Tag Archives: Jaguar

Speed in the ’50s

The fastest cars in the world weren’t always million-pound Bugattis, Koenigseggs or Hennesseys. They used to be Jaguars.

Launched in 1954, the XK140 was an evolution of the equally gorgeous XK120, a car that held the production car top speed record for six years, even though it only cost relatively normal sports car money.

This beautiful replica of Jaguar’s fabulous mid-’50s sports car has been created by the hands of the legendary Firas Abu-Jaber, who has captured its graceful shape brilliantly in brick.

Ingenious building techniques, working steering, a life-like interior, and the finest presentation in the Lego Community make Firas’ Jaguar a jaw-dropping build, and there are more stunning images to see on Flickr.

Click these words to visit Firas’ ‘Jaguar XK140’ album for the complete gallery, plus you can find out about the man behind the model via his Master MOCers interview by clicking here.

The Devil’s Lawnmower

TLCB maintains that farm machinery is the scariest vehicular category there is. Take this Claas Jaguar-900 self-propelled forage harvester, which looks like a cross between the monster from Stranger Things and something the used to garner confessions in Medieval Europe.

Terrifying thought it may be, it’s a class (hah!) build, and comes from Keko007 who has teamed it with his previously blogged MAN TGS / Krampe KS 950. There’s more to see on Flickr, and you can take a look via the link above whilst this writer heads into the cute kei car archive to rebalance himself.

What’s Going on at Jaguar?

If you’re even slightly into cars, you can’t help but have noticed Jaguar’s divisive rebrand that dropped this week.

Shot in some kind of soft-play-on-Mars, Jaguar’s thirty-second Statement of Intent features exactly zero cars, but does feature a variety of extravagantly dressed androgynous beings representing ‘exuberance’, ‘vividness’, ‘mould-breaking’, and gender fluidity. And that’s got people mad.

Which is perhaps unsurprising, as Jaguar’s executives have thrown the brand’s seventy year history in the bin (including its logo and typography), and yet at the same time the ire seems rather disproportionate. Because despite being entitled ‘Copy Nothing’, the new campaign copies every minority-centred advertising checklist of the last few years. And it’s genius.

Jaguar, for all their heritage, engineering brilliance, and race winning history, have barely made money in decades. We may like Jaguar, but not enough of us are actually buying their products. Not by a long-shot. If we were, they wouldn’t have needed to conduct a shock-tactics rebrand. Nor stop selling cars altogether for a year or two before returning (as they will) with $130k-and-up EVs.

In the meantime, Jaguar have created more exposure through a single thirty-second visual abomination than they have in the last ten years. And if that annoys fans of growling big cats and V8 sports cars, well we weren’t buying enough of their cars anyway.

So before Jaguar return with something wildly different from what’s gone before, here’s what they used to build; a well proportioned if traditionally styled luxury sedan, that frankly, wasn’t quite good enough. Flickr’s Peter Blackert (aka Lego911) is the builder, and you can see more of his digital recreation of Jaguar’s mid-’90s XJ6 at his photostream.

Click the second link above to take a look, or the first if you haven’t yet seen how Jaguar’s marketing department have put a match to everything Jaguar used to be…

Yeah Baby!

Is there anything more British than a Jaguar E-Type bedecked in Union Flag? OK, maybe tea. Or politely queuing. Or pilfering far-off countries’ antiquities. Or football hooliganism. But other than those things a Jaguar E-Type bedecked in a Union Flag is bloody well right up there.

Famously driven by Austin Powers (“women want him, and men want to be him”), the “Shaguar” first appeared in the International Man of Mystery’s 1997 debut, and has been recreated superbly in brick form – including the patriotic paint job – by published Lego author Peter Blackert (aka Lego911).

Building instructions are available with more to see on Flickr. Take a look via the link above whilst we go and politely queue for a tea.

Fifty Shades of Grey

The Lego Car Blog Elves, who are effectively mythical toddlers, like eye-searing colours. Yellow. Orange. Pink. A combination of all of them. If they could choose a car’s colour scheme it would probably look like this.

TLCB staff however, prefer far more muted hues. As do 95% human adults, judging the almost universally monochrome cars on the roads of our home nation. If a car isn’t black, silver, grey or white, it’s because the owner must be an obnoxious show-off.

Previous bloggee K P certainly shares this school of thought, creating this rather beautiful Jaguar-ish / Bentley-esque classic car from three monochrome colours, which are neatly reflected in the driver’s attire too.

The dog remains light brown though. The obnoxious show-off.

Inventive parts usage and excellent building techniques abound, and there’s more to see of K P’s lovely classic luxury car on Flickr. Click the link above to take a closer look, whilst we ponder why colour adventurism fades as we age, and consider if we should paint the office Rover 200 orange. And pink.

Pre-E

Jaguar’s E-Type is probably the marque’s most celebrated sports car. However perhaps the cars that came before it are even more beautiful. The XK series of sports cars, beginning with the XK120 in 1948 and ending in 1961 with the XK150, were amongst the fastest cars in the world at the time, and were named after Jaguar’s new inline-6 engine that went on to power not just the E-Type, but all manner of Jaguars up until the 1990s. This excellent small-scale version of the car that debuted one of the automotive world’s great engines comes from SFH_Bricks, and there’s more to see of this 1950 Jaguar XK120 Fixed-Head Coupe on Flickr – click the link to take a look.

Greater Endurance

After spending some time with your Mom over Christmas, she said we needed ‘more endurance’. Well today’s post will rectify that (we assume this is what she meant), with no less than five glorious historic Group C / Endurance racers.

Each is the work of TLCB debutant SFH_Bricks, who has recreated an array of classic Le Mans racer winners wonderfully in Speed Champions scale, with some of the best decals (courtesy of Brickstickershop) that we’ve ever seen.

From the iconic Rothmans Porsche 956 (top), the wild V12-powered Jaguar XJR-9 LM, the Sauber C9 (above) that was so fast along the Mulsanne Straight that chicanes were added the following year, the Mazda 787B (below) – still the only car to win Le Mans without using a reciprocating engine, to the Peugeot 905 Evo (bottom) that took victory in ’92, each is a near perfect Speed Champions replica of its amazing real world counterpart.

Each model is presented beautifully and all are available to view at SFH’s ‘Le Mans Collection Series’ album on Flickr, where you can also find links to building instructions at the Rebrickable platform. Click the link above for even more endurance.

The Other Jaguar

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.

Game of Bricks – Light Kit (10277 Crocodile Train)* | Review

*Plus a few Speed Champions kits.

Being lazy, er… we mean tremendously generous, we’re handing over to another reader today for a review of more LED lighting kits for the 2020 LEGO sets, courtesy of LEGO-compatible LED lighting experts Game of Bricks. John Olive is the lucky recipient/willing reviewer, who has fitted some twinkly lights to his 10277 Crocodile Locomotive, and a few Speed Champions sets too – over to John!

Lights are only good for 3 things. Driving in the dark, for decorating a Holiday tree, and for lighting up LEGO sets. You know that feeling you have when you’ve finished building an official set that cost you an arm and a leg, and you have the desire to take your build to the next level? Well, for a good price it’s time to look to lighting your set or own creation with a good set of lighting kits.

While the current lineup of LEGO lighting kits are few and far between, a majority of builders have to turn to 3rd party vendors for all their lighting needs.

I had the distinct pleasure of getting hooked up with some lighting kits from Game of Bricks. Curious on the build quality and lighting ability, I had 3 kits sent to me in the United States. Two were for Speed Champions sets and the third was for the 10277 Crocodile Locomotive.

While shipping did take a little while, I was pleasantly surprised that when the package arrived, the kits were packaged nicely in thin black boxes. Inside all 3 kits, were the necessary components for each set and all came with a disclaimer packet. I was thrown off for a hot second because there weren’t any installment instructions and I didn’t know which lighting kit was for which set. I was quickly corrected by my 6 year old as he noticed a sticker on each kit with the set number on there. Go figure.

I had to refer back to the website for instructions as the kits didn’t come with an installment guide which was conflicting with their website offer of having instructions in every set. The instructions online were geared towards folks that have built the corresponding set already, so it included tear down instructions prior to adding the lights. This was extremely helpful for the Speed Champions sets and Crocodile. With only receiving digital instructions, I don’t hold that against them as I prefer to use digital instructions. The pictures were clear and provided a close up view of what was happening. I may have been distracted by the model’s fingernail in some pictures, but as I replicated the instructions on my own desk, it was apparent that Game of Bricks had given some thought in this phase of the installment. While the sets I reviewed were somewhat newer, hopefully older sets have the instructions right out of the box. Just in case customers don’t have the internet.

Let’s get to the actual kits.

The quality of the lighting kits was high just by the look and feel of the components. The website promises top notch quality, and while I’m unsure of the specific requirements to that, my experience with lighting kits confirms that it’s true. The extremely thin Connecting Cables are wound tightly and I didn’t notice any unraveling wires when running the cables in between the plates and bricks. Connecting the cables to a light strip has to be done ​very carefully​ and will be rewarded with an audible click when it slipped in there correctly.

*Veteran tip: A classic technique requires you to use your fingernail to push the connector into the port when dealing with such small components.*

Once cause of concern when dealing with any kind of lighting kit is the size of the LEDs used, but luckily Game of Bricks comes through with the perfect size. On the Crocodile Locomotive set, there are several 1×1 translucent clear pips that mimic the lights.

The LEDs from GOB fit nicely inside the pip. On the flip side, the light kit for the 75894 Mini Cooper S Rally & 2018 Mini John Cooper Works Buggy came with 2 sets of pips that had small holes that snaked the connecting table inside for you. This was because the Crocodile lights had their clear pips connected to a brick that allowed the cable to be hidden. When it comes to creating lighting kits, attention to the smallest detail allows for an easy installment. Spending time with a set when developing these clever little work-arounds is important because not only does it need to be installed correctly, the cables need to be hidden in order to pull off that realistic component of the set. No one likes a gorgeous set with clunky wires being exposed. With that, Game of Bricks is going to receive good marks when it comes to hiding cables.

While it makes sense to light up a locomotive like the Crocodile, Speed Champions sets like the MINI or Jaguar were a wild card for me. In all my years going to brick shows, it is rare to see those small cars being lit up because it becomes difficult to hide those clunky battery boxes. Luckily the battery boxes provided in the lighting kits aren’t much bigger than a zippo lighter, and comfortably hold 3 triple A batteries. Just make sure that you are hiding that box behind the set as it is clear that these lighting kits are more for display than for running trains on a train layout. A nice little tidbit is having the on/off switch on that battery box and some sets like the Crocodile include a secondary battery box for two 3 volt round batteries. This extremely thin box allows for installment underneath the set and is hidden from view. The finished models shined brightly in all the right places. For example, on the Crocodile Locomotive, the main cabin’s lights shine a dull yellow, mimicking this 1919-1986 model, while the lights at the front and rear “snouts” shone a bright white light. I appreciated the thought behind those decisions.

Having so many options for kits leads to the biggest question that I will leave to others to debate. Are there certain LEGO sets that should be MODed for lighting kits or are there sets that should not be lit?

Game of Bricks throws all that into the wind with their wide selection of lighting kits and says, you shouldn’t let anybody tell you what LEGO set to light up. Their catalog of lighting kits is ever growing, and just by the looks and experience of using their lighting kits, it’s hard to not think of a LEGO set they don’t have a kit for. If they don’t have one available, you can make suggestions which I appreciate as a consumer.

As LEGO continues to pump out new sets, Game of Bricks appear to be doing a great job of creating new kits for them. With their robust catalog of kits, and accessories for your own creations, I believe that Game of Bricks is here to light up the competition.

Brickworms Jaguar MkII | Review

It’s review time here at The Lego Car Blog, but today’s review is not an official LEGO set. Looking like a car from LEGO’s new 8-wide Speed Champions range – only with considerably more detail – this is Brickworms’ Jaguar MkII kit, one of the many custom real-world replicas available to buy on their website.

With kits from the ‘How to Build Brick Cars’ book by Peter Blackert (one of several books available to buy at the Brickworms online store), plus other vehicles such as this classic Jaguar, aircraft and even animals, there are dozens of models to choose from. But are they any good? Read on to find out!

Our Jaguar MkII kit arrived in a cottony drawstring bag, a neat packaging solution and one we rather like. Inside the pieces required to construct the Jag were jingling happily together, as was a paper instructions booklet, which wasn’t jingling at all.

The instructions booklet for our Jaguar was rather interesting, being printed on standard paper (not gloss), and switching the black parts for a light semi-transparent blue, as you can see below, and clear-trans for yellow. This is presumably to save on ink, but – once you get your head around blue being black – it probably makes the instructions easier to follow, as black pieces can be hard to spot. LEGO have got round this in recent years by applying all sorts of colours to the hidden parts of their sets and via their beautiful glossy instructions manuals, but the Brickworms’ approach, whilst a little odd, works pretty well.

The instructional steps themselves are clear, although more complicated than the over-simplified equivalents from LEGO, with many pieces applied at once. This is also because the Jaguar itself is more complex than LEGO’s similarly-sized Speed Champions sets, with advanced building techniques and a higher level of detail. However, we did feel a bit like Beta testers with our kit…. Continue reading

75898 Speed Champions Formula E Panasonic Jaguar Racing | Set Preview

LEGO have electrified the Speed Champions range! This is the new 76898 Formula E Panasonic Jaguar Racing GEN2 & I-Pace eTrophy set, the latest addition to the brilliant officially-licensed Speed Champions line-up (and the set with probably the longest name yet).

Bringing both Formula E and Jaguar into the Speed Champions fold is an exciting tie-up, particularly if it opens the door to other sets from Jaguar’s glorious back-catalogue.

The new 76989 set includes two cars from the Panasonic Jaguar Racing team; both the GEN2 Formula E racer and the road-car based I-Pace eTrophy support racer. Each car takes the scale up slightly from past Speed Champions sets, allowing for two mini-figures to sit side-by-side in the I-Pace, plus the set also includes a start/finish gantry and accurate decals to recreate the real Panasonic Jaguar team livery.

We think that the I-Pace – whilst a superb real car by all accounts – doesn’t translate particularly well in brick form, looking a bit like an iron, but the Formula E car certainly looks striking in the brick, especially in Jaguar’s electric blue. 76989 will reach stores in January of 2020, bringing with it two welcome partnerships to the Speed Champions range. More please LEGO!

Jaguar Jigsaw

Lego Jaguar E-Type

Jaguar’s iconic E-Type was described by Enzo Ferrari as the most beautiful car in the world. We’d have to agree (in its early form at least), but that sure does make it a tricky thing to build from rectangular plastic bricks.

Lego Jaguar E-Type

Flickr’s Lennart C has given it a go though, and he’s made as good a job of the classic Jaguar’s incredible curves as we’ve seen at this scale. Lennart has deployed some magnificently complicated techniques to create his E-Type Coupe, with the roof in particular boggling our minds here at The Lego Car Blog. It’s a great build underneath too, with the front clamshell opening to reveal a superbly replicated Jaguar straight-6 engine.

Lego Jaguar E-Type

There’s more of Lennart’s excellent E-Type to see at his photostream – make the jump to Flickr via the link above to view all the photos.

(It Doesn’t Matter if You’re) Black or White

Lego Technic Jaguar XK120

Wise words from the King of Pop there. Eurobricks member martijnnab has used this excellent advice to great effect, building two versions of his gorgeous Technic Jaguar XK120 Roadster in contrasting colours.

Lego Technic Jaguar XK120

Martijn’s Jaguars are inverse to the meaning behind Michael Jackson’s 1991 hit however, as whilst they look the same on the surface they are very different underneath, with the white XK featuring mechanical functions including a straight-6 engine and working steering whilst the black XK includes a fully remote controlled Power Functions drivetrain.

Lego Technic Jaguar XK120

There’s lots more to see of both versions of Martijn’s wonderful Technic Jaguar XK120 Roadster at the Eurobricks forum – click on the link above to make the jump.

“The Most Beautiful Car Ever Made”

Lego Jaguar E-Type

Not our words, but those of one Enzo Ferrari, expressing his admiration for Jaguar’s new sports car at its launch in 1961. Nearly six decades later the E-Type’s legacy is secured thanks to its incredible looks, but at the time the new Jaguar had the world talking for far more than its beauty.

Based upon Jaguar’s three-time Le Mans winner, the E-Type featured disc brakes, independent rear suspension and the highest top speed of any production car at the time. And yet the E-Type cost only about the same a premium saloon car, which meant in today’s terms you could buy a Bugatti Veyron for the price of a mid-spec Audi.

The E-Type was, and still is, quite a car. The result of course is that – whilst prices were reasonable for decades – recently the classic Jaguar has become astronomically expensive, especially early cars such as the one pictured here.

We’ll stick with this one then, built by Flickr’s Senator Chinchilla, and available to view at his photostream here. The Senator has done a grand job capturing the E-Type’s wonderful lines in Lego form, and there’s lots more to see of his recreation of the car Enzo envied via the link above.

Lego Jaguar E-Type

Red Smartie Day

E Type

It’s been a lean time for Lego cars on the internet over last few days. Fortunately one of our workers brought this Jaguar E-Type into the luxury editorial suite at TLCB towers today. Red Smarties all round!* Lennart C has worked hard to capture the curves of this classic machine in just 11 studs width or 1/18th scale. We think that he’s done a great job. Click the link in the text to see more views.

*Well, one for the lucky Elf who found the car.