Tag Archives: Racing Car

Le Mans 2018

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This spectacular array of racing cars is the entire Le Mans 2018 GTE Pro grid, just one of the four categories that compete side-by-side at the world’s greatest motor race.

Built over two years by Lasse Deleuran, all teams and driver combinations from the GTE Pro class of 2018 are present, with Ferrari, BMW, Aston Martin, Chevrolet, Ford, and the race-winning Porsche squad recreated brilliantly in Miniland scale, many of which have featured here individually over the last two years.

Instructions for every single GTE Pro car are available for free, and you can see more of each racer and find the link to recreate your very own Le Mans 2018 GTE Pro grid via Lasse’s photostream by clicking here.

A Quick Cig

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The FIA is hardly a bastion of morality, but it has at least outlawed cigarette advertising on racing cars. Unless you’re Ferrari of course. Back in the ’90s though, promoting cancer was so acceptable that Williams not only had Camel cigarettes adorning its 1992 Adrian Newey-designed FW14B, they teamed it with alcohol sponsorship too.

We’re not sure the Camel or Labatt’s logos enhanced the FW14B’s speed in any way, but the money they brought sure helped, and Williams duly won the 1992 Championship – and made Nigel Mansell World Champion – with a then-record 9 race wins.

This brilliant small-scale replica of the title-winning Williams comes from TLCB Master MOCer Luca Rusconi (aka RoscoPC), who is better known for his hugely detailed large-scale Formula 1 recreations. Built using a fraction of the pieces but just as recognisable, Luca has turned his hand to historic racing cars on a much smaller scale, with the advantage of course that these are easier for others to build at home.

Suggested to us by a reader (and past bloggee themselves), Luca’s Williams FW14B is available to view on Rebrickable, where instructions can be purchased alongside those for a host of other famous classic F1 cars. Click here to see all the images and find downloadable building instructions to turn 169 pieces into William’s championship-winning cigarette advertisement.

Alright M8

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How every text received and sent by this TLCB Writer began back in the 2000s. What happened to text-speak? Anyway, this M8 isn’t shorthand, being BMW’s Le Mans GTE racing car from the 2018 24 Hour race. Previous bloggee Lasse Deleuran is building the entire grid of Le Mans racers and there’s more to see of this superb Miniland-scale recreation of BMW’s GTE endurance racer on both Flickr and at the Eurobricks forum, where free building instructions are also available. Click the links to take a look, and where you can LOL, OMG, YOLO, and all the rest.

Limey

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We’re not really sure why the British are named after fruits. Australians call them ‘Poms’ (short for pomegranate) whilst in the U.S. they’re ‘Limy’. Whatever the reason (probably something to do with boats and avoiding scurvy), it’s a good fit for today’s post, which is both British and very lime indeed.

These two searingly-coloured creations are Aston Martin Vantage AMR GTE racers, which competed in the GTE Pro category at Le Mans 2018, and made a rather wonderful noise to boot.

Previous bloggee Lasse Deluran has recreated the #95 and #97 cars beautifully in Minland scale, replicating their very lime liveries superbly too.

There’s more to see of Lasse’s Aston Martin Vantage AMR racers at both Flickr and the Eurobricks forum, where you can also find a link to building instructions should you wish to recreate these for yourself. You may need to buy some lime coloured bricks though…

Failari

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The 2020 Formula 1 World Championship has been weird. Months late, races cancelled, double-header races to make up for lost time, but no spectators, the season will probably be remembered more for Coronavirus than anything else. Well, that and Ferrari turning up in what seems to be an FSO Polonez.

Despite the 2020 SF1000 apparently being based on last year’s car and having one of most talented young drivers on the grid, Scuderia Ferrari have been awful. Currently sitting fifth in the standings behind a newly resurgent McLaren (who are finally exiting their own period of woe), and even Force India/Racing Point/Aston Martin/Stroll F1/whateverthey’recalledthisweek, with Leclerc in 7th place and multiple World Champion Vettel in 10th. Sheesh*.

The Scuderia Ferrari SF1000 at least looks rather nice, as demonstrated here by Noah_L’s superbly presented Model Team replica, itself an updated version of his recreation of Ferrari’s 2019 Formula 1 car. Give it a really hard push and might even beat the real thing.

There’s more to see of Noah’s excellent creation at his ‘Ferrari SF1000′ album – click the link to take a look, and then sit back and watch Mercedes-Benz AMG dominate the field as usual in today’s British Grand Prix, before they do the same at next week’s er… British Grand Prix. This double-header thing is going to take some getting used to…

*Still, maybe it’s karma for Ferrari’s active participation in the gradual killing of children.

Racy Orange

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No, not another tenuously linked Trump post* (we said racy orange, not racist orange), rather previous bloggee Zsolt Nagy (aka kodlovag)’s exceedingly orange remote control racer.

Utlising LEGO’s new Control+ bluetooth components, Zsolt’s ‘WTCC Race Car’ features two XL motors to drive the rear wheels and L motor to steer, whilst the front wheels also turn an inline 4-cylinder engine, true to most real-world WTCC racers.

All-wheel suspension plus an opening hood and doors are also included, and there’s more to see of Zsolt’s orange racer at both his ‘WTCC Race Car’ album on Flickr and at the Eurobricks discussion forum – click the links to take a look.

*We suppose it is another one now. Never mind.

Bolt from the Blue

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This funky-looking thing is an LMP2 racer, Le Mans’ second tier racing category. It comes from dls7223685 of Eurobricks and despite its smooth Model Team exterior it’s packed with motorised functionality.

LEGO’s new Control+ bluetooth brick is placed in the centre, allowing the two L drive motors and the steering motor to be operated remotely via a mobile device. Full suspension is also present, with all of that hidden beautifully inside the tastefully stickered bodywork.

There’s more of dls’s ‘Azura LMP2 Racing Car’ to see at the Eurobricks forum, including images of the internal working, and you make the jump to view them by clicking here.

The Last Day of Lock-Down

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It’s the final day of TLCB’s Lock-Down B-Model Competition, where you can win an amazing SBrick Plus Pro Pack! An array of B-Model machinery has been posted in the last hours (and there are still a few to go should you wish to enter your own alternate build), the best of which we’ll be sharing today. Before the big guns we’re kicking-off with two of the smaller entries; previous entrant Davide Bersia‘s 10242 Mini Cooper-based racing car and newcomer truckman aka T M‘s Tron-based truck. There’s more to see of each alternate via the links above, and we’ll be back shortly with a lot more…

Lego in Lock-Down

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Lock-down is easing here in TLCB’s home nation, but for many of you it’s still very much in force. Plus it’s not like Coronavirus has gone away, so we fully expect it to return, with the world watching on in horror, like a second Trump presidency.

However you guys have been busy during your time indoors, utilising your existing LEGO sets to create new models and maybe bag yourselves an awesome SBrick Plus Pro Pack! We’ve got three blog-worthy competition entries for you today, starting with  David Bersia’s brilliant Formula E racing car, built only from the parts found within the 42093 Technic Chevrolet Corvette.

Being electric the Corvette’s V8 engine naturally makes no appearance here, but Davide’s model does include working steering and a properly good execution of Formula E’s Gen 2 bodywork. Click here to head to Flickr to see more of Davide’s creation, where building instructions and two other Lock-Down B-Model contest entries can also be found.

You don’t need a Technic set to enter TLCB’s Lock-Down B-Model competition though, as our next two entrants demonstrate. On the left newcomer 14sandee has redeployed the pieces from the excellent 75895 Speed Champions Porsche 911 Turbo set to create his neat single-seat racer, whilst on the right previous entrant Tomik has used the 40171 Friends Hedgehog to construct, er… a hedgecopter? Points for originality with that one!

There’s more to see of 14sandee’s Porsche 911 Turbo B-Model via the link above, and Tomik’s hedgecopter on Flickr and Eurobricks, where he has published some other ingenious B-Model contest entries too…

Buy Cigarettes!

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It’s time for one of TLCB’s infamous rants! We know you’ve been missing these…

Mission Winnow. “What?” we hear you ask. Exactly. We all asked that when the world’s most famous (read ‘expensive’) Formula 1 team revealed a car emblazoned with a brand that no-one had ever heard of at the start of the 2019 season.

But Ferrari being Ferrari – i.e. having the morals of a Mexican drug cartel – we knew it was worth digging into. If only to find out what the hell a ‘winnow’ is. What it is, according to the press release, is this;

“‘Winnow’ originally referred to the removal of chaff from grain, but it came to be used more broadly to describe the separating out of the unnecessary, the extraction of the good and distinguishing what is true from what is inaccurate or misleading.” Which is so gloriously ironic that we suspect Ferrari might be taking the piss. Because Mission Winnow is a front for selling cigarettes.

Of course Ferrari have long had an association with tobacco, being title-sponsored by Marlboro since the mid-’80s. However when Formula 1 banned tobacco advertising in 2006 after learning that cigarettes may in fact be bad for you, Marlboro’s owners had to find other methods of promoting their cancer-sticks on Ferrari’s racing cars. Cue the ugly barcode thing that appeared on the rear wing or the big white chevron that featured on the engine cover for a number of years, described by doctors as simply ‘subliminal advertising’ for Marlboro.

A public enquiry and probably a quiet word from Bernie Ecclestone saw the barcode dropped after a time, but that hasn’t stopped Marlboro’s owners Philip Morris International and Ferrari continuing to pursue their partnership marketing tobacco to children.

And thus we arrive at the 2019 Scuderia Ferrari SF90, carrying Philip Morris International’s latest “We’re not trying to sell cigarettes, honest” brand message. In fact the Mission Winnow mission statement is so vague and rambling it could have been tweeted by Donald Trump;

“Mission Winnow has a simple goal: drive change by constantly searching for better ways of doing things. And by committing to learning and knowing more, it’s easier to make choices that improve the future for everyone. To make this happen, we’ll get inside the minds of outstanding innovators and change-makers, to see why and how they achieve excellence.”

By ‘achieving excellence’, we can only assume they mean Selling More Cigarettes.

Oh yeah, we’re a Lego blog… this superb Technic recreation of Marlboro’s mobile advertising board is the work of Mane of Eurobricks, making their TLCB debut (sorry about the rant Mane!). Looking wonderfully accurate, Mane’s Scuderia Ferrari SF90 includes front and rear suspension, a working V6 engine, steering, and DRS on the rear wing, a removable engine cover and front wing, and brilliantly accurate ‘Mission Winnow’ (amongst other sponsors) decals.

There’s more to see of Mane’s wonderful creation on Eurobricks (where building instructions are also available), plus there’s an extensive image gallery at Bricksafe. Click the links to take a closer look, and then go on Scuderia Ferrari’s social media accounts and tell them to shove Mission Winnow up their arse.

The Other Jordan

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Following the rather bleak post earlier today, here’s one featuring an early 1990s racing car painted bright green and sponsored by fizzy-pop, ‘cos we like to be balanced.

It’s a Jordan 191 from 1991, probably the ’90s second most famous Jordan (we won’t link to other one, but if you’re British you’ll know…). The 191 was a moderately successful mid-field runner, powered by a Ford V8, and scoring a few points throughout the season (when points were much harder to get remember, only being awarded to the top six).

This neat Lego replica of the other ’90s Jordan comes from Luciano Delorenzo of Flickr, who has captured the real car complete with fizzy-pop paint-job very well indeed. Head to Luciano’s photostream via the link above to see al the photos, or start Googling if you don’t know the other Jordan to which we’re referring…

Little LMP

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Eurobricks’ Small Car Contest continues to generate some wonderful creations. One of our favourites is this, thirdwigg‘s excellent LMP (Le Mans Prototype) racing car. Working steering, a miniature functioning V8 engine, removable bodywork, and a surprisingly detailed chassis all feature, and there’s more to see on Flickr via the link above.

Transport RSR

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Porsche’s 911 RSR racer is easily the most earsplitting racing car that this TLCB Writer has heard. Aston Martin and Corvette V8s, Formula 1 cars,  LMP1 racers, historic V12s… nothing hurts your ears like an RSR. They’re quite a thing to behind then, and LEGO have added their own rather excellent (and significantly quieter) version to the Technic line-up with the 42096 Porsche 911 RSR set.

The real 911 RSR is damaging hearing globally as it races around the world in various international series, including the World Endurance Championship which includes Le Mans, and GT3 racing. Transported by large trailers, we would not want to be inside when an RSR is fires up. Previous bloggee Lucio Switch has decided that his 42096 set deserves a fitting race transporter too, and as such has built this incredible fully remote controlled Technic truck and trailer to match the 42096 Porsche 911 RSR set.

Inside the trailer, which includes a matching livery, are tools and a tyre rack, a parking space for the 911 RSR set, and a six-seat cabin/meeting room for the team. The truck towing the trailer is just as impressive, with a brilliantly detailed six-cylinder engine (above) and interior, working steering, suspension and fifth wheel, and opening doors and hood. It also looks spectacular, as you can see in the beautiful photos here, with Lucio’s stunning presentation and lighting.

Both truck and trailer also feature Power Functions motors, giving the model remote control drive and steering, a two-speed gearbox, motorised support legs and a powered trailer ramp. There are more images of this phenomenal racing transporter available to view at Lucio’s Flickr album entitled simply ‘US Truck’ and at the Eurobricks discussion forum – Click the links to make the jump to see full details, and if you haven’t heard the real Porsche 911 RSR on which the 42096 Technic set is based, max your speakers, click here, and then imagine a noise at least a billion times louder.

Build-a-Ferrari 488

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The worldwide douchebag that is Coronavirus has so far cancelled the first half of the Formula 1 season, the Isle of Man TT, and postponed the Le Mans 24 Hours. But fear not, because you can recreate the world’s greatest race at home thanks to Lasse Delueran and his superb replica of the Ferrari 488 EVO GTE that competed in the 2018 event. Beautifully accurate (and more than a little complicated), Lasse has released building instructions for his model, plus he’s built a host of other Le Mans racers too, so you can build your very own starting grid. Head to Lasse’s photostream via the first link in the text above to see more of the 488 and to find a link to building instructions, and you can check out his other creations via the second.

My Other Car Transporter is a Car Transporter

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LEGO’s 42098 Technic Car Transporter is an interesting looking set. It comes with instructions for a B-Model too, but that hasn’t stopped TLCB Debutant Matthew Terentev from building his own creation solely from the parts found within the set.

Matthew’s C-Model takes the car transporter and sports car from 42098 and turns them into…. well, a car transporter and a sports car. But they really are most excellent.

Both models feature working steering and miniature working piston engines, whilst the truck also includes a sliding ramp to allow the car to load/unload.

See more of Matthew’s build on Flickr via the link above, where you can also find a link to instructions should you own a 42098 set and wish to build Matthew’s alternates for yourself.