Whilst both part of the General Motors empire, America’s Chevy ‘Nova’ was rather different to the Vauxhall one we got… Still, we have the cool one today, courtesy of IBrickedItUp and this neat recreation of the third generation Chevrolet Nova SS in Speed Champions scale. Racing stripes and an unnecessary hood bulge add to the image (again, somewhat different to what we got…), and there’s more to see via the link!
America likes naming cars after animals. Usually scary ones. Viper, Raptor, Cougar, Stingray, Cobra, Barracuda, Falcon… there’s a long list of predators in car form. And then there’s this; the Impala, named after a medium-sized African antelope.
We’re not sure what a medium-sized African antelope has in common with a large American sedan, and the name is all the more surprising considering the antelope is the prey of top predators and America really doesn’t like naming anything with a hint of weakness. Nevertheless, the Impala was a smash hit.
Part of that success was no doubt down to the Impala’s engines, which themselves had very exciting names such as ‘Blue Flame’, ‘Turbo Fire’ and ‘Turbo Thrust’, although none of which were actually turbo-charged.
Top of the tree was the ‘SS’, which used a 409cu (6.7 litre) ‘Turbo Thrust’ V8 in third-generation form as pictured here, and could produce over 400bhp. This is one medium-sized antelope that was more than a match for the predators.
This beautiful brick-built example of the ’64 ‘SS’ comes from Jakub Marcisz of Flickr, who has recreated the aforementioned ‘Turbo Thrust’ V8, and the third-generation Chevrolet Impala that it powered, in spellbinding detail.
The fantastic exterior is matched by an equally well-detailed interior accessible by opening doors, plus there’s an opening hood and trunk lid, and working steering too, with much more of Jakub’s stunning creation to see at his ‘Chevrolet Impala SS 1964’ album, where twenty top-quality images are available.
The Impala’s success would continue across six decades, but – as with all animals – it eventually succumbed to age. The Impala was finally taken out in 2020, not by one of the various predatorily-named cars it competed against, but by the SUV, with Chevrolet ceasing production in order to focus on crossovers.
And if there’s a car name less cool than a medium-sized African antelope, it’s surely the Traverse.
Racing stripes and V8s are staple favourites here at The Lego Car Blog. Except within the current Festival of Mundanity competition of course. But this car isn’t mundane at all.
The Chevelle was Chevrolet’s mid-sized car in the ’60s and ’70s, built on GM’s ‘A-Body’ platform, and available with no less than eight V8 engines. And a pair of 6-cylinders, but we’re not interested in those.
Top of the tree was the SS, which had over 350bhp. And no steering, suspension or brakes, as was the fashion of American muscle cars of the time. Still, the racing stripes more than made up for that.
This excellent brick-built homage to the 1970s all-power-no-steering approach comes from previous bloggee Rolands Kirpis, and features opening doors, hood and trunk, a realistic V8 engine, and beautiful be-striped dark green bodywork. Which – considering how exceptionally rare dark green LEGO pieces are – must’ve been a proper faff. Apparently one part was $20 alone!
Further images are available and you can take a look via Rolands’ ‘Chevrolet Chevelle SS 1970’ album here, where a link to instructions will also appear soon. Maybe don’t try build it in green though…
Car-based pick-ups have been a strangely transient body style over the years. Currently popular in South America, previously popular but now dead in Australia, and returning once more after a long hiatus to the U.S.
This new crop of car-based pick-ups being marketed in the U.S includes the new Ford Maverick and the decidedly strange-looking Hyundai Santa Cruz, and it could mean there’s room for the famous of them all to make a comeback; the mighty Chevrolet El Camino SS.
Based on the Chevrolet Chevelle, the El Camino swapped the traditional sedan/station-wagon bodywork for a two-door cab with a pick-up bed, and it could be bought with Chevrolet’s most powerful engine of the time, a 13-second 1/4 mile 450bhp V8.
Despite this prodigious power, suspension and steering were still, well… it had them we suppose, and disc brakes were an optional extra. Handling was clearly not an El Camino strong-suite then, but if it could stop and go round corners quickly all your stuff would fly out of the bed, so perhaps Chevrolet were cleverer than we’re giving them credit for. Or it could be that American consumers only cared about big power and racing stripes…
This wonderful recreation of the definitive muscle-car-pick-up comes from Jakub Marcisz, who has replicated the 1970 El Camino SS brilliantly in brick-form. Jakub’s model includes (somewhat superfluous) working steering, the requisite big piston engine connected to the rear wheels, opening doors, hood and tailgate, and – most importantly of all – racing stripes.
There’s lots more to see at Jakub’s ‘Chevrolet El Camino SS’ album, and you can make the jump to ’70s racing-striped muscle-car-based-pick-up wonderfulness via the link above.
That’s probably not what the ‘SS’ part of the Chevrolet Chevelle SS’s name stood for, but it may as well have been if you’re a TLCB Elf. They really like stripes.
This magnificent fully RC recreation of the 1970 Chevelle SS by Jakub Marcisz features two most excellent stripes over its hood and trunk, which by TLCB maths add at least 50bhp.
Power Functions remote control equips Jakub’s model with drive and steering, there’s a two-speed gearbox, all-wheel suspension, opening doors, hood and trunk, and LED lights.
A sizeable gallery of images is available via Jakub’s ‘Chevrolet Chevelle SS 1970’ album on Flickr, plus you can see full details and a video of the model in action at the Eurobricks discussion forum here.
We’re rounding out today with a simple Speed Champions style build that’s both beautifully executed and presented, proving just a handful of parts can create something special. Jonathan Elliott is the builder, his model is a classic Chevy Nova SS, and there’s more to see here.
The retina-searing slice of lime is a 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS and it comes from serial bloggee Simon Przepiorka, who is probably going to need his own shelf in TLCB Archives at the rate he’s going. With an opening hood, detailed engine, and some very cunningly applied stickers, Simon’s Chevy is about as accurate as 1:24 scale gets. Head over to Simon’s photostream via the link above for more photos of the Chevelle and his incredible back-catalogue of small-scale cars.
After publishing some weird vehicles yesterday we’re back with something that’s very The Lego Car Blog. This beautifully reconstructed 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle SS is the work of Flickr’s VR workshop, and it is – as you can see from the image montage below – quite brilliantly detailed inside and out.
With a highly detailed engine bay and interior, plus opening doors, hood and trunk, VR’s Chevelle is an almost perfect recreation of Chevrolet’s famous early ’70s muscle car. There’s lots more to see at VR workshop’s photostream – click the link above to make the jump.
The '70s; riots, strikes, the Morris Marina. But thankfully also this, the Chevy SS
Chevrolet is finally rediscovering its lost mojo, and cars such as this are where it needs to return. Rick S is the builder of this awesome Chevelle SS, complete with stripes and that huge 454 V8.