The 2012 Formula 1 Championship kicks off today in Melbourne. ‘Bad Furday’ shows us the new shape for ’12 with his generic Lego F1 2012  MOC on Flickr.

Due to new safety regulations, almost all the cars feature a horrifically ugly ‘stepped nose’ (the lower front wing reduces the chances of the nose riding over another car’s cockpit in an accident). McLaren are the exception, with a beautiful low sweep instead of the ugly step. Judging by their superb 1+2 in qualifying, it proves the adage; if it looks fast, it is fast.

Enjoy the Championship! (Or as much of it you can watch if you don’t have Sky)

Click the link above this picture for Bad Furday's explanations in Lego of the new regulations for 2012

McLaren F1. Bouncy

A recent Elf outing to Brickshelf resulted in this find; a beautifully constructed Technic McLaren F1. Sardo is the MOC’s creator and he’s even gone above McLaren’s technical genius and fitted 4WD to his version. Check out the full gallery on Brickshelf.

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.

It takes a special sort of builder to build a car that’s not even in production yet. Senator Chinchilla is that sort, and he’s taken a shot at building McLaren’s P1 hypercar before it’s even been seen on the road. You can see more on MOCpages here.

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!

McLaren’s MP4-12C might be saddled with a name you’d expect to find on a piece of office equipment, but it’s still an awesome bit of kit. Dikkie Klijn returns to TLCB with his Technic recreation of the British super car, and it’s every bit as good as the real thing. Featuring a working V8 engine, steering, suspension, gearbox, scissor doors and a fully modular chassis, it took Dikkie almost a year and half to complete. You can see all the spectacular photos, including chassis details, on MOCpages or Flickr.

Technic Supercars!

Welcome to The Lego Car Blog’s new series! Today marks the start of our collaboration with one of the top Lego Vehicle groups on Flickr, the superb Head Turnerz.

Head Turnerz’ members have supplied our Elves with a wealth of blog-worthy vehicles since the group’s inception in late 2013. We’ve decided to extend the mini-figure grab-hand of partnership to the group administrators in order to bring you the Top 5 creations in a variety of categories over the coming months.

First up we’ve decided to tackle the Big One – the Top 5 Technic Supercars ever built! Over to Head Turnerz to count down the list…

No.1

Jorgeopesi’s Pagani Huayra is not just as visually stunning as the real thing, but with a working 7-speed manual gearbox, remote controlled drive, and a huge list of other amazing features, this Pagani is our favourite Technic Supercar ever. Congratulations to Jorgeopesi, and you can click here to see more of the world’s current best Technic Supercar.

No.2

The incredible Crowkillers takes a close second place with his amazing 997 Porsche GT3. Porsche’s 911 is very difficult to replicate in Lego, but Crowkillers has built the most accurate 911 we have ever seen – and it’s not just the body that’s accurate, there’s even a working 6-speed transmission hooked-up to the famous flat-6 engine. To see more details of this supercar make sure you visit Crowkiller’s brilliant website, you can even buy the instructions so that you can build it yourself!

No.3

Dirk Klijn’s McLaren MP4-12C has a 3+Reverse gearbox and is one of the most visually appealing Technic Supercars on the web. But that’s not all. It’s also fully modular – meaning that the body can be completely separated from the chassis and each component removed, replaced and upgraded with ease – exactly how LEGO themselves design their products. To see the full gallery of number three in our list click here to visit Flickr.

No.4

It wouldn’t be a Technic Supercar Top 5 without one of Sheepo‘s incredible models, and what’s better than a Volkswagen Beetle?! Sheepo’s VW Bug is not your typical ‘supercar’, but it is a technical masterpiece featuring everything that a real Beetle does, and it’s exceptionally detailed inside and out. Sheepo’s brilliant bug can be found on Flickr here, plus on his own website via www.sheepo.es.

No.5

Sariel’s incredible Enzo Ferrari comes in at number 5 with beautiful body lines and more functions than you can believe! With full independent suspension, a manual 4-speed gearbox, V12 piston engine, pneumatically opened doors, moving accelerator pedal, electrically adjustable seats, automated rear wing and much more, the only way to see it all is to take a visit to Sariel’s excellent website.

There you have it; the Top 5 Technic Supercars ever! Do you agree with the Head Turnerz choices, or has someone been missed who really should have made it onto this list? And is the Top 5 simply too red?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments or via the Feedback page, and you can let the Head Turnerz administrators know your opinion on their Top 5 by joining the discussion at the Head Turnerz Group – just click the link above to join.

We’ll see you soon for our next Top 5. Watch this space!

This summer marks twenty years since the passing of one of sport’s greatest men, the legendary Ayrton Senna.

Born to wealthy Brazilian landowners in 1960, Senna started racing go-karts in his native Brazil, before moving on to Formula 3 in the UK and then rising to become one of the greatest talents that the sporting world has ever seen, winning three Formula 1 World Championships in ’88, ’90 and ’91.

This McLaren-Honda MP4/6 was the car in which Senna won his last World Championship, after which he departed McLaren at the end of the 1993 season to drive for Williams.

Senna was tragically killed the next year, when his Williams FW16 left the track at Imola’s Tamburello corner, hitting the concrete wall at 145mph. Brazil lost its hero, and Formula 1 lost probably its greatest ever talent.

Senna’s McLaren MP4/6 pictured here is the work of the brilliant Nathanael L, and was suggested to us via the Feedback Page by a reader. Nathanael’s work has featured here numerous times, and you can see more of his McLaren as well as all of his other wonderful vehicles through his Flickr photostream at the link above.

Twenty years on from that awful weekend in 1994, in which Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger also perished, Ayrton Senna’s legacy continues. Following the implementation of significant safety changes after the events at Imola, no driver has since died in a Formula 1 car, making Senna the last driver fatality in the sport.

It’s also been discovered that Senna secretly donated $millions to the children living in poverty in his native Brazil. He never told anyone, because that’s the kind of man he was.

LEGO’s small and always fun Racers sets are being refreshed for 2015! LEGO has announced the new ‘Speed Champions’ range, which is made up of partially refreshed old Racers sets (specifically the race-Ferraris and Iveco Transporter), and some new (and rather nice) hypercars.

One of these new sets is shown in the picture above – the awesome McLaren P1 – which joins the other two members of the latest real-world hypercar trio: the Ferrari LaFerrari and Porsche 918 Spyder. The P1 shown comes equipped with cones, a pleased-looking mini-figure driver and a few other useful tools, whilst the other sets also include a variety of additional parts.

We think the single car sets (Porsche 918, LaFerrari, P1, and a Ferrari 458 GT3) will please collectors although they do seem to show evidence of LEGO’s default method of creating the complicated shapes required via large specifically moulded new parts and stickers. Nevertheless, all of the new cars do look fun and some of those unique pieces might be usable for other ends (the surfboard piece in use as the McLaren’s rear spoiler is a nice touch!).

Overall we think the new Speed Champions cars will make good starter sets for beginners, and they’re relatively inexpensive at around €15 each. Definitely worth looking out for when they reach stores in early 2015.

This is the set that the Elves are more interested in though. Remember set 8654? LEGO’s F1 team truck was well received by builders and LEGO have given it a refresh it for 2015 creating the new set 75913.

Included in the revised set are toolboxes with tools, lots of Ferrari-attired mini-figures, a brick separator(?), a Vespa(!) and of course the latest Ferrari F14, complete with a spare nosecone. The F14 seems a fairly accurate mini-figure scale version of Ferrari’s real racer, featuring a couple of new pieces and stickers to create the flowing shape.

As for the truck, LEGO seem to have reused the same Iveco cabin and trailer from last year’s set, and all of the assorted racing paraphernalia can fit inside as before. 75913 will cost you around €100, which is quite expensive for a mini-figure scale set, but there is a lot included for your money.

Joining 75913 in the new Speed Champions range for 2015 are a Mercedes McLaren pitbox with F1 car (€35), two Porsche GT3 Racers in one package (€50) and the other aforementioned supercars including the 75910 Porsche 918 Hybrid pictured above. The complete Speed Champions range will reach stores in early 2015. Start saving!

Sources: The Brick Blogger and Brickshop.nl

Swiftly replaced by the 650S, the MP4-12C is probably the least sexily named car ever made (Soviet and Chinese cars excepted of course), but it has brought an exciting new player onto the Italian-dominated supercar pitch. There’s a lot more to come from McLaren over the coming years too, and all of it will be based on the MP4′s remarkable carbon-fibre tub and 3.8 litre twin-turbo V8 engine, meaning the MP4-12C will leave quite a legacy.

You can see more of this brilliant Model Team version courtesy of Flickr’s (FLAVIO), click the link to see all the photos.

The 2015 Formula 1 season kicks off this weekend (which should take the edge off the cancelation of BBC’s Top Gear*), and the big news is that Honda have decided to return to the sport after several years away. McLaren are looking to Honda to help revitalise their form (having won several world championships with them in the ’80s and ’90s), and Honda are looking for anything to make them interesting again, after spending quite some time being spectacularly boring in almost every way.

However, it was not Honda that powered McLaren’s most famous road car, but BMW, who supplied the 1995 F1 supercar with its monstrous V12 engine. MOCpages’ Paul vdB has recreated the product of that McLaren/BMW partnership with his beautiful Technic McLaren F1. His model features the huge aforementioned V12, plus a working gearbox, suspension, steering, butterfly doors, and a pneumatically operated air-brake/rear spoiler.

All of the McLaren’s details can be found on MOCpages, including digital renders of the design and close-ups of the chassis and pneumatic functions – click the link above to visit Paul’s MOCpage.

*Hopefully the return of Formula 1 will mean that the Elves’ Top Gear-related depression will disperse. We’re not really bothered about their happiness, but the news has affected their productivity somewhat. Luckily our readers have filled in the gaps; today’s creation being suggested to us via the Feedback page. You can read what we look for when blogging creations by visiting the Submission Guidelines here.

Build the next McLaren!

LEGO have teamed up with McLaren Automotive, one of their Speed Champions partners, to launch an exciting new design competition!

McLaren would like you to design their next supercar in brick form. The competition is open to anyone over the age of 16 via the LEGO ReBrick platform, and there are some awesome prizes to be won. These include a range of LEGO Speed Champions sets and, most excitingly of all, flights and VIP entry with McLaren to the amazing Goodwood Festival of Speed in England this summer.

There’s just one week to go, as entries close on June 1st, so get building!

Click here to read the full rules and enter your model!

It’s an orangey sort of day here at TLCB Towers, as we now have two Elves contentedly munching on orange Smarties (they’re the best kind). Today’s second orange creation was discovered on Flickr, and it’s an entry into the Build a Future McLaren competition currently running at the LEGO ReBrick site that featured here earlier in the week.

All of the images of newcomer JAN LEGO‘s McLaren concept can be found on Flickr, and if you’d like to enter the competition yourself – and win some absolutely amazing prizes – click the link above to read the rules and how to enter. Get building!

LEGO ReBrick‘s McLaren Competition is gathering pace, and we have a superb entry to share with you today. Hoping to win a trip to the awesome Goodwood Festival of Speed courtesy of McLaren Automotive is Sebeus I of MOCpages. His McLaren Concept features some classic McLaren design cues blended cunningly into a neat modern design.

You can see more of Sebeus’ competition entry by clicking here, and you can read the contest rules and enter your own McLaren creation by visiting the LEGO ReBrick site here.

McLaren Automotive and LEGO ReBrick’s superb ‘Future McLaren’ competition ends tomorrow, and there have been some excellent submissions so far. Our final day of coverage rounds off with entries from two previous TLCB bloggees, the brilliantly talented Peteris Sprogis and Malte Dorowski.

Peteris’ creation seems to have mixed McLaren with Tron (McLaTron?), and very cool it looks too. You can check out all of the images of his McLaren concept at his photostream on Flickr.

Malte Dorowski‘s entry uses his ingenious building style to great effect, endowing his McLaren with some very un-Lego like curves. There’s more to see of his entry on Flickr at the link above.

There have been lots more submissions over the past few days – we can’t feature them all here but best of luck to all the builders taking part! And if the winner would like to stop by TLCB Towers on their way to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, drop us a message!

You can find out more about the McLaren competition, see the entries, and – if you’re McLaren F1 quick – submit your own McLaren concept car today by visiting LEGO’s ReBrick site.

LEGO ReBrick and McLaren Automotive’s ‘Future McLaren’ competition closes today, and it’s resulted in some epic concept vehicles created by Lego builders from all around the world. Before the judging commences there’s time for us to feature a final two competition entries, from Marin Stipkovic (above) and Luke-M (below).

Marin’s aggressive-looking creation is fairly conventional compared to some of the concept vehicles entered – it could almost be in production already, whilst Luke-M (aka LEGO Bro) has constructed one of the most futuristic and wildly styled entries we’ve seen. You can see more of both on Flickr via the links in the text above.

Best of luck to Marin, Luke and everyone else who has entered over the past few weeks. If you’d like to see the other entries that have featured here at TLCB you can do so by typing ‘McLaren’ into the search box at the foot of the page.

We don’t often post fictional cars here at TLCB, but occasionally one of our Elves will uncover one that we actually like. This find goes well beyond that, as we absolutely love it. Called the ‘Eunos LT1 GTR’ it’s a fictional racing McLaren and it looks, well… amazing. And very McLaren-y too, with many of the firm’s current design themes used throughout the build. It’s the work of serial bloggee Senator Chinchilla and there’s more to see on Flickr; click here to take a look, and – if you’re Ron Dennis – maybe pass it on to the McLaren design studio…

McLaren are successfully forging their own supercar path now, and in the past they’ve helped to produce some pretty special machinery with other manufacturers. BMW contributed their mighty V12 engine to the McLaren F1 project, but it’s their collaboration with Mercedes, until recently McLaren’s long-time Formula 1 engine supplier, for which they are probably most well known.

This is the McLaren-Mercedes SLR 722, produced in 2006 to celebrate Stirling Moss’s 1955 win of the Millie Miglia in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR (with the racing number ‘722’). Producing 650bhp the SLR 722 could reach 60mph in just 3.6 seconds and went on to a top speed of over 200mph.

This spectacular replica of the famous supercar comes from previous bloggee Alexander Paschoaletto and it’s a work of Lego art. Everything opens and the detailing is second-to-none – you can see more on Flickr by clicking the link above plus there’s a huge gallery of images available on MOCpages; click here to see all the photos.

The Lego Car Blog Review My Set Competition continues apace, and today we have our fourth reader-written Review to add to the ever expanding Set Review Library. Today’s set is one of the Library’s smallest, and it’s been written by 13 year old Nicholas and his 11 year old brother Alexander. Over to Nicholas and Alexander for their Set Review of LEGO’s 75909 Speed Champions McLaren P1…

The McLaren P1. McLaren’s latest hyper car. It is absolutely amazing. Everyone loves this beauty. So it’s pretty obvious what LEGO did considering its popularity. They made a set of it. Now the real question is, how well did they recreate the P1?

The LEGO set, part of the Speed Champions range, has a great use of stickers, colors, pieces and of course the mini-figure. The mini-figure is very simple and well done. LEGO really did a good job on making this McLaren driver mini-figure.

Now to the car. The LEGO McLaren P1 is a strong and sturdy build. The building experience was great; it’s a simple, yet an easy build that just works, although 75909 does come with several stickers that need to be placed carefully, so they can line up, and that might not be the easiest for children.

The pieces are amazing. 75909 comes with several new parts that can be used for plenty of MOCs, and a cool feature is that the rims can be switched out if you prefer one style over the other.

The stickers are pretty good, I only wish they made the stickers with a clear background so you can remake this set in a different colour and still have the stickers’ details (Us too! Ed.).

Accuracy, however, is kind of a problem. The P1 set is a too blocky and just doesn’t have the smooth design that the real McLaren car does. It is also too tall and thin, rather than wide and short.

Now price, the price of the set is $18 CAD (Canadian), and we think this is a good price for what you get. All in all, 75909 is great for the price, but we do wish that LEGO had made it a bit more accurate. We do recommend this set and rate it 10/10.

A huge thank you to Nicholas and Alexander for joining us here at TLCB to Review one of their favourite LEGO sets. The great thing about these Reader Reviews is that TLCB Team probably wouldn’t rate 75909 as 10/10, and in doing so we would be wrong! We’re not between the ages of 11 and 13, and according to the box (above), 75909 is aimed squarely at builders like Nicholas and Alexander. If they rate this set as a 10/10, then LEGO have nailed it! Great job guys, and best of luck in the competition!

If you’re reading this and you think you could write a Review for an official LEGO set that you love, hate, or are indifferent to, then get in touch!

McLaren Automotive are on a roll right now. After two decades away from car building they’ve re-entered the market big time, first with the MP4-12C (easily the worst named supercar in history), and now with a range of super sports cars based around the same carbon fibre tub and twin turbo V8 engine.

This one is the most powerful in the range (excluding the limited run P1 hypercar), the 675 LT, and it’s been recreated in Technic form as a commission piece by previous bloggee Jeroen Ottens. With remote control drive and steering, an electrically deployed rear wing and a working electric convertible roof Jeroen’s build is more than just a static display piece.

There’s more to see at Eurobricks and Flickr, where you can also find a link to a video of the functions in action and where instructions are available so that you can build your own 675 LT Spider too.