Tag Archives: Classic Car

The Dazzling Knight

Lego 1966 Batmobile

Kapow!! Batman wasn’t always dark and moody. There was a time when he was kitsch, flamboyant, and – let’s face it – more than a little bit camp, and this was certainly reflected in his choice of wheels.

Built by hot rodding legend George Barris the outlandish 1966 Batmobile was based on the 1955 Ford Futura concept car that Barris bought from the Ford Motor Company for the nominal sum of $1. In just three weeks he turned the old concept into what would become one of the most famous TV vehicles of all time, complete with turbo-electric drive (whatever that is), a Bat-scope (ditto), a mobile phone, reverse rocket thrusters, and a remote tracking system.

Flickr’s Ralph Savelsberg hasn’t managed to built that lot, but his Lego recreation of Barris’ masterpiece pays tribute to the Dark Knight’s gaudier days in superb style. You can see more of Ralph’s brilliant replica of the 1966 Batmobile, complete with Batman and Robin figures, over at his photostream – click the link above to light the Bat Signal.

Goldmember

Lego V8 Hot Rod

Because it’s a rod. And it’s gold! Ok, we’ll get our coats, but before we go you can check out more of Redfern1950s‘ gloriously golden supercharged V8 hot rod via the link above, and the amusing film scene from a decade-and-a-half-ago which prompted today’s title by clicking here; I love goooooold!

Lego V8 Hot Rod

Voodoo Psychosis

Lego Ford Model A Hot Rod Voodoo Psychosis

Pastel green is normally a colour reserved for beach huts and handbags, but gosh can it look good on a car! The car in question is a ’31 Ford Model A hot rod, inspired by a real vehicle built by custom-car legend Larry ‘Voodoo’ Grobe. Redfern1950s is the builder behind this brilliant Model Team version, and you can see more of both it and the real hot rod that inspired it by clicking here.

Lampooned!

Lego National Lampoon's Vacation Wagon Queen Family Truckster

“You think you hate it now, but wait until you drive it!”. 1983’s ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’ may have primarily been a vehicle for Chevy Chase’s comedic brilliance, but it featured quite a vehicle itself. The Wagon Queen Family Truckster was a modified ’70s station wagon, disguising it from any manufacturer association, and it had quite a trip. This top quality recreation of the star car comes from regular bloggee and TLCB Master MOCer Ralph Savelsberg aka Mad Physicist, who has captured the unique crapness of the real car wonderfully! Hit the road to Flickr via the link above.

Classic Americana

Lego Christine Plymouth Fury

The relentless pace of uploads by Flickr’s de-marco continues, with his two latest builds delightful slices of classic Americana. Above is a lovely 6-wide Plymouth Fury, before things turned strange courtesy of a Stephen King novel, whilst below is a neat 1960s police car in a rare blue-over-yellow paint scheme. There’s more to see at de-marco’s photostream via the link above, where there are also instructions for each model available!

Lego Police Patrol Car

Classic Speed

Lego Speed Champions Cars

We have a very happy Elf here at TLCB Towers today, having found no less than six superb cars in one go. All come from Flickr’s Jonathan Elliott who has appeared here several times over the years with his wonderful Speed Champions style replicas. He’s recently photographed six of his most recognisable classics in one shot, and if you’re as automotively nerdy as we are you’ll be identify all six with no problem at all. Head over to Jonathan’s photostream via the link above to see how many you get right!

Box Fresh

Lego Land Rover

No matter where you are in the world certain things are guaranteed. The elderly are (and always will be) in charge, Donald Trump will say something inappropriate on Twitter, and you’ll absolutely definitely be out when the delivery company attempt to deliver your package.

Today we have two extremes of the logistics spectrum, from a Land Rover Series 1 delivering where the roads are made of sand, to a sliding-door delivery van navigating city streets. Neither will arrive at a time conducive to actually dropping off your parcel though.

Both vehicles are the work of TLCB regular de-marco and there’s more to see, including building instructions for each model, at his Flickr photostream. Click the link above to take delivery.

Lego Town Delivery Van

Anti-Hippy

Lego VW T2 Pick-Up

Dour grey, hard working, utilitarian… not words you’d usually use to describe a 1960s Volkswagen Transporter. Bought as the default vehicle by trendy hippy types looking to be individual (which is gloriously ironic), the VW Type 2 is typically a vibrant and colourful affair used to ferry people to posh festivals.

However this Volkswagen T2 ‘Doka’ by Jonathan Elliott is the very antithesis of the classic Transporter’s normal role in modern Western society, and for that we absolutely love it.

There’s more to see of Jonathan’s 6-wide Volkswagen T2 pick-up at his photostream – click the link above to check it out.

(It Doesn’t Matter if You’re) Black or White

Lego Technic Jaguar XK120

Wise words from the King of Pop there. Eurobricks member martijnnab has used this excellent advice to great effect, building two versions of his gorgeous Technic Jaguar XK120 Roadster in contrasting colours.

Lego Technic Jaguar XK120

Martijn’s Jaguars are inverse to the meaning behind Michael Jackson’s 1991 hit however, as whilst they look the same on the surface they are very different underneath, with the white XK featuring mechanical functions including a straight-6 engine and working steering whilst the black XK includes a fully remote controlled Power Functions drivetrain.

Lego Technic Jaguar XK120

There’s lots more to see of both versions of Martijn’s wonderful Technic Jaguar XK120 Roadster at the Eurobricks forum – click on the link above to make the jump.

Black and Gold

Lego 911 Targa

First debuting around a decade ago (like today’s rather excellent title song), The Avro Brothers’ Porsche 911 targa is something of a legend within the online Lego Community. Recently updated, the Brothers have now released their incredible classic Porsche in a brilliant black and gold colour-scheme, and they’ve made building instructions available too.

Lego 911 Targa

There’s more of this incredible Porsche 911 Targa to see at the Brother’s photostream, where you can also find a link to The Avro Brothers website and the aforementioned building instructions. Make the jump to Flickr via the link above.

Lego 911 Targa

Squarange*

Lego Volvo 240 DL

Contrary to today’s other post, this slice of orange magnificence is not of interest to the Elves one bit. It is however, so our kind of car! Old, square, and with the design aesthetic of an East German office block, the Volvo 240 DL and TLCB Towers have much in common.

This wonderful recreation of one of the finest lumps of Swedish steel comes from LegoJalex, and never has the humble LEGO brick seemed more suited to a vehicle. Opening doors, hood and trunk-lid all feature, as does a deliciously brown interior. If you’re as much of a fan as we are (and therefore probably a bit odd), you can see more of this classic Volvo on Flickr via the link above!

*Because it’s square. And orange.

The Perfect Porsche

Lego Porsche 911 Classic

This utterly utterly gorgeous creation is a perfect 1:13 scale replica of the original Porsche 911, and we don’t think we’ve ever seen a car built as beautifully as this. Created over the course of a year, Flickr’s Serge S spent the first six months painstakingly refining the design digitally before finally creating the iconic Porsche in real bricks.

Lego Porsche 911 Classic

No parts are painted and everything is 100% LEGO, and best of all (and to answer the inevitable questions we’ll receive here at TLCB Towers!); yes instructions are available! To access these and to view the full gallery of stunning imagery click this link to visit Serge’s photostream. And LEGO, if you’re reading this; give Serge a job. We’ve never wanted a Lego creation more…

Lego Porsche 911 Classic

Topless CJ

Lego Jeep CJ

Well that’s brought in some clicks. Anyhoo, this neat roof-less Jeep CJ-5 comes from TLCB regular Ralph Savelsberg aka Mad Physicist, and it captures the real off-roader beautifully in his trademark style. There are lots more images of the topless Jeep available on Flickr – click the link above to take a peek.

Dauphamaha

Lego Renault Dauphine Yamaha

Renault’s 1957 Dauphine was not a fast car. Powered by a 845cc inline-4 producing a meagre 32bhp, the Dauphine took 32 seconds to reach 60mph and topped out at just 8mph more. But it looked so pretty whilst doing it.

Described by motoring journalists at the time as “The prettiest four-seater in the world” the Dauphine was an enormous success, being manufactured in twelve different countries and selling over two million units in its 10 year production run – a huge figure for the 50s and 60s. And to be honest it wasn’t even that slow when compared to rivals of the time.

However by modern standards Renault’s little family car is almost dangerously lethargic. French tuner Adrien Faure thought so too, and decided his little Dauphine could do with a bit more power. Four times as much in fact, thanks to a 1200cc Yamaha motorbike engine that he’s fitted beautifully in place of the original ‘Ventoux’ unit.

It’s this car that serial bloggee Senator Chinchilla has chosen to recreate, complete with scraped paint and rust, with this lovely Model Team creation. There’s more to see of the Senator’s replica on Flickr by clicking here, and you can read more about the Yamaha-powered Dauphine on which his model is based visiting the Speedhunters website. It may no longer be all that pretty, but this Dauphine is quick!

Lego Renault Dauphine Yamaha

Honda NSX – Picture Special

Lego Technic Honda NSX

After over a decade out of the supercar game Honda’s new NSX supercar has just gone on sale, a near-600bhp hybrid-powered torque-vectoring computer with wheels. But that’s not the one we have here today.

Launched in 1990 the original Honda NSX was designed to take on the established supercars from manufacturers such as Ferrari, only at a lower price point, and to upset the supercar order through the virtue of it, well, being a supercar that actually worked.

Honda F1 driver Ayrton Senna helped to tune the handling in the final stages of development, and although the NSX was powered by ‘only’ a transversely mounted naturally aspirated 3.0 V6 making 270bhp (albeit with an 8,000rpm redline), it quickly gained a reputation for being one hell of a drivers’ car.

Lego Technic Honda NSX

Lightweight (the NSX was the first mass produced car to be made from aluminium) and beautifully nimble, Honda showed that you didn’t need all-wheel-drive, turbos, or a prancing horse on the hood to build a superb supercar. And unlike pretty much every other supercar at the time the NSX was reliable, because above all else, it was a Honda.

These days something of the original NSX’s simplicity is missing from the latest crop of overpowered, over-assisted supercars – the new NSX included, and arguably the same is true for their Technic equivalents. Packed with Power Functions electric motors, remote control, and bluetooth, we seem to have lost the joy of hands-on mechanics. Luckily for us though, Nico71 has not only recreated one of the finest old-school supercars ever made, he’s done it in a profoundly old-school way too…

Lego Technic Honda NSX

This is Nico’s Technic Honda NSX, and it’s as delightfully manual as the real car. An accurate transversely mounted V6 engine is turned by the rear wheels, which are independently suspended along with those at the front. The front wheels also steer by hand, thanks to a connected steering wheel plus a ‘hand-of-God’ connection mounted on the roof. The pop-up headlights are also manually raised and lowered via lever mounted on the dashboard, and the seats can slide fore and aft manually too. Lastly the doors, hood, rear window, engine cover and glovebox all open by hand, and there isn’t a Power Functions motor in sight.

Nico’s Honda NSX is – much like the real car – a triumph of mechanical engineering, and well worth a closer look. Check out the full details at Nico’s discussion topic at the Eurobricks forum, and you can find all the images, a video of the model’s features and instructions (yes, really, so we we won’t be getting the usual ‘Can I have instructions?’ messages for once!) at Nico’s own excellent website – Click here to take a look.

Lego Technic Honda NSX