Tag Archives: Britten

Life-Size Britten V1000 Motorcycle

New Zealand doesn’t have much of an indigenous vehicle industry, but it’s a country that does love racing, and in the 1990s a small team from Christchurch formed a company and decided to build their own racing motorcycle. And it was incredible.

The Britten V1000 became one of the greatest racing motorbike designs of all time, pioneering carbon fibre extensively (this is before the McLaren F1), double wishbone front suspension, a frameless chassis, and even engine data logging.

Ten V1000s were produced, with the bike setting multiple speed and race records during the 1990s, including the highest top speed at the Isle of Man TT in 1993 and the fastest standing start mile under 1000cc, at over 200mph.

It’s quite a machine then, and so when certified LEGO Professional Ryan McNaught and his team of model makers were commissioned to build something for an Aukland-based client they chose to build this Kiwi icon of racing.

An exact 1:1 scale replica of one of the ten real Britten V1000s motorbikes, Ryan (aka The Brickman) and his team have used LEGO pieces to recreate every aspect of the record-setting bike, including the fantastically intricate exhaust and rear shock springs that make our head hurt just looking at them.

This amazing build will go on display at Toyco 2020 in New Zealand, so if you’re reading this from Aukland go and check it out! For the rest of our readers you can head to Ryan McNaught’s ‘Britten V-1000’ Flickr album to see more of this spectacular life-size replica.