Tag Archives: 1990s

8-Wide-8

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Remember when BMW’s were understated and classy? Well this was not one of those cars. But by today’s BMW standards it’s positively minimalist.

Launched in 1990, the E31 8-Series was a technical tour-de-force, featuring the world’s first drive-by-wire throttle and the first combination of a V12 engine with a manual gearbox. And BMW were going to go further still, with an even more powerful ‘M8’ version.

However it wasn’t to be, with a global recession and the Gulf War (thanks Saddam) killing the M8 before it could be released. That hasn’t stopped Flickr’s LegoSEB77 from imagining what could have been though, and you can check out his excellent 8-wide BMW ‘M8’ via the link above.

Truck Boots Jeans Girl Creek Boots Truck*

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That’s the most American title we’ve published yet. Apart from this one of course. If you’re into bro-country music then this post is for you, as today we have the perfect truck to go with your boots, jeans, girl, and boots.

Built by previous bloggee Jakub Marcisz, this fantastic 1990 Dodge Ram features opening doors, hood, and tailgate, working steering, a detailed interior and engine, and a superbly executed exterior.

Building instructions are available, with lots more of the model to see at Jakub’s ‘Dodge RAM 1990’ Flickr album and at the Eurobricks discussion forum. Plus if one truck isn’t enough (and it never is in bro-country), here’s another from Jakub’s back-catalogue. Truck, beer, girl, boots, truck…

*What every bro-country song sounds sounds like.

Topless Smokeshow

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First-time visitors to this website today may not have expected to see images of a Lego Ferrari on fire, but you’re here now so on with the show!

This is a Ferrari F355 Spider. Specifically it’s depicting the moment when the real car – owned by YouTuber ‘Hoovie’s Garage’ – decided to spray its power-steering fluid all over the hot engine, to a fiery conclusion. It’s not just new Ferraris that like to barbecue themselves.

Don’t feel too bad for the aforementioned YouTuber though, as he got some killer content (and he owns a lot of cars).

Back to the model, and Flickr’s StudWorks has done a superb job recreating the F355 both ‘before’ and ‘during’ in Speed Champions scale. There’s lots more of Stud’s superbly presented creation to see at his ‘Hoovie’s Garage Ferrari F355 Spider’ album via the link above, and if you’d like to see what happened to the real thing, you can take a look here…

Magic Mazda

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Modifications are an integral part of the automotive scene. Mostly for the worse of course, as Brad in his garage is not going to better the five years and $billions in development completed by the world’s best engineers before each model to hits the market*.

Sometimes though, modifications do work – particularly when the aforementioned engineers embrace this likelihood – and no-one does that better than Japan.

Cue the wild Mazda RX-7 we have here today, which is not only depicting modifications to the real car, it’s also a model modifying another… well, model.

Constructed by builtbydave_, this ‘TCP Magic’ RX-7 is loosely based on a design by fellow bloggee 3D supercarBricks, and features significant aero enhancements, opening doors, and a beautifully detailed 20B 3-rotor engine underneath the raising hood.

There are more superb images of builtbydave_’s modified Mazda to see at his ‘TCP Magic Rx7’ album on Flickr, and you can magic your way there via the link above.

*Not including anything American from the 1990s of course. Or Fiat.

There’ll be Honda Coupe

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What we value, particularly our vehicles, depends very much upon time and place. The sixth generation Honda Civic, built from ’95 to 2000 (and its Rover 200/400 counterpart), is worth scrap money here in TLCB’s home nation. That is despite the fact they go on for ever, and shouldn’t really need scrapping yet at all.

In the Unites States however, the ‘EM’ Civic is both revered (and hated) as a staple of the tuner scene, and is rather sought-after. No doubt reverence for the mid-’90s Civic will rise in the UK too, as the numbers on the road dwindle to almost nothing, but for now many end their days doing this. There are thousands left on the roads in America though, with many tastefully modified (and many more rather less so) thanks to an abundance of tuning parts.

This neat Speed Champions recreation of the sixth-generation Honda Civic Si Coupe comes from Ilya M of Flickr, who has taken the former route to modification to rather smart effect. There’s an opening hood (with a detailed engine underneath), room for two mini-figures, and free building instructions available (100 TLCB Points to Ilya). Take a look via the link above to see more.

Bygone Motorsport Win

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Endurance racing is about to get properly exciting. After years of single team dominance due to limited competition, this year nineteen entrants across nine manufacturers will compete for the outright win.

One of several new or returning manufacturers, BMW will rejoin the top tier of endurance racing nearly a quarter of a century since they competed with this, the wild V12 LMR.

Using the same the engine as the Le Mans winning McLaren F1 GTR, the BMW V12 LM was developed with then-Formula 1 World Champions Williams, and deployed the new open-cockpit prototype rules against the old-school sports car designs in use by other teams. And it was… rubbish.

Slow, unreliable, and retiring after just a few dozen laps, the 1998 car was a disaster. So BMW and Williams started again, and returned in 1999 with this, the radically re-designed V12 LMR.

The all-new bodywork transformed the car, with it qualifying on pole and winning the first race it entered, at the 12 Hours of Sebring.

The big prize however was Le Mans, and despite fierce competition from Audi, Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz and others, it was a BMW V12 LMR that took (perhaps thanks to a little bit of luck) the overall win. Quite a turnaround from the embarrassment of the year before.

The team entered again in 2000, but a decade-long period of total Audi dominance had begun, and thus BMW withdrew the V12 LMR before the season was up.

BMW turned their attention instead to Formula 1, where the team continued their successful partnership with Williams. Thus without the V12 LMR, a BMW engine may never again have powered a race-winning Formula 1 car.

Suggested to us by a reader, PROTOTYP. of Flickr remembers BMW’s Le Mans glory with his fantastic V12 LMR model, riding atop 3D-printed replica wheels and with stunning period-correct vinyl decals.

Superbly presented, there’s more of the model to see at PROTOTYP.’s ‘BMW LMR LMP Le Mans 1999’ album, and you can click the link above to jump back to Le Mans 1999. BMW will sure be remembering it too, as they return to Le Mans later this year, some 25 years on…

Case Study

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Whilst we are predominantly a Car Blog, we do like a Big Red Tractor. Because we’re children. And this one is excellent.

Constructed by newcomer Jacob Sitzberger it’s a Case IH 395, the smallest of Case’s 1990s 95-series tractors.

No only is Jacob’s model beautifully detailed, it also includes a working three-cylinder engine, a steered front axle with pendulum suspension, a rear power-take-off and three-point-hitch, and it comes with a variety of attachments.

An extensive gallery of images is available to view at Jacob’s ‘Case IH 395’ album on Flickr, where a link to its LEGO Ideas page can also be found. Click the link above to make the jump if you like Big Red Tractors as much as we do.

Beige Box

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Russian exports have taken a bit of a hit since the country decided to invade its neighbour. However Russian products used to be exported to rather more countries than you might expect, including TLCB’s home nation. This was one such item, the Fiat-derived Lada Riva.

Launched in the UK in 1983, up to 30,000 Rivas were sold annually by the late ’80s, to customers looking for the cheapest new car available, and of whom 80%’s favourite colour seemed to be beige.

The Riva continued in the UK virtually unchanged for over a decade, before Lada finally withdrew from the market in 1997 as newer Hyundai, Kia, and Proton products outcompeted the Niva at the cheapest end of the new car market.

Today there are very few Nivas left on our roads, but not because they’re unreliable. Rather, the UK’s high maintenance standards and low used car prices meant thousands were re-exported back to Russia, where they were seen as better examples than domestic units.

This one, in the pre-requisite beige, is the work of previous bloggee Legostalgie, who has captured the soviet three-box sedan brilliantly in brick form. There are four opening doors, a detailed interior, a life-like engine under the opening hood, plus an opening trunk, and you can build one for yourself too as instructions are available.

There’s more to see at Legostalgie’s ‘Lada Riva / VAZ-2107’ album on Flickr, and you can jump to Britain in 1988, or Russia anytime since then, via the text 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.

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.

Wiiilsoon!

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This spectacular creation is a Scania R143 heavy haulage truck, as operated by H.C. Wilson of Elmswell in the UK, and created by truck-building legend Dennis Bosman (with the phenomenal decal work of fellow previous bloggee JaapTechnic).

Dennis’ model is a near perfect replica of H.C. Wilson’s restored classic Scania, complete with a ballast box for traction, behind which would be an enormous trailer when the truck was in use.

Dennis’ incredible Model Team replica also includes a suite of motors hidden within, powering two drive and two steered axles.

It’s an astonishing build that is absolutely worth a closer look, and you can find all of the beautiful imagery and further details at Dennis’ ‘Scania R143 H.C. Wilson’ album on Flickr, plus you can find out how he makes amazing creations just like this one via his Master MOCers interview here at TLCB.

Multiple Aliases

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This is one of those cars that is probably familiar to all of us, and yet may also not be at all. This is a Geo Tracker, built by 2GodBDGlory, and in fact it’s his Geo Tracker, being a Technic recreation of his real-world vehicle.

But it’s also a Suzuki Vitara (the name we know it as here in TLCB’s home nation), a Suzuki Sidekick, a Chevrolet Tracker, a GMC Tracker, an Asuna Sunrunner (what?!), and a Pontiac Sunrunner.

Which is confusing. Thus, because the Tracker/Vitara/Sunrunner is a Suzuki designed, engineered and produced product, with General Motors simply rebadging it and pretending it was theirs, we’re going to call it a Vitara from here on, and 2GodBDGlory’s is excellent.

Powered by two L Motors with Servo steering, and featuring all-wheel-drive, a remotely-operated high/low range gearbox, working suspension, LED head and tail lights, and a removable roof, 2GodBDGlory’s Technic Vitara is as capable off-road as his real one, and there’s much more of the model to see of both at Eurobricks and Bricksafe.

Whatever you know the Suzuki Vitara as where you’re from, click the links above to be impressed.

Cubo Italiano

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Once known for their beauty, a bleak and resolutely right-angled 1980s meant that Alfa Romeo’s designs were looking rather un-Alfa-esque by the mid-’90s. The brand badly needed a more modern look, and more modern cars too.

Aiming to rectify this, Alfa began working a pair of new small cars in the early ’90s, hiring Chris Bangle (of later and rather more controversial BMW fame) as lead designer.

The resultant Alfa Romeo 145 and 146 were revealed in the mid-’90s, and began the brand’s return to the European automotive mainstream. Of course being Fiat-derived Alfas they weren’t exactly cutting edge, carrying over the interesting-but-ancient flat-4 engines used since the ’70s, and still wearing an element of cubism that was necessitated by the 1980s platform underneath.

Still, around half-a-million 145 and 146s were sold before being replaced by the far more successful (and much prettier) Alfa Romeo 147, and previous bloggee Fuku Saku is one of the few that remember the slightly odd mid-’90s hatchback, paying homage via this rather good Lego recreation.

The hatchback and doors open, whilst some neat techniques cleverly capture the Bangle design, and there’s more of the model to see at Fuku’s ‘Alfa Romeo 145’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to make the jump and see mid-’90s Alfa at its most mid-’90s-ish.

Micro Machine

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Unlike your Mom, Kei-class microbuses are really very small indeed. However they manage to pack a whole lot into their tiny footprint, with room for four adults plus luggage, some feature all-wheel-drive, and a few are even fully-fitted campers.

Cue apachaihapachai‘s terrific Technic microbus which, despite measuring just nine studs by twenty-four, features a complete remote control drivetrain courtesy of an L Motor, a Servo, and a BuWizz bluetooth battery, all completely hidden inside a neat 1990s kei-bus body. There’s even an interior. Kinda.

It’s a miracle of ingenious packaging and you can find out how apachai has done it at the Eurobricks forum. Click the link above to squeeze inside.

GT-ONE

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Built for the GT1 regulations of the late ’90s, this is the Toyota GT-ONE, a V8-powered homologation endurance racer (yes, there really was a ‘road’ version’) that took second at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Created by SFH_Bricks, this incredible Speed Champions replica of the GT-One captures the astonishing real car wonderfully, with the excellent brick-work enhanced by a superbly accurate livery courtesy of Brickstickershop.

Building instructions are available and there’s more to see of SFH’s fantastic 1999 Le Mans racer on Flickr – click the link above to take a closer look.