Speed Champions Alternates

[ER0L]

Looks fantastic, man. I think it's the wide roofs that make the best improvement, that and the new proportions especially on the Chevys!

Thank you! I'm still wondering about those narrow roofs on the set cars. Probably it's got something to do with the ability to take off the roof and windscreen together to put the fig in and out. A new 6w windscreen would have been necessary for that purpose. On the other hand the 4w SC windscreen IS a new part, ... Of course you wouldn't be able to use those long curved slopes together with 6-wides, but well ...

[ER0L]

No sooner had I seen mqbui1's recreation of my "City Champions" Lambo Gallardo from last year (see first page) in black than I went to the paint shop with it ...

Together with the only other remainder of the City Champions 2015, the Octan Racer. Those cars are considerably lower than a fig yet fit a complete minifig driver.

Together with the 2016 Corvette:

While the Corvette fits better into the range of "Larger City Scale" vehicles, the Lambo is even lower (for one layer) which is quite important regarding supercars.

Thanks for looking!

Edited April 30, 2016 by ER0L

[Captain Green Hair]

Inspiring work Erol, thanks for sharing!

[Brickextreme]

You have inspired me so much that I have modded the two camaros and the mustang. Will post once I have a chance to take pictures.

[polarstein]

Excellent work! Very sleek design, works really well in black.

[ezaida18]

That's a really nice Lambo!

[ER0L]

Inspiring work Erol, thanks for sharing!

Thank you!

You have inspired me so much that I have modded the two camaros and the mustang. Will post once I have a chance to take pictures.

Thanks! Looking forward to your mods.

Excellent work! Very sleek design, works really well in black.

Thanks a lot! Well, black is the most forgiving colour, especially regarding cars ...

That's a really nice Lambo!

Glad you like it!

[Red64]

Amazing work, the scale and proportions are off the hook. While the supercars are sweet, my favorites have got to be the 2015 Camaro and the Corvette Stingray. I'm curious though, did you use the same base setup for the front engine Chevys?

[ER0L]

Amazing work, the scale and proportions are off the hook. While the supercars are sweet, my favorites have got to be the 2015 Camaro and the Corvette Stingray. I'm curious though, did you use the same base setup for the front engine Chevys?

Thank you! Regarding the base setup: More or less, at least the wheelbase stays the same throughout.

[Red64]

Yup, that's made it a bit easier to try my hand at building them in LDD by simply reversing the basic chassis. I hope you don't mind me reverse engineering them, I love the idea behind the Speed Champions line, but your rebuilds are so much better than the stock models. I Always seem to have some problem with the rear ends though, couldn't quite figure out how the P1 was done, as well as the 2012 Camaro. Only three of these sets have hit Brazil so far though, so there's time to figure them out.

[soccerkid6]

Great to see how much you're able to improve the Speed Champions sets. It definitely makes me want to try messing around with them myself.

Your Gallardo is my favorite of the bunch

[ER0L]

Yup, that's made it a bit easier to try my hand at building them in LDD by simply reversing the basic chassis. I hope you don't mind me reverse engineering them, I love the idea behind the Speed Champions line, but your rebuilds are so much better than the stock models. I Always seem to have some problem with the rear ends though, couldn't quite figure out how the P1 was done, as well as the 2012 Camaro. Only three of these sets have hit Brazil so far though, so there's time to figure them out.

Not at all, go for it! Glad you like the rebuilds.

Great to see how much you're able to improve the Speed Champions sets. It definitely makes me want to try messing around with them myself.

Your Gallardo is my favorite of the bunch

Thank you! Yeah, those sets are really inspiring since quite a few techniques are used here you wouldn't find on the usual Town cars.

[Th3_Br1ck_Kid]

WOW! Your versions actually look like the cars they're supposed to be!

[ER0L]

On 20.7.2016 at 5:32 PM, Th3_Br1ck_Kid said:

WOW! Your versions actually look like the cars they're supposed to be!

Thanks a lot!

Recently somebody told me about the following review video on three of my SC supercars by a builder named OneBadawan on YouTube which I hadn't seen before. I think OneBadawan did a great job in recreating the vehicles, and the review does them justice. Furthermore he names the designer and also provides a link to my Flickr stream, which is nice. However, I do have a problem when somebody sells models based on my designs without even asking me - but as far as I can see, he doesn*t do that regularly. 

 

 

[ER0L]

My ad hoc take on the Ford GT40 from set 75881 (probably one of my SC favourites due to that great frontend):

I've taken the usual measures to integrate the model into the "larger city scale" range I'm using (~1/35 for passenger cars):

• use City wheels
• lower the build (it's 10 layers instead of 13 - a whole brick), this was a main goal since the GT40 is one of the lowest sports cars ever (40 inches, hence the name)
• shorten the wheelbase (for one stud)
• make the build more realistic, if possible (here I tried to get much more curved lines, like on the original car)

On the other hand you can't squeeze in a fig any more, but well. With more building time the model could be improved, I guess, but as a quick conversion it's okay for me.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Daanski]

Dear Erol, I'm new here and I admire your build from the GT40 (better said: the alternates are way better than the Lego SC-cars, though I thought these looked nice too!). Do you have any LDD file for this GT-40? Or more detailed instructions how to create this one? 

 

Cheers,

Daan

Edited April 25, 2017 by Daanski

[ER0L]

On 23.4.2017 at 8:35 PM, Daanski said:

Dear Erol, I'm new here and I admire your build from the GT40 (better said: the alternates are way better than the Lego SC-cars, though I thought these looked nice too!). Do you have any LDD file for this GT-40? Or more detailed instructions how to create this one? 

 

Cheers,

Daan

Thanks, glad you like the SC alternates. Regarding instructions: There aren't any, sorry. I'm not very good at using LDD - instructions would take much more time than the build as such. However, the SC alternates are free to copy or to be distributed via LDD (as long as there's no money involved). But well, that doesn't solve your problem, if nobody does so ...

However, the build is more or less what you see. If you have questions regarding special sections don't hesitate to PM me.  

[Daanski]

Dear Erol,

 

I'm in the finishing proces of the build. A few questions: how many studs is the length between the wheels? Six of five studs? And can you give me a close-up of the back-window?

I tried to build the GT40 five studs wide, that wasn't a succes so far. Six studs wide works better. 

And no, there's no money involved (unless you count the Brickowl and Bricklink order with )

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Cheers,

Daan

[ER0L]

On 2.5.2017 at 2:33 PM, Daanski said:

I'm in the finishing proces of the build. A few questions: how many studs is the length between the wheels? Six of five studs? And can you give me a close-up of the back-window?

I tried to build the GT40 five studs wide, that wasn't a succes so far. Six studs wide works better. 

And no, there's no money involved (unless you count the Brickowl and Bricklink order with )

Sorry, I missed this. Hopefully we get to see your version soon! Probably you've found a solution yet, if not: The distance between the mudguards is five studs, the rear window consists of a trans-black 1x2 brick and a trans-black 1x2 panel. 

Okay, maybe you like this one, too:

Porsche 917K (75678 MOD)

Ever since it hit the market I wanted to mod the Porsche 917K from Speed Champions set 75876 since it’s such an icon. The model is very well done in my opinion plus has an intriguing set of stickers. However, there were other things in the pipeline plus I had no actual idea how to accomplish it. But since the larger projects are more or less paused at the moment I tried my luck during the last few days.

Main problem at the beginning was the width. While mudguards at the front and no mudguards at the rear don’t look bad on the original model, this combination doesn’t work very well with City mudguards at the front since they stand out a lot. I know there are such versions, and they do look nice as "City Champions", but I was thinking about something closer to the original car.

The solution was (other than on the Ford GT40) to build the whole car in plain 7w and to use curved slopes above the front wheels instead of mudguards to get a thin structure here - and there was the shape, as curvy as it ought to be and with the right proportions.  Might be a suitable form factor for other endurance/prototype race cars, too (the Ferrari Le Mans - see above - is 7w+ and a bit larger in scale).

I must say I’m very grateful towards TLG regarding the SC series. Of course they are targeted to children, but with that canopy part and those nice sticker sheets we’re able to build good looking race cars for our layouts. Together with the 1x2 and 2x2 curved slopes there are a lot of possibilites nowadays which didn't exist some years ago when I entered the Lego car building business. And in this case it’s really nice that there are mainly stickers and not printed parts since we may put the stickers where they are needed (for example: on a 7w model a 2x4 slope with the Porsche logo printed on it would be quite difficult to apply). I really hope there’ll be more classic racers like the 917K reproduced as an SC model in the future (a Formula 1 Lotus of the Seventies being my personal dream car, I guess). 

100% Lego. All stickers are uncut. Okay, stickers containing fake vents are against the principle of “no constructive elements via stickers”, but well, the other elements are too important here. Alas, stripes on the front wheel wells are missing due to the studded section here on the set model. Another sticker sheet would be required to add them.

Seems to be my first Porsche, too. Thanks for looking!

[ER0L]

Okay, you didn't seem to like the Porsche 917K too much, but what about a Formula 1 racer?

Ferrari Formula 1 (75879 MOD)

Truth to be told, this doesn’t have the right scale for my purposes - wheelbase is the same like on the original model. But well, for me it’s a first step into Formula 1 Lego race car building, I just wanted to see how it works. My further attempts hopefully will be smaller - which won’t be that easy, I guess; seems that things come together quite well in this larger scale.

75879 definitely is a great set, I only changed a few things (see the comparison under https://www.flickr.com/photos/er0l/35231036003/in/photostream/):

- narrow and set down the nose (which alas is no longer changeable now) 
- set forward the pilot for one stud 
- close the cockpit at the sides
- mount smaller front wheels (very important in my opinion on F 1 racers)
- last, but not least: build a steering which in my opinion is the most important aspect on an F1 car since they look ten times better in curves plus - unlike other vehicles - there’s plenty of room for the front wheels to pivot (the downside of this is that the front wheels don’t spin any more on my version)  

The car now has a more classic appeal in my opinion, it doesn't resemble an actual Ferrari racer but for now that’s okay. It’s just a Formula 1 Ferrari. 

100% Lego. Thanks for looking!

 

 

Edited July 20, 2017 by ER0L

[badchriss]

Not much of a Fan of modern F1 Racers,but definetly a Fan of your Cars and Skills.You really do a great Job and sure are an Inspiration for following AFOL`s and Lego Car Fans.

Keep em going,there will always be People who admire your Work.

As for the iconic Porsche,you really did an amazing Job,and good Idea with widening the Car a bit.Saw one once in a Car Exhibition,and Boy,that Thing is huge,or at least it looks huge because of the cowering low Line and the aerodynamic Shape of the Body.

The F1 Racer...well,you did a great Job on that capturing the Shape.I especially like how you build the Monocoque Area around the Driver,with the Car Body sloping to the narrow Part between the Driver and the Wing/Engine Area.

Still some fond Childhood Memories revolve around F1 Racing,my whole Family huddled up on the Couch to watch the Race in Monte Carlo,since we`ve already been there 3 Times (Been there in the Age of 1,5 Years,4 Years and as a 16 Year old Teenager).Believe it or not,some of the Curbs are painted red white all Year round :D

[ER0L]

13 minutes ago, badchriss said:

Not much of a Fan of modern F1 Racers,but definetly a Fan of your Cars and Skills.You really do a great Job and sure are an Inspiration for following AFOL`s and Lego Car Fans.

Keep em going,there will always be People who admire your Work.

As for the iconic Porsche,you really did an amazing Job,and good Idea with widening the Car a bit.Saw one once in a Car Exhibition,and Boy,that Thing is huge,or at least it looks huge because of the cowering low Line and the aerodynamic Shape of the Body.

The F1 Racer...well,you did a great Job on that capturing the Shape.I especially like how you build the Monocoque Area around the Driver,with the Car Body sloping to the narrow Part between the Driver and the Wing/Engine Area.

Still some fond Childhood Memories revolve around F1 Racing,my whole Family huddled up on the Couch to watch the Race in Monte Carlo,since we`ve already been there 3 Times (Been there in the Age of 1,5 Years,4 Years and as a 16 Year old Teenager).Believe it or not,some of the Curbs are painted red white all Year round :D

Thanks a lot for your kind words! Car builders seem to have a hard time on EB nowadays, I'm not the only one complaining ... When I started moccing minifig scale cars 6 years ago there was much more going on in the Town forum regarding vehicles. But well, times are a-changing, people seem to be less interested in cars in RL, too, and we have to accept that.

Glad you like the 917K and the F1 racer, too. Yeah, the 917K is a real monster and rather a flying saucer than a car, it's hard to do it justice. But thank to the SC canopy part we can try at least. 

Concerning the F1 I can't take credit for the shape of the body. The designer did a great job here, I only changed a few details..

Regarding Formula 1: Yes, I have similar memories, plus I'm rather a fan of the classic racers, too. Ferrari 312T or Lotus 79 - those were some great looking F1 cars. And yes, I've seen the curbs myself on my visit to Monaco last year. 

Many thanks again! As for cars, you can be sure that I'll keep them going as long as I'm able to put a tire on a rim ... 

[Ron Dayes]

The new Porsche is really awesome!
I think 7 wide is a real badass scale, allows some great stuff :)
Also agreeing on not taking mudguards for this particular model - mudguards kinda ruin some car designs. For example i could never imagine your (or derjoes?) Charger with them...
Perhaps its just that classic cars dont have such wide mudguard areas, rather using the "cut out of frame" design, while modern cars have them "added on". Just as this older Porsche Race car...
Since you are allready at a Porsche, i could imagine an 80ies 911 from you using mudguards in the back wheels only (since thats the wide design area), or some nifty 5 wide front, 6 wide back action with mudguards like the Rossa ;)

I most recently did a Porsche in my scale - never thought it possible, i mean they are a real nut to crack - but it turned out allright. It will be revealed better in a few months perhaps when im more active again.

In general im really finding your thread here a great inspiration for all town builders, especially since it helps transform the SC into their more natural and scale fitting look. This is really needed imo, cause a standard SC is kinda lost in a modular layout scalewise. Im looking forward to seeing less out of the box SC's on displays now

Concerning F1 cars i found that only using a minifig head with helmet as  "fig" quite helpful. The only critique id have here is the large open area around the driver (of course to fit the fig in). On real cars this is so super snug and tight, perhaps you could get rid or the steering wheel and place a 2x4 tile in red over that area to "cover" him completly? Should fit i think....

And one thought about stickers from my side: would selfmade HQ printing really be against the 100% lego rule (since their own stickers are printed on second company material i heard)? Also cutting a TLG producedsticker makes it still Lego by definition not?  I know you have your own opinion on that, but if i look at the history of TLG, there have been many second brand ventures done by them with all sorts of materials.

anyway, great thread here as inspiration for many more builders to come!

cheers!

 

[ER0L]

19 hours ago, Ron Dayes said:

The new Porsche is really awesome!
I think 7 wide is a real badass scale, allows some great stuff :)
Also agreeing on not taking mudguards for this particular model - mudguards kinda ruin some car designs. For example i could never imagine your (or derjoes?) Charger with them...
Perhaps its just that classic cars dont have such wide mudguard areas, rather using the "cut out of frame" design, while modern cars have them "added on". Just as this older Porsche Race car...
Since you are allready at a Porsche, i could imagine an 80ies 911 from you using mudguards in the back wheels only (since thats the wide design area), or some nifty 5 wide front, 6 wide back action with mudguards like the Rossa ;)

I most recently did a Porsche in my scale - never thought it possible, i mean they are a real nut to crack - but it turned out allright. It will be revealed better in a few months perhaps when im more active again.

In general im really finding your thread here a great inspiration for all town builders, especially since it helps transform the SC into their more natural and scale fitting look. This is really needed imo, cause a standard SC is kinda lost in a modular layout scalewise. Im looking forward to seeing less out of the box SC's on displays now

Concerning F1 cars i found that only using a minifig head with helmet as  "fig" quite helpful. The only critique id have here is the large open area around the driver (of course to fit the fig in). On real cars this is so super snug and tight, perhaps you could get rid or the steering wheel and place a 2x4 tile in red over that area to "cover" him completly? Should fit i think....

And one thought about stickers from my side: would selfmade HQ printing really be against the 100% lego rule (since their own stickers are printed on second company material i heard)? Also cutting a TLG producedsticker makes it still Lego by definition not?  I know you have your own opinion on that, but if i look at the history of TLG, there have been many second brand ventures done by them with all sorts of materials.

anyway, great thread here as inspiration for many more builders to come!

cheers!

 

We were able to quote single paragraphs before, weren't we? Can't figure out how it works now. 

First-off, many thanks Ron for your detailed comment! Regarding mudguards I completely agree. Smaller sports cars work well with mudguards - larger muscle cars or even full-size cars don't look good with them because the wheels on those types of cars are rather within the body, not at the edges. I'd love to build a 911 one day, however, there are already some very nice examples - I just don't have an original idea here. On your 911 (which I've seen before) omitting the mudguards works very well but I'm not sure if this solution can be transformed to a larger scale. Anyhow looking forward to the finished model.

Regarding the out of the box SC models in Lego layouts: Yes, I've seen that several times now, too. Same for the Ecto-1 which is completely out of scale in comparison to practically everything in a Lego town. But this only shows that there's a need for more vehicles fitting into the world of modular buildings. In fact, there is simply no out of the box solution for that: either the models are too simple and too small (like Town trucks) or they are a bit more sophisticated (like the Speed Champions) but too large. On the other hand there are many possibilities nowadays for moccers to find a proper compromise. 

Fitting in the figs: I've made a decision here - either you try to fit them in or you don't. From the beginning I've tried to build cars fitting minifigures. Nowadays I know I can't have that everywhere - especially on super-low sports cars. Mutilating figs in order to fit them into vehicles seems contradictory to me (for me it's like fitting a dead body into a suitcase, if you know the scene from "The Americans"). Since a F1 car without a driver looks a bit odd on a race course I'm willing to make compromises here (like on practically everything). The same goes for the steering wheel - it just has to be there in my opinion. 

Lastly, stickers. I've made a decision here some time ago, too: I just don't use any Nonlego stuff on my models. That's why I'm such a fan of the SC series: It allows us to build relatively good-looking race cars without the need to use third-party stickers. There is no "good" Nonlego or "bad" Nonlego in my opinion - it just isn't Lego. And I can tell that this is a great decision because you simply don't have to justify any more why you're using this or that third party stuff on your model. Instead you just concentrate on the best possible solution you can find with Lego. I'd be so bold as to make the case that 90 percent of the Nonlego stuff around are either completely unnecessary or could be replaced by Lego solutions if builders tried harder. Regarding the rest I'd say: Not everything must be built out of Lego. 

Cutting is no option for me, too, not even stickers. Pneumatic hoses may be cut, that's the only exception. I do cut flexible hoses sometimes when the proper length is missing - but only to a length that exists in the same colour. Anyhow, omitting third party stickers is not because I'm so fond of Lego as such. But if we start confusing things here we lose the benchmarks to compare our builds - since that's what we do, trying to find better ways to build a Lego model, not Lego/Nonlego models in varying compositions. Solving problems coming up in the Lego world by using Nonlego solutions doesn't make sense to me.

Many thanks again Ron, looking forward to your upcoming models (which clearly are a benchmark to me regarding extremely sophisticated solutions on small-scaled vehicles - in spite of using a different scale system). 

[Ron Dayes]

3 hours ago, ER0L said:

We were able to quote single paragraphs before, weren't we? Can't figure out how it works now. 

[...]I'd love to build a 911 one day, however, there are already some very nice examples - I just don't have an original idea here. On your 911 (which I've seen before) omitting the mudguards works very well but I'm not sure if this solution can be transformed to a larger scale. Anyhow looking forward to the finished model.

[...]either the models are too simple and too small (like Town trucks) or they are a bit more sophisticated (like the Speed Champions) but too large. On the other hand there are many possibilities nowadays for moccers to find a proper compromise.
[...] Since a F1 car without a driver looks a bit odd on a race course I'm willing to make compromises here (like on practically everything). The same goes for the steering wheel - it just has to be there in my opinion.
[...] the SC series: It allows us to build relatively good-looking race cars without the need to use third-party stickers.
[...] you simply don't have to justify any more why you're using this or that third party stuff on your model. 
[...] 90 percent of the Nonlego stuff around are either completely unnecessary or could be replaced by Lego solutions if builders tried harder.
[...] Solving problems coming up in the Lego world by using Nonlego solutions doesn't make sense to me.

Many thanks again Ron, looking forward to your upcoming models (which clearly are a benchmark to me regarding extremely sophisticated solutions on small-scaled vehicles - in spite of using a different scale system). 

True that, i also wonder where that function went
Well there are quite some 911 out there - but i literally found none of the first generation in minifig scale. That might be an uniqu'erish choice ;) Also would add up nicely to your Aston Martin...
You could do a Cayenne perhaps? Or the Panamera - just to name some non existing brick builds definately worth a shot

Im also quite looking forward to mine hehe, just the ordering on Bricklink is a long duration progress - cant one store have it all^^?
I didnt mean no driver for the F1 - either just the head and helmet or hiding the complete figure for more realism which i thought possible in your case.

Ah well, lets not get too involved in this, since imo nobody really gets hurt if you use third party or not (?).
Im actually wondering whom you have to justify to? For years now your builds seemed very puristic to me? Apart from that - you can always say: No comment!
If i ever had a layout for a show, thats what i absolutely needed to say haha

I think this whole thing is hitting me so hard, since i went quite small with my scale (But i wont turn back now haha) - and some valuable options i have to permanently leave out because a certain (logical) part doesnt exist and perhaps never will. There simply aint the space to do larger techniques sometimes to get it done - so i can try as hard as i want, i will for example never get any lighting done for my cars if i dont use micro LEDS from a third party. A 2x1 lightbricks is like a giant element in my builds - no chance... And i really dont know why there are no smaller lego battery units...thus making third party obligatory if i want to have "functions" just like bigger mocs... limitations encourage, yet i m quite positive we were left out some vital key parts from the company because the focus was someplace else.
perhaps thats why this year we are treated with so many new basic parts cause designers struggled with SC aswell, knowing that new parts must be made to do them justice...good for us :D

Thanks for the praise - despite the scale difference, you really inspire me with your models from the beginning and still - Those were the benchmarks that gotten me from 8 wide chunky cars to 5 wides! So i think a detailed comment from my side is overdue! :-)

Cheers!