Tag Archives: bmw

Nosing Ahead

Leave a reply

The new BMW M4, as with many of the brand’s latest offerings, is rather… er, nostrilly. Still, in racing form that humungous beak must help with cooling, and the M4 is indeed available to buy as a factory racing car in GT3 specification.

Cue this phenomenal Technic replica of the M4 GT3 by previous bloggee and TLCB Master MOCer Lachlan Cameron (aka Lox Lego).

Deploying not just his own talents, but also the best of third-party LEGO compatible creators including BuWizz (bluetooth battery), System of a Brick (custom rims), snakeeyes (racing livery design), and Brick Visions (interior stickers), Lachlan demonstrates that Lego building can be taken far beyond the basic bricks.

Underneath that superbly-liveried exterior is a full remote control drivetrain consisting of a BuWizz brick and dual Buggy Motors, working steering, adjustable suspension with five ride heights, a straight-6 engine, opening and locking doors, hood and trunk, and LED head and tail lights.

A road car variant is available too, and there’s lots more of both versions to see at Lachlan’s ‘BMW M4 GT3’ Flickr album, at the Eurobricks forum, and via a YouTube video available here. Click the links above to nose your way there.

My Other Car’s a Porsche

Leave a reply

TLCB Team are not fans of BMW’s M-Division right now. From sticking ‘M’ badges on literally everything to this utter, utter abomination, who needs the ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’ when you could have a 2.7 ton SUV instead? Well, we’d rather prefer the former, but we need to take a look in BMW M’s back-catalogue to find it.

Fortunately there are plenty of gems to be found, and perhaps none more so than the very first car created by M-Division; the BMW M1.

Partly developed by Lamborghini, the BMW M1 featured a mid-mounted 3.5 litre inline-6, a wedge-shaped fibreglass body designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, and engineering to take on Porsche in Group 4 homologated racing.

The M1 proved competitive, racing at Le Mans, in various GT series, and in BMW’s own ‘Procar Championship’, won in 1980 by Nikki Lauda and in ’81 by Nelson Picquet, who would both become three-time Formula 1 world champions.

This lovely recreation of BMW’s first M-car is the work of TLCB Master MOCer Firas Abu-Jaber, who has constructed it solely from the parts found within the 10295 Porsche 911 set. There are opening doors, front trunk and engine cover, working steering, plus a detailed engine and interior, and there’s lots more of Firas’ BMW B-Model to see at his ‘10295 BMW M1’ album on Flickr.

Click the link above to take a look, the one above that to view the 10295 set that Firas’ M1 is derived from, or here to see another wedgy-alternate built from that rather more round Porsche.

Having a Lark

Leave a reply

Once the world’s fastest production car, and winner of the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours, this is the McLaren F1 GTR.

Following its victory at Le Mans (the first time either a manufacturer or team had won the race on their Le Mans debut), McLaren’s Ron Dennis and businessman Kazumichi Goh decided to take the car to Japan, forming McLaren Team Lark, and taking on the country’s domestic teams in the newly formed GT500 championship.

The Lark McLaren F1 GTRs were dominant, comfortably beating domestic rivals from Nissan, Toyota and Honda to win every GT500 race in 1996 bar one.

So dominant was the F1 GTR in fact, that the organisers effectively legislated it out of the championship, imposing so many restrictions on the team that they withdrew before the start of the ’97 season.

The result, after that single all-conquering year, was that the rest of the GT500 teams considerably upped their game. GT500 cars became much faster, more exciting, and more technologically-advanced, and thus the ongoing success of the GT500 Championship has more than a little to do with a little British car that entered for just one season some three decades ago.

This wonderful homage to the short-lived but spectacular Team Lark McLaren F1 GTRs comes from TLCB debutant brickengineeringdude, who has recreated the ’96 championship-winning racer brilliantly in brick form. 3D-Printed wheels, tyres decals, and a superb approximation of the Team Lark livery make brick’s F1 GTR instantly recognisable, and there’s much more to see at their photostream via the link.

But what of Team Lark and GT500? Well owner Kazumichi Goh went on to buy an Audi R8, and with it won the 2004 Le Mans 24 Hours, becoming only the second Japanese team to win the race outright. Meanwhile Japan’s GT500 championship has gone from strength to strength, but has never again been won by a non-Japanese car since the Team Lark McLarens of 1996…

The Ultimate Driving Machine

Leave a reply

The future of BMW M-cars is electric. And automatic. The current M2 is already confirmed to be the final manual M-car, and – if the horrendous new BMW XM is any indication – the future of BMW’s M-division looks fat, almost comically ostentatious, and immensely, unfathomably, ludicrously ugly. Make your own ‘Your Mom’ joke.

Which is probably why the original 1980s BMW ‘E30’ M3, weighing under 1,200kgs and powered by a four-cylinder engine that made less than 200bhp, is being seen as something of an antidote to the overblown ridiculousness of today’s M-cars.

This lovely Technic recreation of BMW’s M-car high water mark was found on Eurobricks, and comes from previous bloggee apachaiapachai. There’s remote control drive and steering courtesy of LEGO’s Control+ motors and app, opening doors, and that’s it. Which makes it every bit as wonderfully simple as the real E30 M3.

There’s more to see at the Eurobricks forum, and you can take a look via the link above.

Greener Beemer

Leave a reply

The seventies has some wild colours. And brown. Mostly brown in fact, but no matter, because this super-slammed ’70s BMW 2002 tii is gloriously green.

PleaseYesPlease is the builder and you can see more of his greener Beemer on Flickr via the link.

The Ultimate Driving Machine

1 Reply

BMW’s ‘E30’ generation 3-Series has become a cult car. Small, light, rear-wheel-drive, and without an over-complicated twin-scroll turbo in sight, the E30 is the antidote to whatever horror BMW is making these days.

Cue TLCB favourite Thirdwigg, who has recreated the late-’80s BMW 3-Series brilliantly in Technic form. Built in both sedan and estate forms, Thirdwigg’s E30s are subtly modified with lowered suspension, a modest body-kit, and – in the case of the sedan – a V8 engine swap.

We’d rather take the estate’s Inline-6 though, and with free building instructions for both (a hundred TLCB Points Thirdwigg!), presumably you can switch out the sedan’s V8 engine with ease. There’s also working steering, opening everything, and much more to see at both Flickr and Eurobricks. Jump back to a time when BMW’s marketing tagline actually meant something via the links above.

Two Become One*

2 Replies

This beautiful motorcycle, discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr and another at Eurobricks, took builder Stephan Jonsson over four years to finish. Which is very long time indeed. That said, the resulting creation is almost ridiculously good, combining the best bits of two real-world BMW Motorrad products, the R NineT roadster and the R 1200 GS adventure bike.

Stephan’s hybrid of the two BMW bikes features working steering and suspension, shaft-drive, and one of the best brick-built motorcycle engines we’ve ever seen, complete with a wonderfully shaped exhaust, twin open air-filters, and the correct cables and linkages.

The incredible detailing extends elsewhere too, with even the gold brake callipers linked by lines to the handlebar levers, and there’s lots more to see of Stephan’s stunning BMW motorcycle mashup at both Flickr and Eurobricks. Click the links above to see more of perhaps the most perfect bike ever created in Lego (and perhaps BMW Motorrad should take a look too…).

*Yes, we went there. And if the proper Lego Blogs publicise this creation and they don’t link to a painfully ’90s pop song, they’re not worth reading.

E36

Leave a reply

BMWs have a weird lifecycle in TLCB’s home market. Mass-market Germanic greyness when new, they become increasingly popular with the scumbag portion of the population as their age increases and value drops.

During this phase many are poorly maintained, even more poorly modified, and then scrapped when something expensive inevitably breaks. But for the few that dodge the hands of the scumbags, a sunny future of classic status awaits.

The E36 3-Series is not yet at that point, but it’s not far off, making now the perfect time to buy. If you can find one that hasn’t been scumbagged of course.

Fuku Saku‘s BMW 3-Series E36 Coupe – with its big wing, bodykit and phat exhaust – is probably a car to steer well clear of in real life, but happily in brick form is rather excellent, and captures the E36 in its current usually-spotted state brilliantly.

A wealth of top-quality imagery is available to view, and you can check out Fuku’s E36 on Flickr via the link. Take a look whilst we trawl the ads to try and find one of the last remaining good ones.

Pink & Slippy

1 Reply

This is resolutely not this TLCB Writer’s kind of car. But the rest of the staff are ‘busy’ in the corridor doing something with a remote control bulldozer and some Elven ‘volunteers’, so it falls to him to write about a pink drift-pig BMW.

That said, whilst this model is based on a real and eye-searing car, Fuku Saku‘s brick-built homage to the sideways E36 is thoroughly excellent, being both instantly recognisable as an E36 3-Series Coupe, and managing to replicate the drifty modifications of the real thing.

The doors and hood open to reveal further cleverness within, and there’s more to see of Fuku’s E36 Drift Car at his album of the same name on Flickr. Click the link above to go sliding about in something pink.

Just a nineT

Leave a reply

A few pieces an interesting creation can make, as proven here today by previous bloggee dicken liu and his lovely BMW R nineT motorbike. A clever blend of parts capture the real motorcycle’s aesthetic in miniature, and there’s more to see on Flickr via the link.

Alright M8

Leave a reply

This rather excellent Technic Supercar is a BMW M8 Competition, BMW’s 600bhp, twin-turbo V8, all-wheel-drive flagship.

Constructed by IA creations, this recreation of BMW’s super coupe includes a wealth of Technic functionality, with both traditional mechanical ‘supercar’ elements and motorised remote control.

A working V8 engine, all-wheel-drive, steering, and double-wishbone suspension take care of the former, whilst a BuWizz bluetooth battery powers twin drive motors, servo steering, and three sets of LEDs for the head and tail lights, enabling programmable bluetooth remote control.

It’s a fantastically well engineered creation and one that you can build for yourself too, as IA has made instructions available. Head to the Eurobricks forum for full details, plus you can find the complete image gallery of IA BMW M8 Competition on Bricksafe.

Finally, you can win an awesome BuWizz 3.0 Pro like the one powering IA’s magnificent M8 by entering TLCB and BrickNerd’s Festival of Mundanity competition! This M8 Competition is definitely much too interesting of course, but a grey 320d… that could do very well indeed!

Hash Brown

Leave a reply

We’re on two wheels today, thanks to Jonathan Elliott and this lovely BMW R80 ‘Cafe Racer’ motorcycle. There’s a brick-built boxer engine, single-shock suspension, and shaft drive constructed from the five-hundred carefully chosen pieces, a good few of which are brown. And brown bikes look ace. Ride to the cafe via the link above.

My Other Car’s Also Really Small

Leave a reply

Fiat’s original 500 was really small. But back in the 1950s you could go even smaller.

Microcars, often dubbed ‘bubble cars’, were popular in post-war Europe, thanks to limited metal supplies, a need for cheap transportation, and a population that was still largely moving itself about by motorcycle. Or horse.

This is one of the most well known bubble cars, the BMW Isetta. Less well known is the fact it was actually an Italian design by ISO Rivolta that BMW produced under license, so it’s fitting therefore that this one is also built from the bits of an Italian car.

The work of previous bloggee Tomáš Novák (aka PsychoWard666), this beautifully presented BMW Isetta is constructed only from the parts found within the official 10271 Creator Fiat 500 set, although such is its accuracy you’d never know. Unless you see it alongside the 10271’s rather pointless easel of course…

Building instructions are available and there’s lots more of Tomáš’ BMW B-Model to see (including that give-away image) at both Eurobricks and Flickr – click the links above to take a look.

Technic 42130 BMW M 1000 RR | Set Preview

1 Reply

After being less than impressed with the first group of 2022 Technic sets, we were hoping something special was yet to be uncovered. And it has been!

This is the brand new 42130 Technic BMW M 1000 RR, the largest motorcycle set LEGO have ever made, and perhaps the largest scale ever used for a vehicle too, at an enormous 1:5.

So, the awkward bit; 42130 will cost over $200.

Which is a lot. But then the real BMW M 1000 RR costs around $30,000, so that astronomical figure for a motorcycle is rather authentic.

What upwards of $200 gets you is 1,920 pieces, including some splendid new wheels, windshield and brake parts, ultra-realistic and suitably M-Sport coloured farings, working steering, front and rear suspension, a three-speed gearbox, and a four-cylinder piston engine.

Two display stands and a black ’18+’ box (plus that hefty price tag) mark the 42130 Technic BMW M 1000 RR set out as part of LEGO’s recently created ‘adult’ product line, and if you consider yourself one of those you can get your hands on it early next year.

Despite the price, we just might…

One Time Winner

3 Replies

This is a BMW M3. The first BMW M3 in fact, back when it was light, agile, and powered by just four cylinders.

Built as a homologation special for touring car racing, the E30-series M3 was not intended to compete at the highest level of the World Rally Championship, what with that being dominated by the four-wheel-drive Group B cars from Audi and Lancia.

However, for just one rally, in 1987, the E30 BMW M3 was untouchable. The Tour de Course is a tight, all-tarmac rally held on the island of Corsica, and it’s just like a (very long) touring car race. All-wheel-drive and enormous power didn’t matter, as Bernard Béguin proved by taking a start-to-finish victory in his BMW M3, the first and only time BMW has won a WRC event.

This incredible brick-built replica of the Rothmans-BMW M3 rally car is the work of Dennis Glaasker (aka bricksonwheels), who has recreated the 1987 Tour de Corse winner with astounding realism.

Around 2,000 LEGO parts have been used, detailing the exterior, rally-spec interior, and inline-4 turbocharged engine under the hood, with fellow previous bloggee JaapTechnic assisting Dennis with the build by designing the stunning replica Rothmans-BMW livery.

The result is one of the most life-like creations of the year so far, presented beautifully to Dennis’ usual impeccable standard. There’s more of this astonishing creation to see at Dennis’ ‘BMW M3 Rally’ album on Flickr, and you can find out more about how he creates his amazing creations such as this one via the Master MOCer series by clicking here.