Tag Archives: Speed Champions

Le Mans ’71

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It might be Ferrari and Toyota at the top of endurance racing right now, but there’s one manufacturer that has dominated Le Mans more than any other; Porsche.

Winning the Le Mans 24 Hours on nineteen occasions, the first of Porsche’s victories came in 1970 thanks to this; the magnificent 917K.

Powered by a wild flat-12, the 917 debuted in 1969, where it was… rubbish. Dodgy aerodynamics (which were still largely experimental at the time) made the car terrifying to drive at high speed, but Porsche refined the car, chopping the tail off and later fitting it with two stabilising fins and a magnesium chassis.

The result was the most dominant one-two in Le Mans history, when in 1971 both 917Ks finished some thirty laps ahead of the third place Ferrari.

This spectacular Speed Champions recreation of the ’71 race winning car, complete with its iconic Martini Racing livery, comes from previous bloggee SFH_Bricks of Flickr, who has captured the 917K absolutely beautifully in brick form.

Building instructions are available and there are more stunning images to view at SFH’s photostream. Click the link above to take a look, and wait thirty laps for the Ferrari to catch up.

Porsche vs. Porsche

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Le Mans is getting very exciting of late, with a raft of new works teams entering or re-entering the world’s most revered motor race. Lamborghini, BMW, Cadillac and Peugeot have all joined or are about to, plus – most famously – Ferrari, who took the outright win upon their return last year.

Back in the late-’70s however, the competition was rather more… one-dimensional. Porsche were the only works team competing for outright victory in 1979, and even though their 935 was already several years old, its 800bhp twin-turbo flat-6 and immense reliability meant it was so dominant that one by one all other manufacturers dropped out of endurance racing.

The result was that a third of all the entrants in the 1979 24 Heures du Mans were Porsches, and no other works manufacturers took part. Unsurprisingly, it was Porsche that took victory, competing mostly against their own cars raced by customer teams, with the Kremer Porsche 935 K3 of Klaus Ludwig, and Don & Bill Whittington crossing the line having covered the most distance after 24 hours, followed home by two other Porsche 935s and a 934.

This superb Speed Champions replica of that race-winning car comes from previous bloggee K MP of Flickr, who has recreated both the car and its livery in beautiful detail. Take a look via the link above, and get ready for a much more competitive 24 Heures du Mans than it was in 1979 in just a few days time!

8-Stud Huayra

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LEGO are yet to release a Speed Champions Pagani Huayra, but if they do it’ll have to be quite a set to beat this one.

Constructed by Flickr’s Fabrice Larcheveque, this 8-wide homage to the wild Italian hypercar captures the real car brilliantly, including a detailed engine and interior, and with building instructions available you can recreate it for yourself too.

Head to Fabrice’s Flickr album to take a look.

8-Wide-8

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Remember when BMW’s were understated and classy? Well this was not one of those cars. But by today’s BMW standards it’s positively minimalist.

Launched in 1990, the E31 8-Series was a technical tour-de-force, featuring the world’s first drive-by-wire throttle and the first combination of a V12 engine with a manual gearbox. And BMW were going to go further still, with an even more powerful ‘M8’ version.

However it wasn’t to be, with a global recession and the Gulf War (thanks Saddam) killing the M8 before it could be released. That hasn’t stopped Flickr’s LegoSEB77 from imagining what could have been though, and you can check out his excellent 8-wide BMW ‘M8’ via the link above.

We’re All Like, People of the World Man

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It was the Eurovision Song Contest last night, and if any non-European readers tuned in during the vote reveal, they may have thought they’d accidentally arrived at a 1970s Vietnam War opposition rally.

Almost every country’s host took the opportunity to remind us that the competition’s songs were not in fact banal Euro-pop as we thought, but the source of love and world peace. Urgh. It’s enough to make us want to start a fight.

It was more straightforward back in actual 1970s, when world peace was dispensed not by pseudo-intellectual television hosts, but by Volkswagen-van-driving-hippies with names like Waterfall and Crystal, via beads, tie-dye, and foreign narcotics.

Cue previous bloggee 1saac W., whose Volkswagen T2 bus is so peaceful it has itself been tie-dyed. A kaleidoscope of coloured plates, afforded by LEGO’s ever expanding colour-pallet, make up the VW’s groovy exterior, and you can collect your beads and foreign narcotics from Waterfall and Crystal at 1saac’s photostream via the link above.

You’ll be contributing to world peace about as much as this does anyway…

Smell the Glue

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Famed for its once-patented stud-and-tube clutch power, glue is not only not required when building with LEGO, using it is borderline sacrilege. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make something beautiful with a little glue, and Airfix, Tamiya and many others offer near-exact miniaturised replicas via a little cutting, glueing and painting.

Cue Flickr’s Joao Nunes and his Speed Champions 76906 homage to glue-based model making. Joao’s brick-built paint, parts mould, brushes and glue are so realistic we can almost smell the fumes, and you can join the finicky assembly of a Ferrari 512 at his photostream via the link above. Just make sure you don’t touch your parents’ upholstery until you’ve washed your hands.

Speed Champions H2 2024 | Set Previews

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It’s that time of year again, when a crack team of Elven ‘volunteers’ are implanted into the LEGO Company’s HQ to uncover their latest sets. The return of the survivors heralds the arrival of three brand new Speed Champions sets for H2 2024, bringing even more real world cars to bedroom floors this summer! Read on to find out which cars are set to join to the 2024 Speed Champions line-up!

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76923 Lamborghini Lambo V12 Vision GT

Well, ‘Real world’ cars… except for this one.

Playstation’s ‘Gran Turismo’ series has deployed concepts alongside production cars for some years. Despite having the freedom to design literally anything, these ‘Vision GT’ cars all look rather similar, and the Lamborghini Lambo V12 Vision GT (clearly taking inspiration from a certain moronically-named Ferrari) follows the same route, being both wildly conceptual, and also insipidly paint-by-numbers.

It’s not exactly our first choice for a new Lamborghini Speed Champions set then, and the resultant 230-piece 76923 Lamborghini Lambo V12 Vision GT does little to change that. A funky colour and a new mini-figure torso aren’t enough to swing the balance; our £21/$27 will be spent on a rather better Speed Champions Lamborghini…Lego 76923 Lamborghini Lambo V12 Vision GT

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76924 Mercedes-AMG G63 & SL63

Are you a wealthy Londoner with no imagination? Now you can build your vanity-plated black Mercedes-AMG G 63 in LEGO form! The new-for-2024 76924 Mercedes-AMG G 63 & Mercedes-AMG SL 63 set recreates London’s default 4×4 choice brilliantly, and throws in a neat SL 63 too.

Two appropriately douchebaggy mini-figures, limited well-deployed decals, and some wonderfully accurate detailing on the G 63 in particular ensure 76924 is an excellent addition to the Speed Champions line. Expect to pay around £45/$50 for the dual-model 808-piece set when it arrives in stores in June, and half of Chelsea to own a copy immediately. 

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76925 Aston Martin F1 Safety Car & AMR23

The final addition to the 2024 Speed Champions line-up brings two more Aston Martins to the range, each of which played a starring role in the 2023 Formula 1 season.

The new 76925 Aston Martin F1 Safety Car & AMR23 set recreates F1-legend Fernando Alonso’s podium-placing AMR23 racing car (and that of his decidedly unlegendary, non-podium placing team mate), complete with authentic decals, replica Pirelli tyres, and a rather inexact colour.

The Aston Martin F1 Safety Car – often necessitated by Alonso’s aforementioned incompetent team mate – joins it, with a light bar, accurate be-sticked interior control panel, and the same loose approximation of the real car’s hue.

Aimed at ages 9+, expect 564 pieces, two mini-figures, and a £45/$50 price-tag when 76925 arrives in stores next month.

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Three new sets, five new cars, and even more choice in LEGO’s fantastic Speed Champions range. All three sets will be available from June 1st 2024, and you can check out the sets that were added to the Speed Champions range at the start of the year by clicking here.

Hondari

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Inspired or sacrilege? Mike “Stanceworks” Burroughs’ Honda-powered Ferrari 308 is definitely not for the purist, but we’re firmly in the former camp, and think it’s spectacular.

Cue Stephan Jonsson’s fantastic 8-wide Speed Champions homage to Mike’s real-world build, complete with 3D-printed wheels and one of the most impressive brick-built liveries we’ve ever seen (see LEGO, you don’t need a hundred stickers).

There’s lots more of Stephan’s Ferrari ‘244 GTK’ to see on Flickr, and you can check out the real car that inspired it here.

…Otherwise We Get Angry!

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Or ‘…Altrimenti Ci Arrabbiamo!’ in its original Italian, is a 1974 movie – unwatched by TLCB we must confess – starring the two least Italian-sounding actors we’ve ever heard of.

Terence Hill and Bud Spencer, who were actually Italian as it turns out, compete in the film for a Puma Dune Buggy via beer and sausages. Or something like that. Our Italian’s not great.

And despite the Puma looking and sounding as un-Italian as its co-stars, it too was a product of Italy, built on the platform of the Volkswagen Beetle much like the more famous American alternatives.

This excellent Speed Champions example comes from previous bloggee Versteinert, who has captured it (and Terence and Bud in mini-figure form) brilliantly. There’s more to see at Vertsteinert’s ‘Puma Dune Buggy’ Flickr album, and you can win a dune buggy by eating Italian sausage (probably) via the link in the text above.

Fifty Shades of Green

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Poop poop! It’s time for a vintage car here at The Lego Car Blog. Because vintage cars are cool. This one – inspired by the classic LEGO 5920 Island Racer set – uses parts from the Speed Champions 96907 Lotus Evija plus a raft of black hoses and clips beautifully. Entitled simply ‘#50’, there’s more to see courtesy of Flickr’s atp357; click the link above for a vintage race.

Wetter Than an Otter’s Pocket

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We all know that James Bond can seduce any woman in less time than it takes to read this sentence. Yup, if you’re a girl (What? We have female readers! Probably…), you’d already be, well.. you know.

Cue László Torma, and this magnificent Speed Champions Lotus Esprit S1, the star the 1977 Bond film ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’. Of course in the aforementioned movie, Bond’s Lotus was fitted with a few optional extras courtesy of Q-Branch / the Pinewood special effects department, which meant that his Esprit could get rather more aquatic than most.

A car submarine chase of utter ridiculousness was the obligatory result, in which Bond seemed to spend as much time no-doubt-successfully seducing his female passenger as he did trying to evade the generic goons sent in pursuit.

Eventually 007’s Lotus sprung an inevitable leak (because even non-aquatic Esprits would do that), but by then he’d already defeated his adversaries and secured certain relations with his glamorous fellow submariner.

With building instructions available and the ability to become (well, be rebuilt as) a submarine, we’re looking forward to the effect László’s Lotus Esprit will have on the females here in TLCB Office. You can give it ago yourself via the link above, plus you watch the real car submarine in the iconic movie scene here.

Topless Smokeshow

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First-time visitors to this website today may not have expected to see images of a Lego Ferrari on fire, but you’re here now so on with the show!

This is a Ferrari F355 Spider. Specifically it’s depicting the moment when the real car – owned by YouTuber ‘Hoovie’s Garage’ – decided to spray its power-steering fluid all over the hot engine, to a fiery conclusion. It’s not just new Ferraris that like to barbecue themselves.

Don’t feel too bad for the aforementioned YouTuber though, as he got some killer content (and he owns a lot of cars).

Back to the model, and Flickr’s StudWorks has done a superb job recreating the F355 both ‘before’ and ‘during’ in Speed Champions scale. There’s lots more of Stud’s superbly presented creation to see at his ‘Hoovie’s Garage Ferrari F355 Spider’ album via the link above, and if you’d like to see what happened to the real thing, you can take a look here…

Stow-on-the-Wold Avoiding Chipping Norton

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Running from Burford to near Worcester, the A424 is a main north/south road in the Cotswolds, passing through the pretty Norman town of Stow-on-the-Wold whilst avoiding the busy conurbation of Chipping Norton. It’s also a 2024 Le Mans endurance racer. But back to road, an… Oh, you’d prefer the car? Um, ok… bit weird, but alright.

This is the Alpine A424. Which is not a road. It is instead rebranded-Renault’s 2024 offensive into the burgeoning Le Mans Hypercar class, using an Oreca chassis and Mecachrome V6 engine from Formula 2, but featuring lots of ‘Alpine’ decals.

This superb Speed Champions replica of the road between Burford and Worcester 2024 Le Mans Hypercar comes from SFH_Bricks, who adds it to his ever-growing list of endurance racers. Building instructions are available (as are the excellent custom stickers), and you can drive to Worcester via Stow-on-the-Wold via the link above.

Three Horse Race

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TLCB Elves are rather fond of Lego Ferraris. Particularly red ones. Which means we have a happy contingent today, because here are no less than three of them.

Each is the work of previous bloggee Fabrice Larcheveque, who has captured the Ferrari LaFerrari, 512 BB, and 288 GTO brilliantly in 8-wide Speed Champions scale.

Fabrice’s updated builds are presented beautifully, and there’s more to see of the LaFerrari, 512 BB, 288 GTO, and many more models besides at his Flickr photostream.

Click here to take a look, where you might also find a link or two to building instructions, should you wish to create your very own Lego Ferrari at home. Or three.

Little Red Corvette*

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The Lego Car Blog archives are full of Chevrolet Corvettes. From official sets to large scale replicas, Corvettes of every generation have been replicated in LEGO. The C3 iteration, built from 1986 to 1982, appears a number of times too, yet we still like to see another little one. Particularly if it’s in Boogie Nights red.

Cue previous bloggee László Torma, who has constructed this lovely C3 ‘Vette in 8-wide Speed Champions scale. Despite the small size László’s model is instantly recognisable as the third generation of Chevrolet’s iconic sports car, and building instructions are available so you can create it for yourself.

There’s more of the model to see at László’s ‘Corvette C3 Stingray’ album on Flickr, and you can make the jump to his Little Red Corvette via the link above.

*Today’s title song.