Two words (‘Sting Ray’) and two windows mark out the 1963 Chevrolet Corvette C2 amongst half a century of Corvettes. The iconic split rear window lasted just one year, although the fantastic shape lasted until 1968, and this lovely Speed Champions recreation of (probably) the most beautiful American car ever made captures it wonderfully. Jonathan Elliott is the builder and there’s more to see here.
Like, really shrunk it. 1994’s 1,300 piece LEGO Technic 8880 Super Car is one of the all-time great sets, and therefore these days it’s worth about as much as Twitter. With all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-steering, all-wheel-suspension, pop-up head lights, a 4-speed gearbox and a V8 engine, it’s one of the most feature-packed LEGO sets ever produced. Suggested by a reader, this tiny homage to 8880 is, er… not. However -Brixe‘s ‘Micro Super Car’, at a fraction of the cost and using a fraction of the pieces, really does look like the iconic set. Only much, much smaller. Take a look at 8880 in miniature via the link above!
The seventies were weird. Inflation trebled, gas prices skyrocketed, everyone was on strike, and vans were adorned with murals for some reason.
The first three items on the list are making an inglorious resurgence in 2022, so we’re expecting the return of mural-adorned vans is imminent too. Flickr’s 1saac W. is one step ahead with this pair of wonderfully ’70s Dodge Street vans, each adorned with a celestial mural.
Head back to the 1970s via the link above, or just stick around for a bit, as the decade appears to returning for all of us.
The current car design trend of fitting ridiculously enormous grilles is nothing new (best not to click the links if you’re eating…). Oldsmobile were doing the same back in 1956 with their Super 88, requiring Flickr’s Thomas Gion to use all the silvery-grey pieces to recreate the Super 88’s face. Robot hands, mini-figure crutches, an ice skate, and a few parts we can’t even name come together to replicate the 88, and there’s more of the grille to see (and the car it’s attached to) at Thomas’ album via the link above.
The Halloween tenuousness continues here at The Lego Car Blog, with this rather excellent communistical sedan. Rendered in cream by newcomer Kirill Petrov, the ‘Somekon-30.59’ is reminiscent of various GAZ, ZIL, and Volga models from behind the iron curtain, all of which were scary. Kirill’s photostream features a variety of fictional communist vehicles hailing from invented communist countries, and there’s more to see of his terrifying alternate reality on Flickr via the link above. At least the return of Soviet oppression is only fiction of course. Oh wait…
It’s another tenuous Halloween titl… oh, this one actually is Halloween related? Points for us!
Previous bloggee Jonathan Elliott is the owner of this magnificent ’65 Cadillac Miller Meteor hearse, and the bat-filled gravestone that it’s pictured alongside. Well, not the owner of the gravestone per-say…
No matter, it’s a dead good build and you can pay your respects at Jonathan’s photostream via the link!
It’s Halloween, the season of pumpkins, candy, spooky household ornaments, girls wearing literally nothing, and tenuous TLCB links.
TLCB Towers doesn’t feature any of the first things, so we’ll try to make up for it with the last one on the list, beginning with this; the McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II.
Constructed by Flickr’s Juliusz D., this incredible recreation of the U.S military’s 1960s long-range supersonic fighter-bomber captures the aircraft in Vietnam War livery, as flown from the USS Constellation aircraft carrier in 1972.
With working flaps, folding wing tips, retractable landing gear, an opening cockpit, and a variety of scary weaponry, Juliusz’s Phantom is spookily accurate. Top quality decals and beautiful presentation make this a ghost that’s worth a closer look, and there’s lots more to see at Juliusz’s ‘McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II’ album. Click the link to go ghost hunting.
Today’s beautiful brick-based image comes from previous bloggee Pieter Post, who – in collaboration with two other builders – has created this gorgeous Prussian P8 steam locomotive, tender, prisoner car, post and luggage car, and passenger coaches, along with the stunning heather-landscape in which it is pictured.
Produced for a Lego train show in the Netherlands, Pieter and his compatriots’ 1920s steam train includes a BuWizz bluetooth battery powering bespoke LED lighting and three L Motors concealed within the tender and boiler driving custom wheels.
Full details can be found and Pieter’s photostream and you can traverse the heather on board his Prussian P8 steam locomotive via the link in the text above.
The coolest car company on the planet right now is… Hyundai. Yes, the company that really not that long ago made cars like this, this, and this, is now one of the largest, most innovative, and successful motor manufacturers in the world.
Hyundai began producing cars in 1968 by building a licensed Ford Cortina, but by the mid-’70s the company wanted their own car. They hired top British engineers along with legendary designer Giorgio Giugiaro, creating their first in-house product (albeit with Mitsubishi mechanicals), the 1974 Pony. And it was rather good.
Exports began the following year, and by the next decade Hyundai products were sold in the U.S and Canada, where the Pony became briefly (and somewhat amazingly) the best selling car.
Hyundai’s growth continued throughout the ’90s and ’00s, when they completely forgot about their rather good first effort and instead produced two-decades of automotive magnolia wallpaper.
But magnolia wallpaper sells, and the profits enabled Hyundai to begin a radical transformation of both its products and itself, with rapid powertrain development, a racing division, and – remembering their roots – hiring some of the best car designers in the business (something of a relief after years of cars that looked like this).
Cue the Hyundai N Vision 74 concept, a car that incorporates a nod to the company’s sharply styled 1974 Pony, their ‘N’ high performance and motorsports division, and their remarkable leap to technology leadership, with 670bhp coming from two electric motors powered by a hydrogen fuel cell system.
It’s a demonstration to the astonishing progress Hyundai have made since the sale of their first in-house car four decades ago, and – more so – since the complete crap they foisted on the world for the whole of the 1990s and 2000s. In a decade we could well be talking about Hyundai as the largest car maker on earth. Few companies would have done more to earn it.
This fantastic Speed Champions version of the phenomenal Hyundai N Vision 74 comes from previous bloggee The G Brix of Flickr, who has constructed and presented his brick-built recreation beautifully. There’s more of the model to see at G Brix’s photostream and you can take a look at probably the coolest car anywhere right now via the link above.
Flickr’s Rubblemaker appears to have had something on his mind* when he built this Neo-Classic Space galactic racer. Two enormous rounded engines dominate the design, their curves falling gently downwards as if gravity is softly tugging at them. Which is nonsense of course – there’s no gravity in space.
This enormous pair no doubt aids the pilot’s success on the Galactic Racing Circuit, and there’s more to see of them, and the Neo-Classic spacecraft they’re attached to, at Rubble’s photostream. Click the link above for more front-loaded racing.
*Or we do.
This is where it all began. Supercars, muscle cars, minivans, Tesla, drive-thus, The Fast and the Furious franchise, Magic Tree air fresheners, and the Pontiac Aztek. All trace their existence back to this, the 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the world’s first commercially-available motorcar.
Designed by German engineer Carl Benz, and financed by his wealthy wife, around twenty-five Patent-Motorwagens were produced, each powered by a 950cc single-cylinder four-stroke engine making between 2⁄3hp and 1.5hp. The car transported Carl’s wife Bertha and their two sons on the first ever long-distance car journey (66 miles) to raise publicity for the machine, a feat that she undertook without Carl’s knowledge or approval from the authorities. Which makes her excellent.
It worked of course, and began Benz’s journey to becoming one of the most well known companies on earth, ushering in the complete dominance of the internal-combustion-engined motorcar too, with all the planetary consequences that followed.
This lovely recreation of the motorcar’s genesis comes from Simon Pickard, who has built and presented the Benz Patent-Motorwagen beautifully in brick form. Click the link above to take a look at where it all began.
Few production cars have been powered by a V10 engine. The Dodge Viper. Various Lamborghinis. The e60-series BMW M5 (aka the really unreliable one). The Audi R8, The Lexus LFA. And this, the Porsche Carrera GT.
Powered by a 5.7litre 600+ bhp V10, the Carrera GT lasted from just 2004 to 2006, becoming an all-time great in the process. This excellent Speed Champions recreation of the iconic V10-powered supercar is the work of The G Brix of Flickr, who has captured the Carrera GT superbly in small scale. See more at G Brix’s photostream.
We like a good mash-up here at The Lego Car Blog, even if we don’t really understand one or more of the things being mashed. Cue previous bloggee Slick_Brick, who has successfully merged Christopher Nolan era Batman (aka the best Batman) with the Mass Effect video game, of which we know nothing. We assume it has some lovely flowers in it though. Anyway, the results are excellent, with a neat Tumbler-esque rover driving through a wonderfully constructed alien landscape, and there’s more to see of Slick’s Bat Effect mash-up via the link above.
No, not morons polluting the air in diesel-powered pick-up trucks, but this utterly wonderful 1930s Scania-Vabis 355 tipper lorry, complete with a heavy load of the default fuel of the time, as built by previous bloggee SvenJ. The aforementioned load of coal can be tipped out, there’s posable ‘steering’, and beautiful detailing throughout. See more on Flickr via the link.
You’d be forgiven for thinking we’d gone on holiday here at The Lego Car Blog, seeing as we’ve published nothing for the past few days. Sadly we hadn’t escaped the crumbling concrete carbuncle that is TLCB Towers, it’s just our Elves had found precisely nothing. Well, nothing worth posting at any rate.
If we had gone on holiday though, we’d be delighted if had a looked a little like this. Lego_nuts‘ beautiful autumnal riverside campsite looks a wonderful way to spend a long weekend, with a mini-figure family enjoying crystal clear water and towering trees, courtesy of the Jeep Wrangler 4×4 outfitted with a rooftop tent that’s brought them there.
Join us in wishing we were somewhere else at Lego_nuts’ photostream via the link above.