[MOC] BMW LMR '99 - 1/15 Scale

[prototyp]

TLDR: Super-detailed fully-modularized Creator-scale 16-wide MOC build of beautiful 1999 Le Mans-winning FIA LMP prototype.

903 pieces (including 3 round-plates-with-strings, 6 whips, and 8 “non-Lego” custom wheel parts).
1/15.2 scale: 16 stud wide, 38 stud long, 23 stud wheelbase

Winner - with a bit of luck - of an exceptionally rough and tumble 1999 Le Mans in the hands of Joachim Winkelhock, Pierluigi Martini, and Yannick Dalmas. The LMR was the second iteration of BMW’s LMP car, designed and constructed by BMW with Williams F1, powered by a development of the BMW S70 V12 which the McLaren F1 had used to win Le Mans a few years prior. Longtime BMW racing partner Schnitzer Motorsport ran the team at Le Mans proper as well as in the American Le Mans series. The low and sleek car looked like a ufo compared to the competition.

The LMR has a fairly simple and compact shape, but it’s not a brick… the subtle lines are quite refined and put up a challenge to capture smoothly in Lego. The entire nose build is a circus of surfaces all at slightly different angles, their mountings dotted here and there in precise positions over the tub structure. The roll-hoop and engine hump cowlings are jammed full of more angles and curves. The rear fenders tumble and taper back to those extremely compact multi-directional-snotted wing mount and taillight assemblies. The sidepods look simple but are full of some connections voodoo for their multi-hinged lower surfaces. The car's so slim there's really nowhere to hide much supporting structure.

 

 

Wheel inserts and brake discs are designed in Cinema4d and fit into the back axle tubes of Lego's Icons wheel #42716. The spoke shape, offset and hub proportions were refined through a sequence of paper prototypes to dial in their scale, then the final design was high-resolution SLA resin printed and sprayed with Tamiya TS38 gunmetal (as are the backs of the Lego wheels).

Graphics are a mix of printed stickers and cut vinyl. It's not quite perfect: the indigo color-shift blue vinyl turned out a bit too dark - needs a much larger surface area and strong light to really sparkle - and those delicate air-flow pinstripes need to be metallic on transparent substrate so the different white materials aren’t as noticeable.

 

The open cockpit captures various details; Pi/BMW M digital dash, switches panel, electronics boxes all carefully studied, drawn in Illustrator, and shrunk down to scale. (I forgot to do the Emergency markings, so these are swiped from a 1/24 model and comically small)

 

The rear bodywork is a large single assembly that lifts off, revealing that glorious V12. The rear wing and trailing edge of the bodywork (with those complex little taillights) is cantilevered off the end of the transmission.

 

The intake airbox assembly lifts off to reveal 12 intake trumpets, the oil tank and engine ancillaries. Getting the radiators attach at angles flush with the wing plates on the ends of the sidepods was a triumph of Lego maths... A few stickers for the radiator faces and the cam covers provide some texture.

 

The sidepods, splitter, and engine drivetrain are all separate from the tub following the construction and design typical of these cars; the bare chassis of these masterpieces of design and packaging is one my favorite views…

The tub itself has a raised footbox with a rounded 'boat prow' profile which helped to channel airflow from the upswept nose underside out through the open sidepods. The remaining flat floor continues back to under the rear axle where the shallow diffuser tunnel kicks up.

 

As always, thanks for looking and thanks for the inspiration,
Prototyp

These photos up at Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/prototyp/

Stop by and say hi: https://instagram.com/prototyp_brickworks

[Thirdwigg]

The LMP car is my favorite, and the 90s-00s were my favorite time for them. I love the open, offset, cockpit designs on this era.

This is an iconic car, and you recreated it well. Those arches are perfect for the front wheel covers, and flow nicely into the side pods. The engine cover looks great as well. You did a great job on the bodywork. Know that all the shapes, and snot work did not go unnoticed. 

The internals are top notch as well. great job fitting everything in. When I did my OCTAN LMP this last year, I was constantly putting the engine cover back on to test the fit of each and every engine detail I made. I would make a change, test again, change the cover, and on and on. I wonder if you experienced something similar with this design. Great idea for the engine trumpets as well.

Overall great build, and one you can be proud of. Well done.

[prototyp]

31 minutes ago, Thirdwigg said:

Overall great build, and one you can be proud of. Well done.

Cheers, thank you so much.

Quote

I would make a change, test again, change the cover, and on and on. I wonder if you experienced something similar with this design.

 

Design was mostly engineered digitally in Bricksmith where I can make a mess of translucent parts to help visualize connections, fixed points, hinge-points, critical structures, check for conflicts and overlaps. Would be so difficult to get all the intertwined connections and structures wound together without either huge amounts of iteration (as you've done) or by being able to see into and through the designs... That said there are always refinements that come from building the thing a few times.

Your Octan build is very much a cousin to this one. Would be very cool to do a few more LMP-era open-top cars, tbh... Or really any of the modern prototypes. (I do have a Audi R18 model 99% done and in the cue to shoot and post. It's outrageous.)

[Lixander]

That looks way too accurate. Splendid job!

[Milan]

Frontpaged.

[2GodBDGlory]

Wow, that's some serious attention to detail! It's clear that it was a bit of a passion project!

[Teofrast024]

I really love the way you made the arches over the wheels. Interestingly, the clearance is very low, maximum 1 mm. The proportions of the original car are rendered very accurately, great job!
Uhhhh I can't take my eyes off the ground clearance, this model is perfect