Tag Archives: v8

Mad Maximum Squashing

Longstanding readers of this stagnent puddle in the corner of the Internet will know that TLCB Elves – the mythical creatures whose unending and unpaid job it is to find the creations that appear here – have a penchant for extreme violence towards one-another. This usually takes the form of a hit-and-run (see here, here, here, here and here), and today normal service was resumed as one of their number found this.

‘This’, is a fully remote controlled replica of the wild ‘Big Foot’ monster truck from ‘Mad Max – Fury Road’, as built by TLCB Master MOCer Sariel, and powered by twin Control+ L Motors driving all four wheels. Said wheels are shod in huge non-LEGO RC tyres, plus there’s working suspension, a V8 piston engine, and two bed mounted guns for maximum movie authenticity.

All of which means that for the Elves that weren’t squashed, it’s probably the Best Creation Ever. And even for those that were, it was still the Best Creation Ever right up until the moment it smeared them into the office carpet. There’s more of the model to see at Sariel’s ‘Mad Max Big Foot’ album, you can watch it in action via the video below, and you can read the builder’s interview here at The Lego Car Blog by clicking these words.

YouTube Video

[Insert Inevitable Crash]

Regular readers of this site will be well aware of the Ford Mustang’s ability to stack it into a bus stop when leaving a car meet. There’s something about the combination of a V8 and a low entry price that draws in knuckle-dragging morons for owners.

LEGO, keen to target said demographic, have introduced their own officially-licensed Ford Mustang Dark Horse set to the Speed Champions line for 2024, so you can recreate your very own Mustang crashes at home.

But what if you’d like a slightly larger crash? Well then you’ll need a slightly larger Mustang, and previous bloggee Szunyogh Balázs (aka gnat.bricks) has just the car!

50% wider than the 76920 Speed Champions set at 12-studs, Szunyogh’s Mustang Dark Horse features a corresponding increase in detail, with a beautifully executed exterior including opening doors and hood, and some very clever SNOT-work to replicate the latest Mustang’s creases. Before the owner inevitably adds some more.

Better yet, the model includes fully-detailed running-gear too, with a brick-built engine, drivetrain, suspension, exhaust, steering, and even brakes (not that the average Mustang owner will use the last two).

There’s loads more to see at Szunyogh’s ‘Mustang Dark Horse’ album on Flickr, and you can head to the side of the road outside a car meet to await the inexorable accident via the link above.

Street Cat

American muscle cars are taking the Thundercougarfalconbird approach to their increasingly stupid names, power outputs, and permi-vaping, street take-overing, douchebag target market.

This is one such car, the ‘Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat’, and if that isn’t risible enough, you can optionally add ‘Redeye’ onto the end too, AKA ‘Desperate to Prove Masculinity’.

This one – soon to be found doing poorly executed donuts across an intersection at the hands of a permi-vaping douchebag – is the work of the very talented Mihail Rakovskiy, who has appeared here several times with his superb Model Team modern muscle cars.

Opening doors, hood and trunk, plus a detailed engine, interior, and chassis all feature, and you can stand in a circle at a crossroads shouting “Oooh shiiiit!!” via Mihail’s ‘Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat’ album via the link above.

My Other Car Will Last Longer

No really. Because this Technic Ford Mustang GT500 has been created solely out of the parts from the official 42115 Lamborghini Sian FKP 37 set.

Suggested to us by a reader, this exceptional alternate is the work of Porsche96, who has turned the Lamborghini that no-one’s heard of into the default vehicular choice for smashing into lamp posts, other cars, and pedestrians at every car meet in America.

Fitted with a V8 engine complete with spinning supercharger, independent suspension, functioning steering, an eight-speed sequential gearbox, plus opening doors, hood and trunk, Porsche96’s 42115 B-Model packs in as many working functions as the set upon which it’s based, and he’s made building instructions available too.

If you fancy swapping your model of the kind of car that will be forever sealed inside a hermetic chamber – never turning a wheel, for one with a life expectancy that can be measured in days, check out Porsche96’s fantastic 42115 Mustang GT500 alternate at both Eurobricks and Bricksafe via the links. And then watch one last Mustang crashing video…

Pair of Martins

The Lego Car Blog Elves, fed only when they find a blog-worthy creation, could be called ‘competitive’. By which we mean they’re willing to use Max Verstappen levels of ruthlessness to win.

This inevitably leads to regular Elf fights at TLCB Towers, which we wouldn’t particularly mind, if it weren’t for the tidying up and occasional trips to ‘Elf Hospital‘.

Fortunately today we could keep the peace, as two Elves returned each with a blog-worthy creation by the same builder.

This gorgeous pair of classic Aston Martins comes from barneius of Flickr, the first (above) being a stunning V8 Volante, and the second (below) a DBS.

Both were effectively the same car, hence the accurate similarities between them, and there’s more to see of each classic Aston via the link above. Take a look whilst we distribute two meal tokens to a pair of lucky Elves.

Challenge This

Chrysler, beaten to the ‘pony car’ market by the Ford Mustang, decided that if was going to be late, strength in numbers would win the day. As such the corporation launched about a dozen pony/muscle cars, all of which seemed to do more-or-less the same job, and each being available with a bewildering array of engines.

This is one of Dodge’s offerings from the time, the Challenger. Like its Charger brethren that appeared here last month, this stunning replica of the ’70s pony car comes from Szunyogh Balázs (aka gnat.bricks), who has recreated the Challenger magnificently in Model Team form.

A detailed engine resides under an opening hood, the doors open to reveal a life-like interior, and even the Challenger’s chassis and drivetrain have been accurately replicated.

Excellent presentation caps a really impressive build, and there’s much more of the model to see at both Szunyogh’s ’12 Studs Challenger’ album on Flickr or via the Eurobricks discussion forum by clicking these words.

The Living Daylights

Controversial opinion of the week; The Timothy Dalton era Bond films were the best Bond films.

OK, ‘best’ is definitely subjective, but they were perhaps the most accurate to the books. They were dark, rather violent, and a magnitude less absurd than the Roger Moore era movies that preceded them.

1987’s ‘The Living Daylights’ also benefited from a fantastic Bond Car; the awesome Aston Martin V8 Vantage. Fitted with a set of skis, laser hubcaps, rockets, and a rocket motor (Less absurd!? Ed.), 007’s Vantage was rather more highly specified than the police Lada 1500s in pursuit, culminating a snowy car chase that involved a fishing shed and a cello.

OK, perhaps they were just as absurd (our editor has likely interjected already somewhere above to this end…) (Sure has! Ed.), but the Vantage was still awesome.

Cue (or ‘Q’, hah!) this marvellous Speed Champions recreation of Bond’s Aston Martin V8 Vantage from ‘The Living Daylights’, as built by previous bloggee barneius of Flickr. Complete with skis and a rocket motor, barneius’ build is ready to take on a whole fleet of police Ladas, and you can join the chase on a frozen lake somewhere in Czechoslovakia via the link above.

Take Charge

The Lego Car Blog Elves are happy today because, whilst this isn’t Dom’s Dodge Charger, it’s close enough for us to relent and let them watch one of the terrible ‘Fast & Furious’ movies.

Szunyogh Balázs (aka gnat.bricks) is the builder behind this stunning Model Team Dodge Charger, which features opening doors, hood and trunk, a detailed interior, a life-like V8 engine, and some brilliant details of the real car’s mechanics, including brake discs and callipers, a full-length exhaust, and even a brick-built differential.

Szunyogh’s presentation is top-drawer too, and you can check out all the images on Flickr via the link above, whilst we watch Vin Diesel repeatedly mumble ‘family’ in an attempt make up for the lack of a coherent plot, dialogue, or physics.

More Gas!

It seems like only yesterday that we posted a delightful ‘gasser’ style hot rod by Flickr’s Tim Inman. Because it was. Anyway, he’s published another in quick succession, this time based on a Chevrolet ‘Chevy II’, better known as the Nova, and inspired by several real Nova racers built back in 1964. The silly drivetrain and even sillier engine are perfectly period-correct, and there’s more of the model to see at Tim’s photostream. Click the link for more gas.

Express Checkout

Hot rodders in the 1960s were TLCB Elf levels of nuts. From fire trucks to beer wagons, ‘show rods’ as they were known dismissed notions of getting in, seeing out, steering, and other such formalities in favour of ludicrous caricatures, and few were more cartoonesque than this, Ray Fahrner’s 1967 ‘Boothill Express’.

Based on an 1850s wooden funeral coach fitted with a Hemi V8, Ray’s creation looked so wild onlookers at the time doubted it could actually drive. Which it couldn’t. Annoyed by the naysayers (although they were correct), Ray’s team built a second ‘Boothill Express’, this time engineered to run, and took it to 130mph on the dragstrip. Which must’ve been terrifying. Still, at least if it all went wrong the coffin was right there to accommodate the remaining body parts.

Pictured here alongside one of the numerous toy versions that were inspired by the real car, Lino Martins has recreated Fahrner’s iconic funeral coach show rod brilliantly in brick form, including the Model-T steering, open bench seat, coffin curtains (with tassels), and the mid-mounted Hemi V8. Join the express checkout queue via the link above, and you can click here to find out more about the outrageous 1960s original.

The Ultimate Driving Machine

BMW’s ‘E30’ generation 3-Series has become a cult car. Small, light, rear-wheel-drive, and without an over-complicated twin-scroll turbo in sight, the E30 is the antidote to whatever horror BMW is making these days.

Cue TLCB favourite Thirdwigg, who has recreated the late-’80s BMW 3-Series brilliantly in Technic form. Built in both sedan and estate forms, Thirdwigg’s E30s are subtly modified with lowered suspension, a modest body-kit, and – in the case of the sedan – a V8 engine swap.

We’d rather take the estate’s Inline-6 though, and with free building instructions for both (a hundred TLCB Points Thirdwigg!), presumably you can switch out the sedan’s V8 engine with ease. There’s also working steering, opening everything, and much more to see at both Flickr and Eurobricks. Jump back to a time when BMW’s marketing tagline actually meant something via the links above.

Towing Technic

This astonishing creation is a fully-working 1:10 scale pick-up based tow truck, inspired by the bespoke Isuzus in use by Slovenia’s Automobile Association. Designed and constructed by Zerobricks – one of the team behind the 5-star rated BuWizz bluetooth brick – no fewer than eleven motors accurately recreate the functions of Slovenia’s real roadside recovery vehicles.

Two BuWizz 3.0 bricks power and control those eleven motors, which drive all four wheels, a high/low gearbox, working steering, three differential locks, a winch, and – of course – the brilliantly engineered rear lift, which can raise/lower, extend, and lock/grab the wheels of the vehicle to be towed, all of which can be controlled remotely via bluetooth.

A suite of manual functions compliment the electronic wizardry, including all-wheel suspension, a V8 engine, LED lights, opening doors, hood and tool compartments, and 3D-printed brake discs, whilst accurate decals and brick-built accessories such traffic cones and fuel cans further enhance the model’s likeness to the full-size AMZS trucks.

It’s a spectacular creation that beautifully demonstrates the combined power of LEGO Technic and the BuWizz bluetooth battery and control system, and there’s a lot more to see at the Eurobricks forum, including full specifications, digital renders of the internal mechanisms, and further imagery, plus you can watch the model in action alongside its real-life counterpart via the excellent video below.

Click the links to take a closer look, or here to visit the BuWizz store if you’re interested in how their amazing bluetooth brick could add superpower to your creations.

YouTube Video

Clickety Click

This splendid creation is a soviet-era GAZ 66 off-road truck, and it’s currently trundling around the office with a gaggle of TLCB Elves in the dropside-bed. Powered by a BuWizz 3.0 bluetooth battery, previous bloggee keymaker has squeezed in remote control steering, four-wheel-drive, a powered and locking winch, live-axle suspension, and a miniature V8 engine, all in model measuring just 30cm long.

A complete image gallery is available to view at Bricksafe, whilst full build details, a video of the model in action, and a link to building instructions can be found at the Eurobricks discussion forum via the link above too. Clickety click to take a peek!

*Fifty TLCB Points if you can figure out this post’s title.

Hot Pancake

This improbably-proportioned creation comes from the aptly-named Drop Shop of Flickr, who has built it in memory of two lost friends. Based on a Ford Model A, Drop’s spidery hot rod features a highly detailed engine, suicide doors, realistic brakes, working steering, and such severely chopped bodywork it likely necessitates the passengers poking out of the top like the dinosaur from The Flintstones.

Excellent building techniques and top-quality photography complete the model, and there’s more to see of Drop’s superbly-presented hot rod at their photostream; make your way flatly there via the link in the text above.

Kookie Kar

This is the ‘Kookie T’, one of the all-time seminal hot rods, and the inspiration for very probably a thousand hot rods that have followed. Built by hot rodder and actor Norm Grabowski, the Kookie-T exploded into magazines during the mid-’50s, creating such a stir that the car was chosen to make a starring appearance in the ’50s TV show ’77 Sunset Strip’.

Norm’s custom car prowess led to further TV and movie contracts, and eventually allowed him to appear in several productions himself, acting in films including ‘The Monkees’, ‘Batman’, ‘The Towering Inferno’, ‘The Cannonball Run’ and… er, ‘Sex Kittens Go to College’, amongst others.

This fantastic replica of the iconic hot rod comes from previous bloggee Andre Pinto, who has recreated the Kookie-T brilliantly in brick form. Stunning presentation matches the excellent brickwork, and there’s more to see at Andre’s ‘Norm Grabowski’s Kookie Car’ Flickr album. Click the link to take a look, unless you’re already Googling that last film title. You are aren’t you…