Tag Archives: 2010s

Driving Through the Death Star Trench

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It’s still Star Wars Day, and if you think this post is the most tenuously-linked to the space-based saga yet and we’re shamelessly crowbarring it in… you’d be right. But the ‘F82’ generation BMW 4-Series is a  terrestrial X-Wing, because it will be travelling much too fast, way too close, and be piloted by a young guy (and it will be a young guy) who treats the motorway like the Death Star trench run in ‘A New Hope’.

Not that it’s the 4-Series’ fault; it’s a very good car, and the ‘F82’ generation isn’t blighted by the looks of its successor. But it’s also over a decade old, which means its price is now within reach of traffic weaving muppets.

Still, this BMW 4-Series isn’t two feet from the car in front being driven by a total toolbox, as it comes instead from previous bloggee Mihail Rakovskiy, who has recreated the ‘F82’ in stunning detail.

The interior, engine, and even drivetrain/chassis are as beautifully lifelike as the exterior, and you can find more superb images at Mihail’s ‘BMW F82’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to turn your route home from work into your very own Death Star trench run.

Perfect Paint

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TLCB’s home nation likes a neatly painted truck. Most trucks are still plain white of course, but many firms go the extra mile with their visual identity, painting their vehicles in beautiful colours that hark back to the days of horse-drawn carts, canal boats, and traction engines. This is one such truck, a Volvo FH12 operated by Newis heavy haulage and constructed superbly by Flickr’s Ralph Savelsberg. There’s more to see at Ralph’s photostream and you get your brushes out via the link above.

Back to the Studio

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Unlikely as it may sound today, in the 2010s the biggest television programme in the world came from an old airfield hangar just outside of Guildford, in which three middle-aged men talked about cars.

The newly rebooted BBC ‘Top Gear’ grew from its producer having to pay audience members from his own pocket to stick around to the end of filming, to the most-watched television event on the planet. Over twenty seasons, dozens of cross-country adventures, and countless celebrity laps in reasonably-priced cars are now embedded in the memory of an entire generation, and Flickr’s NV Carmocs takes us right back to the height of mid-2010’s television with his fabulous homage to the place where it was all made.

With mini-figure versions of Top Gear’s three most famous hosts, a studio audience, and some of the most iconic vehicles and sets from the show, NV Carmocs has captured a hundred Top Gear memories in one spectacular diorama.

The studio set includes ‘The Cool Wall’, a V8 coffee table, the ‘Power Board’, and the plinth for perhaps Top Gear’s most famous ever vehicle, the near-destroyed late-’80s Toyota Hilux, also faithfully recreated in brick form.

There’s a huge amount more to see of NV Carmocs’ incredible mini-figure BBC Top Gear Studio diorama at their Flickr photostream, where over a dozen high quality images are available to view, plus even more of the starring Top Gear vehicles themselves.

Click the link above to go back to studio, and to take yourself back to when Sunday night TV couldn’t get any better…

Double Dutch

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We’re trucking across the Netherlands today, thanks to two brilliant brick-built Dutch trucks. Well, one’s German, but it’s in use by a Dutch building materials company, so it still counts.

The first (above) is the work of serial bloggee Arian Janssens, and is a lovely classic DAF FA 3300 ATI with a matching drawbar trailer in tow. Working steering, openable load areas, and beautiful detailing all feature, and you can see more of Arian’s DAF via the link above.

Our second Dutch truck (below) is a 2010s MAN TGX, also outfitted with a three-axle trailer, plus a crane, a superbly replicated livery, and a suite of remote control motors to bring it to life. Flickr’s z_onno is its maker and you can see all the images of this excellent modern-day MAN via the link in the text above.

Enter the Dragon

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Is Godzilla a lizard? Probably. We’re not up to speed on Japanese myths. But we do know that a lizard with wings is a dragon. Unless it’s a wyvern. Which actually Godzilla would be if it did have wings. And then the title wouldn’t work. We digress, this is a Nissan GT-R (R35) – a car nicknamed ‘Godzilla’ – and this one has wings.

They’re fitted – along with some marvellous 3D-printed Advan wheels – by builtbydavedesigns, who’s taken inspiration from Nismo’s wild GT-R GT3 racers. Opening doors, a detailed interior, and a superbly replicated engine bay also feature, and you can take a closer look at Dave’s beautifully presented dragon at his Flickr album via the link above.

GT LM GTE #68

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This is a Ford GT LM GTE, which is – admittedly – not a good name. But it is one heck of a car, winning the GTE class at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2016 exactly 50 years after Ford first took outright victory.

This spectacular Technic replica of that very car (the #68, driven by Joey Hand, Sebastien Bourdais and Dirk Muller) comes from Jeroen Koopman, and recreates the GT LM GTE brilliantly in Technic Supercar form.

Working steering, a V6 engine hooked up to a sequential 6-speed gearbox, advanced in-board suspension, opening butterfly doors, and removable bodywork all feature, with some superb photography of the engineering within joining the exterior shots on Flickr.

You can see that complete image gallery via the link above, plus you can find full build details, a video, and a link to building instructions at the Eurobricks forum here.

Children of the Revolución*

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We’re rather partial to crap cars here at The Lego Car Blog, as proven by the myriad of shoddy American and Eastern European models to appear here over the years. But if you’re going to make an entrance into the Online Lego Community, picking an ultra-limited track-only variant of one of the world’s most exclusive hypercars to beautifully recreate in Lego form is a surefire way to do it.

Newcomer Mitchell van der Hart has done just that, with his exquisite brick-built replica of the wild Pagani Zonda Revolución, complete with opening doors, fully removable bodywork, and a chassis, engine and interior as highly detailed as the panels that clothe them.

The son of previous bloggee Huib van der Hart (aka Lifting Bricks), Mitchell is making his TLCB debut in the most spectacular way, and you can see more of his first published creation at his ‘Pagani Zonda Revolución’ album via the link above, where we expect more creations will follow.

*Today’s excellent title song.

French Fighter

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Despite this site’s home nation mocking the French military for some eighty years, it is in fact one of the most formidable in the world. This is one of the reasons why, the Dassault Rafale fighter.

In operation since the turn of the millennium, the Rafale remains one of the most advanced fighters in the world, capable of air supremacy, ground strike, ship strike, and carrying France’s nuclear deterrent.

Entirely engineered and constructed in France, around three-hundred Rafales have been produced to date, operating across nine air forces. This one comes from previous bloggee John C. Lamarck, and as well as being superbly detailed includes an opening cockpit, adjustable canards, accurate landing gear, and an array of armaments.

There’s more of the model to see at John’s ‘Rafale’ album on Flickr, and you can fly there via the link above.

The Wind in Your Hair…

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…as well as dust, dirt, leaves, and bees. This is the KTM X-Bow (pronounced crossbow), a two-seat, mid-engined sports car on sale since 2009, that forgoes a roof and windscreen, but it is very fast, and very orange indeed.

Cue newcomer Nard Verbong‘s brick-built replica, which brilliantly captures the most extreme thing to come out of Austria since the Second World War.

Exceptional presentation matches the excellent building techniques, and you can fire a winged insect into your epiglottis via the link to Flickr above.

Transiting

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It a Transit van double here at The Lego Car Blog today, with two rather different examples of Ford’s ubiquitous workhorse.

First up (above) is Versteinert‘s wonderful 7-wide 1970s face-lifted Mk1 Transit camper, wearing some slightly mismatched wheel-arch and sill repairs, a roof-rack loaded with adventure equipment, and being a thousand times cooler than the default Volkswagen Transporter. It joins several other Mk1 Transits in Versteinert’s photostream, and you can finn them all via the link above.

Four decades later, the Mk1’s great-grandson is here in the form of this 5-wide 2010s face-lifted Mk4 Transit crew-van (below) in ‘Abnormal Load Escort’ configuration. Make your own ‘Your Mom’ joke. Regular bloggee Ralph Savelsberg is its creator and there’s more to see of his excellent Transit, and the abnormal load it’s escorting, via the link above.

All Fours

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The SUV dominates today’s new car market. Whether they’re four-wheel-drive or only look like they’re four-wheel-drive, all are tapping into the marketing of an outdoorsy lifestyle. Which usually means adverts showing impossibly handsome people parked at the beach. Or going hang-gliding off a mountain. Or unpacking some kayaks.

Of course the most adventurous thing the owners will actually do is watch a nature documentary on Netflix, but that hasn’t slowed the unstoppable rise of the pseudo-4×4. Today though, we have two proper all-wheel drive icons, the legendary Audi quattro, and the evergreen Jeep Wrangler.

The Audi (above) comes from Sam Andreas (aka Sseven Bricks), who has placed his superb Speed Champions Audi quattro Sport in its natural environment, navigating a perilous icy mountain pass high above Monaco. It’s here the quattro demonstrated to the world the benefits of all-wheel-drive in a performance car, and today almost every high performance saloon, estate, and yes – SUV, is driven by all four wheels.

At the other end of the four-wheel-drive scale is the Jeep Wrangler, a car derived from a vehicle so synonymous with off-roading it became the catch-all name for anything 4×4. This brick-built version of the Wrangler’s latest incarnation (below) is the work of yelo_bricks, who’s captured the ‘JL’-series in Speed Champions scale with aplomb.

There’s more to see of both four-wheel-drive icons on Flickr. Take a look via the links above whilst we – as SUV owners – go hang-gliding off a mountain or something.

[Insert Tweet About Boyfriend]

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The Fiat 500 might be very nearly as old as the car it’s pretending to be, but thousands of people still buy it each year in TLCB’s home nation and they all seem to be, um… girls of a certain type.

This is particularly true for the 500c variant, which has a sort of pram-esque canvas roof that can pile up where the back window should be.

Cue newcomer brictric and their lovely Technic recreation of the Fiat 500c. Constructed in roof-down configuration, brictric’s Fiat comes complete with working steering, all-wheel-suspension, opening doors, hood and boot-lid, adjustable seats, a (mildly inaccurate) piston engine, and bodywork as orange as the girls that drive it.

There’s lots more of brictric’s Fiat 500c to see on both Eurobricks and Flickr, and if you’re fortunate enough to live somewhere where ‘Fiat 500 Girls’ aren’t a thing, you can educate yourself here, here and here.

Golden Warrior

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The ‘Golden Warriors’ might sound like a Japanese kid’s cartoon or an army in ‘Game of Thrones’, but they are in fact a U.S Navy strike fighter squadron based out of Virginia.

Flying the F/A-18A since 1986, the VFA-87 ‘Golden Warriors’ were deployed in Operation Desert Storm, Bosnia, and the second Iraq War, before switching to the upgraded F/A-18E Super Hornet in 2015, in which they shot down the first manned aircraft since 1999 (a Syrian Su-22), in the skies over Syria.

It’s the upgraded F/A-18E Super Hornet we have here, courtesy of TLCB Master MOCer Ralph Savelsberg (aka Mad Physicist), whose phenomenal recreation of the U.S Navy fighter is pictured on a slice of the carrier deck from which the aircraft operates.

Folding wing-tips, detailed armaments, and retractable landing gear all feature, and you can find all of the superb imagery at Ralph’s ‘F/A-18E Super Hornet’ album.

C7 Corvette | Picture Special

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Retired dentists; this one’s for you!

The seventh-generation (C7) Chevrolet Corvette was the last to feature a front-mounted engine, with the latest eighth-generation Corvette finally adopting the mid-engined layout used by its European rivals.

But despite its layout disadvantage, the C7 Corvette was actually rather good, performing on par with many much more expensive supercars, and winning Le Mans’ GT category.

This fantastic Model Team recreation of the C7 ‘Vette comes from previous bloggee Rolands Kirpis, and includes a beautifully detailed interior, V8 LS1 engine and drivetrain, plus an opening hood, doors and rear hatch.

Presented beautifully, over a dozen superb images are available to view at Rolands’ ‘Chevrolet Corvette C7’ album on Flickr, and you can join the other retired dentists at a Florida golf course via the link above.

Collection of Letters

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This is a Porsche 911 RSR LM GTE, which is very boring name. It’s not a boring car though, being designed for the World Endurance Championship’s GT-Class (which includes Le Mans), and being the single loudest thing that this TLCB Writer has ever heard*.

Built by newcomer Reddish Blue, this superb Speed Champions example replicates the works cars that competed in the 2017 championship and came 4th in class at the famous 24 hour race.

Building instructions are available and you can find out more about Reddish’s Porsche 911 RSR LM GTE at his album of the same name via the link above.

*Except for your Mom last night.