Tag Archives: Honda

My Other Car’s a Ferrari

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Once seen as a knock-off Ferrari, yet now revered more than the Maranello products it sought to take on, Honda’s NSX is often regarded as the pinnacle of driver’s cars.

It’s fitting then, that this stunning Technic recreation of the first generation Honda NSX is built only from the parts found within an official Ferrari product, the LEGO Technic 42143 Ferrari Daytona SP3.

Built by Eurobricks’ Romanista, who is making not just their TLCB debut but also posting their first ever creation online, this amazing alternate includes all-wheel double-wishbone suspension with positive caster, working steering with Ackermann geometry, a V6 engine linked to a functional gearbox, pop-up headlights, and opening doors, front trunk and engine cover.

Full details and further imagery of Romanista’s spectacular 42143 alternative can be found at the Eurobricks discussion forum via the link above, and if you’d like to check out TLCB’s huge archive of brilliant B-Models that have appeared here over the years – many of which have building instructions available – you can start your search by clicking here.

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.

Type-BWAAAA

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The Lego Car Blog Elves are running around the office making VTEC noises. Which isn’t annoying at all. Still, said racket is at least accurate, because – around TLCB Towers at least – the nighttime streets echo to the sounds of the youths of today driving their ageing Civic Type-Rs fitted with silly exhausts on full throttle. Everywhere. BWAAAAAA!

Still, the clientele isn’t really Honda’s fault, and the late-’90s first generation Civic Type-R (based on the sixth generation Civic) is rapidly heading to genuine classic status. Which will soon make it too expensive for the aforementioned youths to be irritating with.

This one (and the source of the Elven office ‘BWAAAAA!’ing) is the work of previous bloggee Daniel Helms, who has absolutely nailed the first generation ‘EK9’ Civic Type-R in Model Team form.

Opening doors reveal a life-like interior, which accurately recreates the real Civic’s ’90s plasticky dashboard via some excellent bespoke decals, there’s a realistic replica of the 185bhp, 8,200rpm 1.6 litre naturally aspirated ‘B16B’ engine under the opening hood, plus the model features an opening tailgate, working suspension, and custom ‘Type-R’ stickers and Honda badging.

There’s loads more of Daniel’s terrific Type-R to see at Eurobricks, Flickr, and Bricksafe, and you can head there on full throttle at 8,200rpm via the links above. BWAAAAA….

More Power to the People

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First appearing here over a decade ago (in fact it was one of our earliest posts!), the Honda CG 125 continues to be one the great mobilisers of the people. Whilst many assume the most influential vehicles are the Toyota Corolla, the Volkswagen Beetle, or the Ford Model-T, this humble Japanese moped has moved people than probably every other private transport method combined.

First produced in 1976, the Honda CG 125 is still being made today, and units built forty years ago are still carrying entire families, shops, and livestock the world over.

This beautiful Technic recreation of the world’s greatest people mover comes from Master MOCer Nico71, who has updated his decade-old design with newer parts, excellent presentation, and building instructions so you can create it for yourself.

There’s much more to see at Nico’s Brickshelf gallery; join the millions of people who ride a Honda CG 125 every day via the link in the text above!

Beat It

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‘Sports’ cars today have about a thousand horsepower and weigh sixteen tons. Except when they’re EVs, and then it’s double that. Which is why we love the Honda Beat.

Built to Japan’s kei-car regulations in the early ’90s, the Beat had only 660cc, 63bhp, and weighed in at just 760kgs. Which means your Mom could double the kerb-weight just by getting in. Not that she’d fit.

This neat Speed Champions Beat was found by one of our Elves on Flickr, coming from Ilya Muratov who has captured the ’90s kei icon wonderfully. Jump in via the link to Ilya’s Flickr album above. If you fit.

*Today’s title song. Of course.

Senna & Cigarettes

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Formula 1 was different in 1991. Cigarettes, a variety of engine configurations, and only one Unites States Grand Prix. Oh, and a titanic battle between McLaren’s Ayrton Senna and Williams’ Nigel Mansell, that culminated in a third Driver’s World Championship for Senna and the only Constructor’s World Championship ever won by a V12 powered car.

This is that car, the awesome McLaren-Honda MP4/6, as designed, liveried, rendered and presented beautifully by Robson M aka BrickDesigners, and there’s more to see of Robson’s stunning recreation on Flickr. Click the link above to race in ’91.

Insert Safety Car Here

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Mercedes-AMG’s seven-year dominance of the Formula 1 World Championship finally ended in 2021. Well, sort of… they still won the Constructor’s Championship, making it eight-in-a-row, but Lewis Hamilton did not win an eighth Driver’s Championship, and as such may now never move ahead of the record he shares with Schumacher.

Of course we also say ‘sort of’ thanks the controversial way in which Hamilton lost the Driver’s Championship on the final laps of the final race to Max Verstappen.

Thanks to crash-a-holic Lattifi (who – if he wasn’t paying to drive the car – surely wouldn’t be in Formula 1), and an improbable safety car decision that eventually cost race director Michael Masi his job, Verstappen was able to pass Hamilton on the final lap, giving us the first new World Champion in four seasons, and ending years of ‘#blessed’ instagram posts from the bejewelled multiple-champion.

Cue much arm waving and shouting from Mercedes-AMG (unusual, seeing as Christian Horner of Red Bull had done it all season for various imagined grievances), an investigation, but the race result standing. Which, by the way, we’re all for.

Yes the rules hadn’t been followed, but we’re of the opinion that even if there’s just one corner of the race remaining, it is a race, and therefore it should be, well… raced. Plus it made for amazing TV.

Anyway, Verstappen took the Championship, Hamilton felt what it’s like to lose (although he’s more than familiar with that this season), and fans got a finale to talk about for years to come.

This is the car that took Verstappen to his first Formula 1 Driver’s World Championship, the Honda-powered Red Bull RB16B, as created in spectacular detail by previous bloggee Noah_L of Flickr, and joining his already-impressive roster of brick-built modern Formula 1 cars.

The incredible realism is enhanced by some frankly jaw-dropping decals, created for Noah by a fellow builder, and there’s more to see of his astonishing (and beautifully presented) creation at his ‘Red Bull RB16B’ album on Flickr, where a link to building instructions can also be found.

Click the link above to deploy the safety car…

*It’s the Azerbaijan Grand Prix today. If you’re a Hamilton / Mercedes-AMG fan, this link from the 2018 race may raise a snicker.

Accessibly Interesting

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Having just posted a hugely valuable exotic car built from another hugely valuable exotic car, you might be surprised to learn that at The Lego Car Blog, we rather prefer the ordinary. So much so we’re running a building competition in search of boring vehicles.

You see, it’s easy to make a squillion-dollar supercar that precisely eight people will buy, not drive, and park in a garage hoping it will one day be worth two-squillion dollars, but it’s much harder to make something hum-drum fun.

It’s even harder these days, when the only thing that sells are angry-looking crossover-SUVs with too much power and too little handling finesse, but back in the 1980s, a number of affordable, interesting, fun cars could be had from car manufacturers who today wouldn’t know fun if it ran them over.

Honda were one such company, who – at the peak of their engineering brilliance – created a small 2+2 front-wheel-drive coupe built from standard economy-car parts and powered by a dinky (but clever) 1.5 or 1.6 litre engine. And that was the ‘sports’ model, base versions had a 1.3!

The result was fabulous, and a car that was infinitely more fun to drive than a BMW X7M or whatever the hell they’re trying to pass off as as a ‘sports’ vehicle this week.

Flickr’s Mihail Rakovskiy has captured the humble CRX beautifully in Creator style, recreating its ’80s aesthetic brilliantly and including opening doors, tailgate and hood, a superb interior, and a realistic brick-built version of the little Honda 4-pot that powered it.

It’s a fantastic homage to a Honda’s proof that power and price are no match for cleverly engineered affordable fun, and there’s much more to see at Mihail’s ‘Honda CRX’ album via the link above.

VTEC Just Kicked In Yo

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The car of nine thousand memes. And nine thousand revs. Which is a lot.

The Honda S2000 was quite a special thing when it debuted in 1999, taking Honda’s VTEC system to the max, and fitted with a naturally-aspirated engine delivering a higher specific output per litre than anything that had gone before. Supercars included.

It also had rather spiky handling and a gauge cluster from a 1980s microwave, but none of that mattered when you reached peak power output at 8,800rpm.

This one was discovered by one of our Elves on Flickr, and comes from Mihail Rakovskiy who has captured it near perfectly in brick form.

Take it to the 9,000rpm red line via the link above.

Bwaaaarp!

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If it’s red, with fart-cannon exhausts, and a giant wing on the back, then TLCB Elves will probably like it. Cue this Honda Prelude by Flickr’s SP_LINEUP, which is red, with fart-cannon exhausts, and a giant wing on the back. See more at the link, whilst try to stop the Elves running around the office making engine and tyre screeching noises.

6-Wide Speed

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Building an instantly recognisable vehicle from Lego bricks isn’t always easy, and it becomes increasingly difficult the smaller the scale becomes. That’s why LEGO have recently upped the size of their Speed Champions sets, to better capture the real-world cars they aim to imitate (with varying degrees of success).

Cue previous bloggee RGB900, who has not only constructed this immediately identifiable Honda NSX, he’s even managed to do so in the ‘old’ 6-wide Speed Champions scale. A few of the building techniques probably wouldn’t pass LEGO’s requirements for an official set, but there are no sticker-based cheats here!

There’s more to see of RGB’s excellent NSX on Flickr, and you can do just that via the link above.

New Sports Experimental

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Honda’s current range of drab uninspiring boxes shows just how far a manufacturer can fall from their height.

Back in the 1990s Honda were on top of the world, winning Formula 1 races, building exceptionally popular cars most of which had a fun version, and even pioneering Hybrid technology before – for reasons unknown – looking that gift horse in the mouth.

All of which makes Honda’s current range of cars look narcoleptic by comparison. We mean, just look at this one.

No car highlights how far Honda’s slide into dismal mediocrity has come from than this; the amazing Honda NSX.

Built to be an everyday supercar, the NSX wasn’t massively fast (although little was back in 1990), but it was joyously engineered, comfortably beating Ferrari, Lamborghini and others in terms of its technical accomplishment.

Despite this, badge snobbery was just as prevalent in the 1990s as it is today, and the NSX was largely overlooked in favour of the established (and worse) competition. Not so now, where NSXs (and all cars from Japan’s heyday) are in serious demand, perhaps helped by the fact that Honda now make absolutely nothing exciting whatsoever.

This means that Honda’s spectacular engineering masterpiece is now way out of reach of us here at The Lego Car Blog, despite the vast fame and riches that blogging Lego models brings.

Cue TLCB debutant Pingubricks, who has recreated Honda’s finest moment brilliantly in brick form. Pingu’s Model Team NSX captures the design of the real car wonderfully, and there are opening doors, trunk, engine cover, and even working pop-up head lights via a lever in the cabin too!

There’s more to see of Pingu’s spectacular Honda NSX at the Eurobricks forum, and you can join us there via the link in the text above.

New Sportscar Experimental

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Honda’s NSX broke new ground when it launched in 1990. Whilst not the fastest or the most exotic supercar, it brought reliability and usability to a vehicular segment that had – in some cases – completely ignored these attributes in favour of silly doors.

This of course meant that the NSX was seen as a bit boring at the time, or even ‘not a super car’, at all, but time has been kinda Honda’s experiment, and it has become one of the most revered and iconic ’90s cars ever, with prices exploding in recent years.

This puts the NSX out of reach for most of us, but fortunately regular bloggee SP_LINEUP has constructed one that’s far more attainable, and just as awesome looking.

A detailed interior behind opening doors, a beautifully accurate engine under an opening cover, and – get this – working pop-up headlights via a lever in the cabin(!) all feature, and there’s much more to see of SP’s superbly presented build on Flickr. Click the link above to make the jump!

Box Clever

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Japan has two car markets; one for ‘normal’ cars like Corollas, Crowns and suchlike, and the other – the kei class – for vehicles such as these two.

Designed to ensure that car ownership in Japan’s tight streets and congested cities doesn’t completely break the road network, kei cars must measure less than 3.4m in length, 1.48m in width, and have an engine no bigger than 660cc (if powered by an internal combustion engine).

Denoted by their yellow number plates, kei cars benefit from lower taxation than regular cars, but they must comply with reduced speed limits too. Although that’s probably so they don’t fall over.

Over one in three cars sold in Japan are in the kei class, and the specs can be wild, with turbocharging, all-wheel-drive, and even convertible sports cars available.

Most kei cars however, look like these two; a box measuring exactly 3.4m long and 1.48m wide, precisely maximising the interior space within the permitted exterior dimensions.

The Daihatsu Move Canbus and the Honda N-Box Slash pictured here are both the work of Flickr’s Ralph Savelsberg, who has constructed them in his trademark Miniland style.

Each packs as much detail as possible into a tiny package, which is appropriate, and there’s more of each build to see at Ralph’s photostream. Click the link above to see what’s inside the box.

Fifteen Horsepower of Fun

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We’ve featured some very cool, very fast motorbikes here over the years. The Honda Mini Trail ‘Monkey Bike’ is not one of them.

However we would take this diminutive 125cc practical joke of a motorcycle over literally any other two-wheeled machine, because it’s hilarious.

Powered by a 15bhp 125cc engine (or engines even smaller), Honda’s Mini Trail is not going to win any off-road competitions, but it going to make the rider look very funny, and that’s reason enough for us to love it.

This near-perfect Technic replica of the Mini Trail 125cc comes from ianying616, and we can confirm that with a TLCB Elf strapped atop, it’s just as funny as the real thing. Click the link above for 125cc of fun!