This remarkably intricate DAF XF FT Super Space Cab comes from Flickr’s Lasse Deleuran, and its beauty is much more than skin deep. With working indicators, twin L motor remote control drive, and working steering, it’s a Model Team truck with a Technic heart.
There’s more to see at Lasse’s photostream via the link above, and you can see an earlier version complete with a huge box trailer with a superb livery from well-known movie by clicking here.
After a thorough ploughing you’re ready to spread some seed, and the bigger the tool you have, the better. In farming terms obviously.
This is one such tool, a Vaderstad RDA 800C, being towed (and powered) by a mighty John Deere 9560R tractor. This enormous rig is the work of Flickr’s Eric Trax, and it’s a seriously impressive bit of kit.
Eric’s 1:18 scale John Deere 9560R includes SBrick bluetooth-controlled all-wheel-drive with diff locks, central articulated steering, and a working piston engine, whilst the Vaderstad seeder behind it features a pneumatically operable seeding mechanism that can raise and lower for road and work configurations, powered by an on-board compressor and operable remotely via a second SBrick.
There’s lots more of both the 9560R and Vaderstad seeder to see at Eric’s Flickr photostream via the link above, plus you watch the combination in action courtesy of the video below, where Eric demonstrates what his giant seeding tool can do.
YouTube Video
We made it through this entire post without mentioning your Mom! Apart from this bit.
Ugh. ‘Batman v Superman – Dawn of Justice’. The most pointless, cynical and unnecessary movie since the remake of The Wicker Man. Even the Batmobile was a crappy sequel to Chris Nolan’s brilliant ‘Tumbler’ in the ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy.
Nevertheless, despite the awfulness of the movie that spawned it, this Model Team recreation of Ben Affleck’s Batmobile is an impressive build, and you can see more courtesy of tfcrafter on Flickr or at the Eurobricks discussion forum.
Little red Corvette
Honey you got to slow down (Got to slow down)
Little red Corvette
‘Cause if you don’t you gonna run your
Little red Corvette right in the ground
This beautiful 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray straight from Prince’s songbook was suggested to us by a reader, and it comes from previous bloggee Dave Slater of Flickr. With one of the most fantastically accurate exteriors that we’ve ever seen at this scale we highly recommend taking a closer look – click the link above to visit the full gallery of superb images.
This is a 1983 Brabham BT52, one of the most powerful Formula 1 cars of all time, and the first turbo-charged car ever to win a World Championship. Designed by legendary engineer Gordon Murray, the BMW-powered BT52 took Nelson Piquet to his second World Championship, after the earlier BT49 had given him his maiden Championship in 1980.
Brabham won six World Championships in total, four Drivers and two Constructors, and founder Jack Brabham remains the only driver ever to win a Formula 1 World Championship in a car of his own design. However, after two periods of huge success in the 1960s and 1980s, Bernie Ecclestone – who owned the Brabham team in the ’70s and ’80s – sold it to a Japanese investor, and a few years later Brabham collapsed due to financial difficulties.
Sadly Brabham haven’t raced in Formula 1 since, but TLCB has ears, and rumour has it that Formula 1 team Force India, who are currently in good form, need a new owner. With their current billionaire owners on bail for serious fraud offences and Brabham looking to build their own road-cars, we could see the famous Australian-British brand back at the sharp end of Formula 1 very soon. You heard it here first!
Back to the ’80s, and this incredible replica of Brabham’s last Championship-winning car comes from previous bloggee Luca Rosconi aka RoscoPC, who continues to re-publish his huge collection of classic Formula 1 cars to Flickr. There’s more to see of the Brabham BT52, as well as his other stunning replicas, at Luca’s photostream – click the link above to make the jump.
Modern Formula 1 is almost all about aerodynamics. The art of directing airflow around a car seems quite mundane today, but when Colin Chapman first added ‘wings’ to his Lotus 49B in 1968 in order to generate downforce it was a revolution.
As is often the way with innovation, the other teams first tried to ban the Lotus, and then copied it, including its innovative use of the Cosworth DFV engine as a structural component in the chassis, and much of Chapman’s design is still in standard use in F1 today.
Chapman’s Lotus 49 won both the Constructor’s and Driver’s World Championships twice, and also lays claim to being the first ever Formula 1 car to feature a racing livery, again – normal now, but a revolution in the 1960s.
This exquisite recreation of one of the greatest (perhaps the greatest) Formula 1 car ever designed comes from previous bloggee Lucas Rusconi (aka RoscoPC) who continues to upload his extensive catalogue of beautiful historic racing cars to Flickr.
Luca’s 1968 Lotus 49B features working suspension, steering, and a beautiful replica Cosworth DFV V8 engine, and you can see more of the build as well as his other incredible creations by clicking the link to his photostream above.
France probably lays claim to our least favourite car in the looks department. The first generation Peugeot 308 was built at the very lowest point of French automobile design, being both painfully dull and yet somehow also managing to resemble a deep-sea fish that’s washed up on the shore.
Thankfully those dark days have passed as the French have re-discovered some of their joy de vivre, so we’re holding out hope that French car design can come full circle, and give us something like this again.
The fantastically luxurious 1939 Delahaye 136 was an utterly gorgeous machine, and probably took the art deco school of design further than any other car has ever managed. Sadly production was cut short by Hitler being a dick, and unfortunately post-war France then had no place for a vehicle manufacturer as opulent as Delahaye, with the brand quietly slipping away in the 1950s.
We remember when French design ruled the roads thanks to previous bloggee Lino Martins, who has recreated the Delayhaye 136’s incredible art deco shape beautifully in standard LEGO bricks. There’s more of his spellbinding creation to see at his photostream – click the link above to visit France circa 1939.
This is an ultra-rare Ferrari F40 GT, built from 1991-92 to take Ferrari back into endurance racing. Just seven GT’s were built, each featuring a stripped-out interior, fixed perspex headlights (replacing the pop-up units fitted to the road car) and an engine upgrade to the tune of near 600bhp. That upgrade actually included a restrictor to limit the power produced by the twin-turbo V8 in order for it to meet national championship regulations, the full-fat LM version was rumoured to produce over 900bhp in qualifying trim…
This superb recreation of the 1991 Shell-liveried racer comes from Flickr’s Nuno Taborda, and much like the real F40 GT it’s based on the production version, in this case LEGO’s excellent 10248 Creator set. Nuno has upgraded the set’s bodywork and interior to GT specification, and re-liveried the car in Shell’s iconic white, red and yellow sponsorship.
There’s lots more to see of Nuno’s 10248 modification at his Flickr photostream – click the link above to go GT racing circa 1991.
Lancia now make the sum total of one car. One. And it’s not even very good. The writing appears to be on the wall for the once-great marque, so let’s not dwell on what the brand has become (thanks Fiat…), but instead on one of their very greatest hits, the mighty Delta Integrale 16v.
The Giugiaro-designed Delta was a good car when it launched in 1979, and ten years later it became a great one. Fitted with all-wheel-drive and a two-litre turbo-charged engine, the Delta Integrale produced 200bhp and could hit 60mph in under 6 seconds. It would take Volkswagen another decade to reach those figures with the Golf.
This top-notch Model Team replica of one of the world’s very best cars comes from TLCB regular Senator Chinchilla and you can see more of his Lancia Delta Integrale 16v at his photostream via the link above.
Race car building legend Luca Rusconi (aka RoscoPC) has been building his stunning historic racing cars for the best part of a decade. He’s recently uploaded another one of his glorious creations to Flickr (where we hope many more will follow), and thus we’re able to publish it here. It’s also one of the weirder racing cars in Luca’s garage, although it might not look remarkable at first glance.
Any classic racing fan will know of the incredible performances of the Lotus F1 team. Led by Colin Chapman, and powered by the legendary Cosworth DFV engine, the partnership delivered four Driver and five Constructor World Championship titles. However, before the DFV was ready Chapman needed an engine to put into his new 43 Formula 1 car for the 1966 season. He turned to previous Championship Winners BRM, and their unique P75 H16 engine.
Yup, H16. Basically two Flat-8 engines stacked on top of one another, yet only 3 litres in capacity. Unfortunately the unusual design was unusual for a reason – reliability. Or lack of it.
Heavy, extremely complicated, and constantly breaking, the BRM engine in Chapman’s Lotus 43 caused it to retire from every race bar one during the 1966 season. However, that one finish was a race win at the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, showing that when it worked, the Lotus 43 was quick. Really Quick.
The following year in ’67 the new Cosworth DFV 3 litre V8 engine was ready, Ford added their sponsorship to it (in a stroke of marketing genius), and the year after that the DFV starting a Championship Winning streak that went unbroken for seven years.
BRM’s mental P75 H16 engine was quickly forgotten, although the team continued to produce Formula 1 cars until the late 1970s, and Lotus forged on with a Cosworth partnership that was to become one of the most successful ever seen in the sport.
However, we think the Lotus 43 BRM H16 deserves a little recognition. It was a race winner after all, and for a brief moment two of Britain’s greatest F1 teams combined to produce something, well… a little bit crap.
RoscoPC’s homage to that disastrous partnership pictured here was first built in 2010 and is now available to view in wonderful detail on Flickr. It features working steering, suspension, beautiful detailing, and – of course – a recreation of one of the maddest engines ever seen in Formula 1.
You can see all of the images of Luca’s incredible Lotus 43 build at his photostream via the link above, and if you’re curious to know what an H16 Formula 1 engine sounds like, click here…
Constructed from around 36,000 pieces and 4 years in the making, this is one of the largest Lego projects that this site has ever featured. Ryan Link, a regular bloggee here at The Lego Car Blog, has been very busy.
Loosely based on the Tampa Bay Ferrari dealership, Ryan has designed and built a home for the eight Ferrari models that he has constructed over the past few years. Measuring 192×144 studs, Ryan’s enormous creation can easily house his collection, and features a wealth of incredible detailing, including brick-built wall mosaics depicting classic Ferrari models, beautiful Ferrari lettering, and even a couple of wonderfully intricate prancing horse logos too.
The shot above shows just how good the aforementioned mosaics and logos look, which feature throughout the interior of the dealership including in the showroom, customer lounge and accessories area, and workshop, all of which are lit by a third-party LED system integrated into the roof of the build.
The stars of Ryan’s incredible build are of course the Ferrari models which it was built to house, and they include a 458 Italia, Enzo, LaFerrari, 599 GTB, Testarossa, F12 Berlinetta, and even a fully liveried Ferrari team truck, all of which have been published here.
There’s a whole lot more of this spectacular creation to see at Ryan Link’s photostream and we cannot recommend clicking this link enough. LEGO, Ferrari… if ever you visit this little corner of the internet; invite Ryan out for a chat – we think the officially licensed Ferrari range of LEGO sets could so with a bit of expansion…
Formula 1 is – whilst not without its risks – relatively safe today. For almost all of the sport’s history however, it was a insanely dangerous place to be. Even as late as the 1980s Formula 1 drivers (and others involved in F1 trackside) were dying on a regular basis. This car belongs to one such driver, the hugely popular Gilles Villeneuve, who was tragically killed at Zolder in Belgium after just 5 years in the sport.
Gilles joined Formula 1 after winning the Formula Atlantic championship in both the US and Canada in 1976, debuting with McLaren in ’77 before World Champions Ferrari took him on for the ’78 season. In May of 1982 Gilles collided with the back of Jochen Mass’ car during qualifying, with Mass on a slow lap and Gilles on a fast one. Both drivers saw each other at the last moment, both took evasive action, and both moved to the right…
The Ferrari disintegrated, and Gilles, still strapped into his seat, exited the car and hit the catch fencing, fatally breaking his neck. Formula 1 had lost one of it’s most loved drivers.
Gilles is now remembered at his home track in Canada, renamed in his honour, and both at Zolder in Belgium and San Marino in Italy, each with a corner named after him. Yesterday marks 35 years since Gilles’ death, and race car building legend Luca Rusconi aka RoscoPC has paid tribute by uploading his incredible recreation of Gilles’ 1982 Ferrari 126C2 Formula 1 car to Flickr, 5 years after he first designed it.
Luca’s model is one of the most spectacular Lego recreations of a classic Formula 1 car that you will ever see, and its beauty lies as much within as it does on the surface, with working suspension complete with anti-roll bars, a 6-cylinder engine and full remote control drive and steering.
There’s more to see of Gilles Villeneuve’s Ferrari 126C2 at Luca’s Flickr gallery – click here to make the trip.
Is there a more disappointing automotive brand than Alfa Romeo? We’re going to say no, and the disappointment started with this car.
Launched in 1966, the pretty Pininfarina-designed Alfa Romeo Spider was at the cutting edge of sports car engineering. A twin-cam engine, 5-speed gearbox, and disc brakes all featured, and whilst the Alfa cost nearly as much as an E-Type Jaguar, it found plenty of buyers willing to spend a bit to drive something so gorgeous.
And then Alfa Romeo just kept making it. And making it. And making it. The final Series 4 version of the car (pictured here) was released in 1990, thirty-six years after the Series 1 debuted, wearing a stupid 1990s bodykit and featuring tail-lights robbed from the 164 sedan.
The striking GTV finally replaced the Spider in 1995, but it was a flash in the pan moment for a brand that had traded on the past glories of its badge for far too long. Years of automotive drivel followed, mostly re-badged Fiats in pretty dresses – which wasn’t a good starting point, and Alfa Romeo seemed on the verge of disappearing altogether.
But now something remarkable has happened. Alfa Romeo are back. And not just with a Fiat in a pretty dress. The new Guilia sedan and Stelvio (whisper it)… SUV are receiving properly good reviews, and could finally be the saviours of the brand that we’ve been awaiting for so long. So cross your fingers, and your toes, and try to forget about cars like the Series 4 Spider.
Oh, we nearly forgot! This excellent Model Team recreation of the Series 4 comes from previous bloggee Andre Pinto, and there’s more to see at his photostream by clicking here.
And yet… somehow… rather cool. Even so, we’re glad this Ferrari 250 GTO (variants of which are the most valuable cars ever sold at auction) gasser hot rod exists only in Danish plastic.
Previous bloggee Tim Inman possesses the slightly warped mind that created this, and there’s more to see at his Flickr photostream via the link above.
A pair of Elves returned to TLCB Towers today after each found a Ferrari on their unending search for the web’s best Lego creations. Normally this would initiate Elf-on-Elf violence, but because we’re feeling generous, and because both models are absolutely superb, today’s post is a double and thus each can go away happy (fed).
Both creations are the work of Ryan Link, who has an impressive garage of brick-built cars under his belt. These two are his latest, Ferrari’s 599 GTB (red) circa 2006, and their first ever all-wheel-drive car, the 2011 FF (white).
Both cars feature Ferrari’s legendary V12 engine mounted up front, which Ryan has recreated in brick form, along with a pair of fully detailed interiors and beautifully replicated bodywork, complete with opening doors, hood and trunk.
You can see more of both the 599 and FF at Ryan’s Flickr photostream, or at his MOCpages account, where you can also check out his impressive back-catalogue of previous builds.