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IMHO the Speed Champions line is one of the best lines Lego has created in a long time. I've always been a gearhead, and seeing nice race cars in minifig scale was maybe the best thing that came came from TLG in 2015. I got the whole line, and despite I would have a really hard time to say which is the best (though the F14 T & Scuderia Ferrari Truck set is a top contender), one "theme" that caught my eye were the F1 cars.

Both the Ferrari F14 T and the McLaren MP4-29 are gorgeous, so I started thinking about expanding my fleet. First I looked at previous Lego offerings, and was fortunate to find a pristine 2009 Ferrari Truck (#8185). The truck is great but those huge knobby tires on the F1 were an eye sore. Without much trouble I was able to mod it to "proper" slick tires, and IMO it looks much better now:

F1_06.jpg

F1_07.jpg

With that done, I got tempted to make more cars. Not actual representations of current F1 cars but models that could pass as a decent Lego F1 cars in minifig scale. After a few orders from BL for the parts needed, this is what I came up with:

F1_02.jpg

F1_03.jpg

F1_04.jpg

I tried to make them in scale to the official Lego models and after an evening of building I think they came out half decent. Here's the whole fleet:

F1_01.jpg

F1_08.jpg

F1_09.jpg

Of course some stickers would make a world of difference, and I do fancy the idea of making a custom set. However, I bet that those who assembled the Speed Racers sets will agree with me that making a whole sticker sheet would NOT be something easy to do. Maybe the alternative would be to make stickers for "test cars", which would have a lot less logos to apply, but I would like to see proper race cars, in all their racing colors glory. So I'll have to think about this some more.

Still, I can say that we have a lot to build in terms of F1 cars. I was a bit disappointed that there won't be more official F1 cars in 2016, but since we'll have a 917K (already en route :grin:) Lego is forgiven.

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Nice F1 cars! personally i don't feel like stickers are really needed, the shape of the cars do a well enough job with identifying the cars they are meant to be. though i will concede that racing cars may benefit from stickers due to the lack of sponsors being an odd sight. that said i look forward to your next cars!

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Like every normal AFOL, I also don't like (hate?) stickers, but if you're trying to make a race car that looks real, you can't do without them - the model will look more believable if can have some logos. I don't think you need to go crazy, like with the Ferrari 458, but a few here and there will make things look more real.

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Nice collection. I have my own replacement for the F1 cars from the 8654 and 8185 Ferrari F1 Truck sets, though the tires I used are not as good as the newer SC slicks you've used here.

One thing I don't like so much is the exposed arms of the drivers in the newer designs. I much prefer the use of removable wedge plates to enclose the driver, as per your modified 8185 design above.

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That looks VERY good! :thumbup:

And you're right, specially from above, the car looks better with the driver's arms covered. But in my eyes the tires are the detail that really sets the newer models apart from the older ones. And for me that was an issue, since I had to get the new chassis plates to make them work, and depleted ALL my spare wheels/tires that came with the 2015 sets.

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