Tag Archives: Countach

Speed Champions 2022 | Set Previews

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The first month of 2022 is almost done, and our Elves have been sneaking! Sent on a mission to infiltrate The LEGO Company’s HQ, they have to sneak for fear of being eaten by a guard dog, but those that do manage to avoid the teeth of the German Shepherds return as heroes, held aloft by their peers to Elven chanting, and awarded a meal token by us TLCB staff.

You’d think they’d have figured out this is a wildly insufficient reward, but the office catapult ensures a regular flow of ‘volunteers’. Anyway, on to their finds – the brand new for 2022 LEGO Speed Champions sets. And they’re corkers!

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76906 – 1970 Ferarri 512 M

The first new set of 2022’s Speed Champions line-up is already one of our favourites ever, and we’ve only been looking at the box. The new 76906 1970 Ferrari 512 M is a glorious homage to the car that was… er, soundly beaten by Porsche at Le Mans. It did win the 12 Hours of Sebring though, and was regarded as equally fast as the conquering Porsche, just not as reliable.

LEGO’s Speed Champions version of the Ferrari 512 M looks magnificent, utilising a Star Wars canopy piece amongst some very cleverly printed parts to accurately capture the real car.

The historic livery means there’s no need for a smorgasbord of stickers, and LEGO have resisted the urge to include a pointless gantry or other trackside paraphernalia too, keeping the piece number, and – more importantly – price down to pocket money levels.

Expect 76906 to cost around $20 when it reaches stores later this year, and we absolutely love it.

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76907 – Lotus Evija

The second new set for 2022 jumps forward from 50 years ago to, well… the future actually, as the Evija isn’t even out yet. 76907 brings another legendary car maker to the Speed Champions line up, and – we hope – opens the door for some of the greatest classic racing cars ever made.

But before we start fantasising about classic Team Lotus F1 cars (although their tobacco sponsorship liveries might prove a bit tricky these days…), the first Speed Champions Lotus is their newest model, and is interestingly pictured on the box navigating the driveway of Goodwood House.

247 pieces, relatively light stickerage, and a good approximation of the new supercar make 76907 a solid if not especially memorable effort, but a welcome addition nonetheless. We’re exited for more Lotus sets to come.

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76908 – Lamborghini Countach

Yup, finally! The definitive 1970s-1980s supercar has made it into the LEGO Speed Champions range, and it’s every bit as good as the previous 76899 Lamborghini Urus isn’t…

LEGO have chosen a ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ spec Countach for 76908, which means a big wing, white bodywork, and a stronger ’80s vibe than parachute pants.

There are 262 pieces, including a mini-figure armed with a spanner (this is a classic Lamborghini after all), and some well chosen decals to enhance the model’s accuracy, without it being reliant upon them. A great effort, and well worth the expected $20 price when it arrives in March 2022.

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76909 – Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance & Mercedes-AMG Project One

The longest title of the 2022 line-up goes to 76909, thanks to it being the first double-vehicle set within the new Speed Champions range, and because modern F1 cars have every sub-brand possible squeezed into their names for depressing marketing purposes.

Silly name aside though, it does look rather good. The Mercedes-AMG-F1-ReallyLongName does a great job capturing the real deal, with even the tyres matching those used on the actual racing car. There are of course lots of stickers, but they’re more appropriate here as real-world sponsorship liveries are effectively giant stickers anyway.

LEGO’s 8-wide replica of the much-delayed Mercedes-AMG Project One looks fine, if nothing more, and would probably be the weakest set within the 2022 line-up if sold on its own.

564 pieces, two mini-figures, and an ‘interactive digital building guide’ are included, for an expected price of around $30/£35.

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76910 – Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro & Aston Martin Vantage

The final new Speed Champions set of 2022 is this, the 76910 Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro & Aston Martin Vantage.

With double the cars and double the pieces, but not double the price ($30 is expected), 76910 looks to be a good value addition to the line-up from a price-per-piece perspective.

Which is handy, as despite the slightly older starting age indicating more complicated building techniques, we’re less than sold on the visuals of either the Valkyrie or Vantage, which seem heavily reliant on stickers to replicate their real-world counterparts. Which is cheating, obviously.

Still, we expect 76910 will race off the shelves. A pair of lime-green Aston Martins can’t not appeal to a nine-year-old!

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That’s the 2022 Speed Champions line-up, and it is – we think – mostly really good. The new sets will be on sale from March of this year, and should continue the roaring success of the franchise. More real-world classics please LEGO, they work beautifully! We’ll take that Ferrari 512 M…

One Part Three Speed

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LEGO’s increase to eight studs of width for their Speed Champions range has added a dose more realism to the real world vehicles represented in brick form. Key to this change was a new windshield piece, which is somehow perfect for all manner of completely different supercars.

Previous bloggee Fabrice Larcheveque has utilised this part superbly, creating a myriad of instantly recognisable Speed Champions supercars centred around a uniform cockpit brick. We have three of his builds here today, with a Ferrari F40, Lamborghini Countach, and Ferrari 512 BB from left to right.

Each captures its real world counterpart brilliantly, with clever sticker use – as per LEGO’s official Speed Champions sets – making them even more authentic.

Building instructions are available and there’s more to see of these three ’80s supercars, plus many more besides, at Fabrice’s photostream. Take a look via the link.

Rolled Gold

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Let’s get the obvious bit out of the way. Those are not official LEGO wheels. But they are excellent. And the model riding atop them is even more so.

This spectacular Technic Lamborghini Countach LP500s is the work of Diego Auguanno, as presented by Polo-Freak of Brickshelf, and it’s about as accurate a Lego Lamborghini as we’ve ever seen.

Diego’s incredible creation utilises Technic panels, System bricks, and those custom golden wheels to beautifully replicate the real ’80s supercar, including a brick-built replica of the Countach’s V12 engine and its signature scissor doors.

Over thirty high quality images can be found at Polo’s ‘Lamborghini Countach LP500S’ Brickshelf album (plus you can buy building instructions at the designer Diego’s Facebook page) and you can take a look at all of this rolled gold via the links above.

Did You Drive Your Car Tonight Mr. Belfort?

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A recent post here at TLCB was less than complimentary about the new Lamborghini ‘Countach’. We weren’t that complimentary about the original either, but – in its early form at least – the 1970s Gandini design was an absolute masterpiece.

Not so by the 1980s, when the Countach had become considerably fatter and more overblown, losing its striking lines and spectacular angles under a preposterously excessive bodykit. Which of course suited the decade it found itself in perfectly.

Cue previous bloggee Jerry Builds Bricks, who has recreated the ’80s Countach wonderfully in Speed Champions form, building his Lego version in ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ spec, which is about as ’80s as it gets.

Take some over-strength pills and crash it into everything on the way home via the link above!

Countach (Kinda)

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Surprising supercar revelation of the day; the legendary Lamborghini Countach was… rubbish.

But, it did look utterly mad, and as such has transcended its rubbishness over the years to become a highly regarded classic.

Cue Lamborghini, the masters of the special edition cash-in, bringing the nameplate back with yet another ultra-limited run design.

Based on the also-ultra-limited Sian FKP 37, the new Countach features a V12 hybrid set-up, producing around 800bhp. Only 34bhp of that total comes from electricity though, so the ‘hybrid’ bit is probably more of a marketing gimmick than real performance enhancement. Which sums the whole car to be honest.

As you might be able to tell, we’re not fans of the 2021 ‘Countach’, but we won’t hold that against Flickr’s Lazlo Torma, who has recreated it beautifully in Speed Champions scale.

There’s more to see of Lazlo’s 2021 Countach – including building instructions – via the link above, plus you can check out a Lego version of the rubbish (but in our eyes infinitely better) original Countach by clicking here.

Build-a-Countach

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Lamborghini have just revealed the new Countach, celebrating 50 years since the original first appeared in concept form and re-wrote the supercar rule book. In looks only of course, as the actual car, when it arrived in 1974, was rather rubbish.

Still, how a car drives is irrelevant when it’s a poster on your bedroom wall, and the Countach fulfilled the bedroom poster brief better than any car before it, or since.

Which makes us rather disappointed that Lamborghini’s ‘new’ Countach looks mostly like every other Lamborghini, and is yet another ultra-limited special edition (just 112 units will be made) costing $2m a piece.

Not that it matters what we think of course, because the new Countach is already sold out.

No, we’ll stick with the old one produced from 1974 until 1990 (by which time it had grown to look rather silly), despite it being a pretty bad car – even by 1970s supercar standards.

Cue Flickr’s barneius, who has recreated one the later (silly) original Countaches – the extravagantly-titled ‘LP5000 Quattrovalvole’ – beautifully in Speed Champions scale.

Clever build techniques are matched by an even cleverer use of black stickers, and there’s more of barneius’s build to see, plus a link to building instructions, at his ‘Lamborghini Countach’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to make the jump.

My Other Car’s a Porsche

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No really, it is. Because this amazing Lamborghini Countach 5000 Quattrovalvole is built entirely from the pieces found within the official LEGO 10295 Porsche 911 set.

How Firas Abu-Jaber has managed to turn a vehicle renowned for its curves into one famous for its straight lines has broken every brain here at TLCB Towers, but suffice to say, Firas has absolutely smashed it.

Working steering, an opening front trunk, engine cover and scissor doors, plus a detailed interior all feature, and there are more superbly presented images of Firas’s incredible 10295 alternate to see at his ‘Lamborghini Countach’ album here.

You can also find further details and building instructions at Firas’s excellent website Bricks Garage, plus you can check out his interview here at TLCB to learn how he builds models like this one by clicking these words.

The Countach Conundrum

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Crap cars come in all shapes and sizes. This is one of them.

The Lamborghini Countach was like nothing else on earth when in arrived in 1974. It was almost un-drivable, miserable to be in, but it looked fantastic. And then the ’80s came around…

The era of excess threw everything it had at Bertone’s pioneering design, and by ‘everything’ we mean ‘a butt-ton of plastic’.

Widened arches, sills, bumpers, and an enormous yet aerodynamically pointless rear wing turned the Countach into some sort of caricature of itself, ruining the original design and making the car even less usable than it was before.

You’d have to be an obnoxious tasteless moron to like the ’80s Countach, so outlandish, over the top, and borderline unusable had it become. Which is why this TLCB writer absolutely loves it.

It’s this version of Lamborghini’s icon that was suggested to us by a reader, who has photographed his finished build of Rastacoco’s Countach LP5000 QV, which is available on Rebrickable with downloadable instructions.

Rastacoco’s design replicates the ’80s Countach superbly, with the model including opening scissor doors, a detailed interior, and the most perfectly replicated exterior we’ve seen built in brick form yet.

Images of Rastacoco’s model in black, white and red can be found at Bricksafe, with full details, building instructions, and the images supplied by a reader used in this post available on Rebrickable here.

Not Everything in the ’70s was Brown

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Cars in the 1970s tended to look like this. Or this. Or this. Or this. And then the Lamborghini Countach came along, from space.

Launched in 1974 the world hadn’t seen anything like it, and the car instantly became a cult bedroom wall icon. It’s fortunate however, that most people know the Countach from a poster rather than from driving one, because they would probably be rather disappointed.

Why not stick to this then, Jerac‘s incredible Model Team replica of the 1970s icon. Jerac has captured the Countach’s wild shape to perfection and he’s even made instructions available so you can build your very own. Which means you can own a Countach for the looks without having to drive one, which really is what the car is all about.

Head to Jerac’s photostream via the link above to find of all his superb images plus a link to building instructions too.

Supercar of the ’70s

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If there’s one car that encapsulates supercars of the 1970s, it’s this one. The Lamborghini Countach was, well… basically un-drivable. No visibility, the widest tyres ever fitted to a production car, the world’s heaviest clutch, zero thought to driver ergonomics, and less power than a modern Mercedes-Benz A-Class…

And yet… look at it. Designed by Bertone in 1971 the Countach was produced from 1974 all the way until 1990, whereupon it was replaced by the Diablo, with some 1,800 units built over its sixteen year life. Later cars were ‘improved’ with the addition of wide arches, sills, and a mental rear wing (making the Countach as iconic in the ’80s as in the decade of its birth), but we prefer the early ones like this LP400.

Flickr’s Jonathan Elliott is the genius behind this 7-wide Speed Champions version, putting LEGO’s new canopy part to brilliant use here. In fact seeing as LEGO have a licence to make Lamborghini sets we think Jonathan’s LP400 would make an excellent addition to the official Speed Champions line-up from whence the canopy part came.

Head to Jonathan’s photostream via the link above if you like his Lamborghini as much as we do, where you can see more this model and his impressive back-catalogue of Speed Champions builds.

Little Lego Lamborghini

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Lego Lamborghini Countach

ZetoVince‘s little Lamborgini may only be seven studs wide, but it’s unmistakably a Countach. It helps that Lamborghini’s insane ’70s supercar has such a distinctive shape, but it takes quite a bit of skill to recreate it in small-scale Lego building. Zeto definitely has that skill, and you can see more his miniature masterpiece on Flickr via the link above.

Sideswipe

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Lego Transformers Sideswipe Lamborghini Countach

It’s been a while since TLCB Elves have been allowed to watch Transformers cartoons, but today one Elf is a hero amongst his peers for finding this, Joe Perez (aka MortalSwordsman)’s fiendishly clever recreation of 1984’s ‘Sideswipe’.

In car mode Sideswipe is the poster car for the 1970s; Lamborghini’s actually quite rubbish – but nevertheless iconic – Countach. Lambo’s be-winged V12 supercar is not an easy thing to create from Lego, and is even less so when it needs to reform as an alien robot.

Joe’s brain is a much bigger than the average one in TLCB Towers though, and as such his Sideswipe model transforms beautifully from Countach to robot, and looks superb in either mode. There’s more to see at his photostream on Flickr – click the link above to roll out.

Lego Transformers Sideswipe

’70s Pin Up

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Lego Lamborghini CountachProbably the first ‘Supercar’, whatever the guys at Ferrari think, is something that didn’t wear a prancing horse on the front. It wore a bull. The Lamborghini Countach was the wildest poster car of the ’70s and ’80s, and therefore maybe the wildest car ever. It was also fairly rubbish, being impossible to drive or see out of. But perhaps that’s what made it Super. Rolling Bricks recreates the ’70s icon using a brilliantly simple palette of regular white pieces. See more over on Flickr at the link above, or on MOCpages here.

Lego Lamborghini Countach

Raging Bull

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Lego Lamborghini Countach

THE poster car of the late ’70s.

This epic early Lamborgini Countach comes from Model Team masters the Bing-Bong Brothers on Flickr and MOCpages. Before the excess of the eighties diluted the shape with wings and body-kits, the Countach was almost an elegent-looking supercar. And one that paved the way for some explosive successors. See more here, and here.

The Best Lego Car Ever?

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Lego Lamborghini Countach

Lamborghini Countach; Picture courtesy of ‘CopMike’ on Eurobricks

Admittedly, ‘Best Car Ever!’ (or Best Car Evarr!!11!) is a phrase banded around a lot on the interweb, but this MOC could well be it. The incredible studs-up giant in the picture above took three years to design digitally, and another two to build. Polo-Freak is the orchestrator behind this truly epic project, and such is its scale it has generated its own Special Themes thread over on Eurobricks.

The Lamborghini Countach was actually quite a poor car, but that didn’t stop it becoming the poster car of the late ’70s to early ’80s, and in 3D form it’s even more impressive. Polo-Freak has recreated every Bertone-designed detail, from the teledial alloys to the tip of the huge rear wing. See the full gallery of pictures on Eurobricks at the aforementioned link.