Using LEGO bricks to build life-sized vehicle models isn’t a new thing. The practice did get a boost following LEGO and Bugatti’s 1:1 recreation of the Technic Chiron set as a functional brick-built car. Many creations from other builders followed, though they lacked the Chiron’s ability to move under power.
Recently LEGO has partnered with McLaren to once again do an official life-sized brick build. The subject is McLaren’s Senna sports car, currently interpreted as one of this year’s LEGO Speed Champions sets (75892). A 42-person team took 5,000 hours in total to assemble 467,854 to form the finished product.
In comparison, within the same timeframe as the LEGO and McLaren collaboration, the latter could have manufactured nine real Sennas. Like the brick-built Chiron, this creation also included non-brick components from its namesake car. We’re talking real McLaren tires, steering wheel, pedal box and carbon-fiber driver’s seat in the thing.
Again, however, this impressive 1:1 LEGO McLaren Senna is lacking the multiple Power Functions motor setup that enabled the brick-built Bugatti Chiron to actually drive. In compensation, the car’s start button will instead play a recorded Senna engine sound over loudspeakers. It’s a poor substitute for the real thing though.
The LEGO McLaren Senna build can only be appreciated in images for now, but it will debut “in the plastic” later this summer. UK fans can catch it on exhibit at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex, England.