There’d better not be speed-bumps near 1saac W.‘s house. Still, much underside worry is probably worth it to look as cool as this. Inspired by a real car in Instagram, there’s more to see of this fantastic custom ’52 Chevy on Flickr. Click the link above to get low.
*Today’s title track. Because we’re street.
This dinky 1950s Mercedes-Benz Unimog ‘Gasolin’ tanker probably isn’t going fill many gas tanks, but it’s going to look properly cute filling what it can. Christoph Ellermann‘s is the builder behind this wonderful classic off-road tractor, and you can fill your tank in the ’50s, as long as too many people haven’t filled theirs first, via the link in the text above.
You know how it goes, you wait ages for a Gasser and then three arrive at once. Or something like that.
Anyway, our third ‘gasser’-style hot rod in a week arrives courtesy of _Tiler, whose beautifully presented ’56 C1 Corvette has allowed to us to link to a brilliant title song, and which somehow sits in the centre of a Sacrilege/Inspired Venn diagram.
There’s more of the ‘vette to see on Flickr via the link above, you can jump to the aforementioned title song here, and you can check out the brand new official LEGO Icons 10321 Corvette set by clicking those final teal words.
Porsche – as per Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Lamborghini and almost every automotive brand – are today mostly an SUV manufacturer. Sigh.
But they haven’t abandoned their roots quite as much as would first appear, as they – like Lamborghini – have off-road vehicles as much a part of their early history as their current line-up.
Many of these were of a military purpose designed for a certain moustachioed maniac, which Porsche don’t seem keen to highlight in their corporate history, but Porsche also built tractors, such as this rather cute Porsche-Diesel Standard 218.
Powered by a two-cylinder 25bhp air-cooled diesel engine, the Standard 218 could be outrun by even the fattest TLCB Writer, but unlike the fattest TLCB Writer it could also lift over half-a-ton on its three-point-hitch.
This lovely Model Team replica of the Porsche-Diesel Standard 218 recreates the tractor (and hitch) beautifully, with superb attention to detail paid in particular to the Porsche’s visible mechanical parts.
TLCB newcomer dimnix is the builder behind it, and there’s more to see of this excellent classic Porsche-Diesel at their Brickshelf gallery. Click the link above to jump back to when an off-road Porsche didn’t mean an aggressively-driven Cayenne.
We considered linking to that infernal late-’90s Italian song in the title, and then thought better of it. But by then it was already stuck in our heads, so if we have to suffer you do too. And if you don’t click on that link we’ll still find a way of annoying you with Eiffel 65’s madness later in this post.
Oh yeah, cars. These six brilliant Speed Champions scale classics were discovered by a soon-to-be-very-fat-Elf on Flickr. They come from previous bloggee Thomas Gion, and clockwise from top left – in various levels of blueness – are a ’69 Chevy Nova, a ’63 Chevy Nova ‘Gasser’, a ’66 Buick Riviera, a ’54 Ford Thunderbird, a ’70 Plymouth Barracuda, and a ’69 AMC AMX Superstock.
Each is excellent and you can check them all out via the link above. Da-ba-dee-da-ba-di!
Jaguar’s E-Type is probably the marque’s most celebrated sports car. However perhaps the cars that came before it are even more beautiful. The XK series of sports cars, beginning with the XK120 in 1948 and ending in 1961 with the XK150, were amongst the fastest cars in the world at the time, and were named after Jaguar’s new inline-6 engine that went on to power not just the E-Type, but all manner of Jaguars up until the 1990s. This excellent small-scale version of the car that debuted one of the automotive world’s great engines comes from SFH_Bricks, and there’s more to see of this 1950 Jaguar XK120 Fixed-Head Coupe on Flickr – click the link to take a look.
This is the ‘Kookie T’, one of the all-time seminal hot rods, and the inspiration for very probably a thousand hot rods that have followed. Built by hot rodder and actor Norm Grabowski, the Kookie-T exploded into magazines during the mid-’50s, creating such a stir that the car was chosen to make a starring appearance in the ’50s TV show ’77 Sunset Strip’.
Norm’s custom car prowess led to further TV and movie contracts, and eventually allowed him to appear in several productions himself, acting in films including ‘The Monkees’, ‘Batman’, ‘The Towering Inferno’, ‘The Cannonball Run’ and… er, ‘Sex Kittens Go to College’, amongst others.
This fantastic replica of the iconic hot rod comes from previous bloggee Andre Pinto, who has recreated the Kookie-T brilliantly in brick form. Stunning presentation matches the excellent brickwork, and there’s more to see at Andre’s ‘Norm Grabowski’s Kookie Car’ Flickr album. Click the link to take a look, unless you’re already Googling that last film title. You are aren’t you…
Old-timey British car advertisments are hilarious. From the Triumph Herald “That almost never needs greasing!’ to the Sunbeam Alpine with eight consecutive exclamation marks in its strap-line, everything was tremendously exciting in 1959.
Cue Chris Elliott‘s ‘1959 British Family Saloon’, a homage to the cars (and car marketers) of 65 years ago. With echoes of Riley, Ford Anglia, and Sunbeam Rapier amongst many others, Chris’ creation could only be more late-’50s British if its description included the phrase “Keep your daily commutes punctual and stylish!”. Wait, it does? Well that’s a dandy way to describe the feeling that only motoring in the newest 1959 design can give!
Don your Motorway safety felt cap, check your Bowmonk dynometer, and fire up your Eltron ‘Car Kettle and Carfri‘* at Chris Elliot’s photostream via the link above!
*Yes that last link really was a device for boiling water and cooking bacon whilst driving to work. Golly the ’50s were terrific!
This is without doubt the loveliest Lego Land Rover we’ve seen this year. Because the loveliest Land Rover is of course a green Series 1 80″.
Built by recent bloggee FanisLego, this utterly beautiful recreation of the definitive Land Rover captures every aesthetic detail of the wonderful 1950s original, with brick-built leaf-spring suspension, a replica of the simple 50bhp 1.6 litre engine, holes for the power-take-offs (can you imagine a modern Defender including the ability to run farm equipment from the engine!), flipping seats, a folding windscreen, plus opening doors, hood, and tailgate.
Photographed and presented superbly, FanisLego’s Land Rover Series 1 80″ is available to view on Bricksafe, where fifteen stunning images are within in the model’s album. Better yet, a link to building instructions can also be found, so if – like us – you think the Series 1 Land Rover is probably the best vehicle ever built, you can create your very own in brick form.
Head to Bricksafe via the link in the text above, where you can find full build details, the complete image gallery, and a link to building instructions.
LEGO’s 10298 Vespa 125 set is wonderful in every way. Thus we love this miniaturised version by Flickr’s 1saac W., who has captured the iconic Italian scooter beautifully in brick-form. The set’s lovely blue colour is switched for cream, but if LEGO can do it themselves with their other Italian icon, cream is good enough for us! See more at 1saac’s photostream via the link!
‘Restomods’ are big business these days, where classic cars, pick-ups and 4x4s, are brought up to date with the addition of modern engines, suspension, electrics, and brakes, whilst mostly keeping the looks that make classic vehicles so appealing.
This is Tony Bovkoon’s brick-built restomod, a 1956 Ford F-100 pick-up featuring a subtly modified exterior that includes opening doors, hood and tailgate, with a beautifully detailed interior and engine bay inside the first two.
Very un-’56 wheels hint at the powertrain upgrades that would lurk within, and there are over a dozen superbly presented images available to view at Tony’s ‘Ford F-100’ album on Flickr.
Click the link above to upgrade a ’56 Ford.
We’re going to have a very fat Elf today. One of our mythical little workers brought back these three blogworthy Porsche 356s, meaning it receives three meal tokens. Will said Elf spread them out in order to moderate its intake, or binge on all of them on one go? We all know the answer to that…
Anyway, the three models are appropriate for the aforementioned piggy Elf, as each is a glorious Porsche 356, as built beautifully in Model Team form by ZetoVince of Flickr. All have opening doors, a detailed interior, and passive steering, with the red version available to buy in this year’s Creations for Charity fundraiser.
There’s more to see at Zeto’s photostream via the link above, and if you’d like to own the red car for yourself you can jump straight to the Porsche’s Creations for Charity page via this bonus link.
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.
This is a ZSD Nysa 522, a Polish communistical van based on the FSC Zuk, only a little nicer (hence our terrifically amusing title!). The Zuk was itself based on an FSO, which was based on a GAZ, making the Nysa the last link in effectively one long chain of Iron Curtain automotive misery.
Said Iron Curtain meant the Nysa 522 remained in production – unbelievably – until 1994, by which time the newly democratic Polish government could elect to import vans that weren’t based on the design of a Russian passenger car from the 1940s.
This lovely Model Team recreation of the ZSD Nysa 522 comes from previous bloggee and weird-Eastern-European-communist-era-specialist Legostalgie, who has captured its characterful styling beautifully. There are opening doors, including a clever sliding one on the passenger side, a detailed engine, and a lifelike interior, and there’s much more to see at Legostalgie’s ‘Nysa 522’ album on Flickr, where a link to building instructions can also be found.
Click the link above to take a look, and the link above that to see all of the weird-Eastern-European-communist-era vehicles from Legostalgie that have appeared here at The Lego Car Blog to date. All are fantastic, but we think this one is even a little Nysa…
1968’s ‘Where Eagles Dare’, starring Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton, is widely regarded as one of the finest war movies of all time. That’s despite it featuring hairstyles, make-up, pharmaceuticals, and a red bus from a decade (or even two!) later than the time of its setting.
Said bus, a 1952 Steyr, stars prominently in the closing scenes, as the characters make their escape to an airfield where a Junkers JU-52 is waiting.
This brilliant brick-built recreation of that iconic ‘Where Eagles Dare’ scene is the work of SirLuftwaffles, who has captured not only the wrongly-cast Steyr bus and Junkers JU-52 from the movie wonderfully, he’s placed them within a stunning forced-perceptive alpine setting that looks so good we feel as though we’re making the escape too.
Style your hair for the ’60s, climb aboard a ’52 bus, and head to a snow-covered European airfield in 1944 via the link above.