Tag Archives: 1950s

Typical Porsche Driver

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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.

Blues Brothers

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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!

Pre-E

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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.

Kookie Kar

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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…

Now With Less Asbestos!

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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!

Land Rover Series 1 80″ | Picture Special

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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.

Honey I Shrunk the 10298

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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!

Reformed Ford

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‘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.

Three Little Pigs

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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.

Two Fat Ladies

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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.

*Today’s tenuous title link!

Zuk but Nysa

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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…

Where Eagles Dare

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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.

Zetor 25K

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It might sound like the sort of giant automaton usually blogged by The Brothers Brick, but the Zetor 25K is in fact a vintage Czechoslovakian tractor produced from 1946 to 1961.

This neat Technic replica of the Zetor comes from rhplus, and features a two-cylinder engine, drag-link steering, and – rather cleverly – a three-point hitch and a switchable power-take-off, both of which can be operated by levers from the cockpit.

It’s a lovely little build and one of which you can see more at both Eurobricks and Brickshelf. Unless giant automatons are more your thing.

Ambition is a Dream with a V8 Engine

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Blue suede shoes, white rhinestone jumpsuits, cheeseburgers, and pink Cadillacs. Just some of the things the great Elvis Presley was famous for besides his captivating musical performances.

Elvis’ first pink Cadillac was a ’54 Fleetwood that he purchased in 1955, and it lasted all of a few months before the brake lining crapped out and the car was incinerated by the ensuing fire. Undeterred, Elvis bought a ’55 Fleetwood in blue, and had it repainted in custom pink by a neighbour, before he gave it to his Mom as a gift.

Now Mrs. Presley didn’t have a driver’s license, which meant Elvis continued to drive the Fleetwood through ’55 and ’56 (which sounds like a rather cunning ‘present’ to us), during which time it was repainted again due to an accident whilst in the hands of his guitarist.

After completing his military service in 1960, Elvis lent the Caddy to his friend and road-manager, buying himself a new ’61 Cadillac Coupe deVille, before the Fleetwood was parked up in a carport.

Many white rhinestone jumpsuits and cheeseburgers followed, the latter of course contributing to Elvis’ untimely death on the toilet at his Graceland home.

The musical world mourned his loss, and Graceland became a museum to Elvis’ life. Fortunately the ’55 Cadillac Fleetwood that Elvis had purchased, painted, gifted, crashed, painted, and lent had somehow survived, and it was saved to go on permanent display in the Graceland museum.

This lovely homage to that car, and the home in which it rests, comes from Joey Klusnick, who has recreated it beautifully in Miniland scale. A complete album of images can be found at Joey’s photostream, and you can head to Graceland in a ’55 Pink Cadillac via the link in the text above.

Moe-Mobile

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What’s this, two creations from one builder in the same day? How lazy are we?

The answer is ‘Yes’, and ‘Very’, but 1saac W.‘s ‘Moes Mobile Diner’ is just too delightful not to publish. Plus it’s lunch time in TLCB Towers and this writer was thinking about food.

Place your order at 1saac’s photostream via the link above, whilst this writer heads to the fridge.