An Australian gearhead and his equally nutty friend in Romania made all our childhood dreams come true by building an amazing hot rod out of Legos. It actually runs — on air — and the fact that it isn’t any faster than a bicycle does nothing to diminish its brilliance.

We can thank the Internet for bringing Steve Sammartino and Raul Oaida together, though we’re not sure what made them think — correctly — that the world needed a zero-emissions Lego hot rod. Though they had an idea, they didn’t have much cash, so Sammartino fired off a tweet seeking $500 to $1,000 for an unexplained project. He said they needed about 20 people to make it happen and, amazingly, got them. Sammartino sent out an incredibly cryptic, but equally intriguing prospectus, and within days they had their cash. Then the build began.

Anyone interested in investing $500-$1000 in a project which is awesome & a world first tweet me. Need about 20 participants... #startup — Steve Sammartino (@sammartino) February 29, 2012

The guys used more than 500,000 Legos, along with a set of tires, some load-bearing bits, and gauges, to build the suitably named Super Awesome Micro Project. Powering this yellow beast are a four orbital engines with a total of 256 pistons — all made with Legos — driven by compressed air. They can get the hot rod up to 18 mph. It could go faster, but “We were scared of a Lego explosion so we drove it slowly,” said Sammartino.

The build took place in Romania before the Super Awesome Micro Project (we love saying that) was shipped to Australia for its debut. We’re not sure what’s more amazing: the fact they built it, the fact it works, or the fact it was crowdfunded without anyone knowing what they were bankrolling. One thing we are sure of though is this: We really, really want to drive it.