McLaren and Lego have kitted out two-time Formula 1 winner Lando Norris with a driveable 1:1 scale replica of the P1 hypercar for a lap of the British Grand Prix circuit.
Creating the full-size model required 342,817 Lego Technic elements and took 23 specialists from Lego and McLaren 8,344 hours to complete using 393 different types of Lego.
“For the body, it took months of hands-on testing and building before we got to the final design,” explained Lego design manager Lubor Zelinka. “There is no carbon fibre, we needed to find a suitable texture using Lego Technic elements. We wanted the skin to be flexible so that we can replicate all the curvature that’s on the real car.”
The team came up with a unique method to mimic the carbon fibre bodywork of the P1 with a two-tone skin made from thousands of components that could be sculpted to the correct shape, but the biggest challenge was to make the car actually move.
It’s underpinned by a steel chassis and conventional suspension, although power comes from no less than 968 Lego motors in eight motor packs in homage to the P1’s V8 engine. Each of those packs is made from 96 Lego Power motors and together they can propel the Lego P1 to 40 mph.
“It felt like a car,” declared Norris after his lap of Silverstone. “The steering I felt was pretty good. Copse, I did it flat.”
“Having worked on the original P1 programme for McLaren, it’s amazing to see so many of the elements from the original McLaren P1 brought to life so realistically by the LEGO Technic team for the full-scale model,” said Ben Gulliver, Test & Development Director, McLaren Automotive. “The car was an icon of its time. I hope that through this collaboration with the LEGO Group, we are able to inspire the next generation of designers and engineers to push the boundaries of automotive innovation.”
Although this unique full-size kit won’t be for sale fans can buy a 1:8 scale P1 replica for $449.99 from the Lego Store.
