Tag Archives: Gran Turismo

Folgore Flop

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If you’re in the market for a Maserati you’re likely to be the sort of customer who’s willing to overlook wildly variable panel gaps, wobbly interior stitching, haphazard ergonomics, and intermittent electric faults because of one thing; the engine.

Usually a shared with Ferrari, the soul of a Maserati is what’s under the hood, so you’d have to be a unique customer to decide you’d like a car with Maserati build quality, but without a Maserati engine to off-set it. Cue the GranTurismo Folgore, which swaps Maserati’s ‘Nettuno’ twin-turbocharged V6 for three permanent magnet radial motors and a 92kWh battery.

With an additional 200bhp over its petrol twin, 0-60mph in under three seconds, and capable of over 200mph, the GranTurismo Folgore has been a sales… disaster. So much so that Maserati have cancelled the ‘Folgore’ version of their MC20 supercar. Because if you want a Maserati you want one with an engine.

Which means the only Maserati GranTurismo Folgore we’re ever likely to see is this one, built by Flickr’s 3D supercarBricks, and replicating both the gorgeous looks and non-existent sound of the real car perfectly. The doors, trunk, and hood open, there are more superb images available to view, and you can take a look at 3D’s photostream via the link above.

Gran Turismo 2

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Much like Toyota’s ‘A80’ Supra is forever bound to ‘The Fast & The Furious’, Nissan’s ‘R34’ Skyline GT-R will be associated in perpetuity with the Gran Turismo video game franchise.

Although its production run spanned just three years, the R34 was – through those famous pixels – an automotive zeitgeist, defining an entire generation’s interaction with cars.

Cue this superb brick-built homage to Nissan’s legendary performance saloon, constructed by recent bloggee Mihail Rakovskiy, which is more lifelike than anything we drove on a Playstation.

Opening doors, hood, and trunk, a detailed ‘RB26DETT’ engine and drivetrain, and even an interior fit for a Technic figure all feature, and you can reimagine you’re back in an R34 at Trial Mountain in the early ’00s via the link to Flickr above.

Speed Champions H2 2024 | Set Previews

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It’s that time of year again, when a crack team of Elven ‘volunteers’ are implanted into the LEGO Company’s HQ to uncover their latest sets. The return of the survivors heralds the arrival of three brand new Speed Champions sets for H2 2024, bringing even more real world cars to bedroom floors this summer! Read on to find out which cars are set to join to the 2024 Speed Champions line-up!

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76923 Lamborghini Lambo V12 Vision GT

Well, ‘Real world’ cars… except for this one.

Playstation’s ‘Gran Turismo’ series has deployed concepts alongside production cars for some years. Despite having the freedom to design literally anything, these ‘Vision GT’ cars all look rather similar, and the Lamborghini Lambo V12 Vision GT (clearly taking inspiration from a certain moronically-named Ferrari) follows the same route, being both wildly conceptual, and also insipidly paint-by-numbers.

It’s not exactly our first choice for a new Lamborghini Speed Champions set then, and the resultant 230-piece 76923 Lamborghini Lambo V12 Vision GT does little to change that. A funky colour and a new mini-figure torso aren’t enough to swing the balance; our £21/$27 will be spent on a rather better Speed Champions Lamborghini…Lego 76923 Lamborghini Lambo V12 Vision GT

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76924 Mercedes-AMG G63 & SL63

Are you a wealthy Londoner with no imagination? Now you can build your vanity-plated black Mercedes-AMG G 63 in LEGO form! The new-for-2024 76924 Mercedes-AMG G 63 & Mercedes-AMG SL 63 set recreates London’s default 4×4 choice brilliantly, and throws in a neat SL 63 too.

Two appropriately douchebaggy mini-figures, limited well-deployed decals, and some wonderfully accurate detailing on the G 63 in particular ensure 76924 is an excellent addition to the Speed Champions line. Expect to pay around £45/$50 for the dual-model 808-piece set when it arrives in stores in June, and half of Chelsea to own a copy immediately. 

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76925 Aston Martin F1 Safety Car & AMR23

The final addition to the 2024 Speed Champions line-up brings two more Aston Martins to the range, each of which played a starring role in the 2023 Formula 1 season.

The new 76925 Aston Martin F1 Safety Car & AMR23 set recreates F1-legend Fernando Alonso’s podium-placing AMR23 racing car (and that of his decidedly unlegendary, non-podium placing team mate), complete with authentic decals, replica Pirelli tyres, and a rather inexact colour.

The Aston Martin F1 Safety Car – often necessitated by Alonso’s aforementioned incompetent team mate – joins it, with a light bar, accurate be-sticked interior control panel, and the same loose approximation of the real car’s hue.

Aimed at ages 9+, expect 564 pieces, two mini-figures, and a £45/$50 price-tag when 76925 arrives in stores next month.

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Three new sets, five new cars, and even more choice in LEGO’s fantastic Speed Champions range. All three sets will be available from June 1st 2024, and you can check out the sets that were added to the Speed Champions range at the start of the year by clicking here.

Super Skyline

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It’s the early-’80s, and everything is ‘turbocharged’; sunglasses, baseball caps, pens… plus, in rare cases, cars. This is one of them, the nuts Nissan Skyline KDR30 ‘Super Silhouette’.

First racing in 1982, the KDR30 was built on a tubular steel space-frame, with sort-of-Skyline sedan bodywork placed over the top, hence the moniker.

A 2.1 litre straight-4 engine was mounted upfront, attached to the mother and father of all turbos. The result was nearly 600 flame-splitting horses, powering the KDR30 to multiple race wins in Group 5 from 1982 to 1984. And many a Grand Turismo racer – as that’s how most readers will know this car – into the digital armco.

This spectacular brick-built replica of the Skyline KDR30 ‘Super Silhouette’ is the work of TLCB Master MOCer Nico71, who has recreated the formidable 1982 racer in astonishing detail.

Underneath the wonderfully accurate body – which wears the real car’s racing livery – is a fully remote controlled drivetrain, courtesy of a third-party BuWizz bluetooth battery, an L Motor powering the rear wheels, and a Servo the steering.

A detailed working replica of the 4-cylinder engine, and the massive turbo that accompanied it, can be found up front, with it – as well as the trunk and hood – easily removable.

3D-printed wheels complete the incredible realism, and the car is available to build in both remote control and manual configurations via Nico’s excellent building instructions, which he’s released alongside full details and imagery.

You can find them and the complete specifications at Nico’s website, the full gallery on Brickshelf, and you can watch both the model and the real car in action (the real one spits considerably more flame) via the video below.

YouTube Video

Calsonic Skyline

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This is the Calsonic-sponsored Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 from the early-’00s Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, but of course, you probably already knew that.

Whilst Alexander Paschoaletto‘s brilliant Skyline GT-R R34 doesn’t say ‘Calsonic’ anywhere on it, we (and most likely you) would have recognised it anywhere. That’s because this car is burned into our psyche (and retinas) from Gran Turismo, where it has, in various generations, featured as one of the star cars for over two decades.

White 3D-printed wheels, blue bodywork, and a yellow sun-strip have transported us right back to hours of early-’00s pixellated racing, and you can join us at the Deep Forest Raceway courtesy of Alexander’s photostream via the link above.

Suzuki’s Peak

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If you’re of a certain age (like this TLCB Writer) then you will absolutely know this car.

Playstation’s Gran Turismo 2 ruled racing games in the late ’90s. Populated with all manner of awesome mostly-Japanese cars from the county’s car-building zenith, pixilated racing glory could be yours at the wheel of an Impreza, a Skyline GT-R, a Supra, an RX-7, or a multitude of other machinery.

Of course you had to work your way up through a soup of crappy Suzukis and Daihatsus to get to the good stuff, but even they had some late ’90s monsters available in digital form. OK, Daihatsu didn’t, but Suzuki did; the mighty Escudo Pikes Peak.

Based on the humble Vitara (although it resembled the Vitara about as much as this TLCB Writer does Ryan Reynolds), the Escudo Pikes Peak produced almost 1,000bhp from a mid-mounted bi-turbo V6, and could do o-60mph in 3.5 seconds. On gravel.

Built for one race (the Pikes Peak…), the Suzuki Escudo won the 1995 event in the hands Nobuhiro Tajima, before he returned in the mid-’00s to win a further six consecutive Pike Peaks with Suzuki, by which time the Escudo was already a legend with an entire generation of Playstation owners.

This instantly recognisable Speed Champions homage to the iconic Gran Turismo 2 star and Suzuki outlier comes from Sergio Batista, with custom decals and bespoke wheels maximising the realism (far beyond what 1999 gaming graphics could manage…).

Building instructions are available and you can re-live your youth at Sergio’s photostream via the link above.

GT-One

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Lego Toyota GT-ONE

Toyota have a long history in motorsport, and have won both the World Rally Championship and World Endurance Championship. Their current Le Mans contender, the TS050, looks as beautiful as ever, following the TS030 and TS040 racing cars of the last few years. Unfortunately for Toyota, so far none of these cars has managed to claim outright victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race, with each coming second to the dominance of the Volkswagen Group.

Back in the late 90s it was a similar story, as Toyota’s glorious TS020, better known as the GT-One, fought it out against the Germans of Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Ultimately the GT-One came second to BMW due to its hunger for tyres (and a series of huge crashes), but the car has lived on as something of a legend in the virtual world, becoming one of the stars of the Gran Turismo and Forza franchises.

The GT-One pictured here comes from Heiko Ruutel of MOCpages, who has recreated the road-going version of the car from the aforementioned games, and he’s done it brilliantly. His Lego version of the bonkers late ’90s racer looks every inch as good as the real car and it’s just as detailed underneath too, with a superb chassis and engine bay. You can see all of the photos of Heiko’s build – including those chassis shots – via MOCpages here.

Lego Toyota GT-One TS020