Tag Archives: Classic Car

Big Yellow Taxi*

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This TLCB writer always found it strange that American taxis used to be ginormous V8 sedans. Threading through congested city streets, the only thing lower than miles-per-hour was the miles-per-gallon.

Today’s far more efficient hybrids and EVs make much more sense, but they do somehow seem less… American than the V8 barges that preceded them.

Cue Sseven Bricks’ fabulous ‘75 Plymouth Fury taxi, which captures the spirit of the lost cabs beautifully. There’s more to see on Flickr, and you can hail a ridiculously inefficient ride via the link.

*Today’s absolutely lovely title song.

Green Gran

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We’re still in classic car territory here at The Lego Car Blog, which is fine by us; anything from years past is preferable to whatever Chinese electric crossover has been revealed in the last ten minutes.

This is definitely not a Chinese electric crossover. It’s a 1972 Ford Gran Torino Sport, a car that was available with five different V8 engines and a maximum of four gears. Because gas was cheap and nothing was going to happen to jeopardise that.

Anyway, this marvellous Model Team recreation of the ‘72 Ford Gran Torino Sport comes from previous bloggee Jakub Marcisz, and features working steering, opening everything, and a superbly detailed interior and V8 engine.

Building instructions are available and there’s more of the model to see at Jakub’s ‘Gran Torino 1972’ album on Flickr.

Hill & Biens

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We’re sticking with classic cars today, and this lovely Speed Champions 1958 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, that won Le Mans in the hands of Phil Hill and Oliver Gendebien.

Created by SFH_Bricks, this beautifully presented model captures the iconic Ferrari racer superbly, and you can join Hill and Gendebien in France in ‘58 via the link.

In the Cloud

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That utter cringefest of toxic positivity, humble bragging, and ridiculous self-promotion, LinkedIn, is overflowing with meaningless posts about AI and ‘The Cloud’.

Nothing we write can adequately convey just how much we don’t care about your humble receipt of the Cloud Networking Award at the 2026 Delaware CAICP2 Conference, nor how the leaders of tomorrow are forging the future via cloud-based software to realise efficiencies and business automation.

If we’re going to be ‘In the Cloud’ we’d like it to be one of these, the stupendous Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II.

Powered by a 6.2 litre V8, weighing over two tons, and fitted with power steering and electric windows, the Silver Cloud was nothing short of the finest automobile in the world in the early-‘60s.

Cue this wonderful recreation of the 1960 Silver Cloud II by previous bloggee SP_LINEUP, who has replicated it in brick form beautifully. A range of clever techniques capture the Cloud’s coach-built bodywork and detailing (including the famous Spirit of Ecstacy), with a closer look available at SP’s photostream. Get In the Cloud via the link above. And LinkedIn sucks.

Cyberpunk Skyline

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Things TLCB doesn’t understand; Star Trek. Pugs. Melon as a starter. Trap music. Marvel. Cyberpunk.

Which means we’re rather out of our depth here with these two cyberpunk Nissan Skylines of different vintages, and thus our only commentary is ‘don’t they look cool!’.

Flickr’s Sergio Batista owns the cyberpunk pairing and you can take a closer look at each neon Nissan at his photostream via the link above. And seriously, how is melon as a starter acceptable?

Turbo Twin

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The early years of turbocharging – characterised by  chronic lag and spiky handling – were dominated by a few companies; BMW, Porsche, and – more weirdly – Renault.

Weirdly, because Renault didn’t have a sports sedan or sports car to put a turbo into, so they put one into their dinky 5 supermini. And it was mega.

Mid-rear engined, rear-wheel-drive, and powered by a turbocharged 1.4 litre making 160bhp, the R5 Turbo was a smash hit, and now you can create one for yourself if you own another ‘80s turbocharged icon, LEGO’s excellent 10295 Porsche 911 set.

Featuring working steering, a detailed interior and engine, plus opening doors and hood, Firas Abu-Jaber’s Renault 5 Turbo alternate is the perfect turbocharged twin to the 10295 donor.

Building instructions are available and you can find a link to them, plus all of the superb imagery, at Firas’ photostream. Click the link above to boost on over, or here to learn more about how Firas does it.

If You’re Going to San Francisco

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For those who come to San Francisco
They’ll find bricks placed with care everywhere 

On the streets of San FranciscoCars and vans will climb hills into the air

The improved lyrics of 1960s hippy nonsense, prompted by this fantastic diorama published by Brickleas of Flickr, who – with his fellow collaborators – has captured the spirit of ‘60s San Francisco wonderfully in this epic diorama.

Beautiful detailing abounds and you can go to San Francisco via the link above. Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.

Stingray

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It’s 1973, the US President is engulfed in scandal, and the US are supporting an Israeli war in the Middle East causing a global energy crisis. Thank goodness things like that don’t happen now…

Anyway, back to ‘73 and this, the gorgeous ‘C3’ generation Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.


Surely one of best American car designs of all time, this C3 Corvette comes from Ciamoslaw Ciamek, who has captured it brilliantly in Speed Champions form.

Building instructions are available and there’s more to see at Cismoslaw’s photostream. Click the link above and head back to an era with no similarities to today whatsoever…

The SS

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From one end General Motors’ cool spectrum (well, almost. There was the Chevrolet Matiz) to the other. This is the glorious 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS, with racing stripes and a 7.4 litre V8 that could be optioned up to 450bhp.

This spectacular brick-built version of the top dog Chevelle comes from Jakub Marcisz who has updated his previous iteration of his model, and features working steering, a two-speed gearbox, and V8 engine, plus opening doors, hood and trunk.

Building instructions are available and you can see all of the images and find full details of Jakub’s incredible creation at both Flickr and Eurobricks. Click the links to take a look.

Cease & Desist

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Italian lifestyle brand and occasional car maker Ferrari are rather enthusiastically legalistic. Even if you legitimately buy one of their products and decide to have some fun with the badges (as electronic music producer Deadmau5 knows), they’ll send you a letter threatening court action. Because you modified your car. Something to do with brand protection apparently, which is a bit rich considering all the tat they sell with their logo on.

All of which means Flickr’s Sharpspeed can probably expect a call from Ferrari’s lawyers, because his Speed Champions ‘Montichiari’ looks almost exactly like a Ferrari Daytona. That is to say, really good.

There’s more of the ‘Montichiari’ to see at his photostream via the link above so take a look before Ferrari get it removed.

Insert Shiny Meathead

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We can’t see a ’60s black Dodge Charger without hearing “…Family…”, mumbled in barely comprehensible English.

But shiny meathead and terrible dialogue aside, the second-generation Dodge Charger is nevertheless an iconic American muscle car.

Produced from just 1968 to 1970, the Charger’s base engine was a 5.2litre V8 (a still big 3.7 six-cylinder would arrive later), and rose to a gargantuan 7.0 litre Hemi. Because the oil crisis was still three years away…

Until then though, fuel economy was of little concern to Americans, and the Charger was a riotous success, with almost 100,000 units produced in that short run.

This fantastic ‘Icons’ scale example comes from previous bloggee Szunyogh Balázs (aka gnat.bricks), and features opening doors, hood and trunk, a superbly detailed (and easily removable) engine and transmission, and a highly realistic drivetrain and interior too.

Stunning presentation accompanies the build, with many more beautiful images available to view at Szunyogh’s ‘Lego Dodge Charger’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to take a closer look, or here to live your life a quarter-mile at a time.

A Fabulous Hudson Hornet

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The ‘Fabulous’ Hudson Hornet wasn’t just an all-conquering stock car racer. You could buy one for the road too. Available with two doors or four, as coupe, sedan, hardtop or convertible, and powered by a five-litre inline-6 with twin-carburettors, the Hornet could produce over 200bhp with minimal modifications.

It also featured a clever ‘step-down’ design, where – even though it was built on a separate chassis – the floor-pan sat between the chassis rails, lowering the centre of gravity and enabling beautiful streamlined bodywork. Flickr’s SFH_Bricks has recreated the Hornet’s fabulous shape beautifully, and there’s more of his superb small-scale homage to the classic Hudson to see via the link above.

Small Saab

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Today Saab is solely an aerospace and defence company. And before 1949 it was too. But in the middle it also made cars. Some of them wonderful. And this is their first.

Launched in 1949, the Saab 92 featured a 25hp 764cc two-cylinder two-stroke engine based on a German DKW design (Sweden was closer to Germany’s Nazi regime than they’d probably like to admit), a three-speed gearbox, front-wheel-drive, an aerodynamic body pressed from a single piece of sheet metal, and paint left over from the company’s aeroplane division.

Over 20,000 92s were produced, with the car becoming something of a rally legend during its production run, and later evolving to feature a trunk (with an opening lid!) and paint options other than military-surplus.

This lovely (and rather cleverly constructed) Saab 92 comes from SvenJ., who has packed front and rear fenders, door handles and mirrors, and even a split windshield into the pretty 7-wide bodywork.

You can take a closer look at Sven’s Saab 92 at his photostream, click the link above to make the jump.

Should’ve Got the Estate

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There is surely no better car than an ’80s Volvo estate for carrying a Christmas tree. Unfortunately for Flickr’s Sseven Bricks, this classic lump of Swedish medal is a sedan, and thus his tree has had to go on the roof. We’re not quite sure we’d have strapped it in the orientation he has, but who are we to argue. Dodge the low bridges to get home via the link above!

Wait For It…

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These days, everything is turbocharged. Which normally means a tiny engine, often with three-cylinders, fitted under the hood of a homogenous crossover. Sigh. But turbos used to be cool. Albeit laggy.

This is the BMW 2002 Turbo, one of the first turbocharged production cars, and powered by a 2.0 litre engine fitted with a 0.55 bar twin-scroll KK&K turbocharger that boosted power to almost 170bhp. Well, it did once the turbo-lag was over, usually a few seconds after you asked for it.

Launched in 1973, the 2002 Turbo’s arrival coincided exactly with the oil crisis, which meant it wasn’t exactly a success. The technology it pioneered however, is now fitted to almost every new non-electrified car on sale, and with the lag left in the past.

This excellent brick-built homage to the 2002 Turbo comes from brickphisto of Flickr, who has recreated it beautifully in 8-wide form. The doors, trunk, and hood all open, under the last of which is a replica of the M10-turbo engine that powered it, and there’s more of the model to see at brickphisto’s photostream. Put your foot down and wait a few seconds via the link above.