World First – Lego McLaren Conquers Silverstone

Here’s something you don’t see every day – Lego and McLaren got together and created a life-size 1:1 replica of the McLaren P1 using 342,817 Lego blocks. And then they put it to a real world test.

This was a serious effort. The dimensions of the car are ​​4980mm long, 2101mm wide and 1,133mm high, similar to the original P1. Weighing in at 1220kg, the P1 replica has fully functional steering, and ‘an electric motor’ powered by Lego Technic Function batteries, along with an electric car battery. Since you’re wondering, it actually uses 768 Lego motors (not a misprint).

The McLaren mimic took 8344 hours of development and construction and involved 23 specialists from the Lego and McLaren groups. The build required 393 different types of Lego Technic elements.

And naturally Lego and McLaren had to take it for a spin. They chose a track dear to McLaren’s heart, Silverstone, a lap of which is 5.89km.

For the lap of honour, McLaren naturally chose its F1 driver, Lando Norris. You can watch it here.

Neither Lego nor McLaren would comment on how long exactly it took to complete the lap. We’d guess the ultimate time was probably limited by the brick-like aerodynamics.

Lukáš Horák, Senior Project Manager of Installations, Lego Group commented: “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.”

The Lego Technic McLaren P1 1:8 set is available at www.LEGO.com/McLaren and Lego Stores priced at around $NZ825.