Tag Archives: Audi

Speed Champions 2024 | Set Previews

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It’s that time of year again, when a special group of Lego Car Blog Elves, chosen due to their expendability… er, we mean ‘bravery’, are selected for a top secret mission.

That mission is to infiltrate The LEGO Company’s HQ, avoid being eaten by the German Shepherds, and return triumphant / mildly chewed to TLCB Towers having scooped the brand new Speed Champions sets joining the line-up.

But why risk our mythical workers for a few LEGO sets? Partly because we never seem to run out of them, but mostly it’s because the Speed Champions theme is the best decision LEGO have made since they invented the LEGO brick. Real-world cars for pocket money prices? What’s not to love. And here are the new ones…

76920 Ford Mustang Dark Horse

LEGO will never run out of real-world Mustangs to recreate in brick form. Ford’s seemingly endless supply of special edition ‘stangs – all stupidly named and all equally likely to stack it leaving a car meet – culminated in 2023* with this, the 500bhp ‘Dark Horse’.

Created from 344 pieces, the Speed Champions 76920 Ford Mustang Dark Horse looks right on the money – although inevitably with a few more stickers than we’d like to see – and features some surprisingly complex SNOT techniques, particularly to create the hood and rear window.

A female mini-figure driver is included and we expect 76902 to cost around £20/$26 from March next year, when you’ll be able to recreate your very favourite Mustang crashes at home.

*Until Ford release the next Mustang special edition in a few weeks.

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76921 Audi S1 e-tron quattro

The second new entry to the 2024 Speed Champions range brings a prototype all-electric racing car to the line-up; this is the Audi S1 e-tron quattro, using all lower-case because that’s cooler, and as deployed brilliantly in the last ever Ken Block ‘Gymkhana’ film.

Aimed at ages 9+, the new Speed Champions 76921 Audi S1 e-tron quattro is constructed from 274 pieces, of which about half of them wear a sticker.

The result looks as wild as the real thing, and whilst we bemoan the uses of decals to create every single detail, they are at least individual to each part, allowing the model to be deconstructed and the pieces re-purposed, as LEGO should be.

Priced identically to the 76920 Mustang Dark Horse above, 76921 will reach store shelves in March 2024 where for us, it’ll stay. Bricks beat stickers, every time.

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76922 BMW M4 GT3 & BMW M-Hybrid V8

The final new addition to the H1 2024 Speed Champions range is a racing car double, the Speed Champions 76922 BMW M4 GT3 & BMW M-Hybrid V8.

Featuring 676 pieces, 76922 includes new wheels and a racing driver mini-figure for each of the real-world BMW racers, with plenty of SNOT techniques and even more plentiful stickers doing a great job of recreating BMW Motorsport’s mega four-colour livery.

We expect 76922 to cost around 60% more than the single car Speed Champions sets when it races into stores next year, and it could be the pick of the bunch.

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That’s the brand new LEGO Speed Champions line-up for 2024; three new sets, four new cars, and about a million stickers. They do look good though.

Each will be available from March next year, with prices expected between £20/$26 and £35/$45. Great stuff.

My Other Car is also an Off-Road Buggy

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LEGO’s Technic 42160 Audi RS Q e-Tron revealed here earlier in the year has brought a rather intriguing – if ultimately unsuccessful – prototype racing buggy to bedroom floors in brick form.

Powered by a 2.0 turbo-charged petrol engine, but driven by four electric motors, the real RS Q e-Tron is a hybrid of sorts, using the aforementioned internal combustion engine to generate electricity for those motors. It all sounds very clever, which it is, however Toyota’s traditional twin-turbo V6 petrol-powered Hilux T1s thumped it in the 2023 Dakar Rally.

Still, we like unusual vehicles here at TLCB, and thus we like the 42160 Audi RS Q e-Tron. But we like this even more.

Built only from the parts from the 42160 set, this superb Polaris RZR B-Model is the work of gyenesvi, and it captures the all-terrain side-by-side buggy beautifully in Technic form.

It also redeploys the LEGO Control+ remote control system from the 42160 set, with all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-suspension, and servo steering, which we’ve absolutely made the most of terrorising the Elves here at TLCB Towers.

Building instructions are available if you fancy turning your own e-Tron into a RZR, and you can find out more about the build at both Eurobricks and gyenesvi’s Bricksafe album. Click the links to make the jump, probably over a giant sand dune.

Lego Technic H2 2023 | Set Previews

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It’s new set reveal time here at The Lego Car Blog, and we have two brand new officially-licensed vehicles joining the Technic line-up for 2023! Read on to find out more about LEGO’s latest additions…

LEGO Technic 42161 Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica 

The first of the two new sets arriving in the second half of 2023 comes from a staple of LEGO’s real-world partnerships, and follows the enormous (and enormously expensive) 42115 Lamborghini Sian FKP 37 set released in 2020. Like its 3,700-piece big brother, 42161 adopts Lamborghini’s signature lime green, but shrinks the package down to a far more attainable scale and price point, and represents a Lamborghini we’ve actually heard of.

Unfortunately the functions are scaled down too, with only a miniature V10 piston engine driven by the rear wheels and ‘HOG’ steering, which doesn’t seem like much for c£50. However – like many recent Technic sets – technic-ness seems to be secondary to aesthetics.

Extra visual detail is supplied via a range of decals, and whilst we’re bemoaning the fact that ‘in our day’ a Technic set half the size of 42161 would include steering, a piston engine, suspension, and probably something else too, LEGO know what appeals to the nine-year-olds of 2023. And that’s 800 largely lime-green pieces and a badge with a bull on it.

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LEGO Technic 42160 Audi RS Q e-tron

The second new set arriving in the second half of 2023 brings another real-world car to the Technic range. Sort of. This is the Audi RS Q e-tron, a prototype buggy that raced (and was soundly beaten) in the recent Dakar Rally. Still, it was an intriguing entry, using a mid-mounted 2 litre petrol engine to generate power for four electric drive motors.

LEGO’s new 42160 set recreates not just the look of the RS Q e-tron (via so many stickers), but rather excitingly it replicates the electric all-wheel-drive system too, with new hubs routing power to all four independently-suspended wheels (wearing brand new tyres).

Controlled remotely via the Control+ app, 42160 looks like it’ll be an absolute riot to drive, which will probably make up for a no-doubt infuriating build experience lining up a million stickers.

The new 42160 Audi RS Q e-tron will reach stores later this year aimed at ages 10+; expect a lofty price tag, and for its all-wheel-drive system to be supplanted into dozens of MOCs that’ll feature on this site thereafter.

Galactic Thievery

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If there’s one thing we pride ourselves on at The Lego Car Blog, it’s beating The Brothers Brick to publishing creations. OK, that and ‘Your Mom’ jokes. Two things*.

Cue much Elven shuffling and looking at the floor therefore, when we found these superb space-based Speed Champions racers at the aforementioned website fun-vacuum, instead of being brought to us by one of our smelly little workers.

Still, much as we hate losing a race with The Brothers Brick, we do rather like the idea of racing in space, particularly if the racers feature the repurposed decals and printed parts from LEGO’s excellent Speed Champions sets.

TLCB newcomer Eric TheSkeleton owns the hands behind them and there’s more to see of each glorious galactic racer at his photostream. Jump to the action via the link above, whilst we post something that’s not stolen from a vastly more competent Lego site…

*And Putin-has-a-tiny-penis jokes. Beating The Brothers Brick, Your Mom jokes, and mocking Putin. Three things.

Dog Vomit

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We like fast estate cars here at The Lego Car Blog – mostly because they’re not fast SUVs – and the latest Audi RS6 Avant is perhaps the best of them all.

With a turbocharged V8 producing nearly 600bhp, the RS6 can take your labrador to 60mph in just over three seconds, which is supercar fast. And supercars can’t fit a labrador in the boot at all.

This exceptionally clean Speed Champions style recreation of Audi’s fastest wagon is the work of regular bloggee SP_LINEUP and there’s more to see on Flickr. Click the link above to make a dog violently sick.

My Other Car’s a Bugatti

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Bugatti’s Chiron probably shares more than a few parts with the Audi R8, what with both of them coming from the Volkswagen Empire. In fact we wouldn’t be surprised if the Chiron and the R8 share the odd part with a Skoda too, but that’s probably kept quiet…

Michal Wolski (aka Porsche96) has gone considerably further though, building his Audi R8 only from parts found within the 42083 Technic Bugatti Chiron set.

Michal’s alternate is just as features-packed as the donor set too, with all-wheel-suspension, a working V10 engine hooked up to a 4-speed sequential gearbox, steering by both the wheel and ‘Hand of God’, and a functioning convertible roof.

Full build details and a link to building instructions can be found at the Eurobricks forum, whist a complete gallery of images is available to view via both Bricksafe and Flickr. Click the links to take a closer look at Michal’s Bugatti-based R8, and if you’re feeling inspired we’d like to see a Chiron-based Skoda!

Cache of Classics

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We have a bumper haul for you today! These wonderful classic creations all come from previous bloggee Jonathan Elliott, who has turned his considerable talents to building a range of beautifully photographed and presented vehicles spanning four decades.

From a Fiat Abarth 1000TC (top) via a 1950s panel van (below), a gorgeous 1960s supercar (above), and finally a superb replica of the iconic 1980s Audi quattro (bottom), each has been created using a wide variety of brilliant building techniques and some stunning attention to detail.

There’s more to see of each of Jonathan’s builds featured here, plus a loads more 6-wide vehicles that form his ace back-catalogue, by visiting his photostream on Flickr. Click the link above to take a closer look at the Abarth, ’50s van, ’60s supercar and Audi quattro and much more besides.

76897 Speed Champions Audi Sport quattro S1 | Set Preview

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The elite team of Elves dispatched over The LEGO Company’s perimeter walls are one by one returning to TLCB Towers, clutching their discoveries stolen from the bowels of LEGO’s R&D department.

A couple may also carry a few bite marks (and some don’t return at all), but that’s why we employ mythical creatures, as there’s no way you’d get us to squeeze through an air-conditioning duct to escape a Danish Alsatian. We’re much too fat.

Anyway, the Elf that returned today came home clutching a new set that has got us very excited, the frankly brilliant looking 76897 Audi Sport quattro (with a little ‘q’) S1 rally car.

The quattro was not the first car to be fitted with all-wheel-drive, but it was the first to take the idea rallying, along with a unique 5-cylinder turbocharged engine that made a truly ridiculous amount of power, allowed thanks to Group B’s incredibly lax rulebook. The result was a car that won the World Rally Championship in ’82 and ’84, with every WRC manufacturer title claimed by an all-wheel-drive car thereafter.

The new 76897 set recreates the Audi Sport quattro S1 which finished second in 1985 season in the hands of Stig Blomqvist and Walter Röhrl, using LEGO’s new 8-wide template to bring more realism to the Speed Champions range. Constructed from 250 pieces, the Audi’s famous livery has been really well replicated, and for once the detail is brick-built rather than being applied by stickers. There are stickers too of course, and they look splendid, adding excellent period authenticity to the set.

Like all Speed Champions sets 76897 also includes a mini-figure driver, but annoyingly no co-driver, despite the 8-wide design allowing one to fit. This is no doubt due to cost, but is nevertheless disappointing from a realism point of view.

Despite this oversight we think the Speed Champions Audi Sport quattro S1 is one of the best products to come from the franchise yet, and – at an expected cost of around $20 when it reaches stores at then end of the year – there’s no cooler set for the money. We’ll just have to add our own second mini-figure to the model to complete it.

Cowdi

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We shouldn’t like the Audi RS7. Driven by douchebags and often poorly modified, they’re usually found an inch from the rear bumper of the car in front wearing stupid blacked-out lights and a blackboard wrap. But, as Audi RS models go, the RS7 is actually quite subtle. OK, not subtle, but it’s not the bloody SQ7 and for that it should be celebrated.

This Technic example wearing RS7-appropriate mods has been built by terryli of Eurobricks and comes wrapped in a cow-esque paint job with chrome-red rims. Whilst not exactly to our tastes (although the Elves love it…), terryli’s RS7 is superbly accurate underneath, with the Audi’s swooping outline very well replicated in Technic form.

There’s a lot going under under that cowhide too, as the model is equipped with remote control drive and steering, LED lights, opening doors, hood and tailgate, independent and remotely adjustable suspension, and a brilliant motorised deployable rear spoiler.

There’s more to see of terryli’s Cowdi RS7 at the Eurobricks forum – click the link above to take a closer look.

Piëch’s Peak

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Earlier this week one of the automotive industry’s greatest talents passed away. Ferdinand Piech, the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, ex-chairman of the Volkswagen Group, and the man behind some of the most iconic cars ever made, collapsed in a restaurant in Germany. He was 82.

Sometimes controversial, there was considerable hostility between Piech and Porsche – the company founded by his grandfather – during his tenure at the top of Volkswagen, eventually resulting in Piech buying Porsche to oust their chairman. The Volkswagen Group has since faced the biggest scandal in its history (dragging Porsche into it the mire too), yet has also become the world’s largest automotive manufacturer by volume, with much of that down to Piech’s reign at the top.

Piech’s legacy is as astonishing one, including diesel engines for Mercedes-Benz, the amazing Porsche 917, the Bugatti Veyron, and this, the original Audi ‘UR’ quattro – the car that, whilst not the first, popularised the advantages of all-wheel-drive beyond off-roaders.

This cartoon-like Technic recreation of the legendary Audi quattro Group B rally car comes from Teo Technic and features remote control drive and steering, independent suspension, working headlights and – of course – all-wheel-drive.

There’s more to see of Teo’s Audi quattro at both Flickr and the Eurobricks discussion forum. Click the links to make the jump – and tip your hat to the man behind it and some of the other greatest cars in modern history.

Ferdinand Karl Piëch, 1937 – 2019

Wings (Part II)

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Lego Audi Sport quattro S1 E2 Pikes Peak

Unlike today’s other wingsy post, the aero attached to this amazing-looking Audi quattro S1 E2 Pikes Peak is entirely functional. Built for conquering the formidable Pikes Peak mountain climb back when the surface was loose gravel, the Audi quattro S1 E2 needed as much downforce as it could get. Piloted by WRC legend Walter Röhrl, the S1 E2 reached the top of the mountain in less than eleven minutes, making it the first car ever to do so.

This wonderful replica of one of the most ridiculous racing cars ever built comes from Marc ‘Edge’ R.unde of Flickr, and he’s captured both the remarkable bodywork of the S1 E2 and the famous Audi Sport livery beautifully. See more at the link above.

Lego Audi Sport quattro S1 E2 Pikes Peak

Race on Sunday Sell on Monday

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Lego Audi Sport quattro S1 E2

Contrary to popular belief Audi were not the first to bring all-wheel-drive to performance cars. However their ‘quattro’ system undoubtedly brought all-wheel-drive performance into the mainstream, and it changed rallying forever.

Launched in 1980 the Audi quattro brought several innovative new technologies into one glorious package, including all-wheel-drive, turbocharging, and a delightfully weird inline 5-cylinder engine. Audi entered their new car in the World Rally Championship’s Group B category, winning the championship in 1982 and 1984, plus the Pike’s Peak Hillclimb too.

By 1985 a variety of all-wheel-drive turbocharged rivals had caught – and then overtaken – the rally pioneer, beating Audi at their own game. This led Audi Sport to chop a chunk of length from the quattro’s wheelbase and up power to a very unofficial 500bhp+. The Sport quattro was born, a comedically ugly machine that was devastating effective. Best of all due to the FIA’s homologation rules a few hundred Sport quattros had to be produced for the road, meaning you could buy your very own World Rally Car for trips to Walmart.

Suggested by a reader we have both the rally and road versions of the Sport quattro in today’s post, each brilliantly built in Speed Champions scale by previous bloggee Marc ‘Edge’. There’s more to see of Marc’s rally and road Sport quattros on Flickr – click the links above to head to a gravelly forest circa-1985.

Lego Audi Sport quattro

My Other Car is a Porsche

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Lego Technic Audi R8 V10 Plus

LEGO’s 42056 Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS set did not fair well here under the Reviewer’s gaze. Over-priced and under-engineered, 42056 is – in that regard at least – quite un-Porsche-like. However the Lego Community have been taking their hands to the GT3 RS to see if they can do better. This is the latest 42056 B-Model effort to come our way, and it looks tremendous.

Built by MOCpages’ Kasper Hansen, this Audi R8 V10 Plus almost exclusively uses parts from the Porsche 911 GT3 RS set, apart from the 3D-printed wheels (which are some of the most accurate replicas of the wheels from a real car that we’ve ever seen).

Kasper’s R8 also features a V10 engine, steering, suspension, paddle-shift gearbox (likely lifted straight from the official set),  plus opening doors, hood and engine cover. There’s more to see of Kasper’s creation over on MOCpages – click the link above to make the jump – and if you’d like to dismantle your own 42056 Porsche 911 GT3 RS to have a go at your own B-Model, here’s one fast way to do it…

Nice TT

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Lego Audi TT

We’re using female anatomy puns in our titles today. The second of today’s posts comes courtesy of Lennart C of Flickr, and it is of course Audi’s well-recognised second generation TT.

Effectively a Volkswagen Golf in a pretty dress, the TT has taken TLCB’s home market by storm since the first generation launched back in 1999. In our eyes it isn’t really a sports car, being either front or all-wheel drive and being mostly fitted with turbo diesel engines, but that hasn’t stopped style-conscious buyers with a penchant for four rings on the grille buying the TT in their thousands.

Lennart has replicated the Mark II TT rather well in Model Team form, and his creation features a detailed interior and engine, plus opening doors, trunk and hood.

You can see more TT pics at his photostream – click the link above for a peek.

Lego Audi TT

Nine One Nine

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Lego Technic Porsche 919 Le Mans

Due to the ongoing Dieselgate scandal the Volkswagen Group have a bit of reputation rebuilding to do. Cue motorsport; get your cars on the track, win some races, and everyone loves you.

Unfortunately for motorsport fans (and for Volkswagen), this method is very expensive, and criminal investigations, lawsuits, and fines do not come cheap. It also doesn’t look too good if you’re caught fiddling diesel emissions tests to then put said diesel engine on a racetrack to promote its sales…

Sadly the current situation has meant that Volkswagen have decided to pull the plug on both their WRC campaign and their Audi Diesel Le Mans team, both of which have won everything going in the last few years. We think they’ll probably enter Formula E at some point to show how they’ve turned over a new leaf and that they really do care about the environment after all, but until then it falls to Porsche to keep the Group active in motorsport.

Fortunately Porsche have picked up exactly where Audi left off, winning the Le Mans 24 Hour race back-to-back in 2015 and 2016 with this, their magnificent 919 hybrid LMP1 racer. This incredible replica of last year’s race-winning car is the work of Manuel Nascimento of Flickr, and it’s one of the finest Technic supercars of the year.

Manuel has built the 919’s LMP1 bodywork beautifully, including accurate recreations of the sponsorship and branding decals found on the real car. The beauty is more than skin deep too, as the model features Power Functions lights, remote control drive and steering, and electrically opening doors.

There’s a huge gallery of stunning images available to view; click the link above to see more at Manuel’s photostream.

Lego Porsche 919 Le Mans Technic RC