A LEGO Go-Kart Large Enough for You to Drive

UPDATE: Matt Denton's XXL LEGO go-kart now runs and drives, as he demonstrated in a new video recently uploaded to YouTube. In that cli, he provides more detail about the filament material he used for the various parts of the go-kart, as well as more information on the technical specs, including the vehicle's total weight (88.6 pounds!). This video also gives you a closer look at the drive system, which is primarily handled by two large brushless motors controlled by an Arduino Uno. Denton has even outfitted the go-kart with disk brakes. As you can see, the LEGO go-kart actually drives quite well!

The original article continues below...

The genius of LEGO is that you can use the bricks to build just about anything you can imagine. With the exception of special bricks, any type of brick can lock onto any other type of brick. In order for those bricks to lock together reliably and to still be easy to disassemble, they need to be manufactured to a very high tolerance — far higher than the vast majority of toys, especially when LEGO bricks were first introduced. Bricks are reportedly manufactured by machines with tolerances down to 10 micrometers, which most 3D printers aren’t capable of. By scaling up a LEGO go-kart, Matt Denton was able to make it 3D-printable and even rideable.

YouTuber Denton had previously built a 5:1 scale 3D-printed LEGO go-kart for his nephew. By scaling up the parts, the tolerances were much more forgiving and therefore suitable for 3D printing. It was very impressive, but still a little too small for his nephew to actually ride on. In order to accommodate his growing nephew (and himself), Denton decided to tackle the project again at an even larger scale. Other than the scale, his approach was pretty much the same as last time. He took an actual LEGO go-kart kit and duplicated it using his 3D printer to fabricate each brick at a much larger size.

Thanks to the Square-Cube law, 3D printing those bricks was an absolutely massive undertaking. Each brick can easily take a day or more to print, and there are many bricks to fabricate. Some of those had to be printed in sections in order to fit on Denton's Lulzbot Taz 6 3D printer, and then glued together. At this point, almost all of the 3D printing and assembly has been completed. It looks exactly like a life-size version of the original LEGO go-kart kit, and even has the rack-and-pinion steering mechanics from that kit. Denton's next step will be to get the electronics working, so be sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel to see that video when it comes out!