Lego is more than just a toy for curious children. Plastic building bricks are a blank slate, a versatile tool for endless creativity. Lego, the company, has embraced cars with elaborate kits of iconic and new engines, but a new video from Brick Technology’s YouTube video channel demonstrates the versatility of bricks by making a working Lego RC hot rod with a four-speed gearbox and clutch assembly complex.
The video is packaged in eight minutes, starting with assembling the gearbox. The build got complicated very quickly, with a simple two-speed gearbox growing into a four-speed unit. The next step is to design the shifter, which utilizes a 90-degree stepper mechanism, a shifter mechanism, and a 180-degree servo motor. Clutch assembly is further in the design process, and a thermal display of the build reveals a large amount of heat emanating from the clutch plate, just like a real car.
The next step in the video puts it all together, attaching the engine to the clutch, which is connected to the gearbox and four-speed shifter. This is where the build starts to feel like an RC car, with a PlayStation controller controlling the various mechanics of the vehicle – clutch, acceleration, upshift, and downshift. It’s cool to see all the complicated moving parts, but it’s still not a proper RC car.
Everything is combined into a single, compact chassis, but the build also receives a working suspension. The final part of the build is the body, which looks like a cross between a generic hot rod and a Chrysler Prowler. It looks fantastic, with working headlights and taillights, although there aren’t many cabins with mechanics taking up most of the space.
The video ends with the hot rod Lego RC car driving, showing its suspension and towing capacity. It can pull a large water bottle, which is made easier with its four-speed gearbox. This is a neat build that can easily entertain the kids and kids in all of us for hours on end. Lego also noticed.
