Having recently built a Lego model of the Ferrari F2012 for Gareth Jones On Speed, my eldest son & I agreed that the next thing I should build would be a Le Mans sports prototype. On the following day Nissan announced they were joining forces with Delta Wing Racing to power the car for the Le Mans 24 hours in June. I'd followed the development of this car from seeing the concept drawings when it was suggested as the new design direction for IndyCar. I'd seen the full-size models and even caught glimpses of images of the prototype of the car before, but when it surfaced in Nissan/carbon fibre black: it just screamed "make a model of me in Lego". I knew we might just have enough parts in our two sons' Lego boxes to make a reasonable facsimile.
Once I had built the model I took some photos, and tweeted about it. Highcroft Racing, the team who will run the car at Le Mans asked if they could use my pictures on their web site, I of course agreed. I have slightly reworked the model. Since the version photographed here; I have tweaked the slope of the rise angle to the rear wheel covers to be less vertical. And because my printer is printing a very dark gray rather than proper black at the moment I have inked over the home-made stickers with a Staedler felt maker - I wish I hadn't, it really shows up when you look closely. But from a distance, if you squint..... and dim the lights ...and don't spend too long thinking about what you are looking at, I just about get away with it.
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However I am particularly proud of the rear-end. My son suggested we do the rear lights and handed me a part that might make it possible. It even has a rear diffuser venturi, of sorts.
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The kick-ups at the top of the very rear are crude, by this time I was limited by the parts left in the box.
This gives you the idea of the scale of the model. L:31cm x W:67.5cm x H:10cm
All-in-all it took about 8 hours to build and another couple of hours tweaking
Gareth Jones March 2012 |
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