Tag Archives: LMP1

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…

Little LMP

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Eurobricks’ Small Car Contest continues to generate some wonderful creations. One of our favourites is this, thirdwigg‘s excellent LMP (Le Mans Prototype) racing car. Working steering, a miniature functioning V8 engine, removable bodywork, and a surprisingly detailed chassis all feature, and there’s more to see on Flickr via the link above.

Hybrid Heroes

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Lego LMP1 Le Mans 2017

Hybrid is fast becoming the normal way to power a car. Despite Top Gear et al’s protestations and derision when the technology debuted, alternatively fuelled vehicles are the fastest growing segment of the automotive market.

This is largely thanks to Toyota, who alongside Honda launched Hybrid to the masses in the late ’90s. Honda seem to have lost their mojo since then, but Toyota continue to carry the flame, and have raced their Hybrid technology at Le Mans since 2013. Porsche joined the Hybrid racing party a year later, and their awesome 919 Hybrids have won the last two events, with Toyota coming in second.

This year with Audi having retired from the sport it’s set to be a straight fight between Porsche and Toyota once more. These superb fully-livereied Lego replicas of the 2017 LMP1 combatants come from Flickr’s Lasse Deleuran and you can pick your winner at his photostream via the link above.

Nine One Nine Two

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Lego Technic Porsche 919 2016

Flickr’s Manuel Nascimento has appeared here at The Lego Car Blog before with his utterly spellbinding Lego Technic Porsche 919 Le Mans LMP1 racer. This is his latest iteration of the race winning hybrid endurance car, now updated to 2016 specification.

Lego Porsche Le Mans 919 LMP1

Pictured here alongside the 2015 edition, Manuel’s update retains the full Power Functions remote control drive and steering, LED lights and working functions of the earlier model, but updates the bodywork and livery to match the 2016 race-winner.

Lego Porsche Le Mans 919 LMP1

There’s more to see of Manuel’s incredible creation at his Flickr album, where you can also find a link to a video demonstrating the Porsche 919 LMP1’s features.

Nine One Nine

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Lego Technic Porsche 919 Le Mans

Due to the ongoing Dieselgate scandal the Volkswagen Group have a bit of reputation rebuilding to do. Cue motorsport; get your cars on the track, win some races, and everyone loves you.

Unfortunately for motorsport fans (and for Volkswagen), this method is very expensive, and criminal investigations, lawsuits, and fines do not come cheap. It also doesn’t look too good if you’re caught fiddling diesel emissions tests to then put said diesel engine on a racetrack to promote its sales…

Sadly the current situation has meant that Volkswagen have decided to pull the plug on both their WRC campaign and their Audi Diesel Le Mans team, both of which have won everything going in the last few years. We think they’ll probably enter Formula E at some point to show how they’ve turned over a new leaf and that they really do care about the environment after all, but until then it falls to Porsche to keep the Group active in motorsport.

Fortunately Porsche have picked up exactly where Audi left off, winning the Le Mans 24 Hour race back-to-back in 2015 and 2016 with this, their magnificent 919 hybrid LMP1 racer. This incredible replica of last year’s race-winning car is the work of Manuel Nascimento of Flickr, and it’s one of the finest Technic supercars of the year.

Manuel has built the 919’s LMP1 bodywork beautifully, including accurate recreations of the sponsorship and branding decals found on the real car. The beauty is more than skin deep too, as the model features Power Functions lights, remote control drive and steering, and electrically opening doors.

There’s a huge gallery of stunning images available to view; click the link above to see more at Manuel’s photostream.

Lego Porsche 919 Le Mans Technic RC

Fictional Ferrari

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Lego Ferrari LMP1

Ferrari don’t currently make an LMP1 racer, but if they did we hope it would look a little something like this. Beautifully detailed inside and out this fictional Ferrari LMP1 endurance car is the work of BrickMonkey of Flickr, and it was suggested to us by a reader. There’s lots more to see, including some lovely photos revealing the chassis and engine detailing, at BrickMonkey’s photostream.

Lego Model Team Ferrari Racer

Nismo Is No More

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Lego Nissan GT-R LM Nismo

Nissan’s recent Le Mans adventure has been rather short-lived. First the brilliant looking Deltawing ran the ’00’ designation for experimental vehicles, but was sadly involved in a crash forcing it into retirement, then Nissan’s Nismo team returned with this; the hybrid GT-R LM.

Built to take on Audi, Toyota and Porsche in the LMP1 prototype category, the GT-R LM Nismo competed in just one race before the whole project was canned.

MOCpages’ Alexander Pachoaletto remembers one of motorsport’s most recent high-profile failures with his tidy Model Team recreation. complete with some of the most ingenious headlights of any model to appear here. There’s more to see of Alex’s Nissan GT-R LM Nismo at the link above.

24 Heures du Mans (Partie Deux)

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Lego Le Mans LMP1 Race Car

French made, French raced, Technic LMP1 cars are like buses…

The second LMP1 car to appear here this week arrived courtesy of a reader via the Feedback and Submission Suggestions page. It comes from previous bloggee Nico71, and it is – as you can see – gorgeous. Underneath the swoopy prototype-class bodywork sits a fully functioning chassis complete with authentic double-wishbone push-rod suspension, a working V8 engine, steering, and opening doors and engine cover.

Lego Technic Suspension

At the time of writing Nico’s Technic LMP1 racer isn’t present at any of our Elves’ usual haunts, but fortunately it is available at Nico’s own (and excellent) website, where there is also a huge gallery of detailed photos with instructions to come. For all the details click on these blue words to visit Nico’s website.

Lego Le Mans LMP1 Racer

24 Heures du Mans

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Lego Technic Le Mans LMP1 Racer

This mighty-looking Technic LMP1 endurance racer was discovered on Eurobricks by one of our happy little helpers. It the work of bj51 and it’s packed full of Technic functions. These include all-wheel independent suspension, a working V8 engine, steering and transmission. There’s lots more to see at the Eurobricks discussion forum or at bj51’s website, and you can read our review of the offical Technic endurance racer set by clicking here.

Lego Technic Endurance Racer