Chequers in Lego always seem to look the business. And never more so than when in space. We’re not sure why this is, but we don’t make the rules. The Elves found two spacey creations employing chequers this week, and both look, well – the business.
Shannon Sproule‘s survey truck (above) and David Roberts‘ GARC race team (below) both tread the black and yellow chequer plate route and you can see more of both wonderfully inventive creations on Flickr at the links above.
Mercedes-Benz are the racing team to beat at the moment, and back in the 1950s it was a similar story. Teams were run a bit differently half a century ago, with budgets very much smaller than they are today. Racing cars would turn up on the back of a transporter, go racing, and then go home again – there were no fancy mobile workshops, catering trucks or hospitality suites.
We quite like this approach, but the downside was that if one of your racing cars broke, there were few spare parts, and certainly no spare car, with which to fix it. To get around this Mercedes came up with a genius solution; they built a vehicle capable of racing across Europe at high speed to get back to the factory to collect another car – the amazing Rennwagen Schnelltransporter nicknamed ‘Blue Wonder’.
Underneath the weird car-transporting bodywork the Schnelltransporter was a 300SL Gullwing supercar, complete with its three-litre straight-six petrol engine, the first engine ever fitted with direct-injection. And that made it the fastest car transporter in the world.
A vehicle as legendary as that needs a legendary builder, and they don’t come much more so than Firas Abu-Jaber. Firas’ beautiful Model Team recreation of the famous Mercedes even features a stunning 300SL Gullwing to transport. There’s loads more to see on both MOCpages and Flickr – click the links for all the details.
This is the latest addition to the big common project “Classic Race Teams” founded two years ago by Ape Fight on MOCpages. Nick Barrett started his LEGO version of the “Ecurie Ecosse” team in November 2011 with the fanstastic 1959 Commer team transporter and added a matching Jaguar D Type one year later.
Now he’s completed the team with a second Jaguar D Type, four team members and a lot of equipment. The stars of the team are, of course, the cars and the transporter. The Jaguars are packed with all the Technic functions you need: Engine, transmission, suspension and steering, whilst the transporter has a powered main ramp, a working engine, steering with two different HOG mechanisms and a complete interior.
Check out the completed team on MOCpages and don’t forget to look at the details of the transporter and the Jag too.
…Red Lorry Yellow Lorry Red Lolly Lellow Rolly…
Thomas Graafland, a very talented young builder, has created this magnificent full studded Gelo Racing car transporter for The Classic Race Teams Group on MOCpages. It’s packed with functions and has plenty of room for two classic Ferraris. What more could you ask for from this tongue twisting beauty.
Like Christmas leftovers; lots of different styles but delicious
The accepted norm in the MOC-ing world is to pick a technique and stick with it. MortalSwordman has decided to buck this trend with his Fiat Bartoletti Type II race transporter, with stunning results. He uses traditional studs-up, smooth SNOT, full-stud and Technic techniques all in one model. Our favourite area is perhaps the letters – squint and ‘Cobra Ford’ will miraculously appear! There’s a group on MOCpages where several of these classic transporters have been built. Check out Mortal’s MOCpage via the link above for details.