We’re rounding out 2022 with exactly the sort of car that this crumbling ruin in the corner of the internet was created for; the mighty Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3.
Built by previous bloggee Levihathan, this eye-catching Technic recreation of Aston Martin’s 2010s-2020s endurance racer captures the real deal brilliantly, with the aesthetics further enhanced by bespoke decals that add to the race-ready realism.
Inside, Levihathan’s V12 Vantage is just as impressive, with a working V12 piston engine underneath the opening hood, functioning steering and suspension, a detailed race interior, and a paddle-shift gearbox.
There’s much more of the build to see at Levihathan’s ‘Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3’ album, and you can make the jump to all the imagery via the link in the text above.
The first month of 2022 is almost done, and our Elves have been sneaking! Sent on a mission to infiltrate The LEGO Company’s HQ, they have to sneak for fear of being eaten by a guard dog, but those that do manage to avoid the teeth of the German Shepherds return as heroes, held aloft by their peers to Elven chanting, and awarded a meal token by us TLCB staff.
You’d think they’d have figured out this is a wildly insufficient reward, but the office catapult ensures a regular flow of ‘volunteers’. Anyway, on to their finds – the brand new for 2022 LEGO Speed Champions sets. And they’re corkers!
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76906 – 1970 Ferarri 512 M
The first new set of 2022’s Speed Champions line-up is already one of our favourites ever, and we’ve only been looking at the box. The new 76906 1970 Ferrari 512 M is a glorious homage to the car that was… er, soundly beaten by Porsche at Le Mans. It did win the 12 Hours of Sebring though, and was regarded as equally fast as the conquering Porsche, just not as reliable.
LEGO’s Speed Champions version of the Ferrari 512 M looks magnificent, utilising a Star Wars canopy piece amongst some very cleverly printed parts to accurately capture the real car.
The historic livery means there’s no need for a smorgasbord of stickers, and LEGO have resisted the urge to include a pointless gantry or other trackside paraphernalia too, keeping the piece number, and – more importantly – price down to pocket money levels.
Expect 76906 to cost around $20 when it reaches stores later this year, and we absolutely love it.
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76907 – Lotus Evija
The second new set for 2022 jumps forward from 50 years ago to, well… the future actually, as the Evija isn’t even out yet. 76907 brings another legendary car maker to the Speed Champions line up, and – we hope – opens the door for some of the greatest classic racing cars ever made.
But before we start fantasising about classic Team Lotus F1 cars (although their tobacco sponsorship liveries might prove a bit tricky these days…), the first Speed Champions Lotus is their newest model, and is interestingly pictured on the box navigating the driveway of Goodwood House.
247 pieces, relatively light stickerage, and a good approximation of the new supercar make 76907 a solid if not especially memorable effort, but a welcome addition nonetheless. We’re exited for more Lotus sets to come.
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76908 – Lamborghini Countach
Yup, finally! The definitive 1970s-1980s supercar has made it into the LEGO Speed Champions range, and it’s every bit as good as the previous 76899 Lamborghini Urus isn’t…
LEGO have chosen a ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ spec Countach for 76908, which means a big wing, white bodywork, and a stronger ’80s vibe than parachute pants.
There are 262 pieces, including a mini-figure armed with a spanner (this is a classic Lamborghini after all), and some well chosen decals to enhance the model’s accuracy, without it being reliant upon them. A great effort, and well worth the expected $20 price when it arrives in March 2022.
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76909 – Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance & Mercedes-AMG Project One
The longest title of the 2022 line-up goes to 76909, thanks to it being the first double-vehicle set within the new Speed Champions range, and because modern F1 cars have every sub-brand possible squeezed into their names for depressing marketing purposes.
Silly name aside though, it does look rather good. The Mercedes-AMG-F1-ReallyLongName does a great job capturing the real deal, with even the tyres matching those used on the actual racing car. There are of course lots of stickers, but they’re more appropriate here as real-world sponsorship liveries are effectively giant stickers anyway.
LEGO’s 8-wide replica of the much-delayed Mercedes-AMG Project One looks fine, if nothing more, and would probably be the weakest set within the 2022 line-up if sold on its own.
564 pieces, two mini-figures, and an ‘interactive digital building guide’ are included, for an expected price of around $30/£35.
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76910 – Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro & Aston Martin Vantage
The final new Speed Champions set of 2022 is this, the 76910 Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro & Aston Martin Vantage.
With double the cars and double the pieces, but not double the price ($30 is expected), 76910 looks to be a good value addition to the line-up from a price-per-piece perspective.
Which is handy, as despite the slightly older starting age indicating more complicated building techniques, we’re less than sold on the visuals of either the Valkyrie or Vantage, which seem heavily reliant on stickers to replicate their real-world counterparts. Which is cheating, obviously.
Still, we expect 76910 will race off the shelves. A pair of lime-green Aston Martins can’t not appeal to a nine-year-old!
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That’s the 2022 Speed Champions line-up, and it is – we think – mostly really good. The new sets will be on sale from March of this year, and should continue the roaring success of the franchise. More real-world classics please LEGO, they work beautifully! We’ll take that Ferrari 512 M…
Aston Martin have always been on the brink of financial ruin. However the late ’00s proved something of a renaissance for the firm. Out from Ford control they created some beautiful and rather good supercars, which – in an unusual turn of events – actually made them some money.
The cars have got even better since then, but sadly the financial woes have returned. Hopes are pinned on the new DBX SUV, which is sad state of affairs but we suppose the Cayenne saved Porsche, and – horrible though it is – selling SUVs allowed the brand to survive and keep making 911s.
Aston Martin have also received some new investment, firstly from Mercedes-Benz AMG, who now supply their engines and electrics, and secondly from Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll.
If that name’s familiar to you it’s because he’s F1 driver Lance Stroll’s father, who ‘coincidentally’ now owns the team his son drives for, Racing Point, previously Force India.
Racing Point will become ‘Aston Martin Racing’ for the 2021 season, which fills us with dread (remember Ford shoving Jaguar into Formula 1 back in the early ’00s?…), but we guess it makes marginally more sense than their pointless current sponsorship of Red Bull Racing, who use Honda engines and have absolutely nothing to do with Aston Martin whatsoever, besides banking a cheque that could be better spent on literally anything else.
Anyway, we hope it works out, because Aston Martin can still build some wonderful cars, such as this; the AMG-powered V8 Vantage.
This excellent Model Team recreation of the 2018 V8 Vantage comes from previous bloggee Alexander Paschoaletto, and he’s captured the real car brilliantly. Opening doors and hood reveal a detailed interior and engine bay respectively, and there’s more of the build to see at Alexander’s ‘Aston Martin V8 Vantage’ album on Flickr.
Click the link above to take a look, and cross your fingers for Aston Martin in 2021…
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…
The 24 Hours of Le Mans 2018 is nearly upon us! The world’s greatest endurance race is now in it’s 86th year, and in 2018 will feature sixty cars in four different classes, from the ultra-hi-tech LMP1 prototypes to the GTE Am class of supercars and gentleman drivers.
Somewhere in the middle sits GTE Pro, in which professional drivers for both works and independent teams will fight it out whilst dodging the ludicrously fast LMP1/2 cars hurtling past. This year six different manufacturers have qualified, and previous bloggee Lasse Deleuran has built all six beautifully in Lego form.
There are three Porsche 911 RSRs (featured here previously), two Ferrari 488 GTE EVOs, a Ford GT, a Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, plus the brand new Aston Martin Vantage AMR and BMW M8 GTE.
Each is a fantastic build utilising some ingenious techniques to capture both the complicated GTE-class aero and to accurately recreate the liveries of the teams. Head over to Flickr via the link above to see more of each build and choose your favourite!
It wouldn’t be a money themed day without the investment banker’s favourite word; Bonus! So we’ve got a bonus for you in the form of an extra post showing both of today’s builds side-by-side. This is fitting because those ordering a new Bugatti Chiron already own on average over fifty cars each, so it’s highly likely they’ll have an Aston Martin too. Or seven.
These shots have been made possible by the fact the the builders of the Chiron and Vantage GT3 are brothers, uploading their creations within a few hours of each other. You can read more about each build by clicking here for the Bugatti Chiron and here for the Aston Martin Vantage GT3, plus you can see more the models together by visiting Lachlan’s Cameron’s Flickr photostream, and we’ll see you tomorrow for something much more humble!
The money theme continues today with this, newcomer Dugald Cameron’s incredible Aston Martin Vantage GT3 racer. Constructed from many of the parts in LEGO’s 42056 Porsche 911 GT3 set (and putting them to considerably better use), Dugald’s GT3 is a seriously beautiful build. Plus it’s orange, and we like orange.
Underneath that retina-searing bodywork is a full remote control drivetrain, with two XL Motors powering the wheels, a Servo controlling the steering (and linked the steering wheel), plus a Medium Motor driving the sequential transmission. A V12 piston engine sits up front, whilst a mechanically adjustable rear wing is mounted at the back, and the cockpit in-between features a fully adjustable driving position with a tilting steering wheel, pedals with feedback, and a sliding racing seat.
The suspension on all four corners is fully independent, with torsion and sway bars, plus a trick air-jack system powered by an on-board compressors is fitted to allow for quick pit stops.
The complete model is one of the most impressive we’ve seen this year, and the entire build process has been catalogued on both Eurobricks and Flickr, showing both the steps taken to create the Vantage GT3 and the brilliant engineering within it.
You can see the full gallery of images at the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Flickr album, and you can read about the build process by flicking through the Eurobricks discussion that charted it by clicking here.
We’re rounding out 2022 with exactly the sort of car that this crumbling ruin in the corner of the internet was created for; the mighty Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3.
