Building an engine is a great way to get in tune with a vehicle. To really dig in and understand its guts. You learn what makes it tick, and what makes it go. Building a scale version of an engine is typically fairly difficult when compared to the real thing because the parts are so much smaller. What if you didn't even use metal though, and went with something a bit softer. A person on YouTube has decided to craft a tiny V-8 engine, and they've done so... using paper.
Well, there's a bit of scotch tape involved too but that's just to reduce friction on the valves. This paper engine is a great little version of the big chest thumping real thing. It will thump the chest of small rodents though, as it actually runs. Using air squeezed through the end of a balloon, the engine gets its "fuel" and it turns over making a great little racket in the process. This isn't just a scale V-8 done in paper. It's a working scale V-8 done in paper.
To up the ante a bit further, the builder has another video showing a modification to the engine. More specifically, the modification happens with the way the air enters the engine. By adding a miniature throttle body inside the air straw, the builder can control the flow of air and thus they've created a throttle. The engine can idle with a slow flow of air or kick into action when the throttle is held open. This is the greatest use of paper we've seen since our last birthday card had a crisp 20 in it.
This might even be better than that.