Tag Archives: Peugeot

Technic 42156 Peugeot 9X8 24H Le Mans Hybrid Hypercar | Set Preview

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LEGO’s extensive catalogue of officially-licensed vehicle sets has brought many amazing real-world racers to bedroom floors, including the 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Car, 42125 Ferrari 488 GTE AF Corse, and the 42096 Porsche 911 RSR.

Today we can reveal that LEGO are not only bringing another real-world racer to the Technic range, but a whole new manufacturer too! This is the brand new 1:10 scale, 1,775-piece 42156 Peugeot 9X8 24H Le Mans Hybrid Hypercar.

Yes, we finally have a top-tier Le Mans Hypercar in brick form, although with LEGO also having licenses with rival teams Toyota, Ferrari, BMW, Porsche, and Ferrari, hopefully we could see the whole Le Mans grid in time.

The Peugeot 9X8 entered the championship this year, looking to challenge the dominance of Toyota at the front of the field, and combines a V6 engine with a Hybrid KER system and four-wheel drive.

The new LEGO 42156 set aims to recreate the functions of the real Peugeot 9X8, with working steering and suspension, a V6 piston engine, 7-speed transmission, and – mysteriously – replicating ‘the low emission hybrid powertrain system’, although we’re not sure what that means.

The set also features glow-in-the-dark headlights and a myriad of authentic decals, and is expected to cost around £170 / $200 when it reaches stores in time for the 2023 24 Heures du Mans race this summer, in which Peugeot Sport might get a little extra support from LEGO fans…

Greater Endurance

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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.

Seventies Cycling

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Peugeot, like many car manufacturers, didn’t begin by making cars. The company’s earliest products were saw blades and coffee and pepper grinders, but it was the bicycles that followed that made the business famous.

A decline in cycling interest post-war forced the company to refocus on automobile production, but a resurgence in the 1960s, as the bicycle transitioned from a transportation method to a leisure activity, created a new market for Peugeot’s pedal-powered products.

The company capitalised on this, producing road and race bikes that became world famous, and demonstrated their leadership in the world’s toughest (and Frenchiest) cycle race; the Tour de France, winning the event in ’75 and ’77.

This lovely 6-wide recreation of Peugeot’s 1970s Tour de France support car, complete with boot-mounted bicycles, comes from previous bloggee PalBenglat, who has captured both the ’70s Peugeot 504 and the vintage building style of LEGO at the time wonderfully.

Clever techniques and excellent presentation are evident throughout the build, and there’s more of the classic Peugeot to see at Pal’s photostream. Click the link above to put on your jersey and head into the French mountains c1975.

’80s Joyride

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Volkswagen weren’t the only car manufacturer to attach the letters ‘G’, ‘T’ and ‘I’ to a family hatchback on the 1980s…

The Peugeot 205 GTI was an absolute sensation when it arrived in 1986. Powered by a 1.6 litre engine making 104bhp, and later a 1.9 litre making over 120bhp, the GTI was fast, fun, and wildly popular.

So much so that, like Volkswagen’s offering, quite a few people wanted to have a go even if they didn’t own one. Hot hatchback thefts rocketed, shortly followed by insurance premiums, and sales plummeted.

But Peugeot can’t really be blamed for joy-riding scumbags, and the 205 GTI is now a bona-fide classic, a high water mark for the brand that they are still to beat some four decades later.

This wonderful Technic recreation of Peugeot’s finest hour comes from TLCB Master MOCer Nico71, who has captured the 205 GTI magnificently.

Featuring working steering, functional suspension, a detailed engine under an opening hood, a life-like interior behind opening doors, and an opening tailgate too, Nico’s 205 GTI is about as visually realistic as it’s possible for a Technic model to be.

Plus best of all – like the aforementioned scumbags that nearly killed the hot hatchback genre altogether – you can have a go without having to do the work yourself!

Yup, Nico has made building instructions available too, with his design buildable in ’80s-appropriate red, black or white, and you can take a closer look – as well as a find a link to those instructions – at Nico’s Peugeot 205 GTI gallery on Brickshelf.

Click the link above to start our ’80s joyride!

Theory of Evolution

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LEGO’s Speed Champions range has evolved a bit over the years. Jumping from six studs of width to eight has upped the realism, as has a the more widespread use of decals, allowing for the recreation of real-world liveries and sponsorships.

Previous bloggee Fabrice Larcheveque has moved with the times as well, updating his Peugeot 206 T16 rally car to fit LEGO’s latest Speed Champions aesthetic, with it looking rather wonderful a as result.

Fabrice’s original 205 T16 featured on this site half a decade ago, and The Lego Car Blog has evolved a bit since then too, with the standard of presentation required to appear here considerably higher than it was back then. The incompetent writing and woeful site management remain though…

Fabrice’s significantly upgraded and perfectly presented Peugeot 205 T16 is available to view on Flickr, where building instructions are now available too. Click here to join the evolution.

404 Error: File Found

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Ah Error 404. The Hypertext Transfer Protocol standard response code that indicates the browser communicated with a given server, but the server couldn’t find what was requested.

Which, as purveyors of a website with a million views a year, we of course knew without looking it up on Google… Honestly, it’s a miracle that this site functions at all.

Anyway, today 404 was found, as one of Elves brought back this rather lovely Peugeot 404 pick-up, as built by regular bloggee Jonathan Elliott.

Based on Peugeot’s 1960s large passenger car, the 404 pick-up was produced into the late ’80s in Europe, and until 1991 in Kenya, where it’s still a common sight thanks to its almost unbreakable toughness. Yup, we really did say that about a Peugeot.

Jonathan’s 8-wide recreation captures the 404 pick-up beautifully, and you can check out the build, along with his extensive garage of other Speed Champions scale vehicles, at his photostream on Flickr.

Click the link above to instruct your browser to communicate with the server. Or something.

Acceptable in the ’80s*

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Lego Lancia Delta Peugeot 205 T16 Group B

We’re back in the 1980s today, and one of the greatest battles in rallying history. The Group B rally era from 1982 to ’86 created some of the wildest (and most dangerous) racing cars ever seen. Minimal regulations and the arrival of turbo-charging and all-wheel-drive led to huge speed, and the cars – whilst outwardly similar – had almost nothing in common with their road-going counterparts.

By the mid-’80s engines were mounted in the middle and surrounded by space-framed shells of composite and magnesium. Peugeot’s ridiculous 205 Turbo 16 took power to well over 400bhp from just 1.8 litres and won the final two Group B Championships in ’85 and ’86. Previous champions Lancia come in second with their carbon-composite Delta S4, the first car to be both turbo and super-charged (known as twin-charging). It was tragically this car that led to the cessation of Group B, when in 1986 Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto’s S4 left the road on the Tour de Course and burst into flames, killing both men. The FIA had to act and Group B, rallying’s maddest era, was banned.

MOCpages’ Fabrice Larcheveque remembers the fastest rally cars ever seen with his 6-wide replicas of both the Peugeot Turbo 16 and and Lancia Delta S4. Each includes a detailed engine and interior under removable bodywork, but our favourite elements are the stunning liveries, recreating those seen on the real cars brilliantly in miniature. There’s more to see of Fabrice’s Speed Champions-style Group B racers on MOCpages – click the link above to head back to 1986.

Lego Lancia Delta Peugeot 205 T16 Group B

*Today’s title song (and the only decent Calvin Harris song) can be found here.

La Goutte Grise

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Lego Peugeot 607

France has built many fine luxury cars. This is not one of them.

Launched at the end of the millennium, the Peugeot 607 was an anonymous grey blob of a car that sold like anthrax cupcakes. Built at the height of Peugeot’s reliabilities issues, the last thing anyone wanted was a French car loaded with extra equipment which would inevitably and immediately go wrong.

This meant that like Renault’s (admittedly very adventurous) luxury offerings at the time, the Peugeot 607 was destined to be used almost exclusively as a tool for French Government officials, and then later – after the free-fall depreciation had kicked-in – as a taxi at Portuguese airports.

Lego Peugeot 607

This Lego homage to one of the world’s least good luxury cars is the work of Rolands Kirpis of Flickr, and it is quite simply an exceptional build. Everything that makes the real Peugeot 607 look like a part dissolved dishwasher tablet makes it one hell of a tricky car to reconstruct from right-angled Danish plastic, however Rolands has done a remarkably effective job of capturing the 607’s, er… blobby-ness? Blobicity? Blobery? Whatever.

Featuring a detailed interior, an opening hood with a neat and recognisable engine underneath, an opening boot, and four opening doors with some of the most intricate window frames we’ve ever seen, Roland’s Lego 607 is definitely worth a closer look. You can see the fully gallery of images at his photostream by clicking on the link above, and we’ll leave you with one more shot capturing an inevitable moment in mid-2000s Peugeot ownership…

Lego Peugeot 607

Plan B

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Lego Peugeot 205 Turbo 16

We rarely feature digital creations here at TLCB. Today though we’re going to break our own rule, because this virtual Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 Group B rally car is an absolute delight.

Built in the mid-1980s to race in the World Rally Championship, Peugeot’s monster mid-engined all-wheel-drive 205s won the final two Group B World Championships in ’85 and ’86, before the formula was banned.

This wonderful recreation of one of the most fearsome WRC cars ever is the work of newcomer Fabrice Larcheveque, who has replicated Peugeot Sport’s famous 1980s livery brilliantly in digital form, and has absolutely nailed the car that wears it too.

Fabrice has built several other iconic cars in LEGO’s Speed Champions style and you can see more of these, plus the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 featured here, via MOCpages, plus you can also vote for the Peugeot to become the next officially-licensed car in the Speed Champions range via LEGO Ideas.

Lego Peugeot 205 Turbo 16

UMM…

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Lego UMM Alter II

This slightly sad looking vehicle is an UMM Alter II, built from ’86 until ’96 by Portuguese metal-works União Metalo-Mecânica, primarily for use in utilities and military applications.

Based on a design bought from France and mostly fitted with Peugeot engines the UMM Alter was a surprisingly tough and capable machine, with 10,000 finding a home in UMMs markets around the Mediterranean and Africa.

This perfectly recreated Model Team replica of the UMM Alter II is the work of Flick’s Biczzz and it features working steering, rear suspension and opening doors and hood. There a large gallery of images available and you can see more via the link above.

Lego UMM Alter II 4x4 Biczzz

Turbeot

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Lego Peugeot 205 Turbo 16

TLCB has a long-standing apathy for Peugeot, but it hasn’t always made unreliable, ugly euroboxes. Back in the 1980s Peugeot made some seriously cool cars, and this is one of their highlights; the insane Group B Peugeot 205 Turbo 16.

Flickr’s _zux_ has recreated one of the finest cars of the ’80s in both WRC and Pikes Peak specification, each with all-wheel-drive, steering, suspension, and the mighty mid-mounted four-cylinder turbocharged engine. There’s lots more to see on Flickr – click the link above to make the jump.

Lego Technic Peugeot 205 Turbo Group B

Pretty Peugeot

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Lego Peugeot Concept

Iconic French manufacturer Peugeot haven’t had much exposure here at TLCB. This is mostly because the Lego community haven’t been building many Peugeots, and that’s probably because most of the brand’s recent offerings have been… well, crap.

However, the future is looking brighter for Peugeot fans. There’s a 270bhp GTI on the way, the company’s recent run of new products has been fairly well received by the motoring press, and their styling direction is no longer modelled on a deep sea fish that’s washed up on the shore and been left in the sun for a few days. It’s could even be called even pretty.

There’s reason to be optimistic then, and it’s nice to see this reflected in an unusual Peugeot build from previous bloggee F@bz, whose ‘Lanius’ concept car uses some clever techniques to create its swoopy shape. There’s more to see at F@bz’ photstream on Flickr – click the above to make the jump.

French Knickers

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Lego peugeot 403

Peugeot have – at last – got their act together and started to make cars that we wouldn’t mind owning again. After the horrible 2000s (307 anyone?) we’d pretty much given up hope for the French brand, but currently things are looking up, and we wish them all the best.

We quite like Peugeot because, despite the awfulness of the last 15 years, they do actually have a back-catalogue of some rather desirable (and even reliable) cars. One such model was this; the pretty 403 cabriolet, one of the nicest topless models to come out of France since Brigitte Bardot. This Town-scale version was built by Flickr’s mijasper, and you can see more of it via the link above.

Tonight on Top Gear… Picture Special

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Lego TopGear Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond James May

 …Jeremy will be mildly offensive, James will wear a wooly jumper, and Hammond will indulge in some bad acting. But we’ll still love it.

BBC’s Top Gear began way back in 1977 as a fairly straight-laced motoring magazine, updating the great unwashed on the latest new cars and motoring news (remember; no internet in 1977!). The original show helped to launch the careers of many TV motoring journalists, including the brilliant Tiff Needell and Quentin Wilson, and of course a certain Mr. Clarkson and Mr. May.

Lego Top Gear Studio Jeremy Clarkson

Top Gear evolved during these first decades becoming more humorous and politically incorrect, helped largely by the arrival of Quentin and Jeremy whose reviewing style could make-or-break a new car. After a one particularly damning review Peugeot famously declared that they were removing all of their adverts from the BBC – but of course due to the unique way the BBC is funded, Top Gear and everything else broadcast contains no advertising at all anyway. Take that Peugeot!

Lego Top Gear Richard Hammond

In 2000 however, the BBC canned Top Gear and sold the production (but not the name) to Channel 5, and Fifth Gear was born. Most of the presenters moved across to the new show and we’ve had to read uninformed ‘This is Fifth Gear you dumb %$@£!’ comments on YouTube (when a video correctly shows old Top Gear) ever since.

The BBC held onto the name for good reason though. In 2002 Top Gear returned, with a new format, new presenters, and – for the first time – an actual studio! Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and Jason Dawe fronted this first season, before Jason was replaced by James to give us the genius line-up that has been in place ever since.

Top Gear’s new format has proved wildly successful, with over 350million viewers from 170 countries tuning in every week. And that’s not counting the re-runs showing every hour on Dave.

Lego TopGear Jeremy Clarkson

Such success has led to mistakes though, as Top Gear has become less genuine and more scripted over the years in a quest to recreate past (naturally occurring) glories. It’s also given the presenters an opportunity to make other programmes, and ‘Richard Hammond’s 5 O’Clock Show’ is an abomination that will be forever etched into a dark corner of the televisual hall-of-shame. Thankfully it only lasted a month, and James May’s independent presenting more than makes up for Hammond’s. James even built a house out of LEGO.

Lego James May TopGear

So what next for Top Gear? Well there are now live arena shows once a year, spin-offs for Australia, Russia, Korea, America and others, a new DVD each Christmas, and there’s a whole world of slightly crap merchandising. Andy Wilman (Top Gear’s producer) admits the show – at least in its current format – is probably nearer to the end of its life than the start, but we expect to keep watching for little a while yet. Onwards to season 22!

All of the photos in this post were produced by the exceptionally talented Stephan Sander, who has lovingly recreated Jeremy, James and Richard in brick form.  He’s also constructed superb Lego models of Jeremy’s Citroen Motorhome, a trio of Jaguar E-Types, three Ferraris, three Lotuses and the famous Top Gear studio – complete with a wonderfully diverse audience! We highly recommend a trip to Stephan’s MOCpage to see all the photos. Back to the studio…