Tag Archives: Hypercar

American Achievement

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It’s the day after that Alaskan summit, in which presidents Trump and Putin held, to quote Trump, a “10 out of 10” discussion, in which they “got along great”. Except it achieved nothing at all. Still, we suppose Trump and Putin do have much in common, so that’s nice.

But when America does put its mind to Europe, it can achieve great things. Cue the Cadillac V-Series.R, General Motors’ entrant into the burgeoning WEC Hypercar class, and now a race winner sitting third in the sizeable top-tier class of the championship. Which bodes well for Cadillac’s forthcoming entry to Formula 1.

Built on an Italian Dallara chassis and run by the British Jota Sport team, it also proves that America can benefit from European expertise. We hope that might be remembered in round two of the Ukrainian peace talks that perhaps should include Ukraine.

Oh yes, the car! This superb Speed Champions replica of the Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-Series.R comes from prolific Le Mans Hypercar builder SFH_Bricks, who has captured the racer and its golden Hertz livery beautifully. Building instructions are available and you can head to the heart of European racing in an Italian-British-American collaboration via the link above.

Believe the Hype

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We’ve all designed our dream hypercar in our heads. Well, TLCB Staff have. Anyway, Eurobricks’ Sebeus I has turned his dream hypercar into reality (kinda), by building this extraordinarily thoroughly thought-out creation, entitled simply ‘Hypercar’.

The techniques to create it are anything but simple though, with the remarkable exterior matched by amazingly life-like brick-built internals, with a rear subframe, engine and hybrid system, oil reservoir, coolant, battery, ECU, exhaust manifold, plus ‘steering’ and ‘suspension’ components too.

There’s much more of Sebeus’ ‘Hypercar’ to see at the Eurobricks forum, including full build details and imagery displaying the ingenious detail within.

Stow-on-the-Wold Avoiding Chipping Norton

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Running from Burford to near Worcester, the A424 is a main north/south road in the Cotswolds, passing through the pretty Norman town of Stow-on-the-Wold whilst avoiding the busy conurbation of Chipping Norton. It’s also a 2024 Le Mans endurance racer. But back to road, an… Oh, you’d prefer the car? Um, ok… bit weird, but alright.

This is the Alpine A424. Which is not a road. It is instead rebranded-Renault’s 2024 offensive into the burgeoning Le Mans Hypercar class, using an Oreca chassis and Mecachrome V6 engine from Formula 2, but featuring lots of ‘Alpine’ decals.

This superb Speed Champions replica of the road between Burford and Worcester 2024 Le Mans Hypercar comes from SFH_Bricks, who adds it to his ever-growing list of endurance racers. Building instructions are available (as are the excellent custom stickers), and you can drive to Worcester via Stow-on-the-Wold via the link above.

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.

Technic 42156 Peugeot 9X8 24H Le Mans Hybrid Hypercar | Set Preview

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LEGO’s extensive catalogue of officially-licensed vehicle sets has brought many amazing real-world racers to bedroom floors, including the 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Car, 42125 Ferrari 488 GTE AF Corse, and the 42096 Porsche 911 RSR.

Today we can reveal that LEGO are not only bringing another real-world racer to the Technic range, but a whole new manufacturer too! This is the brand new 1:10 scale, 1,775-piece 42156 Peugeot 9X8 24H Le Mans Hybrid Hypercar.

Yes, we finally have a top-tier Le Mans Hypercar in brick form, although with LEGO also having licenses with rival teams Toyota, Ferrari, BMW, Porsche, and Ferrari, hopefully we could see the whole Le Mans grid in time.

The Peugeot 9X8 entered the championship this year, looking to challenge the dominance of Toyota at the front of the field, and combines a V6 engine with a Hybrid KER system and four-wheel drive.

The new LEGO 42156 set aims to recreate the functions of the real Peugeot 9X8, with working steering and suspension, a V6 piston engine, 7-speed transmission, and – mysteriously – replicating ‘the low emission hybrid powertrain system’, although we’re not sure what that means.

The set also features glow-in-the-dark headlights and a myriad of authentic decals, and is expected to cost around £170 / $200 when it reaches stores in time for the 2023 24 Heures du Mans race this summer, in which Peugeot Sport might get a little extra support from LEGO fans…

Alpine Pass

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History is littered with vehicle manufacturers who sold about five cars a year, but yet somehow thought they could afford a top-tier racing team. Caterham, Marussia, Spyker, TVR and others have all tried – and without exception failed – to turn a tiny (and sometimes non-existent) sports car business into a successful racing team.

Re-born Alpine are the latest company to have a go. However whilst they also only sell about five cars a year, they’re owned by Renault, whose pockets and racing experience are rather deeper than Marussia’s…

Cue the Renault F1 team becoming Alpine in 2021, and – perhaps less encouragingly – this; the Alpine A480 Le Mans Hypercar entrant. Which wasn’t a Hypercar at all, rather a ‘grandfathered’ LMP1 Rebellion/Oreca 07 with a new paint-job.

Still, it brought a much-needed competitor to the top tier of endurance racing, which is currently rather short of entries, and gave the French fans something to support.

This neat brick-built version of the ‘Alpine’ A480 comes from Lasse Deleuran (aka gtahelper), who’s added it to his extensive line-up of Le Mans cars from the last few years.

There’s more of the model to see on Brickshelf via the link above, and we’ll be looking forward to Lasse’s Lego versions of the new Peugeot and Ferrari Le Mans Hypercars which are due to join the field soon. We just hope they do a bit more than give an old Rebellion/Oreca 07 a new paint job…