How Does A Full-Sized LEGO McLaren P1 Really Work?

In September 2024, McLaren System 1 driver Lando Norris made historical past round Silverstone in methods he by no means might have imagined. One mid-autumnal afternoon, the four-time Grand Prix winner turned the primary System 1 pilot to drive a 1:1-scale LEGO automobile, particularly a life-size reproduction of McLaren’s P1 hypercar. He additionally turned the primary driver, ever, to finish a full lap of a Grand Prix circuit in a full-sized, fully-functioning automobile made out of Denmark’s well-known constructing blocks.

Spectacular. However how does it truly work?

“LEGO Needed To Push Themselves Additional Than They Had Beforehand Executed.”

Firstly, let’s get one thing straight. The lap of Silverstone wasn’t a retroactive pitch from LEGO’s advertising division….

“That was the end-game from the very starting,” explains McLaren’s Jonathon Beaumont. “That is the primary absolutely driveable LEGO mannequin that’s able to posting a lap time, and that was LEGO’s transient once they began this challenge. They needed to push themselves additional than that they had beforehand executed, and it was nice to be part of that.”

Surprisingly, when Jonathon, the senior automobile engineering supervisor for McLaren’s ‘Extremely’ Sequence, was first pitched this challenge, he didn’t suppose it was an elaborate joke. Removed from it. He cherished the thought!

“It actually was a ‘pinch your self’ second,” Jonathon continues. “If I might return in time and inform 7-year-old me that he would get the chance to work on a life-sized LEGO automobile, I don’t suppose he’d imagine you!”

“342,817 LEGO Technic components had been painstakingly snapped collectively, by hand, by 23 LEGO specialists over 8,344 hours.”

The entire concept truly got here, not from inside Woking, however as a substitute from LEGO’s design staff led by Lubor Zelinka. If that title sounds acquainted, it’s as a result of Lubor additionally oversaw the design and construct of the full-sized LEGO Bugatti Chiron unveiled in 2019 and the 1:1 LEGO reproduction Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 that debuted in 2021. Each constructed to completely mirror every automobile’s dimensions “to the millimeter.”

With valuable knuckle-scuffing expertise already below their red-and-yellow branded belts, challenge three was at all times going to be extra bold…

“There’s lots we’ve learnt to include into the subsequent challenge,” Lubor explains. “We maintain utilizing much less and fewer bricks” – the 1:1 Bugatti for instance used greater than one million LEGO Technic components – “as a result of we’ve labored out how you can construct extra structurally sound [forms] with much less bricks. That was one of many huge challenges with this one, to maintain the burden all the way down to the minimal, in order that we might lap the Silverstone Circuit at pace.”

How To Make A Good Duplicate

It’s additionally price mentioning that this isn’t simply your ‘commonplace’ 903-horsepower McLaren P1 hypercar with just a few hundred LEGO blocks glued on prime (what sort of a sign-off would that be for the W1’s predecessor?) No, the physique, the body, the cabin, and even the seats have all been made out of LEGO Technic components.

A staggering 342,817 of them, the truth is. All painstakingly snapped collectively, by hand, by 23 LEGO specialists over 8,344 hours. And that’s not even together with the 6,134 hours spent in growth, and an extra 2,210 hours prepping the automobile for its ‘flying’ lap.

However on condition that the LEGO P1 needed to truly, nicely, work, some concessions needed to be made…

“Clearly, to be able to full a lap of Silverstone Circuit with Lando Norris, we had to supply [LEGO] with some elements to allow them to do this.” – Jonathon. – “There’s a spaceframe chassis beneath, then components just like the wheels, the tires, the steering wheel and the ending touches just like the badge on the entrance, these couldn’t be made replicated. However the whole lot else, all the way down to the seats and the inside is totally LEGO.”

“We needed to match the design all the way down to the small particulars.”

“For the primary time, we now have absolutely working suspension, which helps cut back stress on the LEGO Technic bits.” – Lubor. – “The physique will not be glued collectively, and when you have too many vibrations, the items can begin falling off. However that didn’t occur with the McLaren as a result of we had correct suspension to work with, and the trip is easy.”

And for those who suppose utilizing an actual chassis and suspension opened the door for different potential shortcuts, suppose once more. The colour of the bricks, for instance, needed to match McLaren’s well-known papaya…

“We used a shade that’s already a part of the LEGO portfolio, as a result of McLaren had been additionally eager to have the [papaya] as uniform as doable. Many of the [LEGO Technic] components had been accessible, as a result of the P1 is already a part of a set. However some weren’t, and some occasions, we needed to request a selected half for the physique equipment was made within the shade we wanted. That’s the one ‘cheat’ we allowed ourselves.”

Crucially, whereas the 1:1 LEGO P1 needed to work, it additionally needed to BE a McLaren, proper all the way down to the bodylines, and that well-known ‘tick’ on the nostril. Even the headlights had been sculpted to reflect the P1 originals, proper all the way down to headlamp sequence when the engine fires up.

“My function was to make it possible for the full-sized LEGO McLaren P1 was consultant of McLaren as a model.” – Jonathon. – “I used to be concerned within the early phases once we did loads of CAD opinions with the LEGO staff and despatched them loads of 3D information. Actually my function was to make it possible for the enduring options of the P1 roadcar had been precisely mirrored within the life-sized LEGO McLaren P1.”

“We did have loads of inventive freedom.” – Lubor. – “HOW precisely would we [mold] the floor of the automobile? How would it not look? What can we do with the inside once we are in a position to make use of a number of the 1:1 LEGO components and construct a show like that? Stuff like that.

“However we had been nonetheless ‘restricted’ by the form and measurement of the actual automobile as a result of we had been doing a reproduction. We needed to match the design all the way down to the small particulars. And McLaren had been nice to work with on this regard. If we had been uncertain a few explicit element, Jonathon and his staff would simply make a video for us and ship it again that very same day.” – Many of the construct was executed in Billund. – “That was nice!”

It appears an odd mixture on the face of it, doesn’t it? But it surely seems, essentially the most well-known Danish firm on the planet (sit down, Carslberg…), famous for its shade and quirkiness, shares the identical fastidious, borderline obsessive, consideration to element as that almost all ‘British’ of supercar makers, McLaren…

“One of many issues I most loved about working with the LEGO staff is their pursuit of excellence.” – Jonathon. – “These are on the core, actually, of each manufacturers, McLaren and LEGO Group. It was an actual pleasure working with their staff to verify this was as shut as doable to the actual automobile. I imply, the cabin. Ergonomically, and the way in which the whole lot is laid out, it actually does mimic the sensation of sitting in an actual P1.”

McLaren P1 (The Actual One, Clearly!)

The Lap!

All of which brings us to the lap itself. Hundreds of hours of fine-tuning and simulation testing had already been accomplished earlier than Lando emulated 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Andy Wallace by leaping (gently!) into the brick-built bucket to drive a full-scale LEGO automobile at pace.

The McLaren ace, nonetheless, was not the primary driver to show these 19-inch entrance wheels in anger. That honor went to Lubor.

“It handles identical to an actual automobile, however the whole lot round you is constructed from LEGO Technic items. So you’ve gotten very combined emotions if you drive it.

“It’s very silent, however you’ll be able to hear this little buzzing and buzzing, like a swarm of bees behind the bulkhead! After which, for those who push the pedal down, what surprises you most is the wind, as a result of there isn’t a windscreen. Which matches in-line with LEGO Technic, as a result of they by no means have glazing both.”

Presumably there’s much less strain concerned driving a LEGO McLaren P1 than an actual one?

“No! To start with, you solely have one automobile, and though you’ll be able to rebuild your bumper, actually, you don’t need to do any hurt to the automobile. With both of them, you’re only one unhealthy press of the pedal away from a very unhealthy scenario!”

“If you happen to push the pedal down, what surprises you most is the wind, as a result of there isn’t a windscreen.”

Provided that weight “is the enemy” for a challenge like this (the entire construct weighs slightly below 2,700 kilos), the P1’s twin-turbocharged, mild-hybrid V8 was changed by an electrical motor “consisting of LEGO Technic Perform batteries” mated with an electrical automobile battery, and a LEGO Technic engine comprising 768 motors. Styled, relatively sportingly, as a ‘V.’

Fairly than 663 pound-feet of torque then, Lando needed to make do with lower than 1 / 4 of that. With the 217 MPH prime pace additionally pegged at 37 MPH, it wasn’t the spiciest of sizzling laps.

Certainly, each Lubor and Jonathan play it coy once we ask how lengthy it truly took Lando to finish the three.66-mile loop – “I don’t suppose it was timed” – however a tough estimate locations his laptime across the 9-10-minute mark. Keep in mind the younger Brit certified third for his dwelling Grand Prix two months earlier in simply 1m 26.559s.

Nonetheless, rampant pace was removed from the purpose of this train. Sure, it’s a noteworthy, if time-consuming and colossally costly advertising marketing campaign for LEGO Technic’s new, 1:8-scale 3,893-piece McLaren P1 set (accessible from $3,893 USD, plug plug…), however for Lubor and his staff, it’s excess of that. It’s pushing the boundaries of what many dismiss as an idle plaything. However for Lubor and his staff, a 1:1 LEGO automobile unlocks loads of modern potential.

“I at all times need to use as a lot LEGO as doable for these tasks, as a result of then it’s true to the Technic line, ‘constructed for actual.’ And previously, we now have had all types of loopy concepts: go sooner; push for a pace file, and many others. Personally, I’m not a giant fan of that as a result of that forces you to make use of much less and fewer LEGO elements. However there are different issues we haven’t tried but.”

Like a working V8 engine?

“Would an actual working V8, with inner combustion, be doable with LEGO? I wouldn’t say so. However perhaps there will likely be some components subsequent time.”