Not a 911

Pretty much every Porsche has – success-wise – lived in the 911’s shadow. The Cayenne is probably the exception, as it casts its own enormous, miserable, SUV-shaped shadow over almost anything. Although it did save Porsche to allow them to keep building 911s.

However even the Cayenne – which outsells the 911 by a factor of three – hasn’t usurped it as the most recognisable Porsche. In fact we think no car brand’s identity is tied to one model more than Porsche’s is to the 911.

Which is shame for all the other Porsches, as some of them were really rather good. The 944 was one of them, and – after years being worth about 50p – is starting to be recognised as an excellent ’80s-’90s Porsche in its own right, with values climbing steadily northwards.

Also recognising Porsche’s other ’80s sports car is previous bloggee (and ‘Featured TFOL‘, if you remember that feature!) Marco Q, who has built it brilliantly in brick-form.

Complete with pop-up headlights, opening doors and hood, a detailed interior, and really rather cleverly constructed (and therefore recognisable) wheels and rear window/spoiler, Marco’s 944 is a fitting homage to a car on the up.

There’s more to see of Marco’s excellent creation at his ‘Porsche’ album on Flickr, which might not contain a 911, but we think it’s perhaps all the better for that. Click the link above to take a look.

My Other Car’s a Mustang

Is there anything more American than a Ford Mustang? OK, Type 2 diabetes and gun ownership, obviously, but apart from those laudable attributes only this* comes close; the Jeep Wrangler.

Borne from the Second World War, the Wrangler has endured for decades, carrying the same aesthetic and legendary off-road ability throughout.

Even if most Wranglers aren’t used for anything beyond transporting a human and their gun to KFC, it’s nice to know they could do a lot more.

Which brings us to this one, as built by Flickr’s Jakub Marcisz entirely from the pieces found within the 10265 Ford Mustang set.

Jakub’s captured America’s second* most iconic vehicle brilliantly from the repurposed parts of its first, and there’s more to see of this all-American-alternate via the link above.

*We’ve just remembered the Ford F-150.

I Met Her in a Club Down in Old Soho…

We often get asked to feature more digital builds, but, well… we just prefer the real thing. So too did Ray Davies, who – in his 1970 hit with The Kinks – rejected the advances of Lola, despite later addressing the controversy around his lyrics by stating “It really doesn’t matter what sex Lola is, I think she’s alright”.

Cue a seamless link to ‘LOLA’ from Marvel’s ‘Agents of Shield’, a 1962 Chevrolet Corvette that hides some rather trick abilities, as recreated here in this marvellous image by Flickr’s Vaionaut.

Like Ray’s admirer in that Soho club, Vaionaut’s ‘LOLA’ doesn’t feature the real pieces you’d expect, but it looks so good we can’t help but think it’s alright too. It’s also capable of doing a few things that a brick-built creation can’t, being rendered in flight in a way that’s very probably more realistic than if it had been constructed from real bricks.

Somewhere in all that there’s a metaphor for accepting someone for who they are, and you can see more of Vaionaut’s digital Chevrolet Corvette ‘LOLA’ via the link above, whilst we ponder it.

*Today’s title song.

Build & Capture Photo Contest

Regular readers of this seedy alleyway at the edge of the internet will know that we (well, our Elves) source the Lego creations showcased here from all over the internet.

The most common source however, is Flickr, thanks to a large Lego Community, excellent groups, chats, and free-to-view imagery that doesn’t require the need to set up an account (take note Instagram).

Flickr have recognised the vibrancy of this sizeable community within their users via their new photography competition, the Flickr x LEGO Build & Capture Contest.

Flickr are looking for images of your builds (or even just mini-figures) displayed in an ‘artsy, fun, or fantastic way’ and here are some great LEGO prizes on offer for the winners.

You can check out the rules, entries, and submit your own photos via the Flickr x LEGO group here, and we hope to see a vehicle creation amongst the winners!

A Vintage Ploughing

Don’t worry, that video of your Mom hasn’t resurfaced again. This lovely vintage tractor was discovered by one of our Elves on Eurobricks today, and it looks rather splendid pictured here against an actual agricultural backdrop.

Proran is the builder and they’ve included functioning steering, a three cylinder engine (with working pistons and valves), a rear power-take-off, and high/low gearbox, along with some rather clever parts usage.

There’s more of Proran’s vintage tractor to see at the Eurobricks discussion forum and you can head out to the farm via the link above.

HMS Texas

This is ‘HMS Redoubtable’, an Imperial Guard ship by Flickr’s Elephant-Knight, and it has absolutely definitely got more guns than you. Even if you live in Texas.

Despite Texas having the highest number of guns (and the highest number of gun deaths – go-figure?), even a Texan is unlikely to match Redoubtable’s three gun decks and one hundred and twelve separate guns. That’s even more weaponry than is carried at an average ‘MAGA’ rally.

At over fifty inches long (that’s over 160 studs) and nearly forty inches tall, Elephant’s ship is impressive in far more ways than just than its gun tally, and there’s a whole lot more to see of this spectacular ship eleven-months-in-the-making at Elephant-Knight’s photostream.

Join the one hundred and twelve gun salute via the link above.

Camp Fire

We love repurposed vehicles (or anything else for that matter) here at The Lego Car Blog. Taking something and transforming for a different purpose is not only far less environmentally damaging than making something new, the results are often way cooler. As evidenced by Beat Felber‘s wonderful 1984 Land Rover 110.

Beat’s real-world Land Rover served as an off-road fire engine for about twenty-five years, before it was retired and converted into the superb off-road camper it is today, and Beat has now recreated it in Lego form, capturing his real-life vehicle beautifully.

Underneath the brilliantly life-like exterior – complete with opening doors and hood – is a remotely controlled 4×4 drivetrain powered by an SBrick, with L-Motors driving both axles (each of which is suspended), a Servo the steering, and an M-Motor the high/low gearbox.

It’s a delightful build made all the better by its real-world counterpart, and there’s more to see of both Beat’s Lego Land Rover 110 and the real fire-engine-turned-camper that inspired it via the link above.

Royal Württemberg

This is not a car. It is in fact a Prussion G12 steam locomotive, depicted here in Royal Württemberg livery (and in a wonderful snowy scene) by Flickr’s Pieter Post.

Around 1,500 G12’s were built between 1917 and 1924, when it became one of the first standardised locomotives in operation across Germany.

Pieter’s beautiful recreation of the G12 utilises a slew of third-party parts to maximise the realism, with custom valve gear, tender wheels, LED lighting, and a BuWizz bluetooth battery powering the LEGO L-Motor that drives the wheels.

The result is – as you can see here – spectacular, and you can check out the full description of both Pieter’s Prussian G12 build and the real steam locomotive at his photostream.

Click the link above to take a winter’s journey across 1920’s Germany.

Elven Design

If we were to ask TLCB Elves to design a car (and if we could understand what they’re saying), it would probably sound something like this; “A hot rod! And it’s red! And it’s got six wheels!! And a Ferrari engine! And rocket launchers!!”

Meeting all of the above (apart from the rocket launchers), is Tony Bovkoon, who has tapped into his inner-Elf to create this siding-doored ‘Wagon Hot Rod’, complete with six wheels and a Ferrari engine.

Join the Elves over on Flickr via the link above.

Elven Heights

‘Hmmm…’ murmured this TLCB writer upon entering the crumbling ruin that is TLCB Towers today. The cause of his utterance was looking him in, well, not quite the face, but certainly the testicles. A grinning Elf was sat on a shelf in the lobby, and not in a whimsical Christmassy way.

A little further on another was eating an unnecessary candle placed upon a dresser by TLCB’s intern “because it smells nice!”, whilst a third Elf was hanging from the door handle to the Executive Washroom and Sauna

That final Elf was the most unnerving – based upon a miserable previous experience – and thus was swiftly batted off the handle by a mop head before it caused any real panic amongst the members of TLCB Staff with PTSD.

The cause of the Elves in high places became apparent when this writer entered the office, wherein a small cohort of Elves were hanging from a fairly sizeable Technic crane, trying to gain entry the stationary cupboard with a bent paper clip.

Mr. Airhorn promptly ceased the shenanigans, scattering the would-be burglars, and we can now take a peek at the creation responsible without fear of all TLCB’s glue sticks being eaten and very sticky messes being left throughout the Elves’ cage room tomorrow morning.

Said creation is this one; previous bloggee Ivan_M (aka Ivan MOC)‘s marvellous Power Functions remote controlled crane truck.

A beautifully neat build, Ivan’s truck features motorised drive and steering, linear actuator boom elevation, with working boom extension, rotation and winch operation, plus functioning outriggers, and an in-cab piston-engine too.

The Power Functions battery box and IR receiver look remarkably at home exposed under the stowed crane, with Ivan’s model easily appearing as though it could be an official LEGO Technic set.

There’s more of Ivan’s excellent Technic crane truck to see at his Flickr album via the link in the text above, which includes images demonstrating its surprisingly large extension*. Take a look via the link to Flickr whilst we double check the office for any more Elves in high places…

*That’s what she said

No Time to Die (Again)

Thanks to a deadly virus circulating the globe, several major film releases have been postponed by well over a year, with studios desperately trying to maintain interest in the meantime. There have been so many new ‘No Time to Die’ trailers we’ve pretty much seen the whole movie.

Cue this impressive DAF NTT 2800 truck by Flickr’s Arian Janssens, which admittedly we published here last year, but look! – A new trailer! See, a seamless link to that new 007 movie and not a desperate attempt to gain bandwagon views at all.

There’s more to see of Arian’s DAF, and that new trailer (a three-axle slurry tanker), via the link.

Alpine Pass

History is littered with vehicle manufacturers who sold about five cars a year, but yet somehow thought they could afford a top-tier racing team. Caterham, Marussia, Spyker, TVR and others have all tried – and without exception failed – to turn a tiny (and sometimes non-existent) sports car business into a successful racing team.

Re-born Alpine are the latest company to have a go. However whilst they also only sell about five cars a year, they’re owned by Renault, whose pockets and racing experience are rather deeper than Marussia’s…

Cue the Renault F1 team becoming Alpine in 2021, and – perhaps less encouragingly – this; the Alpine A480 Le Mans Hypercar entrant. Which wasn’t a Hypercar at all, rather a ‘grandfathered’ LMP1 Rebellion/Oreca 07 with a new paint-job.

Still, it brought a much-needed competitor to the top tier of endurance racing, which is currently rather short of entries, and gave the French fans something to support.

This neat brick-built version of the ‘Alpine’ A480 comes from Lasse Deleuran (aka gtahelper), who’s added it to his extensive line-up of Le Mans cars from the last few years.

There’s more of the model to see on Brickshelf via the link above, and we’ll be looking forward to Lasse’s Lego versions of the new Peugeot and Ferrari Le Mans Hypercars which are due to join the field soon. We just hope they do a bit more than give an old Rebellion/Oreca 07 a new paint job…

Flame Grille

A flame paint-job is worth at least 150bhp, according to TLCB maths. That puts it right up there with a supercharger, side pipes and nitrous in TLCB’s list of go-faster things.

Laszlo Torma’s Speed Champions ‘57 Chevy is therefore very powerful indeed, being equipped with at least two of the above.

A brilliant brick-built grille and a pair of appropriately cool looking mini-figures complete the build, and there’s more to see of Laszlo’s flaming Chevy – including a link to building instructions – on Flickr via the link above.

Fantastic Ford

The Lego Car Blog Elves are having a great day today. Previous bloggee Jakub Marcisz is back with this lovely Classic Ford F100 pick-up, which not only looks fantastic, there’s a complete Power Functions remote control drivetrain underneath too.

The Elves therefore, are riding around in the back. A few have inevitably been run over, but for the most part it’s good clean fun.

Jakub’s model conceals its remote controlness well, with the only clue visible being if the brown box is removed from the bed, and the model also features opening doors (revealing a beautifully constructed interior), dropping tailgate, opening hood, LED lights, working suspension, and a high/low gearbox.

It’s a top quality build that’s worth a closer look, and you can do just that via Jakub’s photostream at the link above, where more imagery and a link to a YouTube video can also be found.

Venom (Unverified)

Several cars currently claim to be the fastest ever produced. The race for the highest top speed has brought about some incredible machines, but it’s also reached a fairly pointless level, as a whole pit crew, the hiring of a desert, plus bespoke tyres, fuel, and fluids are all required. If TLCB were in charge of the record, a car’s run would only stand if it was filled up on the M32, just outside Bristol, and driven by an elderly lady plucked at random from a nearby bowls club.

Hennessey somewhat understandably chose not to take this approach, going the whole pit-crew-desert-bespoke route when they beat the Bugatti Veyron’s record last decade, reaching an official top speed of 270mph in what was basically a Lotus Exige with an LS in it.

Bugatti have since upped their game but – not counting SSC’s recent slightly embarrassing and completely unverified claim – no production car has yet hit a verified 300mph.

Hennessey aim to do so imminently though, with this; the 1,800bhp Venom F5.

Built in England (as most American supercar icons seem to be), and powered by a hugely reworked Chevrolet LS (as most American supercar icons seem to be), just twenty-four Venom F5s are due to be produced, each costing $2.1m, and each capable (if Hennessey’s maths are proved correct) of a record-breaking 301mph top speed.

We’ll find out if the claims are true when the Venom F5 records a verified run, so until then we’re happy to focus on a rather smaller version, as built in 1:8 scale by previous bloggee Jeroen Ottens.

With all-wheel-suspension, a V8 engine, working scissor doors, functioning steering, and an 8-speed sequential gearbox, Jeroen’s Technic Venom F5 is certainly every bit as impressive as an on-paper top speed of 301mph.

You can also build Jeroen’s model for yourself, as it’s constructed mostly from the various green pieces (and variously green pieces) from the 42115 Lamborghini Sian FKP 37 set, with instructions available at Jeroen’s website.

There’s more to see – including the complete gallery and full build details – at both Flickr and Eurobricks – Click the links above, grab your pit crew and some bespoke tyres, and probably/possibly/maybe hit 301mph!