LEGO takes to the track with a life-size version of their 1:8 McLaren P1

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McLaren Formula 1 Team driver Lando Norris completed a lap around Silverstone (5.891km) in this life-size car made up of 342,817 LEGO Technic elements and an electric motor; the first big build the LEGO Group has ever made capable of steering and driving an entire lap of a racetrack

The 1:1 scale LEGO Technic McLaren P1 weighed in at around 1220kg and features fully functional steering, an electric motor consisting of LEGO Technic Function batteries (8 motor packs, each consisting of 96 LEGO Power function motors, which means the car features a total of 768 LEGO motors. The 8 motor packs imitate the V8 seen in the original McLaren P1), and an electric car battery and took 23 specialists from design, engineering and building from the LEGO group and McLaren Automotive 8,344 hours of development and construction to complete.

We’ve missed out many of the enthusiastic adjectives from the press release describing this UTTERLY OUTSTANDING INCREDIBLE achievement several times over, but, here are some important people saying some stuff of a similar vain.

 “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. 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.” Ben Gulliver, Test & Development Director, McLaren Automotive.

“This project marks the latest in a long list of collaborations between the LEGO Group and McLaren, bringing together McLaren engineers and the LEGO Model Production team from conception all the way to the final build.

McLaren’s automotive and engineering expertise has been invaluable in helping us produce a model as authentic to the original McLaren P1™ as possible, allowing us to turn a dream into a reality. It was incredibly cool to see McLaren F1™ driver, Lando Norris driving the car we created.” Lukáš Horák, Senior Project Manager in Model Production, LEGO Group.

Grab your 1:18 scale version for £389.99 – With a 7-speed gearbox with a dual clutch transmission, suspension, V8 piston engine, adjustable rear wing, and opening dihedral doors with advanced mechanisms (does this mean they close as well).

We did have a little go at “How much did this all cost”, undercooking it a fair bit on all angles/input/location/staffing and the rest and still couldn’t get it below £200k. So, please buy a P1 set, LEGO needs you.

If you’ve three minutes to recap all the above in visual form and watch this SUPERLATIVE SUCCESS on the Silverstone racetrack, watch it:

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