Tag Archives: Speed Champions

LEGO 77258 Speed Champions F1 Academy Car | Set Preview

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Alternatively titled “LEGO go racing!”. Alternatively alternatively titled “Women in the workplace“. Yes, this is the brand new LEGO 77258 Speed Champions F1 Academy Car, and it replicates LEGO’s entry of a real car in the F1 Academy 2026 Season! Which is just like F1. Only worse. And just as gender uniform.

However, the F1 Academy’s lack of gender diversity is because it’s nearly 2026 and there are no women drivers in Formula 1, and nor have there been for forty years.

Cue Formula 1’s investment in the F1 Academy, a spec-series championship for female drivers only, on par with Formula 4, into which LEGO will enter under the banner ‘LEGO Racing’ with Dutch driver Esmee Kosterman.

Wearing a LEGO Friends-esque livery, the new LEGO Racing F1 Academy car aims to inspire a new generation of girls to get into motorsport, and brings a new Speed Champions set into the range to boot.

With new wheels and tyres, a funky new mini-figure crash helmet and steering yolk, plus stickers replicating Esme’s real 2026 LEGO Racing F1 Academy car, we think 77258 is a fantastic addition to the Speed Champions line-up, with a thoroughly decent message behind it too.

You’ll be able to get your hands on the new 201-piece F1 Academy Car for $28 / £22 when the 2026 F1 Academy season begins in March, around the same time the sexist pigs in Formula 1 begin their own 2026 campaign.

On the Wings of an… um, Seagull

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Seagulls are roundly disliked in TLCB’s home nation. Found on rubbish dumps or in British seaside resorts (which amount to the same thing), they make irritating ‘CAAAW!’ noises, crap all over the place, and mug people for their chips. However in car form, they’re rather wonderful…

This is the mid-’50s Mercedes-Benz 300SL ‘Gullwing’, perhaps the only time a coupe has been more desirable than the roadster, thanks entirely to those magnificent doors.

This splendid Speed Champions version, complete with the aforementioned gullwing doors, comes from previous bloggee SFH_Bricks, and with building instructions available you can recreate it for yourself. There’s more to see at SFH’s ‘1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL’ album and you can CAAAW, crap all over the place, and steal someone’s chips via the link above.

Space Race

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The mid-’90s were a high watermark for Renault. Their Espace multi-purpose-vehicle was a smash hit, creating an entirely new class of car in Europe that other manufacturers scrambled to copy, whilst on track their V10 Formula 1 engine was winning absolutely everything with Williams and Benetton. And then in 1995, in moment of utter genius, they decided to merge the two…

The result was the Renault Espace F1, a one-off carbon-fibre minivan with a mid-mounted 800bhp V10 F1 engine, a top speed of nearly 200mph, and publicity other manufacturers could only dream of.

This fantastic recreation of Renault’s unhinged MPV is the work of Flickr’s Sergio Batista, and features replica decals, 3D-printed wheels, LED lights, a detailed engine and brick-built suspension, plus – in authentic Espace tradition – space for multiple mini-figures. There’s lots more of the model to see at Sergio’s photostream you can race back to when Renault were on top via the link above.

Barracuda*

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If TLCB Elves were to design a car, it’d probably look like a ’70s Plymouth Barracuda. Lime green bodywork, a black hood with a giant scoop in the middle of it, racing stripes, and an enormous V8 engine packing up to 425bhp from over 7 litres, the Hemi ‘Cuda was wildly different to the cars trundling around our home nation at the time.

Cue this splendid Speed Champions scale recreation of Plymouth’s third-generation Barracuda from previous bloggee gnat.bricks, which includes all of the aforementioned attributes plus -and more unusually at this scale – a brick-built drivetrain, including  full-length exhausts, gearbox, driveshaft and differential, and steering arms/suspension. These don’t function of course, but then neither did the steering/suspension of the real ‘Cuda.

There’s more of gnat’s brilliant Barracuda to see at his ‘CUDA SC’ album on Flickr, and you can jump back to ’70s America via the link above, whilst clicking the link below for the most appropriate soundtrack imaginable.

*Today’s excellent title song. Of course.

LEGO 77256 Speed Champions Time Machine from Back to the Future | Set Preview

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Great scott! It’s the brand new LEGO 77256 Speed Champions Time Machine from Back to the Future!

Already available as the 1,900-piece 10300 Back to the Future Time Machine, Doc Brown’s Delorean-based time machine will shortly be available in Speed Champions form!

With 357 pieces including brand new Doc and Marty mini-figures, 77256 recreates cinema’s most iconic car in ‘Back to the Future’s first and second movie configurations, with the protagonists able to sit side-by-side inside and accurate time-travelling modifications included.

The set even includes realistic ‘Delorean Motor Company’ decals without the official licensing, but seeing as the movies came too late to save Delorean, they’re probably not in a position to sue…

You’ll be able to get your hands on the new 77256 set in the very near future for $28 / £22, and we think it looks fantastic. It’s almost like LEGO travelled back in time to repeal their previous effort…

Ridge Racer

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It’s the mid-’90s, and the peak of racing games involved far too few pixels, minimal physics, empty highway tunnels, and an array nondescript Japanese-esque cars. Cars like this one, the ‘F/A Racing Kamata Fiera’ from 1993’s ‘Ridge Racer’.

Wonderfully constructed by Flickr’s StudWorks, this Speed Champions homage to the earliest days of Playstation racing captures the fictional racer brilliantly, including an authentically recreated ‘Namco’ livery on its appropriately blocky exterior.

There’s more to see at StudWorks’ ‘Ridge Racer – F/A Racing Kamata Fiera’ album and you can join us on a pixilated mountain highway in 1993 via the link above. And if you have no idea what racing games were like three decades ago, click here to see just how good you have it now!

Rallye Raid

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France may not be the first nation that springs to mind when thinking about the world’s best off-roaders. British Land Rovers, American Jeeps, Japanese Land Cruisers… sure, but the French? Except they are. By miles.

The originators of expedition rallies, French drivers have won the Dakar more times than any other nation, which makes sense seeing as the race used to start in Paris. This is one of the amazing machines that propelled a Frenchman to a Dakar win, the wild Citroen ZX Rallye Raid.

Based (kinda) on a small French family car, the ZX Rallye Raid won a total of four Dakar Rallies, cementing itself as one of the greatest rally-raid endurance racers of all time. This fantastic Speed Champions recreation of the 1994 Citroen ZX Rallye Raid Evo 4 encapsulates the iconic off-roader brilliantly in brick, and comes from regular bloggee SFH_Bricks.

With removable front and rear clamshells, superbly authentic decals, and mechanicals as detailed as the exterior, SFH’s Citroen ZX Rallye Raid is a winner in brick form too, and there’s more to see on Flickr. Jump to the desert somewhere in North Africa (or an autoroute just south of Paris) circa-1994 via the link above.

Skyline Silhouette

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The Lego Car Blog Elves are running about making ‘Vroooom!!’ noises today, courtesy of one of their number finding this. It’s a Nissan Skyline ‘Super Silhouette’ racer, as built by Flickr’s Sergio Batista in Speed Champions form and – despite the annoying noises it has produced in our mythical workforce – it’s a brilliant example of small-scale building. Clever SNOT techniques and superb decals make Sergio’s Skyline far more realistic than its size would suggest, and there’s more to see at his photostream via the link above.

American Achievement

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It’s the day after that Alaskan summit, in which presidents Trump and Putin held, to quote Trump, a “10 out of 10” discussion, in which they “got along great”. Except it achieved nothing at all. Still, we suppose Trump and Putin do have much in common, so that’s nice.

But when America does put its mind to Europe, it can achieve great things. Cue the Cadillac V-Series.R, General Motors’ entrant into the burgeoning WEC Hypercar class, and now a race winner sitting third in the sizeable top-tier class of the championship. Which bodes well for Cadillac’s forthcoming entry to Formula 1.

Built on an Italian Dallara chassis and run by the British Jota Sport team, it also proves that America can benefit from European expertise. We hope that might be remembered in round two of the Ukrainian peace talks that perhaps should include Ukraine.

Oh yes, the car! This superb Speed Champions replica of the Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-Series.R comes from prolific Le Mans Hypercar builder SFH_Bricks, who has captured the racer and its golden Hertz livery beautifully. Building instructions are available and you can head to the heart of European racing in an Italian-British-American collaboration via the link above.

In the Shadows

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Here around TLCB Towers the default vehicle of choice is a black-on-black SUV with a vanity plate. Because the British public have no imagination. But black-on-black can look awesome, as evidenced here by Flickr’s SFH_Bricks and this brilliant mid-’70s Porsche 911 Turbo, which is both constructed and presented in black. Photographing an all-black build can be a tricky exercise, but SFH has nailed it, placing his creation on a black background with clever highlighting, and you can join him in the shadows via the link above.

Insert Continuity Errors

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This splendid Speed Champions creation is a 1970s Porsche 911 Targa, and – being yellow – we can’t help but think of an iconic (if ropey) 1980s movie car chase.

Previous bloggee SFH_Bricks is its maker and you can try to outrun Arnold Schwarzenegger in a Sunbeam Alpine in your miraculously self-damaging / self-healing Porsche 911 via the link above.

Insert Mullet

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Do you wear a mullet, loiter in alleyways chewing toothpick, and think that recycling is a socialist plot? Then we have the car for you!

This glorious black-and-gold 1977 Pontiac Trans Am is the work of previous bloggee RGB900, and – despite being just 8-suds wide – captures every identifier of the real car brilliantly bar a flaming bird motif on the hood.

There’s more to see at RGB’s photostream, and you can make the jump to it via the link above. Mullet optional.

The Ultimate Driving Machine

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At the time of writing, everything BMW makes (and it’s a rather long list) is a very expensive, very heavy, overly powerful, visual assault. BMW’s tagline might still be “The Ultimate Driving Machine”, but their cars sure aren’t.

Which is why today we’re travelling back to the late-’60s to early-’70s, when BMW made joyous cars such as this, the fantastic 02-Series.

This one is a two-door 2002, being powered by BMW’s then-new ‘M10’ engine making between 100 and 120bhp. It was a peach of an engine too, becoming one of the first to offer fuel injection and turbocharging, and in production for a quarter of a century. It was also developed into BMW’s 1980s F1 engine, making an unbelievable 1,400bhp in qualifying trim…

But back the 2002, and this lovely Speed Champions scale example comes from The G Brix of Flickr, who’s captured the sporty compact sedan beautifully in brick form. There’s more to see at G’s photostream, and you can jump back to when BMW did indeed make “The Ultimate Driving Machine” (and not whatever this is supposed to be) via the link above.

The Heart of Racing

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After years of limited entries, Le Mans’ ‘Hypercar’ class exploded to over twenty entrants in 2025. The newest team to join the top tier of endurance racing is Aston Martin, who – uniquely – entered with the ‘road’ car based Valkyrie.

Powered by a naturally-aspirated V12 Cosworth engine (actually detuned in the race car to meet maximum power regulations), the Valkyrie was run by the Anglo-Amercian ‘The Heart of Racing’ team, and performed… not brilliantly. But both cars did finish, and ahead of a couple of Hypercar entries including a Toyota, two BMWs, two Cadillacs, a Peugeot, and a disqualified Ferrari.

This excellent Speed Champions recreation of the Aston Martin AMR-LMH Valkyrie comes from prolific Le Mans builder SFH_Bricks, it features a brilliant replication of the real car’s racing livery, and you can get to the heart of racing via the link above.

Plastic Fantastic

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The plastic bodykit is more associated with badly modified hatchbacks than supercars. But that didn’t stop Lamborghini, who – in the mid-’80s – bolted the mother and father of all bodykits onto their ageing but previously svelte Countach to make it fit for the Decade of Excess, and in doing so created the poster car of the time.

Previous bloggee RGB900 has recreated the aforementioned bodykit – and the Countach that’s somewhere underneath it – brilliantly in brick form, complete with opening doors and engine cover, and a removable engine. There’s more of the model to see at RGB’s photostream, and you can jump back to investment banking in the ’80s via the link above.