Tag Archives: Volante

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.

The Living Daylights

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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.

Technic Volante

Aston Martin are on a roll at the moment. There’s new engine partnership with AMG, a plethora new products, a new factory, and – above all – the company made a profit (a rare thing at Aston Martin). The rebirth of the brand as a modern supercar manufacturer started with this car – the utterly gorgeous DB9. Designed by Henrik Fisker the V12-powered aluminium DB9 hit showrooms way back in 2004, and yet still looked fresh when it was finally replaced some twelve years later.

This is the drop head version, or ‘Volante’ in Aston Martin speak, and if anything it’s even more beautiful than the coupe. Which makes it a seriously tricky car to recreate from Lego Technic, and yet Jeroen Otten’s hasn’t just managed it, he’s made his Technic replica fully functioning too.

As with any Technic ‘Supercar’, Jeroen’s stunning DB9 Volante features a working drivetrain – in this case a V12 engine linked to a 5+R gearbox, independent suspension, working steering (with Ackerman geometry and caster angle), opening doors, boot-lid and hood, and a trick three-piece folding convertible roof.

Jeroen’s built this Aston Martin DB9 Volante as a commissioned piece and there are some excellent photos available to view – head over to the DB9’s Flickr album or the Eurobricks discussion forum to see all the images.

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