If you’re seven, or a TLCB Elf, then this post is for you. This is Tim Inman‘s Chevy Nova, only it isn’t quite as per the cars that left the Chevrolet factory in 1963. Inspired by the German DTM racing series, Tim has outfitted his Nova with a wild aero package consisting of flared arches, ground-effect skirts, a front splitter, rear diffuser, and the biggest rear wing we’ve ever seen. There’s more to see of Tim’s Super Nova on Flickr and you can join the rather weird DTM race via the link.
Whilst both part of the General Motors empire, America’s Chevy ‘Nova’ was rather different to the Vauxhall one we got… Still, we have the cool one today, courtesy of IBrickedItUp and this neat recreation of the third generation Chevrolet Nova SS in Speed Champions scale. Racing stripes and an unnecessary hood bulge add to the image (again, somewhat different to what we got…), and there’s more to see via the link!
The brand new 10304 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 set is a fantastic addition to LEGO’s real-world vehicle line-up. But what if you prefer your Chevy’s a little more… trucky? Previous bloggee Tomáš Novák (aka PsychoWard666) has the answer, having converted his 10304 Camaro into this excellent mid-80s Chevrolet C10 pick-up, using only the parts from the official LEGO set.
Building instructions are available if you fancy having a go yourself, and there’s more to see of Tomáš’ classic Chevrolet B-Model at both his Flickr photostream and the Eurobricks forum. Click the links above to swap one Chevy for another.
America likes naming cars after animals. Usually scary ones. Viper, Raptor, Cougar, Stingray, Cobra, Barracuda, Falcon… there’s a long list of predators in car form. And then there’s this; the Impala, named after a medium-sized African antelope.
We’re not sure what a medium-sized African antelope has in common with a large American sedan, and the name is all the more surprising considering the antelope is the prey of top predators and America really doesn’t like naming anything with a hint of weakness. Nevertheless, the Impala was a smash hit.
Part of that success was no doubt down to the Impala’s engines, which themselves had very exciting names such as ‘Blue Flame’, ‘Turbo Fire’ and ‘Turbo Thrust’, although none of which were actually turbo-charged.
Top of the tree was the ‘SS’, which used a 409cu (6.7 litre) ‘Turbo Thrust’ V8 in third-generation form as pictured here, and could produce over 400bhp. This is one medium-sized antelope that was more than a match for the predators.
This beautiful brick-built example of the ’64 ‘SS’ comes from Jakub Marcisz of Flickr, who has recreated the aforementioned ‘Turbo Thrust’ V8, and the third-generation Chevrolet Impala that it powered, in spellbinding detail.
The fantastic exterior is matched by an equally well-detailed interior accessible by opening doors, plus there’s an opening hood and trunk lid, and working steering too, with much more of Jakub’s stunning creation to see at his ‘Chevrolet Impala SS 1964’ album, where twenty top-quality images are available.
The Impala’s success would continue across six decades, but – as with all animals – it eventually succumbed to age. The Impala was finally taken out in 2020, not by one of the various predatorily-named cars it competed against, but by the SUV, with Chevrolet ceasing production in order to focus on crossovers.
And if there’s a car name less cool than a medium-sized African antelope, it’s surely the Traverse.
Racing stripes and V8s are staple favourites here at The Lego Car Blog. Except within the current Festival of Mundanity competition of course. But this car isn’t mundane at all.
The Chevelle was Chevrolet’s mid-sized car in the ’60s and ’70s, built on GM’s ‘A-Body’ platform, and available with no less than eight V8 engines. And a pair of 6-cylinders, but we’re not interested in those.
Top of the tree was the SS, which had over 350bhp. And no steering, suspension or brakes, as was the fashion of American muscle cars of the time. Still, the racing stripes more than made up for that.
This excellent brick-built homage to the 1970s all-power-no-steering approach comes from previous bloggee Rolands Kirpis, and features opening doors, hood and trunk, a realistic V8 engine, and beautiful be-striped dark green bodywork. Which – considering how exceptionally rare dark green LEGO pieces are – must’ve been a proper faff. Apparently one part was $20 alone!
Further images are available and you can take a look via Rolands’ ‘Chevrolet Chevelle SS 1970’ album here, where a link to instructions will also appear soon. Maybe don’t try build it in green though…
It’s wheat season. Not here in TLCB’s home nation, where everything is under a thin layer of ice, but somewhere it probably it is.
Regular bloggee 1saac W. is bringing in the wheat harvest back in the 1950s, with his lovely brick-built Ford 8N tractor and ’49 Chevrolet pick-up.
A neat Technic-pin field of wheat stands behind the classic farm due, and there’s more to see of both the Ford 8N and the Chevy at 1saac’s photostream.
Grab your hay fork and head to 1950s rural America via the link in the text above.
A flame paint-job is worth at least 150bhp, according to TLCB maths. That puts it right up there with a supercharger, side pipes and nitrous in TLCB’s list of go-faster things.
Laszlo Torma’s Speed Champions ‘57 Chevy is therefore very powerful indeed, being equipped with at least two of the above.
A brilliant brick-built grille and a pair of appropriately cool looking mini-figures complete the build, and there’s more to see of Laszlo’s flaming Chevy – including a link to building instructions – on Flickr via the link above.
The 1961 Chevrolet Corvair was a brilliantly interesting car. Designed to take on Volkswagen, the Corvair was powered by a rear-mounted air-cooled flat-6 engine, which even came with the option of turbo-charging (the first production car in the world to do so).
Unfortunately however, the Corvair also featured a significant design flaw; the suspension tried to kill you.
The bean-counters at GM omitted anti-sway bars to save cost, which – when combined with that rear-mounted flat-6 engine and swing-axle suspension – caused the wheel camber to vary drastically when cornering. This created a car with wildly unpredictable handling, and therefore one that crashed a lot.
In 1965 attorney Ralph Nader published a book on the Corvair titled ‘Unsafe at Any Speed’, and Corvair sales plummeted. Of course GM did the default ‘evil corporation’ thing and attempted to smear Nader rather than fix the car, before conceding and equipping the Corvair with independent suspension.
The damage had been done though, and the Corvair carries a crashy reputation to this day. Cue Flickr’s Volker Brodkorb, who has fixed his Corvair station wagon’s handling issues by, well… turning it into an off-road monster truck.
OK, if anything the handling would be even worse, but look how cool it is! Volker’s model is in fact based on a real Corvair monster truck, which has got the Elves very excited. There’s more to see of Volker’s version via the link above, and you can check out a video of the real-life monster truck on which Volker’s model is based by clicking this link, where – amazingly – no one is killed at all.
The ’60s was an era full of wildly optimistic names. This is a 1965 Chevrolet Sportvan Delux, which Chevy’s marketing department must have spent literally minutes working on, before going outside to smoke a pack of cigarettes or three.
Still, it looks cool, particularly with a trio of surfboards on the roof. Flickr’s Tim Henderson is the builder and there’s more to see of his wonderfully built but stupidly named creation via the link above.
And surely no-one would be silly enough to give something a name as utterly pointless as ‘Sportvan’ these days…
We like rusty cars here at The Lego Car Blog. The staff car park features several. Although in those cases the rust is due to neglect, age, and general decrepitness rather than some kind of rat-rod based badassery.
So too is Tim Henderson’s ‘barn find’ ’68 Chevy Nova, although unlike the office Rover 200 it somehow manages to look seriously cool as well as neglected, old, and decrepit.
A cunning deployment of mini-figure seats form the doors, an array of browns convey years of oxidisation, and there’s more of Tim’s ‘barn find’ Nova to see at his photostream here.
*Today’s magnificent title song.
“This car is a hundred percent death proof. Only to get the benefit of it, honey, you really need to be sitting in my seat.”
Death Proof isn’t one of Tarantino’s best works (but the bar is unfathomably high), however it’s undoubtedly his best vehicular work.
Stuntman Mike’s 1970 Chevrolet Nova appears in Lego form courtesy of Jonathan Elliott, and you can see more at his photostream. Just make sure you don’t sit in the passenger seat.
Talking of big boring boxes, here’s a Chevrolet Express Conversion Van. No amount of tinted windows and stickers down the sides could make us want to ride in this hateful pile of American misery, but Ralph has made his (excellent) Miniland recreation of the Chevy Express rather more exciting by the addition of a tow hitch, meaning his beige box of bricks can tow an altogether more interesting Chevy…
Hooked up to the Express is a trailer carrying this magnificent ’57 Bel Air ‘gasser’, complete with a supercharger poking through the hood and a flame paint job, both of which have got the Elves very animated. A cast of unique-looking characters is on hand to make sure she’s runnin’ right and there’s more to see of the Bel Air gasser (and the Express van we suppose) at Ralph’s photostream – click here to make the jump!
We have no idea whether this ’67 Chevy C-10 dragster could do a ten second quarter mile in real life, but it sure looks like it can. The flames alone have got to be worth with at least second by TLCB maths.
Built by Flickr’s Brick Flag neat detailing and superb custom decals are in abundance, and there’s more to see at his ‘Chevy C-10’ album – click the link for a the best ten seconds your life.
We’re pretty sure that whatever you first car was, it probably came inside a box like this. This is Rolling Bricks‘ Matchbox 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, a wonderful homage to the famous toy maker’s 1980s vehicles (and packaging), recreated beautifully in Lego form.
Stacked red, yellow, white and blue plates replicate Matchbox’s iconic classic livery beautifully, and he’s even built the hole thingy that enabled the boxes to hang from those weird metal poles in the toy store, so you could slide them all out to find the one you wanted.
There’s much more to see of Rolling Bricks’ glorious Matchbox Chevy at his Flickr album, where you can also find building instructions should you wish to recreate the cars of your youth yourself. Click the link above to head to the toy store.
Not all American pick-up trucks are pointlessly-enormous, over-engined yet under-engineered projections of machismo. This is the Chevrolet C10, a compact and utilitarian vehicle for actually picking stuff up and moving it about. Which is probably why Chevrolet don’t make it anymore. No matter, Simon Przepiorka has remembered the C10, and he’s added a few tasteful mods too. See more of his excellent 8-wide recreation of the 1970s Chevy on Flickr via the link.
