Martini Racing, ’70s style
We’ve featured a few of Malte Dorowski’s astonishing racing cars before on The Lego Car Blog, and this time he’s completed the set by beautifully photographing his Martini Racing Team VW Parts Van alongside one of his Porsche racing cars. Part of a Classic Racing group, you can view the full gallery on MOCpages.
We want to know where VFRacing gets his stickers from!
Discovered on the Eurobricks Forum, and resplendent in Daf Racing colours complete with all 729 sponsors, this Dakar Rally Truck by VFRacingTeam is a rather brilliant looking machine. It should be brilliant to drive too, being powered by a complex array of LEGO Power Functions kit and based on a chassis design by Efferman (which means it’s good!). Visit the Eurobricks forum for more.
DeTomaso and Nick Barrett’s Ferrari GTO collaboration
This awesome slice of ’60s Italian exotica is a Ferrari 250 GTO, created by two of our favourite car builders; Nick Barrett and DeTomaso Pantera, who have collaborated for the first time. Check it out at their respective pages.
We’ve also interviewed DeTomaso in our new series ‘Master MOCers’, which you can read here, or by hovering over the ‘Interviews’ icon on the menu.
Eagle Weslake Mk1. Just one win. Still, more than HRT.
This stunning blue racing car comes from one of the best motorsport builders around, RoscoPC*. Found on Brickshelf, this 1967 Eagle Weslake V12 features working suspension, engine and steering. The real deal won just a single race, in the hands of Dan Gurney at the notoriously dangerous Spa circuit. After 26 races the car was retired as the team focussed their efforts outside of Grand Prix racing, but nevertheless it earned fame simply by being one the most beautiful Grand Prix racing cars ever made. See more of Rosco’s Lego version at his Brickshelf page via the link above.
*See if you can spot his name in the picture.
Nissan GTP ZX Turbo
We’ve featured a lot of Porsches here at The Lego Car Blog. They’re a popular choice for Lego builders, and why not? After all, they are the most successful sports car racing brand of all time. Occasionally though, another company comes along and displaces them from the top. Currently Audi are said manufacturer, but back in the late eighties it was Nissan, with their incredible ZX Turbo. bobalexander! has recreated the iconic race car with a bucketload of blue Lego. See the whole gallery on Flickr.
Insert (literally) Porsche racing cars for twice the awesome!
Malte Dorowski is back, and this time it’s not with a Porsche! Well, sort of. This beautiful race car hauler is a Ford C Type, as used by the Martini Porsche Racing team. Malte has already built the team’s racing cars (along with almost every other Porsche), and they fit snugly in the back via a fully working motorized lift.
Martini Racing collaborated with the Porsche factory from the late ’60s until the ’80s, winning trophies at Le Mans, Sports the Car World Championship and the Targa Florio. Upon ending their relationship with the Porsche factory Martin Racing went on to create a new generation of iconic racing cars in partnership with Lancia’s works rally team. Martini sure knew how to back a winning horse!
To see full details, photographs and videos of Malte’s Martini Racing Transporter, visit MOCpages or Flickr.
Bonus! Malte’s Porsche collection now rivals the museum at Stuttgart. Handily he’s taken a photograph of all his cars together. See if you can name them all.
Already awesome.
There’s room for another wing on there Bruce…
Sigh. So much for a quiet Sunday. We walked into The Lego Car Blog office today to find the Elves engaged in civil war. After donning oven mitts to separate the little turds we discovered the fight was over who had found this beautiful 1969 McLaren M7. It turns out that two Elves had legitimately discovered it, as Nathanael McCartney has built both winged and un-winged versions. So two dinner tokens, and two calmed Elves. See both versions of this brilliant classic race car on MOCpages.
Tiny Transporter
We’ve been posting MOCs towards the larger end of the spectrum recently, so today it’s time for something a bit smaller…
This tiny white transporter is a stretched Volkswagen T1 ‘Renntransporter’, as used by the Rennstall Bunker Porsche Team in the 1960s. Nils O is the creator, and you can see more of his mini-masterpieces on MOCpages.
Fiat 642 Maserati Transporter. Well, 98% of one.
If you follow the vehicle rules in the MOCpages group Classic Race Teams the results will always be good. Proof is here again…
This awesome Italian truck for Classic Race Teams, built by Lego Builder Jr., features the original Maserati colour scheme and some nice details and functions. It’s worth checking out on Flickr and MOCpages, and maybe you can help provide the pieces needed to finish it.
MortalSwordsman returns to our favourite of his genres; historic race cars, with this sleek looking Alan Mann Ford Escort race car. Well, sleek, but also superbly classic looking, as he captures the wonderful late ’60s shape with studded plates. See more by clicking his name above.
This is the latest addition to the big common project “Classic Race Teams” founded two years ago by Ape Fight on MOCpages. Nick Barrett started his LEGO version of the “Ecurie Ecosse” team in November 2011 with the fanstastic 1959 Commer team transporter and added a matching Jaguar D Type one year later.
Now he’s completed the team with a second Jaguar D Type, four team members and a lot of equipment. The stars of the team are, of course, the cars and the transporter. The Jaguars are packed with all the Technic functions you need: Engine, transmission, suspension and steering, whilst the transporter has a powered main ramp, a working engine, steering with two different HOG mechanisms and a complete interior.
Check out the completed team on MOCpages and don’t forget to look at the details of the transporter and the Jag too.
These astonishing classic Formula 1 cars, uncovered on both MOCpages and Brickshelf, are the work of Lego-builder F1Fan.
The yellow Camel-liveried car above is a 1987 Lotus 99T, powered by Honda’s ferocious 900bhp 1.5 litre turbo and featuring active suspension. In the hands of the legendary Ayrton Senna the 99T recorded six podiums and two race wins during the ’87 season, allowing Team Lotus to finish third overall behind Williams and McLaren (and ahead of Ferrari). Sadly both Team Lotus and Ayrton would die during the 1994 season, perhaps the biggest loss of talent in a single year of Formula 1.
The blue car below is one of the most innovative and recognisable Formula 1 cars of all time, the remarkable six-wheel Tyrrell P34. F1Fan’s version is based on the previous work by RoscoPC, and updates it to replicate the car from the 1976 International Trophy race at Silverstone.
Interestingly both of these classic Formula 1 cars feature technology which is now banned, making them in some respects more advanced than even the championship winning Red Bull of this year. See both beautiful racing cars at F1Fan’s MOCpage or Brickshelf account via the links above.
At last, The Lego Car Blog has a proper car to bring you! And quite a legendary one at that. This marvellous Model Team model is a Datsun 510 as raced by BRE during the early-seventies. Underneath the perfectly replicated body-work (complete with accurate custom decals) is a fully remote control Power Functions chassis. It might be Model Team but this creation has a Technic heart. Infraredbrick’s Dastun has appeared on TLCB before in a previous form, but a racing version is always better! See more – including construction photographs – on Infraredbrick’s Flickr photo stream here.
The Elves are a bit grumpy this morning, as this post wasn’t found by them, but by one of our readers. Still, they should’ve been quicker. Alexander Paschoaletto is a previous ‘Featured TFOL’ here at TLCB, and he joins us as a Guest Blogger to explain his find:
If you’re looking for amazing recreations of remarkable Le Mans cars, then Greg 998 must be in your favorite builders list. From iconic Porsches to historic Ferraris, Greg knows how to ally functions to design.
His latest model, the great Ferrari 312 P(b) in 1:8 scale, features both steering and suspension. Not only this, he also made it according to the original colours and stickers! Having built the ’71 model myself and knowing how difficult is it to keep the proportions, I can only hope to be as skilled as him in the future. Keep building, Greg!
You can check out Alexander’s recommendation on MOCpages here.
Over the past week The Lego Car Blog has been a bit more ‘Truck’ than ‘Car’. Today we return to our job description with a blog post Special to celebrate one of the team’s favourite builders, the incredible Malte Dorowski.
Malte has featured here several times over the years with his beautiful racing cars. Today – after some time away from the Lego community – he has finally returned, with this completely gorgeous Porsche 911 Carrera RSR Turbo.
Built in 1974 and raced by the Martini Porsche works team, the Carrera RSR Turbo heralded a new dawn for racing cars, making 500bhp from just 2.1 litres with the aid of a huge turbocharger. Malte has recreated not only the car but also its incredible flat-6 engine in astounding detail, using a variety of unusual LEGO pieces ranging from flags to robot hands.
The Porsche’s bodywork is just as inventive, with elephant tusks, mini-figure SCUBA flippers and harpoons all making perfectly judged appearances. See if you can spot them all; take a trip to Malte’s superb Flickr photostream or visit his awesome MOCpages account, where he also includes a link to the Classic Race Teams group which has inspired so many creations like his.
One of TLCB’s favourite groups, MOCpages’ Classic Race Teams, has gone quiet of late. However, MOCpages builder Greg 998 is single handedly keeping the theme going with his expanding garage of superb classic racing machinery. His work includes the Lotus 72, March Ford, Tyrrell 006 and Hunt’s 1976 McLaren shown here, as well as a variety of other historic Formula 1, CanAm and LeMans racers. Just iron your sheets Greg!
The incredible car above might look like something from science fiction, but it really was a Formula 1 racing car. A winning Formula 1 racing car too. Designed in the mid ’70s, the Tyrrell P34 debuted in 1976 and survived until the 1978 season. It wasn’t the only six-wheel car either, with Williams, March and even Ferrari experimenting with six-wheel layouts, although Tyrrell were the only team to actually race a such a design.
Powered by the legendary Ford Cosworth DFV engine the P34 finished third overall in the 1976 World Championship and fifth the following year, after which it was replaced with more a conventional design – partly because developing tyres for the twin front axels was becoming a problem for the tyre manufacturer Goodyear.
This brilliant Lego recreation of one of the most iconic Formula 1 cars of all time is the work of Greg 998, whose work also featured here last month. Underneath the beautiful 1970s bodywork sits a replica Cosworth DFV engine, and of course the clever twin steering system found on the real car.
You can see more of the Tyrrell P34 and Greg’s other work by visiting MOCpages, and if you’d like to see the current Formula 1 teams having the freedom to design cars like this, write a letter to Mr. Ecclestone. Who will immediately throw it in the bin and come up with a plan to award double points for the last race of the season, or something equally ridiculous. Wait, he already did that!?…
It’s the weekend, hurrah! This does mean though, that TLCB Team will be drunk*, and we didn’t plan ahead any posts. Oops. Fortunately Sam the First returns as a Guest Blogger and keeps TLCB functioning. Over to Sam…
Previously Featured TFOL Harry Gravett’s mind must be an interesting place. When I think of ‘difficult to build’, I think more along the lines of a Nissan 350Z, or a Porsche. Harry though, thinks of a TVR Sagris or a Ferrari 360 CS with brick built stripes.
His most recent model is stunning, being this gorgeous Ferrari 330 P4. This one is not only a tough cookie to recreate, Harry’s done it with brick-built windows and windscreen, and he’s nailed the shaping. The functions are all there and working ever so fine with some top class techniques used, and he’s captured the character of a 60’s prancing horse beautifully.
Yes, his mind is an interesting place indeed. You can find Harry’s wonderful creation via his photostream and his MOCpage.
*If you’re under the legal age for alcohol consumption in your country of residence, TLCB Team won’t really be drunk**.
**That’s not true. We will.
Formula 1 might finally have got with the times and moved to turbo-charged engines, but it’s not actually the first time forced-induction has been used in Formula 1 racing.
Turbo-charging first appeared in F1 as early as the 1970s (and forced induction in the form of super-charging featured in Grand Prix racing earlier even than Word War 2 – think about that when you next brag about your turbo!). This particular car was one of the best of that first Turbo Era; the astonishing Renault RE20.
Built by Carl Greatrix, this Model Team recreation of the late ’70s Renault is one of the most beautifully engineered Lego creations we’ve seen this year, and not just on the outside. Underneath the perfectly replicated bodywork sits one of the finest chassis and engines ever constructed from the humble brick. The extra photo below gives you an idea, but you really need to head over to Flickr to see just how good this creation is. You can visit Carl’s photostream here – it’s worth the click!
Carl Greatrix makes his second appearance in as many days here at TLCB with another unbelievable classic Formula 1 car. This time the prancing horse is Carl’s subject matter, and he’s recreated their gorgeous 1979 312T4 beautifully.
Underneath the perfect bodywork lives a chassis of jaw-dropping detail, including the famous flat 12 Ferrari engine, the last before Scuderia Ferrari finally got with the times and built a turbocharged unit to challenge Renault.
Although the 312 was still a race winner in its ‘T4′ configuration in 1979, by the following year its outdated flat 12 engine relegated it to very un-Ferrari like positions. An entirely new car was conceived for 1981 which had half the cylinders, but it also had a turbo… and by 1982 Ferrari were the Formula 1 constructors champions again.
Carl’s Ferrari 312T4 is pictured here alongside his previously featured Renault RE20, and it’s one of our favourite photos of 2014. It also makes us wish that modern Formula 1 allowed some innovation and a variety of engineering approaches, as was the case until the modern era. We think it’d be much more exciting to watch cars as different as these two racing against one another. If only TLCB ran Formula 1…
To see more of this historic Ferrari – and Carl’s other incredible creations – take a trip to Flickr by clicking here.
