Short of a dumpster fire, if there’s an image more suited to summarising 2020 than this we’re yet to see it. Faber Mandragore‘s scrapyard is a fitting way to end probably the weirdest year of modern times; a huge pile of broken junk largely consigned to the bin. And on that happy note we’ll sign out for 2020. See you all in 2021!
This is a Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am, a car made famous by the ’77 movie ‘Smokey and the Bandit’, and possibly the only car in history to look kinda-cool with pin-striping. Plus a giant flaming bird motif of course.
This exceptional 1:8 recreation of the American icon is the work of Chris Radbone of Flickr, who has not only replicated the exterior of the ’77 Trans-Am beautifully, complete with pin-striping and giant flaming bird motif, his model is a qualified Technic Supercar underneath.
A Technic frame holds a working V8 engine, all-wheel suspension, functioning steering, and a D-N-R gearbox, all of which are concealed behind the wonderfully accurate Model Team exterior.
It’s a great way to finish the year and there’s more to see of Chris’s superb ’77 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am ‘Bandit’ at his photostream. Click here to make the jump to Flickr for the complete gallery of images, here to see the Smokey and the Bandit movie trailer in which this car stars, and we’ll be back soon with our 2020 round-up.
LEGO’s new Speed Champions canopy has popped up all over the place since its release on the the 75890 Ferrari F8 set. It looks great in many applications, and this superb Ferrari F40 continues that trend. Builder barneius has used 368 pieces to create his Speed Champions F40 making his design an easy one to recreate at home. Instructions are available so you can do just that and you can find out more via the link!
Snow is falling outside TLCB Towers today, so here’s a VW buggy built to race in the desert. No we couldn’t think of a Christmas link. And we’re really cold.
Anyway, this Speed Champions style ‘Baja Bug’ comes from regular bloggee Jonathan Elliott, it’s rather excellent, and there’s more to see at his photostream. Click the link above and pretend you’re somewhere hot. Unless you’re already somewhere hot, then you can just click the link.
No tenuous links to Christmas are needed for this post! Versteinert’s classic station wagon entitled ‘Ready for Christmas’ includes a (brilliant) Christmas tree, a boot full of presents, and Saint Nicholas himself at the wheel! Ingenious parts usage is in abundance and you can check out Santa’s station wagon in more detail at both Flickr and Eurobricks.
We’re back! After the Elves’ enforced Christmas break they’ve been re-released out into the web to continue their search for the best Lego vehicles that it has to offer.
One particularly speedy Elf has already returned to TLCB Towers with this, the gloriously eighties Ferrari Testarossa, in Miami Vice white.
Of course Miami Vice often dealt with a very different sort of ‘snow’ to the type our title is referring to, but it’s Christmas – the season of tenuous links!
This excellent Speed Champions style Testarossa comes from The G Brix of Flickr, and you can get your snow fix in Miami via the link above.
Built (mostly) from the LEGO 10271 Fiat 500 set, Flickr’s Orion Pax has decided to use his primrose yellow pieces for something far more American.
This is a 1960s Chevrolet Impala convertible, complete with custom chrome bricks, and no less than four Power Functions motors. However they don’t do what you might expect…
Instead of the driving the wheels, Orion’s Impala deploys each motor for fully adjustable suspension, with each wheel able to do its own thing independent of the rest. Servos bounce the front wheels up and down, whilst the rears are adjustable thanks to a pair of motor-driven linear actuators.
It’s an ingeniously simple piece of engineering, and one we’d love to see fitted to a MOC of an old Citroen. Because we’re so un-street here at TLCB that we find old Citroens more interesting than pimped American barges.
Until then you can check out Orion’s brilliant Chevy lowrider album on Flickr by clicking here, which includes a video of the remotely controlled suspension in action.
*Today’s title song. Obviously.
The Lego Car Blog Elves are gradually being returned to their cages for our Christmas break, but we still have time for a few more of their finds before the drinking, er, we mean ‘festivities’, begin.
This wonderful little classic police car was discovered by one of their number today. Leewan is the builder, and the model features opening doors, room for two mini-figures, and some beautifully neat construction techniques.
There’s more to see of Leewan’s excellent creation at the Eurobricks forum – click the link to make the jump.
The Lego Car Blog Elves aren’t allowed to play Grand Theft Auto. Having a tendency to enact whatever it is they’ve most recently seen, playing a game based upon wanton destruction would only add to their already violent disposition, and we have enough tidying up to do already.
Fortunately today’s GTA has nothing to do with that long-running – and admittedly very good fun – video game, but rather this brilliant Speed Champions style Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA, as built by TLCB debutant PleaseYesPlease. Neat decals and a trademark yellow nose make Please’s GTA a properly good homage to the original ’60s sports car, and there’s more to see of their Giulia GTA on Flickr.
Click the link above to take a look, whilst we jack a car, blow up a security truck, and go on a rampage.
Japan’s ‘Bōsōzoku’ scene is a sub-genre of car culture that we really don’t understand, but that we’re really glad exists. Ralph Savelsberg is too, having created this magnificent Bōsōzoku-ed Nissan Skyline C110 complete with a wild bodykit, skywards exhausts, and a cool-looking Japanese character to drive it. See more on Flickr at the link.
Is there anything cooler than doors that open skywards? Nope, and that makes the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL ‘Gullwing’ one of the coolest cars of all time. Powered by a three-litre straight six, the 300 SL was also the first car to feature fuel injection, boosting power by around 50% and making it the fastest production car in the world, with a top speed in excess of 160mph.
This spectacular recreation of the 300 SL is the work of Tobias Munzert, who has built it largely from the pieces found within the 10262 Aston Martin DB5 ‘Goldfinger’ set. As well as accurate opening ‘gullwing’ doors, Tobais’ model includes an opening trunk, raising hood, and a detailed engine, and there’s more to see of his fantastic creation at his ‘Mercedes-Benz 300 SL’ album on Flickr, where a link to building instructions can also be found.
Yes we’ve opened this post with a fart joke. Named after a hot wind, Volkswagen’s Scirocco took the successful Golf GTI recipe and coupe-d it, creating a quick and light front-wheel-drive two-door.
Like the Golf GTI on which it was based, the Scirocco was an excellent car, but it would be even more excellent if it were rear-wheel-drive (ah, now the title makes sense! Ed.). Cue Danifill of Eurobricks, who has built this rather neat looking Volkswagen Scirocco MKII, fitted remote control drive and steering via bluetooth (thanks to a BuWizz battery), and sent the power to the rear wheels.
Of course that is an easier way to build an RC Lego car, but it also means Danifill’s Scirocco can drift! There’s more to see at the Eurobricks forum here, where you can watch a video of Danifill’s RWD Scirocco getting far more sideways than the real car ever could.
The Urus is not Lamborghini’s first SUV. But it is their ugliest, which is something we suppose. No, back in the late 1980s, the maddest of all the car manufacturers decided to do something even madder than usual, and built a military-grade, V12 engined off-roader.
Nicknamed the ‘Rambo Lambo’ (younger readers, ask your parents), the LM002 featured the 5.2 litre engine from the Countach up front, although if you liked to literally burn money you could order the LM002 with Lamborghini’s 7.2 litre engine that had – up until that point – been reserved for Class 1 offshore powerboats.
A tubular frame with riveted aluminium panels, all wheel drive, 169 litre fuel tank, and specially developed Pirelli run-flat tyres designed specifically for use on hot sand where also included, which gives a clue as to who Lamborghini was pitching the LM002 at.
However even if you’e not an oil sheik, you can still own a Lamborghini LM002, courtesy of previous bloggee filsawgood and this spectacular fully RC Technic recreation.
Powered by four L Motors with Servo steering, filsawgood’s incredible Technic replica of Lamborgini’s wildest car can be controlled via bluetooth thanks to a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery, which can also up the power to the motors by a factor of eight versus LEGO’s own Power Functions battery.
All-wheel-drive with planetary hubs, independent suspension, opening doors and hood, a brilliantly detailed interior, and a V12 piston engine all feature, and there’s more to see of filsawgood’s astonishing Lamborghini LM002 on Flickr via the link above, where yes – a link to instructions can also be found!
This is a Ferrari 250 GTO, a car numbering less than 40 units and today worth roughly three squillion dollars. They are most famously red of course (as highlighted by the beautiful Model Team version we featured here earlier this week), however a handful of GTOs have strayed from the Ferrari corporate uniform over the years, one being Sir Stirling Moss‘s bespoke green car, and another being this; No. 112, painted – magnificently we think – in the colours of Sweden.
Now owned by a billionaire (what Ferrari 250 GTOs aren’t?), the unique 250 GTO was raced in Europe during the 1960s by Swedish racing driver Ulf Norinder, who competed very successfully in some the continent’s most prestigious events.
This incredible replica of that uniquely painted car comes from previous bloggee and Lego-building legend Jens M., who has recreated No.112 in astonishing detail. A lifelike engine resides under the opening hood, the trunk opens to reveal the fuel tank, and a realistic interior is accessible through the opening doors. Plus, most importantly of course, it’s blue with a big yellow stripe down the middle.
It’s one of the finest Lego cars we’ve featured this year, and there’s more to see of Jen’s stunning creation at his ‘Ferrari 250 GTO album‘ on Flickr. Click the link to make the jump to this one-of-a-kind classic racer, and you can see an equally brilliant brick-built 250 GTO in the more traditional red via the link in the text above if you missed it earlier in the week.
Fifty million. That’s the current value of the Ferrari 250 GTO. Which makes it slightly out of reach of us here at The Lego Car Blog, despite the immense riches brought in by the new ads. However Flickr’s Lennart Cort has a 250 GTO that’s rather more attainable, and it’s every bit as breathtakingly beautiful as the real thing.
Constructed in 1/15 scale, Lennart has captured the real GTO in stunning detail, with every curve, air intake and vent replicated wonderfully in brick form.
With LEGO dipping into the back-catalogues of several of their partner manufacturers we think Lennart’s incredible model would make a superb officially-licensed LEGO set, allowing ownership of a Ferrari 250 GTO for about $49,999,950 less than the real thing.
Take a closer look via the link above and ask Lennart to post this on LEGO Ideas!
