Tag Archives: France

Welcome to Understeer

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Here at The Lego Car Blog we are definitely petrol-heads. And electric-heads perhaps too. We like cars is what we’re trying to say.

Because of this, we prefer our cars with rear-wheel-drive and manual gearboxes, for reasons of steering feel, the ability to go sideways a bit, and other nerdy car things that normal people couldn’t care less about. Which is why front-wheel-drive matters.

Creating safer, more predictable (understeery) handling, greater interior room, and better refinement, front-wheel-drive has been the absolute norm for anything that isn’t sporty for the past four decades.

Even brands famed for their rear-wheel-drive chassis like BMW have switched to front-wheel-drive for their smaller models, after learning their customers had no idea that their 1-Series was rear-wheel-drive, or even what being rear-wheel-drive means. Sigh.

Front-wheel-drive was dabbled with in the early years of motoring, but this is the car that proved the layout, decades before it became mainstream. It is the fabulous Citroen Traction Avant.

Possessing not just front-wheel-drive, but also the first mass-produced monocoque body and early rack-and-pinion steering, the Traction Avant was so advanced it was produced for two decades, something that was needed as its development bankrupted the Citroen company in the mid 1930s.

Today the Traction Avant is seen as the father of front-wheel-drive, and therefore most new cars on sale today (even if your car is all-wheel-drive, it’s still almost always only front-driven).

It’s surprising then that the Traction Avant has only featured here twice in a decade of publishing Lego vehicles. Cue this wonderful and much overdue Technic recreation of one of the world’s most innovative cars, as built by the very talented Nico71.

Beautifully replicating the Traction Avant’s ’30s styling, Nico’s model includes a working four-cylinder engine under the split-folding hood, four opening doors and an opening trunk, working steering, and – of course – front-wheel-drive.

The complexities of front-wheel-drive mean that – much like cars before about 1980 – very few Lego models adopt it, favouring the simplicity of a rear-driven axle. Nico’s model successfully incorporates it however, and he’s released building instructions so you can see how to create front-driven Lego models for yourself.

There’s much more to see at Nico’s Brickshelf gallery, you can watch the model in action via the video below, plus you can find out how Nico creates beautifully engineered models like this one via his Master MOCers interview. Understeer your way to all the additional content via the links above.

YouTube Video

Channel Crossing

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One hundred and twenty years ago, the Wright brothers took to the skies (briefly) to complete the world’s first powered heavier-than-air flight. Made of spruce, ash, and canvas, their ‘Wright Flyer’ propelled itself through the air for 260 metres / 850 feet, and into the record books.

Just six years later and aircraft development was so rapid that planes could stay airborne for hours at a time, with this, the Blériot XI, the first to cross the English Channel. A competition run by an English newspaper, Louis Charles Joseph Blériot took the £1,000 prize, and with it over a hundred orders for his new monoplane.

This incredible recreation of that pioneering aircraft is the work of Nikolaus Löwe, and includes functioning control surfaces via the cockpit stick, a foot-pedal operated rudder, suspended landing-gear, and a working semi-radial engine.

There’s more to see at Nikolaus’ photostream and you can head to the skies over the English Channel in 1909 via the link above.

Wear Your Mask

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If 2020 had a word (aside from ‘dumpsterfire’), it would be ‘mask’. Enacted to protect the vulnerable and elderly from an unknown and deadly disease, laws requiring the wearing of masks were widely adopted across the world, much to the anger of a small but very vocal minority of morons.

It’s also rather ironic that the ideology displaying said anger about being asked to wear a mask for protection seemed to have no qualms with carrying a gun… for protection. Sigh.

Anyway, with winter approaching and COVID on the rise again, we may have to get used to another round of mask wearing, which leads us neatly-and-in-no-way-tenuously on to these rather good creations by nickgreat.

Suggested by a reader, Nick’s models recreate the vehicles from the mid-’80s cartoon TV show ‘M.A.S.K’, in which the ‘Mobile Armoured Strike Kommand’ (because ‘M.A.S.C’ wasn’t as cool) fought ‘V.E.N.O.M’, the Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem, whilst wearing super-powered helmets (or masks. Ah… it all makes sense).

And if that isn’t the ideal marketing recipe for a range of plastic toys we don’t know what is.

With vehicles such as the ‘Rhino’, ‘Switchblade’, ‘Thunderhawk’ and ‘Jackhammer’ – that could transform into fighter jets, gun turrets, and hydroplanes – plus a protagonist named ‘Matt Trakker’, you’d be forgiven for thinking M.A.S.K might be the most American thing since excessive patriotism, but it was in fact French, and animated in Japan.

Nick has created seven of the transforming vehicles from the ’80s TV show superbly in mini-figure scale, three of which are pictured here, and you find the full array of ‘M.A.S.K’ models at his album on Bricksafe.

Put on your mask and take a look via the link above, or alternatively shout angrily about masks being part of a global conspiracy or something, depending upon your IQ.

Seventies Cycling

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Peugeot, like many car manufacturers, didn’t begin by making cars. The company’s earliest products were saw blades and coffee and pepper grinders, but it was the bicycles that followed that made the business famous.

A decline in cycling interest post-war forced the company to refocus on automobile production, but a resurgence in the 1960s, as the bicycle transitioned from a transportation method to a leisure activity, created a new market for Peugeot’s pedal-powered products.

The company capitalised on this, producing road and race bikes that became world famous, and demonstrated their leadership in the world’s toughest (and Frenchiest) cycle race; the Tour de France, winning the event in ’75 and ’77.

This lovely 6-wide recreation of Peugeot’s 1970s Tour de France support car, complete with boot-mounted bicycles, comes from previous bloggee PalBenglat, who has captured both the ’70s Peugeot 504 and the vintage building style of LEGO at the time wonderfully.

Clever techniques and excellent presentation are evident throughout the build, and there’s more of the classic Peugeot to see at Pal’s photostream. Click the link above to put on your jersey and head into the French mountains c1975.

Cartoon Traction Avant

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This wonderfully cartoonish Citroen Traction Avant was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr today. Constructed by KMbricklab, a wealth of clever techniques have been deployed to accentuate the classic Citroen’s features, and there’s a whole lot more of the model to see on Flickr. Click the link above to forward yourself there.

’80s Joyride

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Volkswagen weren’t the only car manufacturer to attach the letters ‘G’, ‘T’ and ‘I’ to a family hatchback on the 1980s…

The Peugeot 205 GTI was an absolute sensation when it arrived in 1986. Powered by a 1.6 litre engine making 104bhp, and later a 1.9 litre making over 120bhp, the GTI was fast, fun, and wildly popular.

So much so that, like Volkswagen’s offering, quite a few people wanted to have a go even if they didn’t own one. Hot hatchback thefts rocketed, shortly followed by insurance premiums, and sales plummeted.

But Peugeot can’t really be blamed for joy-riding scumbags, and the 205 GTI is now a bona-fide classic, a high water mark for the brand that they are still to beat some four decades later.

This wonderful Technic recreation of Peugeot’s finest hour comes from TLCB Master MOCer Nico71, who has captured the 205 GTI magnificently.

Featuring working steering, functional suspension, a detailed engine under an opening hood, a life-like interior behind opening doors, and an opening tailgate too, Nico’s 205 GTI is about as visually realistic as it’s possible for a Technic model to be.

Plus best of all – like the aforementioned scumbags that nearly killed the hot hatchback genre altogether – you can have a go without having to do the work yourself!

Yup, Nico has made building instructions available too, with his design buildable in ’80s-appropriate red, black or white, and you can take a closer look – as well as a find a link to those instructions – at Nico’s Peugeot 205 GTI gallery on Brickshelf.

Click the link above to start our ’80s joyride!

Anglo-French Relations

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The British and French don’t often collaborate. In fact over much of their history it’s been quite the opposite, with the two countries regularly trying to blow one another up.

These days (and post-Brexit) there’s just a simmering dislike that only manifests itself in sport and stealing one another’s scallops, but despite this there have been some notable (and remarkable) collaborations between the two nations.

The longest under-sea tunnel in the world, the world’s first supersonic airliner, and Kristin Scott-Thomas are all worthy partnerships, and back in the 1930s Britain and France worked together on cars too.

This is the Bugatti Type 41 Park Ward, a luxurious grand limousine from the golden era of coach-building.

Park Ward, better known for re-bodying Rolls Royces, created this beautifully opulent vehicle upon Bugatti’s fourth Type 41 (Royale) chassis for Captain Cuthbert W. Foster, a department store heir, in 1933.

Still to this day one of the largest cars ever built, the car now resides in a museum in France, where it’s worth more than all the scallops in the English channel.

Fortunately Flickr’s 1corn has created one that – at 1:25 scale – is rather more attainable, and there’s more to see of his wonderful brick-built Bugatti Type 41 at his photostream; Click the link above to take the Channel Tunnel and fight over some marine molluscs.

My Other Car’s a Pick-Up

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This quirky classic cabriolet is a Panhard Dyna Junior, a car about which we know absolutely nothing besides that it’s French. And therefore probably weird.

Built by previous bloggee monstermatou, this lovely ’50s two-seat convertible is constructed from the parts found within the LEGO 10290 Creator Expert Pickup Truck set, and like its donor set includes working steering, opening doors, hood and trunk.

There’s more of monstermatou’s excellent alternate to see at his photostream on Flickr; click the link above to head to ’50s France.

The Other Jaguar

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This is the EBRC Jaguar, France’s new armoured reconnaissance & combat vehicle, and – according to builder Jordan Parmegiani (aka ParmBrick) – it’s equipped with electronic IED countermeasures and missile alert systems, a 40mm cannon, two MMP anti-tank guided missiles, a 7.62mm remote controlled machine gun, and eight smoke grenades. Which all sounds marvellous, but more importantly, being French, just look at how many poles there are to hang a white flag on! See more of Jordan’s Jaguar at both Eurobricks and Flickr via the links.

Big Hero 6

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This is a 1950s Berliet T100, a French-built, V12-powered 6×6 truck, with a gross weight of over 100 tons, and it was the largest truck in the world.

Four T100s were built between 1957 and 1959, with three flatbeds (as depicted here) designed to take enormous pieces of equipment off-road to serve oil and gas exploration in Northern Africa, whilst the fourth was outfitted as a dump truck for use in a French uranium mine.

The trucks were powered by a 29.6 litre Cummins engine, supplemented by a smaller Panhard engine used to power the steering and as a generator, and delivered a power figure of between 600 and 700bhp. One T100 was even fitted with an experimental gas turbine for a while, before it reverted back to diesel power.

Nico71’s incredible Technic recreation of the Berliet T100 includes both of these engines, along with a fully working replica of the T100’s 6×6 drivetrain, with three L Motors (one for each axle), all-wheel suspension, and a Medium Motor powering a compressor that can pneumatically lock all three differentials.

A fifth motor drives the steering front axle, with a final M Motor powering a winch mounted at the back of the cab, able to drag equipment up the T100’s ramp for transportation.

All six motors can be operated via bluetooth thanks to a third party SBrick controller, providing Nico’s 1:20 scale 3kg model with an accurate scaled-down representation of the real Berliet T100’s off-road ability.

You can see Nico71’s amazing creation in action via the video below, and you can read full details about both the build and the history of the real 1950s Berliet T100 trucks at Nico’s excellent website, where a complete gallery of images and 550-page building instructions can also be found.

YouTube Video

Ardennes ’44

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It must have been beautiful but bleak navigating the Ardennes in 1944. Nicholas Goodman has depicted the scene beautifully, with his tank advancing through the mud and ice, wonderfully recreated in brick form. Head to Nicholas’ photostream for the full image, and – as we do from time to time – click here for the other side of war.

Delightful Sedan

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We’re not sure what ‘DS’ stands for these days, as Stellantis (what?) seems be using the brand solely in an attempt to charge 50% more for some extra chrome attached to decidedly average Citroens.

‘Deeply Cynical’? Wait, that’s not an ‘S’. ‘Dollar Signs’ perhaps? ‘Devoid of Substance’? Whatever it is, it isn’t working.

However a long time ago Citroen did used to produce the world’s best luxury cars, leading the way with hugely advanced technology, styling, and comfort.

This is one such car, the magnificent 1950s-1960s DS19, a car with front-wheel drive, hydro-pneumatic self-levelling suspension (with variable ride-height), power steering, a clutch-less gearbox, and disc brakes. All in 1955.

This beautifully presented Speed Champions recreation of the DS19 comes from Jonathan Elliott of Flickr, who has replicated the iconic French design wonderfully, even tapering the bodywork from 7 to 6 studs wide along the model’s length.

Jump to ’50s French luxury via the link above, and for comparison you can find one of DS’s current offerings here, where you can mutter dejectedly at it. Because they’re Depressingly Sardonic. Ah, that’s it!

Silver Snail

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Small cars are different depending on where you live. Today’s other small car, a revolution in gas-guzzling America, had an engine more than three times the size of France’s equivalent.

France was in a rather different place after the Second World War though. Well, it was in the same place as it is now, but economically and infrastructurally it couldn’t have been more different from America, thanks to seeing the worst of the conflict.

The country therefore needed a small, cheap, reliable car that used the minimum of materials and ‘could cross a ploughed field’, or – we suspect more relevantly – a road network blown to bits by years of war.

With a two-cylinder engine around half a litre or less, easy maintenance, and minimal material costs, Citroen produced nearly 4 million 2CVs over a forty year production run, and – effectively – remobilised France.

This brilliant Town-scale replica of the ‘tin snail’ captures the iconic peoples’ car superbly, and it comes form previous bloggee Jonathan Elliott of Flickr. A myriad of curved plates has been deployed to capture a shape that was easy to make in metal, but fiendishly difficult to create in bricks, and bar the inappropriate tyres (get yourself some ’80s Town tyres Jonathan!) the result is about as good as it’s possible to get at this scale.

There’s more to see of Jonathan’s Citroen 2CV on Flickr, where this build and a host of other brilliant Town vehicles can be found. Click the link above to make the jump.

My Other Car’s a Camper

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You may not be familiar with Matra, but they’re probably the most important car company you’ve never heard of. Enormously successful on track, Matra won the Formula 1 World Championship in 1969, and the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1972, ’73 and ’74. They designed the first MPV, the first crossover, and – for a while – they made this, the delightfully weird three-seat Bagheera sports car.

Powered by 1.3 or 1.5 litre Simca engines, the lightweight Bagheera was faster than most other European small sports cars of the time, and cheaper too. It was a trend-setter in other ways however, being appalling built to the point of winning the ‘Silver Lemon’ award in 1975 for poorest quality, which when combined with a chassis without any rust protection whatsoever, makes the Bagheera a very rare sight today.

One Bagheera that won’t rust is this excellent Model Team version by previous bloggee monstermatou, who has constructed his entirely from the parts found within the Creator 10220 Volkswagen T1 Camper set. Following his stunning Citroen DS19 built for TLCB’s Lock-Down B-Model competition, Monster’s Matra continues his weird-French-cars-built-from-LEGO-sets theme, and his run of incredible B-Model builds that you can find at his photostream.

There’s more to see of monstermatou’s Matra Bagheera on Flickr via the link above, along with a host of other ace alternates including the aforementioned Citroen, a Morgan built from a Mini, and a Fiat 500 constructed from the same Camper set as this classic French oddball.

My Other Car’s a Mustang

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LEGO’s brilliant 10265 Ford Mustang set is one of the finest additions to the Creator line-up yet. That it has spawned so many B-Models too, is testament to how great a set it really is. In fact, it inspired this whole competition.

Joining a host of other builders to use 10265 as their chosen set in TLCB’s Lock-Down B-Model Competition, Flickr’s monstermatou has taken the Mustang in a very different direction, recreating one of the most technologically advanced and unusual cars of all time; the glorious Citroen DS19.

Despite using only the parts from the 10265 Ford Mustang set, monstermatou has replicated the DS19’s spaceship exterior absolutely beautifully, from the roof-mounted indicators to the hidden rear wheels. The superb realism doesn’t stop with the outside either, as behind the four opening doors is a brilliant interior with a working steering wheel, a detailed engine sits underneath the opening hood, and even the trunk opens too.

Things are getting tough at the top for the competition judges, and if you’d like to enter your own B-Model into the competition (where the winner and runner up will receive some awesome prizes) there’s still plenty of time; entries close on June 30th.

Until then you can see more of monstermatou’s stunning Citroen DS19 at his photostream by clicking here, where you will not only find a huge gallery of pristine images, there is also a link to building instructions so you can build it for yourself, plus monstermatou has a whole range of other incredible B-Models to view!