The ice wheels managed to support the weight of the car. Image Credit: YouTube / Lexus UK
Toyota's luxury car division Lexus has managed to drive a car on four wheels made entirely out of ice.
It might not be the most practical of upgrades but it's certainly one of the most impressive. The unique publicity stunt, which took a team of expert sculptors over three months to put together, shows just what's possible using nothing more than frozen water and a little creative thinking.
All four of the ice wheels were intricately crafted to replicate every tiny detail of the real thing and had to be specially designed to be able to support the weight of an entire car on top of them.
The vehicle itself also had to be placed in a freezing room for a whole five days to reduce its temperature down to a cool -22 degrees before the unique wheels could be attached.
This reminds me of the arctic research station a company I used to work for fabricated structural steel components for. They just used water for concrete. They embedded studs into ice and used water for concrete to set them because it was never going to thaw so it was as good as cement.
I'm sure we'll look back on this in 50 years or so in much the same way we now look back at that elephant on water skis video from the 1950s...what a pointless and wasteful exercise.
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