We have a contender for Creation of the Year today. This utterly bewitching Lotus 49 is the work of Flickr’s Pixeljunkie who has not only recreated one of the greatest racing cars ever designed in spellbinding beauty, the model’s presentation is absolute perfection.
Pixel’s gorgeous model includes spectacular suspension, engine and gearbox detail and a superbly replicated ’67 Team Lotus livery complete with authentic logos and badging. It’s an incredible piece of work and you can see the images shown here in more detail via the link above, plus you read more about how the real car became one of racing all-time greats by clicking here.
Matra may not a be a manufacturer familiar to many of you, but if so they’re one of the greatest companies you’ve never heard of.
Founded in the 1960s Matra have made everything from sports cars to air-to-air missiles, including probably the world’s first crossover and the world’s first MPV (albeit for Renault). However it’s their racing subsidiary, Equipe Matra Sports, that we’re most interested in here.
Equipe Matra Sports produced racing cars for an almost immeasurable number of categories, winning Le Mans three times, five Formula 2 Championships, and both the Drivers and Constructors Formula 1 World Championships in 1969, making them the only team besides Ferrari to win the Championship with a car not built in Britain.
This is that car, the gorgeous Matra MS80, powered by the ubiquitous Ford-Cosworth DFV V8 and run by Ken Tyrrell before he started his own team. In the hands of Jackie Stewart the MS80 won five of the ten races it entered in the ’69 season, winning the Championship by a huge margin, despite the fact that every other race winner that year used the same engine.
This fabulous Model Team replica of the Matra MS80 comes from classic racer extraordinaire Luca Rusconi aka RoscoPC, with a superbly-replicated Cosworth DFV engine, working steering and suspension, and some ace period-correct decals. There’s more to see of Luca’s brilliant Matra MS80 on Flickr via the link above, plus you can read our interview with the builder as part of the Master MOCers Series by clicking here.
This is the McLaren M23, a car that raced in Formula 1, Formula 5000, and the Indy 500 over five seasons between 1973 and 1978.
Powered by the ubiquitous Cosworth DFV engine and with relatively unremarkable bodywork the M23 was not the most innovative car of the time. However McLaren’s continual development of the M23 kept it amongst the front-runners of Formula 1 right up until the arrival of the M26 mid way through the 1977 season, earning two Driver’s and a Constructor’s World Championships, sixteen Formula 1 race wins, and multiple podiums.
It was towards the end of the M23’s career that it won probably the most famous Formula 1 Championship of all time, when James Hunt emerged victorious from a season-long battle with Ferrari’s Nikki Lauda at a rain-soaked Fuji Speedway. The 1976 season has been immortalised in the 2013 Ron Howard epic ‘Rush’ (which if you haven’t seen it – watch the trailer here), and now Hunt’s ’76 McLaren M23D has been immortalised in Lego too.
Constructed by Formula 1 building legend Luca Rusconi (aka RoscoPC) this Model Team McLaren M23D is a near perfect recreation of the 1976 Championship-winning car. With period-correct decals, a working V8 engine, and steering and suspension, Luca’s M23D is a stunning Lego replica of one of F1’s greats.
There’s lots more to see at Luca’s Flickr photostream, where you can also find his extensive back-cataelgue of superb historic racing cars, plus you can read our interview with Luca as part of the Master MOCers series by clicking here.
Race car building legend Luca Rusconi (aka RoscoPC) has been building his stunning historic racing cars for the best part of a decade. He’s recently uploaded another one of his glorious creations to Flickr (where we hope many more will follow), and thus we’re able to publish it here. It’s also one of the weirder racing cars in Luca’s garage, although it might not look remarkable at first glance.
Any classic racing fan will know of the incredible performances of the Lotus F1 team. Led by Colin Chapman, and powered by the legendary Cosworth DFV engine, the partnership delivered four Driver and five Constructor World Championship titles. However, before the DFV was ready Chapman needed an engine to put into his new 43 Formula 1 car for the 1966 season. He turned to previous Championship Winners BRM, and their unique P75 H16 engine.
Yup, H16. Basically two Flat-8 engines stacked on top of one another, yet only 3 litres in capacity. Unfortunately the unusual design was unusual for a reason – reliability. Or lack of it.
Heavy, extremely complicated, and constantly breaking, the BRM engine in Chapman’s Lotus 43 caused it to retire from every race bar one during the 1966 season. However, that one finish was a race win at the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, showing that when it worked, the Lotus 43 was quick. Really Quick.
The following year in ’67 the new Cosworth DFV 3 litre V8 engine was ready, Ford added their sponsorship to it (in a stroke of marketing genius), and the year after that the DFV starting a Championship Winning streak that went unbroken for seven years.
BRM’s mental P75 H16 engine was quickly forgotten, although the team continued to produce Formula 1 cars until the late 1970s, and Lotus forged on with a Cosworth partnership that was to become one of the most successful ever seen in the sport.
However, we think the Lotus 43 BRM H16 deserves a little recognition. It was a race winner after all, and for a brief moment two of Britain’s greatest F1 teams combined to produce something, well… a little bit crap.
RoscoPC’s homage to that disastrous partnership pictured here was first built in 2010 and is now available to view in wonderful detail on Flickr. It features working steering, suspension, beautiful detailing, and – of course – a recreation of one of the maddest engines ever seen in Formula 1.
You can see all of the images of Luca’s incredible Lotus 43 build at his photostream via the link above, and if you’re curious to know what an H16 Formula 1 engine sounds like, click here…
Every so often we receive a suggestion here at TLCB that makes the whole office stop what it’s doing (which today seemed to mostly be Google-imaging attractive Rio Olympics athletes) to gaze in wonder at the creation/s found. This was definitely one of those moments.
These incredible Model Team classic Formula 1 replicas have all been built by newcomer Idihnab Szalab from Hungary, and he’s uploaded all four to MOCpages in one go. Each is an exquisitely detailed creation that perfectly captures one of the Formula 1’s most famous and iconic cars in Lego form.
From top to bottom Idihnab has built; the dominant 1972-75 Lotus-Ford 72D in John Player Special livery, Ferrari’s 1989 640, the double World Championship-winning 1986-87 Williams-Honda FW11, and lastly the beautiful Lotus-Ford 72C from 1970-71 in magnificent Gold Leaf livery.
This is a 1970s March 731 Formula 1 car, built by previous bloggee Greg998, and it belonged to one of the greatest racing drivers in history.
David Purley was not a particularly successful racing driver, only racing in eleven Formula 1 races and scoring no points. He did win races and championships in lower formulas during his career before he left motor-racing to become an aerobatics pilot – a sport which tragically took his life when he was aged just 40.
However, it was his actions in the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix during his short stint in Formula 1 that make him one of the sport’s greatest figures. You can see more of Greg’s superb March 731 at the link above, and you can watch David Purley’s incredible bravery during one of Formula 1’s darkest and most shameful moments by clicking here (viewer caution advised).
It’s getting tight at the top of TLCB Summer Building Competition! This 1960s Marcos 1600GT has arrived from previous bloggee and Featured TFOL Harry Gravett, and it’s absolutely gorgeous.
Marcos were founded in 1959 by Frank Costin and Gem Marsh (MARsh and COStin), and manufactured kit, racing and production cars primarily for the UK market.
Frank Costin was an aircraft engineer who worked on the wooden framed De Havilland Mosquito bomber. Following the war his brother, Mike Costin (who later founded Cosworth), started work at Lotus, and he asked Frank to join the team to bring his aerodynamic talents. Frank used his engineering skill to design cars for Lotus, Maserati and Lister, before deciding to create his own lightweight wooden chassis, setting up Marcos with his business partner Gem Marsh.
Like rivals TVR, Marcos sourced parts from volume manufacturers such as Ford and Triumph, and fitted these to their own glass-fibre bodywork. As is always the way with small British sports car builders, they faced several financial problems during their history, finally ceasing to produce in 2007.
Marcos’ glory days came in the late 1990s when their hugely powerful sports cars were raced all over the world. Still loosely based on the original 1960s design, the cars had swelled and distorted almost beyond recognition, and were perhaps some of the more aesthetically challenged sports cars on the market.
Not Harry’s though – his 1600GT is true to the original (well, apart from the third brake light at the rear), being simple, pretty and light. Which are not any of the characteristics TLCB Elves look for in a vehicle. Luckily Harry’s got that covered and has built a striped, be-winged and huge engined version just for them. He even put a box of ‘Smarties’ in the back, which the Elves immediately ate and are now regretting.*
