Tag Archives: porsche

Squaring the Circle

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The Porsche 911, having its roots in the Nazi’s “peoples’ car“, is a rather bubbly, round, and curvaceous vehicle.

The official LEGO 10295 Porsche 911 set is not therefore the obvious parts choice from which to construct a supercar from a brand at the very other end of the design spectrum; wilfully angular Lamborghini.

At least it wouldn’t be the obvious choice for the unimaginative dullards here at TLCB Towers, however previous bloggee Marcin Majkowski is rather more creative.

Taking the resolutely round 10295 set, Marcin has somehow managed to turn it into one of the most straight-edged supercars of modern times, the limited-run Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4.

Utilising 1,204 (c80%) of the 10295 Porsche 911’s parts, Marcin’s Lamborghini includes opening scissor doors, a lifting engine cover, and working steering, and there’s more of his angular alternate to see at Eurobricks, on Bricksafe, and via Flickr, where a link to building instructions can also be found.

Click the links above to square your 10295 circle.

Paint my Porsche

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This incredible car is a Porsche 911.2 Speedster, and it’s been built as a commissioned piece by previous bloggee 3DsupercarBricks.

Consisting of around 1,000 parts, with opening doors, front trunk, engine cover, and flip roof, 3D’s commissioned Speedster has – purists look away now – been custom painted in the real Porsche ‘Azzuro Thetys’ metallic paint to create the amazing aesthetic you can see here.

Custom 3D-printed wheels add to the authenticity and there’s much more of the painted Porsche to see at 3D’s photostream.

Click the link in the text above to take a look at all of the fantastic images, whilst we ponder whether spraying a Lego model faded-red-and-rust to accurately recreate the office’s Rover 214 would deliver the same wow factor as 3D’s ‘Azzuro Thetys’ metallic…

More Endurance

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After years of very limited top-tier competition, the fastest class at Le Mans undergoing a spectacular resurgence. Works teams from Ferrari, Toyota, Porsche, Peugeot, and Cadillac all entered in 2023, with BMW, Lamborghini and Alpine all set to join in the coming years.

The 2023 24 Heures du Mans was won by a jubilant Ferrari, returning almost six decades after their last win, following an epic race-long battle with favourites Toyota. Joining his previously blogged classic Le Mans endurance racers, SFH_Bricks has recreated the 2023-winning Ferrari 499P brilliantly in Speed Champions form, alongside a host of other Hypercar-Class teams from this year’s event.

The second place Toyota GR010, doubtless still miffed at being slowed down by the FIA ‘Balance of Performance’ rules that likely cost them the win, the wonderfully-liveried (if uncompetitive) Penske Racing Porsche 963, and the third-placed Cadillac V-Series.R join the Ferrari 499P in SFH_Bricks’ ‘Le Mans 2023 Hypercars’ album.

Each Le Mans Hypercar wears an accurate livery -created in collaboration with brickstickershop – and is presented flawlessly, with building instructions available too. Join the 2023 race courtesy of SFH via the third link in the text above, plus you can check out the top-tier Le Mans cars from decades past via the second.

Typical Porsche Driver

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Porsche – as per Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Lamborghini and almost every automotive brand – are today mostly an SUV manufacturer. Sigh.

But they haven’t abandoned their roots quite as much as would first appear, as they – like Lamborghini – have off-road vehicles as much a part of their early history as their current line-up.

Many of these were of a military purpose designed for a certain moustachioed maniac, which Porsche don’t seem keen to highlight in their corporate history, but Porsche also built tractors, such as this rather cute Porsche-Diesel Standard 218.

Powered by a two-cylinder 25bhp air-cooled diesel engine, the Standard 218 could be outrun by even the fattest TLCB Writer, but unlike the fattest TLCB Writer it could also lift over half-a-ton on its three-point-hitch.

This lovely Model Team replica of the Porsche-Diesel Standard 218 recreates the tractor (and hitch) beautifully, with superb attention to detail paid in particular to the Porsche’s visible mechanical parts.

TLCB newcomer dimnix is the builder behind it, and there’s more to see of this excellent classic Porsche-Diesel at their Brickshelf gallery. Click the link above to jump back to when an off-road Porsche didn’t mean an aggressively-driven Cayenne.

100 Ans du Mans

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The world’s greatest motor race celebrates its century this weekend. Founded in 1923 on a public road loop around the village of Le Mans, a route that would later become today’s ‘Circuit de la Sarthe’, the 24 Heures du Mans remains the pinnacle of endurance racing.

Of course due to some German expansionist policies in the late 1930s, the 2023 event is not the one hundredth running of the race, rather the 91st, but nevertheless it’s going to be a special year, with both a notable increase in Hypercar competition and the final year of the GTE class before it’s replaced by the more widely adopted GT3 regulations.

Flickr’s SpaceMan Nathan is celebrating Le Mans’ centenary, and the final year of GTE, with this lovely recreation of the Circuit de la Sarthe pitlane, complete with five Speed Champions GTE AM cars. Accurate liveries and trackside sponsorship add to the ambience, and you can enter the pitlane at Le Mans’ centenary year via the link above to watch the GTE finale.

My Other Car’s a Porsche

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No, really. Because this amazing looking Lamborghini Murcielago is constructed only from the parts found within the excellent 10295 Creator Expert Porsche 911 set.

Built by Lego-building legend Firas Abu-Jaber, who must be some sort of wizard, the pieces from the resolutely curvy Porsche have somehow been re-purposed to recreate the almost entirely trapezoid mid-’00s Lamborghini.

Opening scissor doors, accurate pop-up air-vents, a removable roof panel, and an opening engine cover and front trunk all feature, and this incredible 10295 alternate is available to build yourself thanks to the building instructions released alongside the model.

The complete suite of top-quality imagery can be viewed at Firas’ ‘10295 Lamborghini Murcielago’ album on Flickr, where a link to building instructions can also be found (or click here to jump straight to Firas’ own excellent website store), plus you can read his interview as part of our Master MOCers Series to learn how he builds astonishing models like this one via the second link in the text above.

Speed Champions 2023 | Set Previews

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It’s the final part of our 2023 Set Previews, and today it’s perhaps LEGO’s most successful and well-regarded range of recent times; the fantastic officially licensed Speed Champions theme.

LEGO’s decision to bring real-world cars to bedroom floors everywhere at pocket money prices was an inspired one, and the list of partner manufacturers is now at eighteen strong. Yup, that means there’s a brand new manufacturer joining the line-up for 2023 – read on to find out who!

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76914 – Ferrari 812 Competizione

The 2023 Speed Champions range kicks off with this, the 76914 Ferrari 812 Competizione. For $25 / £20 you can own one the greatest Ferraris of recent times, constructed from 261 pieces including a mini-figure, a printed canopy, and a lot of stickers. Too many? Well to our eyes yes, but LEGO know what appeals to 9 year olds, and they’ll be on to a winner.

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76915 – Pagani Utopia

Yes the eighteenth manufacturer to join the Speed Champions line-up is Pagani! Maker of wild AMG-powered carbon-fibre hypercars, the Utopia is the brand’s latest, with an 850bhp 6 litre twin-turbo V12 and an ultra-exclusive 99-unit production run, although we suspect there will be a few more owners of the car in brick-form. Expect 249 pieces, lots of stickers, a slightly lazily-printed canopy, and a $35 / £20 price.

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76916 – Porsche 963

2023 will finally see the expansion of the prototype series at Le Mans, with a raft of manufacturers joining to challenge Toyota’s dominance. Two categories will race within the top-tier class; LMH (Toyota, Peugeot, Ferrari), in which full works-built prototypes can be built using entirely bespoke components, and LMDh (Cadillac, Acura, Alpine and Porsche), using spec chassis and hybrid systems. 76916 brings Porsche’s entry to the Speed Champions range, with 280 pieces, clever SNOT building techniques, and stickers on every surface.

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76918 – McLaren Solus GT & McLaren F1 LM

2023’s final Speed Champions set is a double, featuring two cars from the McLaren range. OK, one really, as the 25-unit, V10-Judd-engined, track-only Solus GT that we hadn’t heard of exists only in Gran Turismo at the moment. But let’s be honest, you wouldn’t be buying 76918 for that…

The reason we all want 76918 is for the fantastic McLaren F1 LM, which looks absolutely magnificent in orange bricks. It doesn’t even need many stickers. 581 pieces, two mini-figures, and some genuinely tricky building techniques feature, making it one of the best Speed Champions cars to date. And there’s a Solus GT or something too.

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That’s the brand new 2023 Speed Champions line-up; five new sets (including the previously-revealed 76917 ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ Nissan Skyline GT-R R-34), one new manufacturer, and six-hundred new stickers. We’ll be taking the 76918 McLaren F1, and consider it an expensive single model set, but with a bonus pack of white and black parts thrown in for free. Couldn’t LEGO have made it with two F1s instead?…

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.

Porsche Carrera GT | Picture Special

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Built for just two years in the mid-’00s, Porsche’s Carrera GT has become one of the most sought-after supercars of recent times. A 600bhp V10 – designed in secret for Porsche by the Footwork Formula 1 team in the early-’90s but never used – a six speed manual gearbox, and no driver aids make for one of the last truly analogue supercars, and one of the greatest vehicular sounds of all time.

This magnificent Technic tribute to the Carrera GT is the work of TLCB Master MOCer Lachlan Cameron, who has constructed it, its V10 engine, working suspension, an eight speed gearbox (two more than the real car), and deployable rear wing brilliantly in brick-form. Custom chrome pieces and superb outdoor photography add to the appeal, and there’s more to see of Lachlan’s incredible Carrera GT here, plus you can find out how he builds amazing creations like this one at his Master MOcers page by clicking here.

Three Little Pigs

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We’re going to have a very fat Elf today. One of our mythical little workers brought back these three blogworthy Porsche 356s, meaning it receives three meal tokens. Will said Elf spread them out in order to moderate its intake, or binge on all of them on one go? We all know the answer to that…

Anyway, the three models are appropriate for the aforementioned piggy Elf, as each is a glorious Porsche 356, as built beautifully in Model Team form by ZetoVince of Flickr. All have opening doors, a detailed interior, and passive steering, with the red version available to buy in this year’s Creations for Charity fundraiser.

There’s more to see at Zeto’s photostream via the link above, and if you’d like to own the red car for yourself you can jump straight to the Porsche’s Creations for Charity page via this bonus link.

Lesser Spotted V10

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Few production cars have been powered by a V10 engine. The Dodge Viper. Various Lamborghinis. The e60-series BMW M5 (aka the really unreliable one). The Audi R8, The Lexus LFA. And this, the Porsche Carrera GT.

Powered by a 5.7litre 600+ bhp V10, the Carrera GT lasted from just 2004 to 2006, becoming an all-time great in the process. This excellent Speed Champions recreation of the iconic V10-powered supercar is the work of The G Brix of Flickr, who has captured the Carrera GT superbly in small scale. See more at G Brix’s photostream.

Business Express

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With TLCB’s home nation outlawing the sale of non-zero-emissions vehicles from the middle of next decade, some have wondered whether manufacturers whose brands are built on internal combustion will have a place. Porsche, famous for flat-6 power, have proved emphatically that they will.

The Taycan – Porsche’s first EV – is formidably fast, has a reasonable range, and – unlike Tesla – isn’t built like total crap. However all of that is secondary to the fact that in the UK, company car drivers can pay a tiny fraction of the tax that they would versus combustion engined vehicles.

As is sadly often the case, this means the poor – who can’t afford a £100k electric Porsche – will be subsiding the rich so they can get one on the cheap, but it has meant that the Taycan is a wildly popular company car in the UK.

Cue 3D supercarBricks, who has created the businessman’s favourite beautifully in appropriate Business Grey. The brick-built Porsche Taycan includes opening everything and top quality presentation, with more to see at 3D’s photostream.

Click the link above to take a look – just note that if you decide to buy some LEGO bricks to build one yourself, you’ll pay more tax than an owner of the real thing.

Porsche-Assisted Pedal

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Even for Porsche, this spoiler is ridiculous…

Back in 1979, French cyclist Jean-Claude Rude attempted to break the bicycle speed record of 127mph / 204kph. This meant a rather special bike, and also something to cut through the air ahead of it.

Martini Racing duly offered to modify one of their 800bhp Porsche 935 Turbos, fitting it with a custom air-deflecting casing behind the cabin. This TLCB Writer isn’t sure that an 800bhp Porsche was strictly necessary, but it’s better to be sure we suppose.

Unfortunately for Jean-Claude, whilst the Porsche 935 was up to the job, his bike’s rear inner tube was not, exploding during the record run. Now every cyclist knows that you always carry a spare, but seemingly Jean-Claude didn’t and that was the end of the record attempt.

Sadly, before he could try again, Jean-Claude Rude was killed by the wake of a train he was racing against, aged just 25.

Flickr’s HCKP13 pays homage to both Jean-Claude Rude and the magnificently weird modified Porsche 935 Turbo used to smooth the air ahead of him with this excellent Lego recreation of the failed record attempt. There’s more to see at HCKP13’s photostream, and you can join the 1979 record attempt via the link above. Just remember to bring a spare inner tube…

My Other Car’s a Camaro

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How many models can the LEGO Icons 10304 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 make? Lots, according to Tomáš Novák, who has already appeared here with his Chevrolet C10 pick-up 10304 alternate, constructed within days of the set’s release.

Tomáš has now converted his C10 truck, itself converted from the 10304 set, into this lovely early Porsche 911, which features opening doors, engine cover and front trunk, working steering, and a rather natty two-tone stripe necessitated by the source parts of the 10304 set.

Building instructions are available and there’s more to see of Tomáš’ 10304 B-Model at both Eurobricks and Flickr.

Twin Turbos

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Suggested by a reader, these two Porsche 911 Turbos come from Petey Bird of Flickr, who has captured the 1990s incarnation of Porsche’s iconic sports car beautifully in Speed Champions form. Curve bricks are used in abundance to replicate the famous shape, with some rather clever side-windows too, and there’s more of Petey’s Porsches to see at his photostream via the link above.