Tag Archives: 956

Greater Endurance

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After spending some time with your Mom over Christmas, she said we needed ‘more endurance’. Well today’s post will rectify that (we assume this is what she meant), with no less than five glorious historic Group C / Endurance racers.

Each is the work of TLCB debutant SFH_Bricks, who has recreated an array of classic Le Mans racer winners wonderfully in Speed Champions scale, with some of the best decals (courtesy of Brickstickershop) that we’ve ever seen.

From the iconic Rothmans Porsche 956 (top), the wild V12-powered Jaguar XJR-9 LM, the Sauber C9 (above) that was so fast along the Mulsanne Straight that chicanes were added the following year, the Mazda 787B (below) – still the only car to win Le Mans without using a reciprocating engine, to the Peugeot 905 Evo (bottom) that took victory in ’92, each is a near perfect Speed Champions replica of its amazing real world counterpart.

Each model is presented beautifully and all are available to view at SFH’s ‘Le Mans Collection Series’ album on Flickr, where you can also find links to building instructions at the Rebrickable platform. Click the link above for even more endurance.

Cannonball

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Lego Porsche 956 Cannon

Six minutes and eleven seconds. The fastest ever lap of the fearsome Nurburgring Nordschleife, recorded not by a Formula 1 car or a Bugatti Veyron, but way back in 1982 by this; Porsche’s amazing Group C 956.

Powered by a development of the successful 936’s turbocharged flat-6, the 956 took power to over 600bhp and used the world’s first double clutch gearbox to send it to the rear wheels.

Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell debuted the car at the 6 Hours of Silverstone before taking pole, ahead of Porsche’s two other 956s in second and third, at the Le Mans 24 Hours. The race finished as it started, with Porsche taking a 1-2-3 and with Ickx and Bell claiming their third win together for the Porsche team.

This superb recreation of Porsche’s dominant early ’80s Group C Champion comes from Flickr’s Manuel Cara, which despite its small size is  wonderfully accurate, made more so by the authentic-looking period Canon decals. There’s more to see of Manuel’s 956 at his photostream by clicking here, and if you’d like to see the real car in action, take a look here!

853 Redux

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Lego Technic 853 Set

Our review of LEGO Technic’s 853 / 956 Car Chassis set is the most viewed individual page on the whole of The Lego Car Blog. It might have been flawed, but 853 is the grandfather of LEGO’s Supercar range, without which we probably wouldn’t have had some of LEGO’s best ever sets.

Previous bloggee, Master MOCer and Lego Professional Nick Barrett thinks it’s the most important set LEGO have ever made, and he’s given it and brilliant re-boot for the modern age. Updated using the latest Technic parts Nick’s 853 redux costs about half as much as the original 1977 set, yet retains all of its charm.

There’s an inline four-cylinder motor up front, a two speed gearbox in the middle, rear-wheel-drive, working steering and adjustable seats, all as per the original set. We think it’s the perfect candidate for the LEGO Ideas platform, and if you think so too you can let Nick know; take a trip to either MOCpages or Flickr to see more.

Shhmokin’

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Rothmans Porsche 956/962

We at The Lego Car Blog can’t resist a good Lego Racecar and is there anyone better at creating them than the Porsche Master himself Malte Dorowski.

We thought he was having us on when he said he was creating a Porsche museum, but with the amount of precise Porsches this guy masterfully creates we’re starting to believe him. We could say they are Ravishingly Beautiful. Go take a look for yourself on MOCpages

Lego Technic 853 / 956 Car Chassis Set Review

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Welcome to what will be the first in a series of reviews of all of Lego’s ‘ultimate’ car-based Technic sets. We start, naturally, at the very beginning. In 1977, this was the ultimate and I was a lucky boy!

This red machine (still the longest model of any such set…) featured a reciprocating 4 cylinder engine, a forward/reverse transmission, working steering and adjustable seats and…. that’s it. At the time, this was plenty – greater sophistication would come later;  the great thing about this set was that it showed, better than any other, how a car went together.

The build is fairly simple – the only complex part being the engine. It feels a little strange building a Technic car chassis by mostly snapping bricks together, but it also makes you wonder if the newer elements make things unnecessarily time-consuming. Slotting the engine/transmission unit and steering assembly into place makes you imagine workers doing the same thing on a production line. An enjoyable and educative experience.

The finished model is a delightfully vintage thing and highly playable. The best thing about it is the speed and smoothness of the engine’s running as you push it along, assuming the engine’s set up just so… This gives it a personality that’s lacking in most of the later cars, whose engines simply don’t make enough noise to be truly satisfying.

Flaws; well this is a very early effort so there are a few… the biggest of which being the chassis’ lack of stiffness. Blame the penny-pinching single layer of studded beams that form the car’s structure. Double these up and it’s fine. The front wheels drag on the chassis when on full lock – something that couldn’t happen in a newer set, mostly because newer sets seem to have hardly any steering lock… A differential would have been nice, but you can slot one in easily enough now.  The lack of suspension can be forgiven, I think; especially as, if it did have springs, I suspect the chassis would flex more than they do!

Now we come to one of the best features of all these early sets – the box! A proper, sturdy box with plastic compartments for all the new and special pieces that came with this set, and beautifully illustrated with a wealth of model ideas, most of which had no instructions but served to inspire the young builder’s own creativity. Note to Lego: PLEASE BRING THESE BACK!

Overall, this set deserves a solid 9/10 – there was enough to inspire the budding petrolhead here and, if you can, I urge you to seek one of these out (expensive these days, I know..) and re-discover the simple joy of a charming model.