A collaboration between McLaren Automotive and Lego has created a life-size, driveable version of the McLaren P1 hypercar, assembled from Lego Technic pieces.
Setting it apart from previous Lego projects, the P1 was driven by F1 World Championship contender Lando Norris around a lap of the Silverstone circuit.
This marks the first time a Lego scale build has been driven around a race track, and the first time a Formula One driver has been behind the wheel.
A life-size Lego McLaren
Designing and building the life-size Lego McLaren P1 involved 23 specialists from different teams. Staff from both companies worked on the project, which required a total of 8,344 hours from start to finish.
The end result was an accurate scale replica of the McLaren P1, constructed from 342,817 Lego Technic pieces. Some 393 different Lego parts were used, including 11 developed especially for this car.
Measuring 4,980mm in length and 2,101mm in width, this is clearly not your average Lego model. A kerb weight of 1,220kg also means the Technic P1 is only 270kg lighter than the original McLaren version.
McLaren P1 goes electric
The Lego Technic P1 does without the 916hp twin-turbocharged hybrid V8 found in the road car, relying instead on electric propulsion.
Lego has used eight electric motor packs, with each pack housing 96 individual Lego Function Motors. It makes for a combined total of 768 Lego electric motors, which are powered by Technic Function batteries and a 12-volt car battery.
Such complexity means the full-size Lego Technic McLaren can travel further than any Lego model before it – and was capable of completing the 3.66-mile Silverstone circuit with Norris driving.
An automotive icon
Ben Gulliver, test and development director at McLaren Automotive, said: “Having worked on the original P1 programme for McLaren, it’s amazing to see so many of the elements from the original car brought to life so realistically by the Lego Technic team for the full-scale model.
“The P1 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 the life-size Lego Technic McLaren P1 is strictly a one-off, fans can purchase the (slightly smaller) 1:8-scale version launched earlier this year. With a mere 3,893 parts, the Lego Technic model – priced at £389.99 – should take less time to build, too.
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