Tag Archives: muscle car

Insert Shiny Meathead

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We can’t see a ’60s black Dodge Charger without hearing “…Family…”, mumbled in barely comprehensible English.

But shiny meathead and terrible dialogue aside, the second-generation Dodge Charger is nevertheless an iconic American muscle car.

Produced from just 1968 to 1970, the Charger’s base engine was a 5.2litre V8 (a still big 3.7 six-cylinder would arrive later), and rose to a gargantuan 7.0 litre Hemi. Because the oil crisis was still three years away…

Until then though, fuel economy was of little concern to Americans, and the Charger was a riotous success, with almost 100,000 units produced in that short run.

This fantastic ‘Icons’ scale example comes from previous bloggee Szunyogh Balázs (aka gnat.bricks), and features opening doors, hood and trunk, a superbly detailed (and easily removable) engine and transmission, and a highly realistic drivetrain and interior too.

Stunning presentation accompanies the build, with many more beautiful images available to view at Szunyogh’s ‘Lego Dodge Charger’ album on Flickr. Click the link above to take a closer look, or here to live your life a quarter-mile at a time.

Pedestrian Safety

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Here in Europe we have strict pedestrian safety regulations. This is good news for two reasons; firstly that if you get hit by a car it’s designed to do as little harm as possible, and secondly that we won’t ever have to see a Tesla Cybertruck, which has seemingly been designed to cause the maximum chance of fatalities and is thus illegal.

Taking the Cybertruck approach to vehicle design is the appropriately-named Bloodred_Bricks, who has created this quite fantastically aggressive post-apocalyptic vehicle based on the muscle cars of decades past.

Armoured with a be-spiked bull-bar, wheels mostly made of knives, and some kind of rear-mounted rotavator, Bloodred’s ‘Mad Max’-esque build looks only marginally less lethal than Musk’s stupid truck.

Which of course means TLCB Elves love it, and are now running around the office smashing into one another armed with various pieces stationery equipment.

We’ll clear them out with Mr. Airhorn shortly, so whilst get on with that you can check out Bloodred’s wild post-apoc ride on Flickr. Click the link above to take a look – just don’t step out in front of it.

Shot of Lime

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The state of modern cars leaves this TLCB Writer very unenthusiastic about the automotive future. Dreary electric cross-overs connected directly to the Chinese Communist Party, there isn’t a single interesting one among them. Which means if you want to find something with a soul, you have to go back to a car – and brand – from decades past. This is the Plymouth Barracuda, a lime green muscle car powered by a Hemi V8 that was literally too big to fit under the hood.

Built by Szunyogh Balázs, this fabulous replica of the Hemi ‘Cuda replicates Plymouth’s iconic ’70s muscle car in LEGO ‘Icons’ scale, and includes working steering, opening doors and trunk, plus a highly detailed Hemi V8 underneath (mostly) the opening hood. It’s a superb homage to a time when cars weren’t just phones with wheels, and you can reclaim your automotive soul at Szunyogh’s ‘Hemi Cuda’ album via the link above.

My Other Car’s a Chevy

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In the 1960s, General Motors were phenomenally adept at spinning different cars from the same platform. Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Pontiac were all successful brands in their own right, being positioned, marketed, and priced to separate segments of the U.S auto market, but all sharing considerable commonality underneath.

Pontiac were priced towards the lower end of GM’s portfolio, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t produce fast, desirable products. This is one of them, the fabulous first generation Pontiac GTO, which shared its componentry with the mid-’60s Chevrolet Malibu, Buick Skylark Grand Prix, and Oldsmobile 442.

Built by Master MOCer Firas Abu-Jaber, this wonderful recreation of the Pontiac GTO also shares its parts with a Chevrolet, being constructed solely from the pieces found within the excellent LEGO 10304 Icons Chevrolet Camaro Z28 set.

Using 1,322 of the Camaro’s 1,456 parts, Firas’ GTO looks so good you’d be hard-pressed to know it’s an alternate. Working steering, opening doors, hood and trunk, plus a detailed interior and engine bay all feature, as per the donor set, with the model presented absolutely beautifully.

There’s lots more of Firas’ incredible Pontiac GTO to see at his album of the same name, plus you can find out how he creates models such as this one at his Master MOCers interview here at TLCB, accessible via the first link in the text above.

Street Cat

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American muscle cars are taking the Thundercougarfalconbird approach to their increasingly stupid names, power outputs, and permi-vaping, street take-overing, douchebag target market.

This is one such car, the ‘Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat’, and if that isn’t risible enough, you can optionally add ‘Redeye’ onto the end too, AKA ‘Desperate to Prove Masculinity’.

This one – soon to be found doing poorly executed donuts across an intersection at the hands of a permi-vaping douchebag – is the work of the very talented Mihail Rakovskiy, who has appeared here several times with his superb Model Team modern muscle cars.

Opening doors, hood and trunk, plus a detailed engine, interior, and chassis all feature, and you can stand in a circle at a crossroads shouting “Oooh shiiiit!!” via Mihail’s ‘Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat’ album via the link above.

Challenge This

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Chrysler, beaten to the ‘pony car’ market by the Ford Mustang, decided that if was going to be late, strength in numbers would win the day. As such the corporation launched about a dozen pony/muscle cars, all of which seemed to do more-or-less the same job, and each being available with a bewildering array of engines.

This is one of Dodge’s offerings from the time, the Challenger. Like its Charger brethren that appeared here last month, this stunning replica of the ’70s pony car comes from Szunyogh Balázs (aka gnat.bricks), who has recreated the Challenger magnificently in Model Team form.

A detailed engine resides under an opening hood, the doors open to reveal a life-like interior, and even the Challenger’s chassis and drivetrain have been accurately replicated.

Excellent presentation caps a really impressive build, and there’s much more of the model to see at both Szunyogh’s ’12 Studs Challenger’ album on Flickr or via the Eurobricks discussion forum by clicking these words.

Take Charge

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The Lego Car Blog Elves are happy today because, whilst this isn’t Dom’s Dodge Charger, it’s close enough for us to relent and let them watch one of the terrible ‘Fast & Furious’ movies.

Szunyogh Balázs (aka gnat.bricks) is the builder behind this stunning Model Team Dodge Charger, which features opening doors, hood and trunk, a detailed interior, a life-like V8 engine, and some brilliant details of the real car’s mechanics, including brake discs and callipers, a full-length exhaust, and even a brick-built differential.

Szunyogh’s presentation is top-drawer too, and you can check out all the images on Flickr via the link above, whilst we watch Vin Diesel repeatedly mumble ‘family’ in an attempt make up for the lack of a coherent plot, dialogue, or physics.

Insert Giant Shiny Meathead

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Both phenomenally successful and awful in equal measure, the ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise shows no signs of taking its foot off the gas. Dom’s Dodge Charger from the aforementioned cinema skid-mark can even now be bought in LEGO form, in both Technic and Speed Champions flavours, the latter of which comes complete with a shiny-headed douchbag mini-figure for maximum movie authenticity.

Missing said mini-figure, but ramping up the realism in every other respect, comes gnat.bricks own Speed Champions scale ’69 Dodge Charger, which – admittedly – is a year earlier than Dom’s car from the movies. Which is probably why he’s not here.

We’ll take that as a blessing and there’s more to see of Not-Dom’s-Dodge-Charger at gnat.bricks’ Flickr album. Click the link above to make the jump.

Blues Brothers

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We considered linking to that infernal late-’90s Italian song in the title, and then thought better of it. But by then it was already stuck in our heads, so if we have to suffer you do too. And if you don’t click on that link we’ll still find a way of annoying you with Eiffel 65’s madness later in this post.

Oh yeah, cars. These six brilliant Speed Champions scale classics were discovered by a soon-to-be-very-fat-Elf on Flickr. They come from previous bloggee Thomas Gion, and clockwise from top left – in various levels of blueness – are a ’69 Chevy Nova, a ’63 Chevy Nova ‘Gasser’, a ’66 Buick Riviera, a ’54 Ford Thunderbird, a ’70 Plymouth Barracuda, and a ’69 AMC AMX Superstock.

Each is excellent and you can check them all out via the link above. Da-ba-dee-da-ba-di!

Prime Position

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We’re breaking a few of our own rules today…

This creation is virtual. It features a cartoonish caricature. Oh, and a big bald meathead, who may or may not have LEGO arms.

But seeing as the movies from which it’s inspired are also pretty much virtual (no, physics does not do the things it appears to in the ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise), feature cars that too are cartoonish caricatures, and that also include the aforementioned big, bald meathead, we’re going to let it pass. In the name of “Family…”, or something.

Built for the ‘Iron Builder’ contest, in which participants must use a usually-obscure LEGO piece (in this case a Spike Prime Colour Sensor), Ivan Martynov’s homage to the most profitable (and worst) movie franchise of all time includes several of the chosen part hidden throughout it, including the Dodge Charger’s supercharger, the floodlights, hidden within the cityscape, and most cunningly as a meathead torso.

There’s more to see at Ivan’s photostream, and you can ignore physics whilst muttering “Family…” for little-to-no-reason via the link in the text above!

Time Attack

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We’re back to cars, and what a car to return to our site title for. This is a ’68 Chevrolet Camaro ‘Time Attack’ racer, modified with a twin-turbo V6, side-exit exhausts, aero, and a full roll-cage, all built in miniature in Speed Champions scale.

Flickr’s Stephan Jonsson is the creator behind it, and there’s lots more of the Camaro to see – including excellent imagery showing the highly detailed engine and a radically extreme aero-package – at his ‘1986 Pro Street/Time Attack Camaro’ album. Click the link above to set your time.

Supernova

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Whilst both part of the General Motors empire, America’s Chevy ‘Nova’ was rather different to the Vauxhall one we got… Still, we have the cool one today, courtesy of IBrickedItUp and this neat recreation of the third generation Chevrolet Nova SS in Speed Champions scale. Racing stripes and an unnecessary hood bulge add to the image (again, somewhat different to what we got…), and there’s more to see via the link!

My Other (Muscle) Car is a Camaro

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What’s better than a ’69? Two ’69s obviously. Cue Brian Michal, who has taken LEGO’s excellent 10304 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 set and created another ’69 icon, the Ford Mustang Mach 1.

A performance package available on the first generation Mustang, Mach 1s were powered by V8s engines of 5.8, 6.4, or 7.0 litres, were fitted with upgraded suspension (although – we suspect – not nearly upgraded enough), and a 3-speed automatic or 4-speed manual gearbox.

A host of other options were available too, including Ram-Air, a Drag Pack, a ‘Traction Lok’ rear axle, and – as pictured here – a ‘Shaker’ hood. All of which sound marvellous.

Brian’s 10304 alternate captures the ’69 Ford Mustang Mach 1 superbly, with more to see at his Flickr album, where a link to building instructions can also be found should you wish to switch your own ’69 muscle car for another.

And if a ’69 isn’t really your thing, here are a few bonus links to a rather more modern Mustang, a Porsche 911, and a Chevrolet C10 pick-up, also built solely from the 10304 Camaro Z28 set.

The Big Purple One*

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The recently launched Speed Champions 76094 Dodge Charger R/T set continues LEGO’s welcome foray into real-world classic cars. Taking the purple Challenger from that set and upsizing it is Flickr’s Joey Klusnick, who has replicated the iconic 1970’s muscle car in ‘Miniland’ scale, making his model perfect for the streets of a Legoland theme park. It’d sure be a quality street** with Joey’s Challenger parked on it. Click the link above to rummage through the box for a taste.***

*Non UK readers; you’ll have no idea what we’re on about.

**As above.

***That’s enough now (Ed.)

Unlikely Animal

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America likes naming cars after animals. Usually scary ones. Viper, Raptor, Cougar, Stingray, Cobra, Barracuda, Falcon…  there’s a long list of predators in car form. And then there’s this; the Impala, named after a medium-sized African antelope.

We’re not sure what a medium-sized African antelope has in common with a large American sedan, and the name is all the more surprising considering the antelope is the prey of top predators and America really doesn’t like naming anything with a hint of weakness. Nevertheless, the Impala was a smash hit.

Part of that success was no doubt down to the Impala’s engines, which themselves had very exciting names such as ‘Blue Flame’, ‘Turbo Fire’ and ‘Turbo Thrust’, although none of which were actually turbo-charged.

Top of the tree was the ‘SS’, which used a 409cu (6.7 litre) ‘Turbo Thrust’ V8 in third-generation form as pictured here, and could produce over 400bhp. This is one medium-sized antelope that was more than a match for the predators.

This beautiful brick-built example of the ’64 ‘SS’ comes from Jakub Marcisz of Flickr, who has recreated the aforementioned ‘Turbo Thrust’ V8, and the third-generation Chevrolet Impala that it powered, in spellbinding detail.

The fantastic exterior is matched by an equally well-detailed interior accessible by opening doors, plus there’s an opening hood and trunk lid, and working steering too, with much more of Jakub’s stunning creation to see at his ‘Chevrolet Impala SS 1964’ album, where twenty top-quality images are available.

The Impala’s success would continue across six decades, but – as with all animals – it eventually succumbed to age. The Impala was finally taken out in 2020, not by one of the various predatorily-named cars it competed against, but by the SUV, with Chevrolet ceasing production in order to focus on crossovers.

And if there’s a car name less cool than a medium-sized African antelope, it’s surely the Traverse.