Tag Archives: Japan

Antidote

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Despite what you’d think looking at the cars around TLCB Towers, you really don’t need a Range Rover to drive to the gym. Which is why we love the Suzuki Jimny. Small, light, and vastly more capable off-road than SUVs with five times the power, it’s the antidote to the AMG G-63, BMW XM, and every new Defender that will never ever get a wheel dirty. Yama Jason is the builder behind this one, outfitting his Jimny with a host of off-road goodies and picturing it where you’ll never see an Audi Q7. Join him away from the pavement via the link above.

Micro Machine

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Unlike your Mom, Kei-class microbuses are really very small indeed. However they manage to pack a whole lot into their tiny footprint, with room for four adults plus luggage, some feature all-wheel-drive, and a few are even fully-fitted campers.

Cue apachaihapachai‘s terrific Technic microbus which, despite measuring just nine studs by twenty-four, features a complete remote control drivetrain courtesy of an L Motor, a Servo, and a BuWizz bluetooth battery, all completely hidden inside a neat 1990s kei-bus body. There’s even an interior. Kinda.

It’s a miracle of ingenious packaging and you can find out how apachai has done it at the Eurobricks forum. Click the link above to squeeze inside.

A Beautiful Nightmare

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Hailing from the golden era of Japanese sports cars, the ‘FD’ Mazda RX-7 was the third and final generation of the rotary-engined icon.

With assistance from twin-turbos, the FD’s 1.3 litre twin-rotor motor produced up to 276bhp, getting very hot and drinking a lot of oil in the process. It was also, in this writer’s opinion, perhaps the prettiest of all the ’90 sports cars, which is enough for many to overlook the ownership nightmare of that unique engine and enter a relationship of intense unreliability and ruinous expense. Which is probably a metaphor for something.

Anyway, this excellent Technic recreation of the RX-7 comes from previous bloggee Matthew Terentev, and includes opening doors, hood and trunk, plus a brilliantly accurate interior in very ’90s-Japan-appropriate black plastic.

There’s much more to see at Matthew’s ‘Mazda RX-7 (FD)’ album on Flickr, and you can click the link above to make the jump.

Having a Lark

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Once the world’s fastest production car, and winner of the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours, this is the McLaren F1 GTR.

Following its victory at Le Mans (the first time either a manufacturer or team had won the race on their Le Mans debut), McLaren’s Ron Dennis and businessman Kazumichi Goh decided to take the car to Japan, forming McLaren Team Lark, and taking on the country’s domestic teams in the newly formed GT500 championship.

The Lark McLaren F1 GTRs were dominant, comfortably beating domestic rivals from Nissan, Toyota and Honda to win every GT500 race in 1996 bar one.

So dominant was the F1 GTR in fact, that the organisers effectively legislated it out of the championship, imposing so many restrictions on the team that they withdrew before the start of the ’97 season.

The result, after that single all-conquering year, was that the rest of the GT500 teams considerably upped their game. GT500 cars became much faster, more exciting, and more technologically-advanced, and thus the ongoing success of the GT500 Championship has more than a little to do with a little British car that entered for just one season some three decades ago.

This wonderful homage to the short-lived but spectacular Team Lark McLaren F1 GTRs comes from TLCB debutant brickengineeringdude, who has recreated the ’96 championship-winning racer brilliantly in brick form. 3D-Printed wheels, tyres decals, and a superb approximation of the Team Lark livery make brick’s F1 GTR instantly recognisable, and there’s much more to see at their photostream via the link.

But what of Team Lark and GT500? Well owner Kazumichi Goh went on to buy an Audi R8, and with it won the 2004 Le Mans 24 Hours, becoming only the second Japanese team to win the race outright. Meanwhile Japan’s GT500 championship has gone from strength to strength, but has never again been won by a non-Japanese car since the Team Lark McLarens of 1996…

Virtually Toyotas

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It’s a digitally Japanese day here at The Lego Car Blog, as we have four virtual Toyota products to share with you. We don’t often blog digital creations here, but these are a) throughly excellent, and b) we’re as certain as we can be that they can be built for real, what with designer Peter Blackert (aka Lego911) releasing building instructions alongside the imagery, and having literally written the book on how to build Miniland scale vehicles.

Rule-breaking explained, on to Peter’s first pixel-based Toyota, which is the third-generation Celica, depicted here in face-lifted pop-up headlight form. Powered by a huge array of engines (although solely by the 2.4 litre in the US) the A60-generation Celica helped the Toyota brand gain a reputation for attainable sportiness, and you can see more of Peter’s version via the link.

Peter’s second model appearing here captures one of Toyota’s earlier attempts at a sports coupe, the decidedly un-sporty 1971 Crown Coupe. It looked lovely though, and the Crown station wagon is one of the most comfortable cars that this TLCB Writer has ever had the pleasure of journeying in. Jump back to 1971 via the link.

On to the early-’00s, and the single most dreary vehicle Toyota has ever created, the 2002 Toyota Camry. As we’ve highlighted here before however, dreary sells, with the Camry becoming the best-selling car in America in 2002. And 2003. And 2004. And 2005… You get the picture. There’s more to see of this one at Peter’s photostream via the link.

And finally… the Toyota that isn’t a Toyota, but heralded the arrival of the Lexus brand, the phenomenal Lexus LS400. Created to beat the best car in the world at the time (the Mercedes-Benz S-Class), the LS400 did just that, and is still lauded as perhaps the most thoroughly-engineered car ever produced. Peter’s Miniland-scale version captures the pivotal arrival of Lexus beautifully, and there’s more of the model to see at his photostream.

Further images of each design, details of the real cars, and links to building instructions can be found at Peter Blackert’s Flickr account via the links for each car in the text above, plus you can check out our interview with Peter and his published works by clicking the bonus link here.

Hot Hatch Zenith

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We go from the beginnings of the hot hatch in a small factory in Scotland in the late-‘70s, to their zenith some 45 years later. Yes, the days of the hot hatch are numbered, what with imminent safety, CO2 and fuel legislation, which will effectively outlaw small, fast, fun cars in favour of EV crossovers. Sigh.

Still, they’re going out with a bang, with several hot hatches now making more power than even supercars of a few years ago.

This is Subaru’s last hurrah in the genre, the Japan-only Impreza WRX STI Spec-C.

Packing over twice the power of the world’s first hot hatch, the WRX STI Spec-C features all-wheel-drive, over 400Nm of torque, and a lightened and stiffened body.

This amazing Model Team replica of the ultimate WRX comes from Mihail Rakovskiy of Flickr, who has captured it brilliantly in brick-form, with opening doors, hood and tailgate, a life-like interior, and a superb recreation of the 308bhp turbocharged boxer engine.

There are more excellent images to see at Mihail’s ‘Subaru Impreza WRX STI Spec C’ album on Flickr – take a look at the zenith of the hot hatch via the second link in the text above, and you can jump back to its genesis via the first.

Golden Air

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We haven’t written a post regarding golden air transport since we blogged about Donald Trump’s Air Force One showers*. Today though we’re back to golden air travel, courtesy of Ralph Savelsberg and this lovely Mitsubishi Fuso Canter box truck, wearing the livery of Japan’s ‘Meitetsu Golden Air Cargo’ company.

Ralph has captured both the truck and livery beautifully in Miniland scale, and there’s more of the Meitetsu Mitsubishi to see at his photostream. Click here for golden air delivery.

*Trump likes to be pissed on.

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.

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….

Diggidy

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We like giant yellow diggers here at The Lego Car Blog. Because we’re six. Luckily for us one of the Elves found this one, a 20-ton Komatsu PC200, as replicated in brick-form beautifully by previous bloggee Y Akimeshi. With a posable arm and bucket, slewing superstructure, and a mound of brick-built earth to dig, Y’s creation is one of our favourites so far, and there’s more of the model to see at their photostream. Click the link above if you’re diggin’ it too.

Cool Box

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Like the Ford F-150 in America, the Honda Super Cub in East Asia, and the Toyota Corolla almost everywhere, the Mitsubishi Fuso Canter is background street furniture for a huge proportion of the world.

Built in half-a-dozen countries, across eight generations and six decades, and re-badged as a Hyundai, Nissan, plus a host of other brands, the Canter is one of the most widespread and ubiquitous vehicles on the planet.

This one is a fifth generation fridge truck version, as used in their thousands to deliver food produce in the world’s restaurant back-streets. It comes from Max Ra of Flickr, who has recreated the Canter brilliantly, picking out the details of what is essentially a white box to create an instantly-recognisable brick-built replica.

There’s more of the model to see at Max’s ‘Mitsubishi Canter 5th Generation Refrigerated Truck’ album, and you can take a look at all the images via the link in the text above.

The Slowest Car in the World

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You might think that the slowest car in the world would be some steam-powered contraption from the late 1800s, or perhaps the thing that moves the space shuttle. But no, if the internet is to believed the slowest car ever is in fact a 200bhp sports car from the late 2010s.

Which just goes to show how the internet’s comments sections are filled with more nonsensical hyperbole than the inside of Donald Trump’s head.

The Subaru BRZ and its Toyota GT86/Scion FRS siblings are throughly brilliant analogue (as much as a modern car can be) rear-wheel-drive sports cars, with low weight, modest power, and – admittedly – the same torque as a smoothie-maker.

Still, that just made getting the most from the sublime chassis even more fun, and we’re pretty sure that when everything is electric, automatic, and festooned with electronic safety interference (which is the reason the car’s second-generation will last just a few short years), the BRZ and GT86 will become highly sought-after classics.

This fantastic Model Team recreation of the slowest-car-in-the-world-according-to-the-internet comes from Flickr’s Mihail Rakovskiy, who has replicated the Subaru BRZ brilliantly. Opening doors, a superbly realistic engine under the raising hood, an opening trunk, and a life-like interior all feature, and there’s lots more to see at Mihail’s ‘Subaru BRZ’ album. Click the link above to make your way very slowly there.

2000GT

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In this writer’s opinion, the most beautiful car ever made is not a Ferrari, Bugatti, or other exotic… it’s a Toyota. A white one.

This is the 2000GT, Toyota’s record-setting 1967 sports car built in conjunction with Yamaha, and surely one of the most perfect car designs of all time.

This lovely Speed Champions recreation of the bewitching 2000GT comes from Thomas Gion, apparently taking eight iterations before the shape was right. 3D-printed wheels and some inspired parts choices make this well worth a closer look, and you can make the jump to 1967 via the link in the text above.

Shine On

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The Lego Car Blog Elves, as well as liking racing stripes, flame-throwers, and monster trucks, also have a penchant for all things shiny. Cue much excitement when one of their number found this, ianying616‘s ‘Takada Shingen’ motorcycle. Named after “one of the most powerful Sengoku-period daimyos” (we Wikipedia-ed it…), ianying’s creation packs in a whole lot of chrome, and there’s more to see of his exceptionally shiny motorbike at his photostream. Take a look via the link, or alternatively head down a Wikipedia 16th century Japanese rabbit-hole…

Porco Rosso

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This ace looking aircraft is a Savoia S.21 racing floatplane, as featured in the Japanese animated movie ‘Porco Rosso’. Like most things from Japanese cartoons (fighting robots, ball-stored transforming creatures, giant lizards, and improbably-proportioned schoolgirls to name a few), the Savoia S.21 not real, but it is titled after (and vaguely inspired by) an actual 1910s Italian floatplane.

Flown by a cigarette smoking, wine drinking, moustachioed pig, the S.21 is used to hunt air pirates, who are like regular pirates, only in the air. Look, it doesn’t have to make any sense, the plane’s still cool, and there’s more to see of this Lego version courtesy of LEGO7 on Flickr via the link.