Once You Go Black…

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Flickr’s Rubblemaker has appeared here at TLCB several times with various sci-fi builds that we don’t understand. His latest creations are apparently his favourites to date, and seeing as they all have very big guns indeed, who are we to disagree?

Entitled ‘Blacktron Fleet 2023’ and with names including ‘Ballista’, ‘Mohawk’, and ‘Bulldog’, each is a fantastic example of a genre of which we know nothing, but we do appreciate in our ignorance.

Cunning techniques, clever parts usage, and a paint-scheme straight from the baddie playbook make for an impressive fleet, and you can go black at Rubble’s photostream via the link above.

On Green… I’m Going for It

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The immortal words of Dominic Toretto, back in 2001 when he was a common street-racing thief and not an international spy or whatever the hell he’s supposed to be now he’s ten movies in.

Of course things didn’t end well for Dom after the lights did turn green (there’s a lesson there kids; real racers keep it at the track. And they don’t just race in a straight line), but fortunately Brian O’Conner was on hand to resupply the overgrown baby with another ‘ten second car’.

And fortunately for fans of the franchise (or those of you simply wanting to smash into a Dodge Charger with a freight train) previous bloggee IBrickedItUp has created both of the star cars from ‘The Fast and the Furious”s final scene in 6-wide Speed Champions form.

Building instructions are available so you can recreate the aforementioned scene at home, and you can live your life a-quarter-mile-at-a-time via the link above.

The Last RWD Champion

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From one wild almost-unrestricted racing car to another; this is the Lancia 037, the last rear-wheel-drive car to win the World Rally Championship, and one of the earliest entrants into the insanity that was Group B rallying.

Powered by a mid-mounted supercharged 2.0 engine and built from kevlar and fibreglass fitted around a space-frame, the 037 won half of the events it entered in the 1983 season, enough to take the Championship ahead of the all-wheel-drive Audi quattros.

This excellent Technic recreation of the iconic Group-B racer was discovered by one of our Elves on Eurobricks, where it was posted by newcomer Shuzbut.

With a working mid-mounted engine complete with supercharger, a 5-speed gearbox, all-wheel suspension, steering, a functional hand-brake, sprung pedals, and opening bodywork, it’s quite a debut, and there’s more of this incredible creation to see via the link above.

Orange Squash

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This incredibly low – and incredible orange – car is a 1972 McLaren M20, one of the stars of the Canadian-American Challenge Cup (or Can-Am) racing series that ran from 1966 to 1974. With no limit on engine size (in fact, with few regulations at all of any kind), Can-Am became an almost unrestricted racing series, with the cars even out-performing Formula 1.

The results were wild, often using the largest engines available (usually Chevrolet), and with many drivers coming from Formula 1 and Le Mans, including a few that would become champions of each.

McLaren won the series five times, with Bruce McLaren himself taking the driver’s crown twice. The M20 didn’t make it a sixth Can-Am championship for the British team however, as its 1972 debut coincided with the arrival of Porsche’s monstrous 917, powered by a 900bhp flat-12 that was rumoured to make up to 1,500bhp in qualifying trim.

The M20 still took two wins during the 1972 season however, finishing a distant second in the championship behind the Penske-Porsche, before McLaren left the series as a works-team to focus on Formula 1.

This spectacular Model Team recreation of the final McLaren Can-Am racer comes from Luciano Delorenzo, who has captured the M20 brilliantly in brick-form. The accurate bodywork includes authentic decals, there’s working steering, and a highly detailed replica of the 8.3 litre Chevrolet V8 is fitted underneath the removable rear section.

There’s more of the model to see at Luciano’s ‘1972 McLaren M20’ album on Flickr, and you can jump back to the mightiest racing series there’ll probably ever be via the link in the text above.

You’ve Received a Gift Car!

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Not the Mazda Demio… Not the Mazda Demio…   ‘2015 Mazda Demio’.   Damnit!!

A cycle of disappointment familiar to anyone who’s played ‘Gran Turismo Sport’. However today’s ‘gift car’ is not a 2015 Mazda Demio, and is in fact rather good.

Cunningly created by previous bloggee K P and suggested to us by a reader, this neat vintage Dodge Coupe comes packaged inside its own brick-built case, aping the format commonplace with metal scale models.

A clever two-colour ‘ribbon’ wraps around the box encasing the Dodge and there’s more to see of K P’s uniquely presented creation at their photostream via the link above, plus you can click on the following links to check out our reviews of IDisplayIt and BOXXCO‘s cases for rather larger LEGO models…

500 Green Bottles…

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Here at The Lego Car Blog we do not understand America’s obsession with enormous pick-up trucks. Seemingly used to carry only an American flag, a ‘MAGA’ bumper sticker, and an anti-vaxxer in denial of the election result, they’re a world away from the pick-up we’ve got here.

This is the Fiat 500 Camioncino, a tiny two-seat pick-up truck, capable of carrying… well, not very much. But easily what most American pick-ups seem to.

The cutesy brick-built version pictured here today is the work of Nuno Taborda, who has based it upon the official LEGO 10271 Fiat 500 set, much like the real Camioncino was adapted from the 500 city car too. With the rear seats, roof and bodywork replaced by a load bed fitted above the rear-mounted engine, there’s space for a few dozen green bottles to make their way to the piazza. And that’s considerably more than what’s in the beds of 95% of American pick-up trucks.

Join Nuno trundling across Italy in a pick-up truck small enough to fit in the bed of an F-150 via the link above. And there’s not a bumper sticker in sight.

Alone Time

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Are you a Ford GT owner who’s tired of your partner/friend/relative’s side-seat driving? Then damianPLE has the answer! Constructed only from the parts found within the LEGO Technic 42154 Ford GT set, Damian’s alternate removes the passenger seat, along with four cylinders and the roof, replacing them instead with track thrills for one.

Working suspension, ‘HOG’ steering, and a mid-mounted inline-4 engine all feature, and you can turn your Ford GT into this single-seat track car via the Bricksafe gallery and Eurobricks, where a link to building instructions can also be found.

Grab some alone time via the links above.

Work of the Devil

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Ferrari’s naming convention sucks. A collection of numbers, it’s almost Soviet in its unimagination. Which is probably because when they do pick a name, it’s properly stupid. Lamborghini on the other hand… they know how to name a car.

Fighting bulls, plague, poison, and the Spanish words for ‘Bat’, ‘Hurricane’ and – in the case of today’s car – ‘Devil’, we’re not sure why an Italian company chose Spanish words, but they sound awesome.

Produced from 1990 to 2001 and powered by a near-500bhp V12, the Diablo was the first Lamborghini to hit 200mph. Which would make it cool even without its devilish name. This brilliant brick-built version of the ’90s supercar icon is the work of previous bloggee László Torma, whose recreation is instantly recognisable in Speed Champions scale.

Instructions are available and there’s more of the Diablo to see on Flickr – click here to to jump to a devilishly good build.

Speed Champions 2024 | Set Previews

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It’s that time of year again, when a special group of Lego Car Blog Elves, chosen due to their expendability… er, we mean ‘bravery’, are selected for a top secret mission.

That mission is to infiltrate The LEGO Company’s HQ, avoid being eaten by the German Shepherds, and return triumphant / mildly chewed to TLCB Towers having scooped the brand new Speed Champions sets joining the line-up.

But why risk our mythical workers for a few LEGO sets? Partly because we never seem to run out of them, but mostly it’s because the Speed Champions theme is the best decision LEGO have made since they invented the LEGO brick. Real-world cars for pocket money prices? What’s not to love. And here are the new ones…

76920 Ford Mustang Dark Horse

LEGO will never run out of real-world Mustangs to recreate in brick form. Ford’s seemingly endless supply of special edition ‘stangs – all stupidly named and all equally likely to stack it leaving a car meet – culminated in 2023* with this, the 500bhp ‘Dark Horse’.

Created from 344 pieces, the Speed Champions 76920 Ford Mustang Dark Horse looks right on the money – although inevitably with a few more stickers than we’d like to see – and features some surprisingly complex SNOT techniques, particularly to create the hood and rear window.

A female mini-figure driver is included and we expect 76902 to cost around £20/$26 from March next year, when you’ll be able to recreate your very favourite Mustang crashes at home.

*Until Ford release the next Mustang special edition in a few weeks.

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76921 Audi S1 e-tron quattro

The second new entry to the 2024 Speed Champions range brings a prototype all-electric racing car to the line-up; this is the Audi S1 e-tron quattro, using all lower-case because that’s cooler, and as deployed brilliantly in the last ever Ken Block ‘Gymkhana’ film.

Aimed at ages 9+, the new Speed Champions 76921 Audi S1 e-tron quattro is constructed from 274 pieces, of which about half of them wear a sticker.

The result looks as wild as the real thing, and whilst we bemoan the uses of decals to create every single detail, they are at least individual to each part, allowing the model to be deconstructed and the pieces re-purposed, as LEGO should be.

Priced identically to the 76920 Mustang Dark Horse above, 76921 will reach store shelves in March 2024 where for us, it’ll stay. Bricks beat stickers, every time.

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76922 BMW M4 GT3 & BMW M-Hybrid V8

The final new addition to the H1 2024 Speed Champions range is a racing car double, the Speed Champions 76922 BMW M4 GT3 & BMW M-Hybrid V8.

Featuring 676 pieces, 76922 includes new wheels and a racing driver mini-figure for each of the real-world BMW racers, with plenty of SNOT techniques and even more plentiful stickers doing a great job of recreating BMW Motorsport’s mega four-colour livery.

We expect 76922 to cost around 60% more than the single car Speed Champions sets when it races into stores next year, and it could be the pick of the bunch.

…

That’s the brand new LEGO Speed Champions line-up for 2024; three new sets, four new cars, and about a million stickers. They do look good though.

Each will be available from March next year, with prices expected between £20/$26 and £35/$45. Great stuff.

My Other Vehicle’s an Articulated Hauler

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The remotely controlled LEGO Technic 42114 Volvo 6×6 Articulated Hauler is not only an excellent set, earning a 9/10 rating in TLCB’s review, but also a great source of parts. Two fantastic B-Models have appeared here to date (this and this), and today gyenesvi becomes the third builder to create a blog-worthy 42114 B-Model.

Deviating from the construction equipment genre, gyenesvi’s alternate repurposes the pieces from the Volvo 6×6 set to create a neat pick-up based wrecker, complete with a remotely operable two-stage towing arm.

The Control+ goodies don’t end there either, with working drive, steering, and a three-speed gearbox, alongside pendular suspension, opening doors, and a straight-6 piston engine.

Building instructions are available and there’s more of the model to see at Eurobricks and Bricksafe, where over thirty images are available to view.

Route 66

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The war in Ukraine drags on, as tiny-penised Putin continues his folly to return the region back to the days of the Soviet Union.

Those days, marked with oppression, fear, and the eradication of freedom of movement, religion and speech, also included some fine engineering. Most of this was of course of the nuclear-weapon or space-race type, but the Soviet Union created some excellent off-road vehicles too. This is one of them, the GAZ-66.

Produced from the mid-’60s until ’99 – and still in use today in a variety of despotic authoritarian regimes including North Korea, Iran, and Syria – the GAZ-66 was a 4×4 military truck available in a bewildering array of configurations.

This one is a ‘K66V’, fitted with a box body behind the cab. Built by Samuel Nerpas (aka Tatrovak), this brilliantly engineered Technic version is remotely controlled via a BuWizz bluetooth battery powering four drive motors, servo steering, and two sets of LED lights.

Planetary hubs, all-wheel-suspension, and all-wheel-drive ensure Samuel’s GAZ-66 is suitably capable off-road, and the model also includes a tilting cab, opening doors, and a removable superstructure.

There’s more to see at both the Eurobricks forum and via Samuel’s Flickr photostream, where you can find all the imagery, build details, and videos of the model in action.

Nooteworthy

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The Online Lego Community can be a wonderful place of collaboration. Take this spectacular three-in-one build by TLCB Master MOCer Dennis Bosman.

Despite his own prodigious talent, Dennis can still find inspiration from other builders, and thus his stunning Scania T143E heavy haulage truck uses elements of a remote control chassis design by the late Ingmar Spijkhoven, hooked up to his own remotely operable Nooteboom low loader trailer, with motorised neck height. Riding atop the Nooteboom sits a previously-blogged Doosan DL 470-7 front loader by fellow Master MOCer Eric Trax, who himself was inspired by Dennis’ work. Which is gloriously circulatory.

Head to Dennis’ photostream by clicking here to see more of the build, and you can check out the builders and models that helped to create it via the additional links above.

Beta Test

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The LEGO Technic 8865 Test Car didn’t exactly bowl over our reviewer when we had one on test.

However if you own a 8865 set (and a set of pliers to take it apart), you could turn it into this neat Dakar-esque off-road buggy by newcomer Tomas Rak, pictured here alongside the original.

Built only from the parts found within the 8865 set (including those impossible-to-remove ‘interference’ pins), Tomas’ alternate includes working steering, suspension, a two-cylinder piston engine, and a body that – whilst no less minimalist – suits its real-world source rather well.

There’s more to see on Flickr, where a link to building instructions can also be found; click the link to take a look and get ready to test your finger strength.

The Future of Racing. Kinda.

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The days of petrol-powered racing are numbered. As the world shifts away from fossil fuels, the need to race with them is declining also. But electric racers… er, let’s just say they don’t match internal combustion yet.

Retaining the noise and spectacle of motorsport is therefore at forefront of organisers’ minds, with several options including synthetic fuels and hydrogen combustion being explored to replace petrol.

Cue SFH‘s superb recreation of the ‘Forze IX’ hydrogen endurance racer, which – being a fuel cell rather than combustion – solves precisely none of the noise and spectacle issues that plague electric motorsport. Oh.

But what a fuel cell does do is enable electric racing without the need for a giant heavy battery. A battery that requires recharging, taking hours to do so (or – as per early Formula E racing – changing cars half-way through the race, which was profoundly stupid), nor the mining of rare-earth metals to create it.

Able to refuel in roughly the same time as a petrol racing car, a hydrogen fuel cell allows for endurance racing without the need to blow-up dead dinosaurs. And that’s awesome.

It’s just not quite as awesome as blowing up the hydrogen in an internal combustion engine, which creates all of the noise of petrol, but none of the emissions. We know which we prefer.

Magnificent Seven

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From one of the most extravagant vintage cars to one of the least. This is the Austin 7, so called because it had seven horsepower, and it was one of the most popular inter-war cars on the British market.

Produced from the early 1920s until 1939, the 7 was less than half the weight of the Ford Model T and proved incredibly popular, being sold under license in France, Germany, and even in Japan (although rather less-licensed) as the first Nissan.

This lovely Town scale recreation of the 7 comes from serial bloggee _Tiler, who’s captured it beautifully. Bicycle wheels, a rubber-band grille, and some cunningly constructed cycle-wings accurately portray the tiny vintage car, and there’s more to see at _Tiler’s photostream via the link above.