Tag Archives: Racing Car

What Might Have Been

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The story of the 2022 Formula 1 season is one of what might have been. After years in the doldrums, Scuderia Ferrari finally had the fastest car on the grid, and not only that, they had one of the most talented driver pairings too. Ferrari duly won two of the first three races, with fastest lap at all three, and with only one podium place dropped. And then – courtesy of some inexplicable tactical decisions – they threw it all away.

Now longstanding readers of this crumbling ruin in the corner of the internet will know that we aren’t Scuderia Ferrari’s biggest fans, what with them being immoral scumbags and everything, but if they stopped us having to see Christian Horner’s smug face every week we’d have taken it. However, unfortunately for Ferrari’s drivers – and us – some of the worst decision making in modern Formula 1 history gifted Red Bull’s Max Verstappen a second consecutive World Championship, and Horner’s smugness gained its own gravity.

Still, Ferrari’s 2022 F1 car looked rather lovely, and probably was the fastest car of the season, if only the team weren’t run by muppets, and it looks just as stunning in brick form courtesy of Noah_L, who has added the F1-75 to his amazing catalogue of Scuderia Ferrari racers.

Noah’s astonishing attention to detail is brought to life by some truly masterful building techniques, with superbly replicated decals and impeccable presentation making his Scuderia Ferrari F1-75 one of the most realistic real-world cars of the year so far.

A beautiful gallery of imagery is available to view on Flickr, where links to Noah’s previous Scuderia Ferrari racers and building instructions for the F1-75 pictured here can also be found. Build your own 2022 title challenger and reenact Ferrari’s strategic incompetence (not pitting under the safety car, pitting two cars at once, pitting for the wrong tyres…) via the link above. Just don’t be surprised if Christian Horner appears out of nowhere looking smug.

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.

Advantage

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We’re rounding out 2022 with exactly the sort of car that this crumbling ruin in the corner of the internet was created for; the mighty Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3.

Built by previous bloggee Levihathan, this eye-catching Technic recreation of Aston Martin’s 2010s-2020s endurance racer captures the real deal brilliantly, with the aesthetics further enhanced by bespoke decals that add to the race-ready realism.

Inside, Levihathan’s V12 Vantage is just as impressive, with a working V12 piston engine underneath the opening hood, functioning steering and suspension, a detailed race interior, and a paddle-shift gearbox.

There’s much more of the build to see at Levihathan’s ‘Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3’ album, and you can make the jump to all the imagery via the link in the text above.

Calsonic Skyline

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This is the Calsonic-sponsored Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 from the early-’00s Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, but of course, you probably already knew that.

Whilst Alexander Paschoaletto‘s brilliant Skyline GT-R R34 doesn’t say ‘Calsonic’ anywhere on it, we (and most likely you) would have recognised it anywhere. That’s because this car is burned into our psyche (and retinas) from Gran Turismo, where it has, in various generations, featured as one of the star cars for over two decades.

White 3D-printed wheels, blue bodywork, and a yellow sun-strip have transported us right back to hours of early-’00s pixellated racing, and you can join us at the Deep Forest Raceway courtesy of Alexander’s photostream via the link above.

Bricky E-ish

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The future of racing is electric. Because the future of everything is electric, unless we can sort hydrogen out.

Formula E is the FIA’s flagship electric racing series, in which unsuccessful Formula 1 departees drive, um… not particularly quickly around giant carparks. Oh. At least the cars look cool.

Cue R. Skittle‘s ‘Formula e Concept’ – suggested to us by a reader – which looks a lot more like a traditional racing car than the wild current Formula E car. However with twin BuWizz batteries and motors, it might also have performance more in line with a traditional racing car than a Formula E car too.

A Power Functions servo motor provides the steering, there’s clever independent pushrod suspension, and – apparently – torque vectoring for a drift mode! If this is the future of electric racing sign us up!

Join the electric revolution at R. Skittle’s Flickr album via the link above.

Insert Safety Car Here

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Mercedes-AMG’s seven-year dominance of the Formula 1 World Championship finally ended in 2021. Well, sort of… they still won the Constructor’s Championship, making it eight-in-a-row, but Lewis Hamilton did not win an eighth Driver’s Championship, and as such may now never move ahead of the record he shares with Schumacher.

Of course we also say ‘sort of’ thanks the controversial way in which Hamilton lost the Driver’s Championship on the final laps of the final race to Max Verstappen.

Thanks to crash-a-holic Lattifi (who – if he wasn’t paying to drive the car – surely wouldn’t be in Formula 1), and an improbable safety car decision that eventually cost race director Michael Masi his job, Verstappen was able to pass Hamilton on the final lap, giving us the first new World Champion in four seasons, and ending years of ‘#blessed’ instagram posts from the bejewelled multiple-champion.

Cue much arm waving and shouting from Mercedes-AMG (unusual, seeing as Christian Horner of Red Bull had done it all season for various imagined grievances), an investigation, but the race result standing. Which, by the way, we’re all for.

Yes the rules hadn’t been followed, but we’re of the opinion that even if there’s just one corner of the race remaining, it is a race, and therefore it should be, well… raced. Plus it made for amazing TV.

Anyway, Verstappen took the Championship, Hamilton felt what it’s like to lose (although he’s more than familiar with that this season), and fans got a finale to talk about for years to come.

This is the car that took Verstappen to his first Formula 1 Driver’s World Championship, the Honda-powered Red Bull RB16B, as created in spectacular detail by previous bloggee Noah_L of Flickr, and joining his already-impressive roster of brick-built modern Formula 1 cars.

The incredible realism is enhanced by some frankly jaw-dropping decals, created for Noah by a fellow builder, and there’s more to see of his astonishing (and beautifully presented) creation at his ‘Red Bull RB16B’ album on Flickr, where a link to building instructions can also be found.

Click the link above to deploy the safety car…

*It’s the Azerbaijan Grand Prix today. If you’re a Hamilton / Mercedes-AMG fan, this link from the 2018 race may raise a snicker.

LEGO Technic 42141 McLaren Formula 1™ Race Car | Set Preview

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LEGO Technic 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Car

Here it is! After dropping a few hints when we revealed the rest of the 2022 Technic line-up earlier, this is the brand new 42141 Technic McLaren Formula 1 car.

Which is a surprisingly generic title, given Formula 1 cars usually have ludicrously long names to encompass their various marketing requirements. This is because 42141 isn’t (perhaps disappointingly) a 1:8 scale recreation of a single McLaren Formula 1 car, rather it’s a homage to recent McLaren Formula 1 cars in general, without actually being one in particular.

The reason for this odd approach is due to Formula 1’s regulations changing significantly for 2022, and McLaren haven’t yet revealed their new MCL36 car. Thus the 42141 set uses the new proportions expected, design cues from last year, and the colour scheme from the 2021 MCL35 (although this may well appear again in 2022) to create an approximation of a modern McLaren racer. Perhaps LEGO could’ve just waited a bit?

The sponsors are all present and correct though, with accurately recreated decals (‘splunk’ being our favourite) adorning many panels just like the real thing. Er, things. Several of the panels are new too, debuting on 42141 alongside the return of the Batmobile Tumbler wheels (which are wrongly the same front and rear, boo.), and the appearance of some new Technic frame pieces.

There are 1,432 pieces in all, contributing to a sizeable 65cm length, and – perhaps less so – to the ’18+’ age range on the box. Which we all know is just a marketing ploy.

With a working V6 engine, suspension, steering, and an oddly-locking differential (we’re not sure why an F1 car would have this?), 42141 contains nothing more advanced than you would expect to find on a 10+ Technic set, but with ’18+’ printed on a black box, LEGO can both sell this set to adults more easily and charge more for it; 42141 is due to cost around $180/£160.

Which to us seems rather a lot for a model that isn’t actually a McLaren Formula 1 car – despite also definitely being one – and which has more marketing than substance.

Then again, that might just make it the most realistic Formula 1 car you could ever wish for…

Don’t Mention the War

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This bizarre looking vehicle is a Porsche 356 Carrera GTL Abarth, a lightweight racing car from 1960 resulting from a rare collaboration between Germany and Italy.

Previous partnerships between the two European powers were – thankfully for mankind – disastrous failures, but the Porsche 356 Carrera GTL Abarth was… OK, not great either.

It overheated, the steering couldn’t turn enough, and there were a few ‘differences of opinion’ between Porsche and Abarth when it came to acceptable build quality.

However unlike their 1940s effort, the two nations persevered and re-engineered the 356 Carrera GTL to the point where it became a rather excellent racing car, successfully competing across Europe and taking three consecutive class wins at Le Mans.

This neat Model Team recreation of the German-Italian racer comes from Tim Inman, who has managed to replicate the 356 Carrera GTL’s decidedly odd bodywork in brick form.

Opening doors and a lifting engine cover reveal a detailed interior and rear-mounted engine respectively, and there’s more to see of Tim’s Porsche 356 Carrera GTL Abarth at his photostream.

Click the link above to join the Axis Powers’ 1960 campaign, which was a lot better than their 1940 effort…

Racing Snake

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Early-’00s American cars are fat, badly built, inefficient, poor handling crap-boxes, and you’d have to be an idiot to like any of them.

This is an early-’00s Dodge Viper; a fat, badly built, inefficient, poor handling crap-box, and it’s one of our favourite cars ever.

Even more so in this configuration, the 2003 GTS-R endurance racer, as constructed to near-perfection in 1:14 scale by TLCB favourite SP_LINEUP.

SP has used over 1,300 pieces to recreate the iconic American racing car, including a beautifully detailed interior, engine bay, chassis bracing, brick-built drivetrain, and the spectacular GTS-R long-tail bodywork.

There’s more to see at SP’s photostream and you can make the jump to an early-’00s endurance race – and one of TLCB favourite cars ever (because we’re idiots) – via the link above.

Alpine Pass

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History is littered with vehicle manufacturers who sold about five cars a year, but yet somehow thought they could afford a top-tier racing team. Caterham, Marussia, Spyker, TVR and others have all tried – and without exception failed – to turn a tiny (and sometimes non-existent) sports car business into a successful racing team.

Re-born Alpine are the latest company to have a go. However whilst they also only sell about five cars a year, they’re owned by Renault, whose pockets and racing experience are rather deeper than Marussia’s…

Cue the Renault F1 team becoming Alpine in 2021, and – perhaps less encouragingly – this; the Alpine A480 Le Mans Hypercar entrant. Which wasn’t a Hypercar at all, rather a ‘grandfathered’ LMP1 Rebellion/Oreca 07 with a new paint-job.

Still, it brought a much-needed competitor to the top tier of endurance racing, which is currently rather short of entries, and gave the French fans something to support.

This neat brick-built version of the ‘Alpine’ A480 comes from Lasse Deleuran (aka gtahelper), who’s added it to his extensive line-up of Le Mans cars from the last few years.

There’s more of the model to see on Brickshelf via the link above, and we’ll be looking forward to Lasse’s Lego versions of the new Peugeot and Ferrari Le Mans Hypercars which are due to join the field soon. We just hope they do a bit more than give an old Rebellion/Oreca 07 a new paint job…

Turn Your Nose Up

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The wildly incompetent back-alley of the internet that is TLCB actually came to be because the proper Lego blogs were turning their noses up at vehicular creations. We’re not sure if ‘turning their noses up‘ translates internationally very well, but basically you had more chance of unearthing pirate treasure under your sink than seeing your car featured.

Cue the arrival of TLCB, and car builders still probably wishing they could appear on a proper website rather than here…

Anyway, a lot has changed since then, and proper sites like The Brothers Brick now not only blog vehicles, some even have vehicle builders on staff too. Which means that this splendid 1990 Tyrrell 019 Formula 1 car was not found by one of our Elves, as instead this TLCB Writer first saw it blogged on The Brothers Brick. Which makes this site rather pointless.

Still, our title is much more tenuous and you don’t get ‘Your Mom’s so fat…’ jokes over there, so we’re going to blog it here too.

Said Tyrrell 019 was – whilst not a race winner – a regular points scorer during the 1990 season, in part thanks to its revolutionary ‘high nose’ design that allowed maximum air underneath it, thereby generating more downforce along the car’s underside.

It set the template for nose cone design right up until Formula 1 banned high noses in 2012 due to fears over safety (in doing so making F1 cars horrendously ugly overnight), and it’s been replicated beautifully by builder Tenderlok in Model Team form.

Excellent custom decals, a replica Cosworth V8 engine, detailed cockpit, removable bodywork, and an ingeniuous (if slightly ‘illegal’) front wing connection technique add to the realism, and there’s more to see of Tenderlok’s Tyrrell 019, complete with its upturned nose, on both Flickr and at the Eurobricks discussion forum. Or The Brother’s Brick of course.

Scuderia Glickenhaus

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Every Lego car builder has probably dreamed of running their own supercar company. So too has every multi-millionaire, with a new one popping up on an almost weekly basis claiming that they’re actually going to do it, their car has two thousand horsepower and will do 400mph, before quietly disappearing never to be heard from again.

Except Cameron Glickenhaus actually did it. Starting by creating unique Ferraris for his own personal use through their bespoke programme, Glickenhaus has since gone the whole hog and built his own car. From scratch. And now he’s going racing.

This is his new racing car, the Glickenhaus 007 LMH, which is already fighting Toyota in the top-tier World Endurance Championship, and it’ll go wheel-to-wheel with Porsche, Ferrari, Peugeot and others as the Hypercar class expands next year.

This excellent Speed Champions recreation of the unlikely hypercar was suggested by a reader, and comes from ReddishBlueMOCs. Instructions are available and there are more images to view via Bricksafe at the link above.

Elven Dreams

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If TLCB Elves were to design a car, it would probably look like this. Only with rocket launchers. Despite that obvious omission, our smelly little workers are still mightily excited by this ‘Igniter III’ from Flickr’s Tino Poutiainen, which looks like a cross between a Tyrrell P34 F1 car and a spaceship. A Technic helmet, cement-mixer nose-cone, and Bionicle torsos are just some of the ingeniously chosen pieces, and there’s more to see at Tino’s photostream via the link above.

Ferrari F50 GT | Picture Special

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This is the Ferrari F50 GT, a GT1 racer designed to compete in the Global GT Series of the mid-’90s against supercars such the McLaren F1 GTR, Jaguar XJ220 and Porsche 911 GT1.

However, Ferrari being Ferrari, they were unhappy that homologation specials like the 911 GT1 were allowed to race, and so threw their hands in the air, shouted something Italian, and stormed off to continue monopolising Formula 1’s TV revenue.

Thus only three F50 GTs were built, none of which raced, and these days they’re probably worth a gagillion of any currency you care to pick. Fortunately this one is rather more attainable, being a (stunning) 1:10 scale Technic ‘Supercar’ replica.

Created by Jeroen Ottens, this beautifully presented build features all of the Technic Supercar requirements, including all-wheel suspension, functioning steering, a working V12 engine and four-speed sequential gearbox, plus opening doors and front and rear clamshells.

It’s a jaw-dropping model and there’s more to see at both Flickr and Eurobricks, where you can also find a link to building instructions so you can create Jeroen’s F50 GT for yourself. Just ensure you refuse to race it against a Porsche and shout a lot in Italian about things not being fair for the authentic Ferrari experience.

The Winningest Horse

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Formula 1 hasn’t always been dulled by Mercedes-AMG’s utter dominance. Back in the early 2000s it was dulled by Scuderia Ferrari’s utter dominance, which peaked with this car; 2004’s imaginatively named F2004.

Winning fifteen of the season’s eighteen races, taking Ferrari to their sixth consecutive Constructor’s Championship, and Michael Schumacher to his fifth straight Driver’s Championship (and seventh overall), the F2004 was one of the most successful Formula 1 cars of all time, and the penultimate Ferrari of the V10 era.

This magnificent replica of Schumacher’s championship winning Scuderia Ferrari F2004 is the work of newcomer LN Teknik, who has recreated the real car beautifully in Technic form.

Working inboard pushrod suspension, functional steering, a removable engine cover and front and rear wings, plus – of course – a working V10 engine all feature, and there’s lots more to see at Flickr, Bricksafe, and the Eurobricks forum, where a link to building instructions can also be found.