[MOC] Red Bull SMG Dakar Buggy of Carlos Sainz (Ford GT alternate)

[gyenesvi]

Hi Folks!

I'm back with another alternate build this time. I've had the Ford GT for a while, and had this idea quite soon, but could only get around to actually build it recently. As usual, I wanted to build something of an off-roader, as I'm more into them than sports cars. Also, I wanted to see if some alternative suspension is buildable from these parts. A buggy seemed a good material for that, as they usually have independent front and triangulated trailing arm rear suspension, something I rarely see in lego form. And the color scheme and fender parts made this set perfect for the Red Bull SMG buggy.

Carlos Sainz used to race this buggy in the Dakar Rally. He just recently won the 2024 Dakar Rally at the age of 61 (with and Audi E-tron :D). So this can also be considered kind of a tribute to his older car :)

Features:

• Bouncy, high travel suspension, double wishbone independent front, independent triangulated trailing arm rear
• Mid-rear mounted V6 fake engine driven from rear wheels
• HoG steering on the roof, easily detachable for display
• Doors openable upwards

Here is a video to showcase it all:

 

Some more details on the design.

Chassis and suspension

The design started with the rear suspension. I have only recently seen such a trailing arm suspension in real life, and made me interested how to make it in lego form. Mounting the wheel hub on a triangular arm in a stable way was actually easier than I thought. The tricky part is the drivetrain, as it is perpendicular to the swinging direction of the trailing arm, and hence the length of the driveshaft needs to change a bit during travel to follow the movement of the trailing arm. That all could have been replicated nicely if TLG didn't make the driveshaft a single piece in the Ford GT, but instead two parts that could slide in and out, but well, they don't seem to think about reusability in different contexts (it is still a mystery to me why they made it a single piece). But anyway, the change in angle is small enough here to allow it to work for a manual model even with the single part in the set.

Anyways, after the rear suspension seemed doable, I tried to build a chassis to connect it to the front axle, and this is where I got slowed down. The main structural part in this set is the 3x19 frame, but that was impossible to use here on the sides as in the A model, because it was too long to fit in, as the rear suspension protrudes to the front quite a bit. At the same time, I needed it to connect the front suspension in a stable way. Also, this model being an off-roader should sit quite a bit higher than a sports car to have ground clearance, but should not be too high either. So I had little space left for framing. Furthermore, the engine placement is also difficult, because the set does not contain enough gears to route it elsewhere (higher) but to a low mid-rear position as in the A model. After a lot of juggling, I managed to use two large frames in a flat position that results in a stable connection to the front and sides of the car. It helped a lot when I realized that the H frame around the differential does not need a super solid connection to the middle chassis, because the rear suspension is not connected to the center, so it does not bear any load :)

Also, I had to leave a big hole on the floor to be able to place the seats low enough, and in the end the 15x11 frame turned out to be quite useful, going around the seats.

The next difficult area was the front suspension, because due to the larger ground clearance required, I had very limited space to work with, into which I also had to fit some down-gearing to make the HoG easier to use (same way as on A model). But luckily, the range of travel turned out to be good, though it was hard to place it all under the hood.

Here is the complete chassis:

Bodywork and interior

The interior contains sporty seats placed as low as possible, along with a simple dashboard. Fun fact: TLG made the steering wheel in this model just a tiny bit wider than 4 units (whose idea was that?), so it does not fit exactly in front of the 4 wide seats (I had to offset it half a stud in order not to collide with the door panel, which is right next to the seat).

On the exterior, the most challenging part was the hood and the front fenders, both because of the shaping of all the curved surfaces, and because the very front is just hanging in the air, so I had to make the connection from the center firm enough to hold it, while avoiding it to collide with the front suspension. It went through about five iterations until I arrived to this one. The hood is unfortunately sitting a bit too high, I could not lower it any more, but it's not too bad.

One thing I wanted to emphasize is the air vents? on the sides. Also, I managed to make something of an openable door (rather window), not sure how the original opens, but I have seen something similar on buggies like this, and this was doable from the available parts.

The stickers were made by Forwart Sticker. The model originally got finished for a car exhibition in Hungary, so I decided to have them made because it does elevate the looks quite a bit I think.

Here are some photos of the finished model.

 

More images are available on my Bricksafe.

Building instructions are available on Rebrickable.

Let me know how you like it!

Cheers,

Viktor

 

Edited May 7 by gyenesvi

[Mantarri]

Wow, love the looks of this all on its own! It being an alternate model makes that even more impressive.

[Milan]

Frontpaged.

[Paul B Technic]

This is great and well presented.

[1gor]

Actually it looks better than Lego set

[Krxlion]

I would have never thought you can build something like this out of this set, great work! I really like the front fenders, it give so unique look and sells the look of original buggy.

[N1K0L4]

Awesome, I like it more than the original set.

[2GodBDGlory]

Impressive, and that's an interesting rear suspension! I'm glad to see it here!

[gyenesvi]

Thanks for all the nice words and the frontpaging!

On 5/7/2024 at 3:53 PM, 2GodBDGlory said:

Impressive, and that's an interesting rear suspension! I'm glad to see it here!

And I have more ideas for trailing arm suspensions to come :)