,304 Lego Technic motors, 2,016, and 4,032 plastic gears, the Bugatti Chiron replica is a fully-functioning, drivable vehicle.
Since it is built almost entirely out of Lego, the car’s measly 5.3 horsepower and top speed of 20km/h falls well short of the actual Bugatti Chiron’s towering 1,479 horsepower and top speed of 420km/h, so you definitely won’t be setting speed records any time soon
But I think we can give that another pass in this case since it’s a goddamn Bugatti Chiron built out of Lego. Plus, the car looks good.
Drivable LEGO Bugatti Chiron – 1,000,000 LEGO pieces
Power: 5.3hp, 72nm
Top Speed: 20km/h pic.twitter.com/hp7UV6gzNT— Earl Karanja (@Earlsimxx) August 30, 2018
The $3 million price tag on an actual Bugatti Chiron may be out of my reach, but I think I can scrape up 1 million Lego Technic bricks and pieces from somewhere. And I’m sure if I annoy LEGO enough, they’ll part with the 1000-page instruction manual needed to make the car.
So if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got Lego pieces to find and a blocky version of my dream car waiting for me after 13,400 hours of building.