This TLCB Writer is too young to know anything about Magnum P.I, but it seems to have been mostly about a moustache galavanting around Hawaii in a Ferrari 308. And was therefore probably excellent. Also excellent is this; Laszlo Torma’s Speed Champions Ferrari 308, complete with a pair of mini-figures and an all-important moustache. Building instructions are available and there’s more to see here.
If you’ve got one Ferrari in your stable, you probably have another too. And maybe another. If you’re like us though, even one Ferrari is a very long way out of reach, despite the glamour, fame, and groupies that blogging Lego creations brings.
Fortunately regular bloggee Angka Utama has an answer to the multiple Ferraris conundrum, with an update to his previously featured 308 GTS and 348 Testa Rossa models.
Angka’s design now includes some cunningly hidden pins and clips, allowing the 308 to morph into a 348 and back again in just few seconds. It’s like Transformers if they transformed from a robot into a slightly different robot.
Each classic Ferrari looks properly recognisable (plus we think interchangeable Ferraris would make a brilliant official LEGO Speed Champions set), and there’s more to see of how Angka has done it at his photostream. Click here to add two Ferraris to your Lego garage.
We get the feeling most Ferrari owners don’t just have one prancing horse in their stable. Regular bloggee Angka Utama doesn’t either, having built a whole herd of historic horses from Ferrari’s ’80s-’90s back catalogue.
Pictured here are a Ferrari 308 GTS, 328 GTS and 348 Testa Rossa, whilst a further classic Mondial cabriolet can also be found at his photostream. Each has been created superbly in 8-wide ‘Speed Champions’ scale, based on an ingenious modular platform, and each includes the cleverest windshield surround – made from a rubber band held under tension – that we’ve ever seen on a vehicle.
There’s more to see of each of Angka’s brilliant Ferrari builds at his Flickr photostream, including this awesome exploded-view image showing how the modular construction and that rubber band windshield surround have been designed. Head to Angka’s stable via the link above to give each horse a ride.
This is a Ferrari 308 GTS, made (more) famous by its continued appearance in 1980s Hawaii-based drama ‘Magnum PI’, and built from 1975 in Maranello Italy before being replaced a decade later by the 328.
Designed by Pininfarina the 308 also has the claim of being the slowest Ferrari ever made, as a 2 litre version (known as the 208) was produced to dodge a tax in Italy that applied to cars over 2000cc. Strangely the 208 was still a V8, just a pointlessly small one, and thankfully ‘Magnum PI’s Thomas Magnum got the proper 2.9 litre 240bhp version.
This excellent recreation of Magnum’s mid-’80s Ferrari 308 GTS comes from Flickr’s Peter Blackert aka Lego911 and there’s more to see at his photostream via the link.
Iiiin the red corner, from Italy, with V8 muscle and weighing in at 2,315lbs, it’s the Ferrari 308 GTS! Aaaand in the white corner, from Germany, powered by an inline-6 and weighing in at 2,866lbs, it’s the BMW M1!
Both superb Speed Champions supercars are the work of previous bloggee Jonathan Elliott and you can see more of each, and pick your winner, via the links above.
Time to go old-school. This is Ferrari’s glorious 308 GTS, built between 1975 and 1985, and powered by a mid-mounted V8 producing around 250bhp (unless you were in America, where emission regulations dropped that a bit).
Made famous by the cult TV show Magnum P.I, the 308 is widely regarded as one of the most iconic Ferrari designs of all time. There were some anomalies, including a 2 litre version (which was still – incredibly – a V8) that made a whopping 150bhp, but these aside the 308 is probably the quintessential Ferrari.
Lightly updated to become the 328 in the late ’80s, the 308/328 platform is also one of Ferrari’s most successful models, with nearly 20,000 units produced over three decades. Somebody decided that one more was needed though, and commissioned Flickr’s Jeroen Ottens to recreate the classic Ferrari in Lego form.
It was a wise move too, as Jeroen has absolutely nailed it. Featuring a replica V8 engine mounted to a working 3+R gearbox, four wheel independent suspension, steering (Ackermann with caster), pop-up headlights controlled via the dashboard, adjustable seats and a removable roof, this 308 replica is every bit as good underneath as it looks on top. There’s loads more to see of this incredible Technic supercar at Jeroen’s photostream – click here to check it out.
*Read in a flashy Essex/South London ’80s banker accent. If you’re not from the UK and don’t know what that sounds like, lucky you.
Ralph Savelsberg adds another star TV car to his collection. The Ferrari 308 was one of the most famous cars of the 1980s, thanks mostly to an extravagantly moustached Tom Selleck – playing simultaneously the most masculine and the most camp TV character of all time – in the hit American TV show ‘Magnum P.I’. You can see the full gallery on Flickr at the link.
*A large prize** to those of you who get the cross-televisual title reference!
**Not really.
