Tag Archives: Ferrari

It’s Raining Men*

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If the Super Soaker commercials and the crab from ‘The Little Mermaid’ are to be believed, it’s better when it’s wetter.

We’re not sure the teams at Le Mans would agree though, what with there being a direct correlation between precipitation and risk, but for fans (at least watching at home in the dry on TV), rain can add a huge dose of unpredictable excitement.

This year’s 24 Heures du Mans delivered on that promise, as the heavens opened mid-way through the race and brought on a four hour safety car period followed by treacherous racing. After the twenty four hours had elapsed the winning Ferrari finished just fourteen seconds ahead of the second place Toyota, with a record nine cars all on the same final lap.

Cue recent bloggee SFH_Bricks, who has recreated that incredibly tight margin, and the rain that enabled it, in this stunning Le Mans 2024 diorama. Featuring the Ferrari 499P, Toyota GR010, and a huge dose of spray, SFH has captured the rain-soaked Circuit de la Sarthe spectacularly; we can practically feel the wetness from here.

Click the link above to take a look through the spray, and this bonus link to see the vast collection of Le Mans creations in our Archives.

*Obviously. Because Le Mans!

€2m Statue

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The attribute that matters least with the world’s fastest, best driving, and highest performing cars is… the way they drive. Allow us to explain.

Bought alongside seventeen others by the super-rich, such cars are simultaneously placed on a balance sheet by an incredibly boring accountant, and in a sealed storage unit by company that specialises in not driving cars.

Thus when Ferrari announced a hypercar that couldn’t be driven, was stored by them, and cost over €2 million (back in 2015), it was perfect for their ultra-wealthy client base.

Based on the Ferrari LaFerrari, the FXX-K produced over 1,000bhp from a race-derived 6.3 litre V12 and Kinetic Energy Recovery System (fancy speak for ‘Hybrid’), wore specially developed Bridgestone tyres, featured uniquely engineered Brembo brakes, and generated nearly half-a-ton of downforce from an extreme aerodynamic package.

None of which mattered of course, for what is essentially a €2 million statue.

Cue previous bloggee Fabrice Larcheveque (aka ABFab74), who has recreated the Ferrari FXX-K brilliantly in 8-wide Speed Champions form. Presented superbly, there’s more of the model to see at Fabrice’s Flickr album, including a link to building instructions so you can create your own FXX-K at home. Whereafter – for the authentic FXX-K experience – you can pay someone €2 million to put it into storage…

My Other Car is Also a Ferrari

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The average Ferrari owner doesn’t own only one. In fact two-thirds of Ferrari owners own at least one other prancing horse amongst their five car garage. Which makes today’s post very apt for Ferrari ownership, as this spectacular Technic recreation of Ferrari’s latest 12-cylinder super car, the 12Cilindri (yes, Ferrari are still crap at names) has been constructed solely from the parts of another.

Like the 42143 Ferrari Daytona SP3 set on which it’s based, Alex Ilea’s alternate features a working engine, steering and suspension, an 8-speed paddle-shift gearbox, and opening doors, hood and trunk, with the model presented beautifully to boot.

Building instructions are also available, so if you own a 42143 set and you’d like to become a proper Ferrari owner (i.e. have access to more than one), then head to the Eurobricks forum where a link can be found, plus you can click here for the full Bricksafe gallery of top quality imagery.

Crossbreed

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Porsche are now an SUV maker, with a small sideline in sports cars. Lamborghini are the same. And so are Aston Martin, Bentley, and even Lotus. It was inevitable then, that Ferrari would cave too, and build a four-wheel-drive, off-road capable two-ton monstrosity for the terminally wealthy.

Of course Ferrari, like every other sports-SUV-maker, claim the Purosangue (which translates as ‘thoroughbred’*) isn’t actually an SUV at all. Which is of course nonsense. But it is fitted with a naturally-aspirated V12, so it does at least sound like a supercar.

This fantastic Technic recreation of the Ferrari Purosangue has one too, along with an 8-speed sequential gearbox, all-wheel suspension, four opening doors, hood and tailgate, and remote control drive and steering courtesy of a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery and LEGO Buggy Motors.

New comer brictric is the creator behind it, building instructions are available, and there’s lots more to see of their incredible replica of Ferrari’s ‘not-an-SUV’ at both the Eurobricks forum and Flickr. Take a closer look via the links whilst we await a letter from Ferrari’s lawyers.

*Which is trying just a bit too hard.

Smell the Glue

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Famed for its once-patented stud-and-tube clutch power, glue is not only not required when building with LEGO, using it is borderline sacrilege. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make something beautiful with a little glue, and Airfix, Tamiya and many others offer near-exact miniaturised replicas via a little cutting, glueing and painting.

Cue Flickr’s Joao Nunes and his Speed Champions 76906 homage to glue-based model making. Joao’s brick-built paint, parts mould, brushes and glue are so realistic we can almost smell the fumes, and you can join the finicky assembly of a Ferrari 512 at his photostream via the link above. Just make sure you don’t touch your parents’ upholstery until you’ve washed your hands.

Hondari

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Inspired or sacrilege? Mike “Stanceworks” Burroughs’ Honda-powered Ferrari 308 is definitely not for the purist, but we’re firmly in the former camp, and think it’s spectacular.

Cue Stephan Jonsson’s fantastic 8-wide Speed Champions homage to Mike’s real-world build, complete with 3D-printed wheels and one of the most impressive brick-built liveries we’ve ever seen (see LEGO, you don’t need a hundred stickers).

There’s lots more of Stephan’s Ferrari ‘244 GTK’ to see on Flickr, and you can check out the real car that inspired it here.

Topless Smokeshow

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First-time visitors to this website today may not have expected to see images of a Lego Ferrari on fire, but you’re here now so on with the show!

This is a Ferrari F355 Spider. Specifically it’s depicting the moment when the real car – owned by YouTuber ‘Hoovie’s Garage’ – decided to spray its power-steering fluid all over the hot engine, to a fiery conclusion. It’s not just new Ferraris that like to barbecue themselves.

Don’t feel too bad for the aforementioned YouTuber though, as he got some killer content (and he owns a lot of cars).

Back to the model, and Flickr’s StudWorks has done a superb job recreating the F355 both ‘before’ and ‘during’ in Speed Champions scale. There’s lots more of Stud’s superbly presented creation to see at his ‘Hoovie’s Garage Ferrari F355 Spider’ album via the link above, and if you’d like to see what happened to the real thing, you can take a look here…

Three Horse Race

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TLCB Elves are rather fond of Lego Ferraris. Particularly red ones. Which means we have a happy contingent today, because here are no less than three of them.

Each is the work of previous bloggee Fabrice Larcheveque, who has captured the Ferrari LaFerrari, 512 BB, and 288 GTO brilliantly in 8-wide Speed Champions scale.

Fabrice’s updated builds are presented beautifully, and there’s more to see of the LaFerrari, 512 BB, 288 GTO, and many more models besides at his Flickr photostream.

Click here to take a look, where you might also find a link or two to building instructions, should you wish to create your very own Lego Ferrari at home. Or three.

Ford Vs. Ferrari

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2019’s ‘Ford Vs. Ferrari’ (or ‘Le Mans 66’ in Europe) was an excellent movie. Pitching the all-American (cough-but-actually-British-cough) Ford GT against the might of Ferrari’s racing programme, it brought one of the greatest motorsport battles to the big screen, and a much deserved spotlight to the late Ken Miles.

Despite Enzo Ferrari’s distain for certain American organisations though, the marque has always shown reverence to America in its naming, with models such as the ‘California’, ‘Daytona’, and, er… ‘America’ in its back-catalogue.

The Ferrari 575 ‘SuperAmerica’ went even further (although perhaps the `Super’ bit was referring to itself rather than the country), and has been constructed here brilliantly by TLCB Master MOCer Lachlan Cameron, using 72% of the pieces from the Technic 42154 Ford GT set.

A working V12 engine, independent suspension, functioning steering, a retractable roof, plus opening doors and hood all feature, with the model enhanced by a few non-official stickers, chrome parts, and LED lighting too.

There’s much more to see at Lachlan’s ‘Ferrari 575 SuperAmerica’ album, and you can turn your own Ford into a Ferrari via the link in the text above.

Off-Ferraroad

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Taking a Ferrari off-road doesn’t end well. That said, a Ferrari is also perfectly capable of catching fire on smooth asphalt, but off-road is certainly outside of the prancing horse’s design brief.

Except that it’s 2023, which of course means that today you can buy a Ferrari off-roader, because all anyone wants is an SUV. We’d rather take this though, Slick_Brick’s ‘Off-Road Ferrari’ buggy, which is a million times cooler than the Purosangue abomination disgracing the Ferrari name.

Cunning use of the ubiquitous Speed Champions canopy, exposed brick-built suspension, and an equipment rack above the rear-mounted engine add to the off-roady look, and there’s more of the ‘Off-Road Ferrari’ to see at Slick’s photostream by clicking here. We’d probably add a fire extinguisher to that rack though…

400-Pieces to F40

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The Ferrari F40, even with the immense fame and riches brought in by running this site, is a long way out of reach. Thus the closest this TLCB Writer is going to get to one is in the brick, but fortunately Flickr’s Fuku Saku has it covered, with his stunning 8-wide rendition of the Maranello masterpiece. As realistic as small-scale building gets, Fuku has recreated the F40 in stunning fashion, and he’s released instructions so that you can own the iconic Ferrari too. 400 pieces is all it takes, and you can find out more at Faku’s ‘Ferrari F40’ album via the link above.

Monaco ’88

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‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, the Toyota Corolla, and the Monaco Grand Prix. All simultaneously the greatest examples of their respective genres, and also the most boring.

But Formula 1 in Monaco wasn’t always a procession. Before the cars were the size of school buses, which these days makes overtaking impossible, Monaco could put on quite a show.

Back in 1988, even with the complete dominance of the McLaren-Honda MP4/4, the ’88 Monaco Grand Prix delivered. Twenty-six cars started – two of which were even called ‘Megatron’ (seriously, look it up!) – just ten finished, and Ayrton Senna was the class of the field.

Out-qualifying his team-mate Alain Prost by a staggering 1.4 seconds, Senna led the race by almost a minute… until he didn’t. A momentary lapse of concentration eleven laps from the finish and he hit the wall, whereupon he exited his broken McLaren and walked home.

Prost took the win (his forth and final Monaco GP victory), followed by Gerhard Berger’s Ferrari some twenty seconds back. Which means there’s perhaps some artistic license with the cars’ proximity in alex_bricks‘ stunning 1988 Monaco Grand Prix vignette, but in every other respect this is a spectacularly realistic homage to the Monte Carlo street race.

Recreating the circuit as it was in the late-’80s required Alex to watch old race footage (which is surely some of the most fun research required to build a Lego model), matching his brick-built version of the Mediterranean Principality to the televised imagery from the time.

The result is a replica of the streets of Monaco as they were in 1988 so perfect we can practically hear the noise from the Formula 1 cars bouncing off the walls of the buildings, with Alex displaying his incredible build at the Brickfair show earlier in the year.

Fortunately he’s uploaded a few images to Flickr too, so you can join TLCB Team immersing themselves in Monaco in 1988 via his photostream. Click the link above to head the greatest race on the Formula 1 calendar, long before it was boring.

More Endurance

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After years of very limited top-tier competition, the fastest class at Le Mans undergoing a spectacular resurgence. Works teams from Ferrari, Toyota, Porsche, Peugeot, and Cadillac all entered in 2023, with BMW, Lamborghini and Alpine all set to join in the coming years.

The 2023 24 Heures du Mans was won by a jubilant Ferrari, returning almost six decades after their last win, following an epic race-long battle with favourites Toyota. Joining his previously blogged classic Le Mans endurance racers, SFH_Bricks has recreated the 2023-winning Ferrari 499P brilliantly in Speed Champions form, alongside a host of other Hypercar-Class teams from this year’s event.

The second place Toyota GR010, doubtless still miffed at being slowed down by the FIA ‘Balance of Performance’ rules that likely cost them the win, the wonderfully-liveried (if uncompetitive) Penske Racing Porsche 963, and the third-placed Cadillac V-Series.R join the Ferrari 499P in SFH_Bricks’ ‘Le Mans 2023 Hypercars’ album.

Each Le Mans Hypercar wears an accurate livery -created in collaboration with brickstickershop – and is presented flawlessly, with building instructions available too. Join the 2023 race courtesy of SFH via the third link in the text above, plus you can check out the top-tier Le Mans cars from decades past via the second.

Apollo 10

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May 18th 1969, and the tenth Apollo mission departed the Kennedy Space Centre to begin its eight day mission. Only the fourth U.S human spaceflight and the second to orbit the moon, the Apollo 10 mission was a rehearsal for the first moon landing that was to come just two months later, when – on July 20th 1969 – mankind’s relationship with our lunar satellite changed forever.

Cue a tenuous link to today’s car, the Apollo Intensa Emozione. No, us neither, but the Intensa Emozione (or ‘IE’ for short) is a carbon-fibre German supercar, “based on airflow and nature… marine animals in particular”, and powered by a naturally-aspirated Ferrari-derived V12.

Just ten Apollo ‘IE’s will be built, each costing almost $2.7 million (around 1% of the inflation-adjusted cost of the Apollo 10 mission), and having literally nothing at all in common with the moon landings beyond being very expensive. Still, it’s a considerably better name than another more well-known Ferrari V12-powered hypercar.

This exceptional brick-built replica of the Apollo ‘IE’ comes from previous bloggee 3D supercarBricks, who has captured the bodywork-inspired-by-marine-animals brilliantly. Opening gull-wing doors, 3D printed wheels, and superb presentation enhance the realism, and there’s more of the model to see 3D’s Apollo Flickr album. Blast-off to the moon via the link above.

100 Ans du Mans

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The world’s greatest motor race celebrates its century this weekend. Founded in 1923 on a public road loop around the village of Le Mans, a route that would later become today’s ‘Circuit de la Sarthe’, the 24 Heures du Mans remains the pinnacle of endurance racing.

Of course due to some German expansionist policies in the late 1930s, the 2023 event is not the one hundredth running of the race, rather the 91st, but nevertheless it’s going to be a special year, with both a notable increase in Hypercar competition and the final year of the GTE class before it’s replaced by the more widely adopted GT3 regulations.

Flickr’s SpaceMan Nathan is celebrating Le Mans’ centenary, and the final year of GTE, with this lovely recreation of the Circuit de la Sarthe pitlane, complete with five Speed Champions GTE AM cars. Accurate liveries and trackside sponsorship add to the ambience, and you can enter the pitlane at Le Mans’ centenary year via the link above to watch the GTE finale.