Tweet
Lego Lakester
Okay, now - who among us is into LEGO? Well, I wasn't until just recently. LEGO was the stuff I bought nieces and nephews when they were growing up - I didn't build them or play with them. Until...… This Christmas my oldest nephew sent me a LEGO kit of a supposed jet powered salt racer. Around 70 parts, I built it in less than an hour.
But I kept looking at it and thinking.... This is NOT SCTA rulebook legal, and frankly - it's not really what a jet-powered salt racer would look like. For instance, the cones on the front of the engines usually go in back (unless it's a ramjet like on an SR-71). Having 2 powerful jet engines that far apart would cause severe yaw if one was putting out more power than the other. No Bueno, right? And you can't see it here, while the rear wheels were sized correctly for salt racing, the front tires were centered under the car and were size dinky to say the least. Not real world at all.
And thus the challenge - build a rule book legal liner or lakester from LEGO bricks. First, I bought 5 more of these kits, then 2 little dragsters (for the motors), a boat, and 2 different airplane kits. I eventually realized what I needed was a large pool of bricks to choose from.... I bought 2 pounds of mixed parts off Squeebay and proceeded to do some serious sorting.... So - since Christmas, I have been fitting parts and sub-assemblies together - aiming for the best appearance of a salt legal racer. I finally finished last night - sans rollcage. Maybe I can figure that one out later.
What I ended up with is basically ^^^ THAT ^^^ stretched out 16 inches long, powered by 2 blown motors, with lakester style exposed wheels and tires, a narrow drivers canopy, 2 upright fins, a pushbar, 2 parachute tubes, and FIRE shooting out of the headers!!!! The driver is from a police plane kit, used only because he is wearing a 5 point belt system. It is orange and black salty badassery if I say so myself, and I plan to never build another LEGO if all at possible.
Full color pictures later this afternoon, okay?
But I kept looking at it and thinking.... This is NOT SCTA rulebook legal, and frankly - it's not really what a jet-powered salt racer would look like. For instance, the cones on the front of the engines usually go in back (unless it's a ramjet like on an SR-71). Having 2 powerful jet engines that far apart would cause severe yaw if one was putting out more power than the other. No Bueno, right? And you can't see it here, while the rear wheels were sized correctly for salt racing, the front tires were centered under the car and were size dinky to say the least. Not real world at all.
And thus the challenge - build a rule book legal liner or lakester from LEGO bricks. First, I bought 5 more of these kits, then 2 little dragsters (for the motors), a boat, and 2 different airplane kits. I eventually realized what I needed was a large pool of bricks to choose from.... I bought 2 pounds of mixed parts off Squeebay and proceeded to do some serious sorting.... So - since Christmas, I have been fitting parts and sub-assemblies together - aiming for the best appearance of a salt legal racer. I finally finished last night - sans rollcage. Maybe I can figure that one out later.
What I ended up with is basically ^^^ THAT ^^^ stretched out 16 inches long, powered by 2 blown motors, with lakester style exposed wheels and tires, a narrow drivers canopy, 2 upright fins, a pushbar, 2 parachute tubes, and FIRE shooting out of the headers!!!! The driver is from a police plane kit, used only because he is wearing a 5 point belt system. It is orange and black salty badassery if I say so myself, and I plan to never build another LEGO if all at possible.
Full color pictures later this afternoon, okay?
Comment