Despite TLCB’s home nation being the only the eightieth largest country by land area, it’s sixth for the number of sheep. Which means the scene above happens a lot.
Well, not with a vintage winga-dingary car so much, more likely with a perplexed urban-dwelling couple in a modern SUV, now questioning their choice of a weekend getaway in the countryside.
This charming scene depicting a more old-timey ruminant-based roadblock comes from Flickr’s k_pusz, and you can join the queue behind him and a heard of LEGO sheep that are resolutely refusing to move via the link above.
Built from 1923 to until the Second World War, the Austin Seven was Britain’s answer to the Ford Model-T, except it may have been even more influential.
Powered by a 10hp 750cc straight-4, weighing just 360kg (less than half a Model-T!), and with a 75 inch wheelbase, the Seven proved ridiculously popular, replacing almost every other British cyclecar and economy car of the 1920s.
The design became the first BMW car (being built in Germany under licence), the first Nissan car (being built in Japan, er… not under license), was produced in France and America, and formed the basis of both the first McLaren racing car and the first Lotus.
It was also, being British, given a silly nickname, becoming known as the “Chummy”. Nope, we don’t know why either.
This rather wonderful Town-scale recreation of the Seven “Chummy’ comes from previous bloggee _Tiler, who has both built and presented it beautifully. There’s more to see of this pedigree build at his Flickr photostream, and you can head to 1920s Britain via the link in the text above.
This is a Russo-Balt C24/40, one the Russian Empire’s earliest cars, originally founded in Riga (now in Latvia) before production moved to St Petersburg. Funded by Germany, designed by a Swiss engineer, and built in Russia (or its empire), the Russia-Balt was an early example of excellent cross-border collaboration.
Of course that didn’t last long, and the Russo-Balt company switched to making military aircraft (of Sikorsky design, who would later create many famous U.S helicopters), before Lenin’s Bolshevik October Revolution closed the factory, Sikorsky fled to France, and the company director was murdered whilst attempting to flee to Finland. Which means that if not for the Bolshevik’s brutality, Sikorsky may never have left Russia and gone on to design the aircraft that opposed it during the Cold War. It’s a funny old world.
Today the remnants of the Russo-Balt company in Latvia builds trailers and, er… this, but we’re staying with the company’s origins and its early C24/40, built here in both ‘Torpedo’ luxury car and work-van form by Flickr’s Kirill Simerzin.
There’s more of each version (plus a third) to see at Kirill’s photostream, and you can head to the pre-revolutionary years of the Russian Empire’s automotive industry via the link in the text above.
Here at The Lego Car Blog we are definitely petrol-heads. And electric-heads perhaps too. We like cars is what we’re trying to say.
Because of this, we prefer our cars with rear-wheel-drive and manual gearboxes, for reasons of steering feel, the ability to go sideways a bit, and other nerdy car things that normal people couldn’t care less about. Which is why front-wheel-drive matters.
Creating safer, more predictable (understeery) handling, greater interior room, and better refinement, front-wheel-drive has been the absolute norm for anything that isn’t sporty for the past four decades.
Even brands famed for their rear-wheel-drive chassis like BMW have switched to front-wheel-drive for their smaller models, after learning their customers had no idea that their 1-Series was rear-wheel-drive, or even what being rear-wheel-drive means. Sigh.
Front-wheel-drive was dabbled with in the early years of motoring, but this is the car that proved the layout, decades before it became mainstream. It is the fabulous Citroen Traction Avant.
Possessing not just front-wheel-drive, but also the first mass-produced monocoque body and early rack-and-pinion steering, the Traction Avant was so advanced it was produced for two decades, something that was needed as its development bankrupted the Citroen company in the mid 1930s.
Today the Traction Avant is seen as the father of front-wheel-drive, and therefore most new cars on sale today (even if your car is all-wheel-drive, it’s still almost always only front-driven).
It’s surprising then that the Traction Avant has only featured here twice in a decade of publishing Lego vehicles. Cue this wonderful and much overdue Technic recreation of one of the world’s most innovative cars, as built by the very talented Nico71.
Beautifully replicating the Traction Avant’s ’30s styling, Nico’s model includes a working four-cylinder engine under the split-folding hood, four opening doors and an opening trunk, working steering, and – of course – front-wheel-drive.
The complexities of front-wheel-drive mean that – much like cars before about 1980 – very few Lego models adopt it, favouring the simplicity of a rear-driven axle. Nico’s model successfully incorporates it however, and he’s released building instructions so you can see how to create front-driven Lego models for yourself.
There’s much more to see at Nico’s Brickshelf gallery, you can watch the model in action via the video below, plus you can find out how Nico creates beautifully engineered models like this one via his Master MOCers interview. Understeer your way to all the additional content via the links above.
This time the phrase is more than metaphorical! Built by previous bloggee Andrea Lattanzio, this is the ‘Outhouse’, a Ford V8-powered toilet-in-a-shed based on a 1924 Ford truck, as constructed by hot rodder Bob Reisner during the bizarre novelty hot rod scene. Wooden handling and the aerodynamics of, well… an outhouse aside, this TLCB Writer is rather enamoured by the practicalities of Bob’s creation – you’d never need to use a highway services restroom again! Take a dump on the interstate via the link above!
This is where it all began. Supercars, muscle cars, minivans, Tesla, drive-thus, The Fast and the Furious franchise, Magic Tree air fresheners, and the Pontiac Aztek. All trace their existence back to this, the 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen, the world’s first commercially-available motorcar.
Designed by German engineer Carl Benz, and financed by his wealthy wife, around twenty-five Patent-Motorwagens were produced, each powered by a 950cc single-cylinder four-stroke engine making between 2⁄3hp and 1.5hp. The car transported Carl’s wife Bertha and their two sons on the first ever long-distance car journey (66 miles) to raise publicity for the machine, a feat that she undertook without Carl’s knowledge or approval from the authorities. Which makes her excellent.
It worked of course, and began Benz’s journey to becoming one of the most well known companies on earth, ushering in the complete dominance of the internal-combustion-engined motorcar too, with all the planetary consequences that followed.
This lovely recreation of the motorcar’s genesis comes from Simon Pickard, who has built and presented the Benz Patent-Motorwagen beautifully in brick form. Click the link above to take a look at where it all began.
We love vintage cars here at The Lego Car Blog. Particularly ones that go ‘aaoogha!‘ Because we’re idiots.
This marvellous Ford Model T would certainly go ‘aaoogha!’ if it were real, and there’s more to see of this beautifully presented vintage motoring icon courtesy of _Tiler. Check it out at his photostream via the link.
Yes, the title phrase ‘That’s a Doozy’ – used to describe something opulent, enormous or unusual – really did come from society’s reaction to the Duesenberg cars that were built from the 1920s until 1940. Which must make it the world’s first automotive meme. Take that ‘VTEC just kicked in yo’.
The largest, most powerful, and most expensive cars on the market, Duesenberg’s can today sell for over $22 million, which rather prices TLCB out of ownership. Fortunately this delightful brick-built Duesenberg SJ is rather more attainable, having been suggested to us a by a reader.
Flickr’s 1saac W. is the builder and there’s more to see of his Doozy of a build at his photostream via the link.
The British and French don’t often collaborate. In fact over much of their history it’s been quite the opposite, with the two countries regularly trying to blow one another up.
These days (and post-Brexit) there’s just a simmering dislike that only manifests itself in sport and stealing one another’s scallops, but despite this there have been some notable (and remarkable) collaborations between the two nations.
The longest under-sea tunnel in the world, the world’s first supersonic airliner, and Kristin Scott-Thomas are all worthy partnerships, and back in the 1930s Britain and France worked together on cars too.
This is the Bugatti Type 41 Park Ward, a luxurious grand limousine from the golden era of coach-building.
Park Ward, better known for re-bodying Rolls Royces, created this beautifully opulent vehicle upon Bugatti’s fourth Type 41 (Royale) chassis for Captain Cuthbert W. Foster, a department store heir, in 1933.
Still to this day one of the largest cars ever built, the car now resides in a museum in France, where it’s worth more than all the scallops in the English channel.
Fortunately Flickr’s 1corn has created one that – at 1:25 scale – is rather more attainable, and there’s more to see of his wonderful brick-built Bugatti Type 41 at his photostream; Click the link above to take the Channel Tunnel and fight over some marine molluscs.
Is there any car more worthy of a Toad-of-Toad-Hall-style ‘Poop-Poop!’ exclamation than this one?
The 1928-’32 Mercedes-Benz SSK is the very definition of Gatsby-esque opulence, with this Speed Champions scale recreation by Flickr’s Pixeljunkie capturing its excess brilliantly.
Yellow bodywork, shiny bits, bonnet straps, and an over-sized Mercedes-Benz badge ensure the peasants can’t miss you, and there’s more to see at Pixel’s photostream via the link.
This interesting grey machine is a 1928 Renault CV Torpedo, which somewhat surprisingly is a car we’ve probably all seen before, as it featured in a convoy scene from ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’. A lot of stuff blew up in that movie though, so we’d forgotten it too. Anyway, this neat Lego version comes from Owen Meschter of Flickr, and you can recreate the vintage chase scene in the desert via the link to his photostream above!
Black on black has been the default colour choice of gangsters, politicians, and vigilante crime-fighters for decades. Regular bloggee Jonathan Elliott goes back to the earlier days of moody paint schemes with this deeply black hot rod roadster, which uses just two colours; the image could be black-and-white and it’d look exactly the same. Join the gangsters, politicians and vigilantes in the dark via the link above.
A Disney holiday is sure to be filled with wholesome activities, harmless japes, musical numbers, and mild antisemitism. Besides the last one you can count us in!
Suggested by a reader, Bas van Houwelingen‘s delightful creation could be straight from a Disney cartoon, with Mickey and Pluto on a caravan road trip courtesy of Goofy’s jalopy.
Bas has used some wonderfully chosen pieces to capture the cartoon high jinks, and you can join in the fun on Flickr at the link above, or alternatively click here to see how this holiday would unfold in real life. The Disney one would be better…
This is a 1926 Bugatti Type 41 Packard Prototype, and it reminds us an awful lot of a particular vehicular Family Guy scene. Because we’re children.
The Type 41 was Bugatti’s first rolling chassis, fitted with a modified Packard body and a comically enormous 14.7 litre straight-eight aero engine. Which explains the Bugatti’s unfeasibly long bonnet, because when you’re packing 8 it’s rather hard to hide it.
This beautifully neat Model Team recreation of the Type 41 is the work of 1corn of Flickr, and there’s more to see of his exceedingly long package, sorry Packard-based Bugatti via the link above.
TLCB’s historical accuracy is pretty flakey, but even we know this isn’t what Henry VIII used to get to whichever beheading event was on that week. This stupendous build is Ford Model A, nicknamed the ‘Tudor’ because it had two doors. Lots of cars probably had two doors at the time, but as 90% of all the cars on the roads were Fords, they got the ‘Tudor’ moniker. This one comes from TLCB favourite _Tiler, who has captured the late ’20s sedan wonderfully, constructing it atop a Fabuland old-timey chassis. Hail a ride in 1930’s New York via the link above!
