[WIP] Bentley Turbo R LWB

[MP LEGO Technic creations]

Hello everyone,

after some time I'm starting another WIP topic.

Even though I haven't been building a car for a very long time, this one might be an exception in my agricultural and construction machines era.

I've always wanted to own a British car, though I'm not anywhere close to it. Therefore I've decided to build a scaled-down version :)

While scrolling through some websites, this one instantly caught my eye.

Even though I have never seen it in real life, nor I have any other bonds with it, this project means much more to me than any other before and through ist completion I'd like to pay homage to some recent events.

I don't have many planned functions, I would just like to reproduce as many details as possible, of course coloured in British racing green, in LEGO's dark green colour respectively.

Due to its scale there are going to be no motors but lights might be considered in the future.

I've started with a frame:

Added both axles:

A quick placement of the roof:

I had to add some dark green elements as soon as possible so it doesn't resemble a wrecked Batmobile 

I was really delighted when i found out that those slope corners fit nicely and even exist in dark green 

I also started with the front part of the frame:

Things were going well until I realized that due to its construction there's a half stud offset in two directions , building this weird contraption above shock absorbers is my best solution so far:

I know that using motorcycle wheels on car is not ideal but that's something I've been wanting to try since their introduction. Here's how they're connected to large turntables. After mounting every rim is secured by two 3L pins, so that's for the first time when wheels won't come off during presentation  Yep, you have to install rims and tyres separately, which is a bit unrealistic...

And now a few photos of my current state (the front bumper is just a placeholder):

 

 

 

 

The most interesting feature built so far is in my opinion definitely a car seat, which I'm sure I have never seen before in any other MOC.

Have you ever wondered how to expand the possibilities of your LEGO car interior? Introducing my own concept of an upholstered LEGO seat. Built with more than 500 original parts (an amazing way to compress shock absorbers to their maximum when multiplied by four )

I've made a short video demonstration below:

As I've stated in the beginning, I have no knowledge about the full-size counterpart, therefore anyone's help would be very welcome.

Thank you for visiting 

Edited July 20 by Milan
Fixed the video to be visible

[Seasider]

@MP LEGO Technic creations - so what do you want to know about the car? I may know a little about it and the brand 😉

[msk6003]

I wanted to try something like this when I first saw those tires. Is it okay to use just one wheel?

[2GodBDGlory]

Very cool! It's fun to see someone building a studfull car these days! I also have always been interested in that wheel/tire combination, so I'm happy to see it here!

[1gor]

Seat idea is great and original at the same time; long ago I have started Mustang GT 500 1:8 project using studded construction, but it was to heavy for shocks...I hope that suspension solution that you chose will ne the oposite of Bugatti

[Milan]

Great and ambitious start.
Reminds me on @nicjasno's builds.

Your video link has been fixed, now it is visible.

[Paul B Technic]

Great progress, this is going to be great :)

[ukbajadave]

What a fantastic choice of subject! I think the 80s square styling will lend itself well to Lego.

To me these are incredibly cool cars ever since our rich uncle took us out in his new Rolls Royce Silver Spur. I remember the mascot being spring loaded. Sadly not a feature of the Bentley equivalent though. 

21 hours ago, MP LEGO Technic creations said:

...

I've always wanted to own a British car, though I'm not anywhere close to it...

These can be surprisingly affordable to buy £5000 ebay Bentley but I've always suspected not cheap to run. Until it broke it would be a magnificent place to waft about in though.

[MP LEGO Technic creations]

Alright, after 7 Bricklink orders and one from Pick a Brick, I finally have a bit of a progress to share.

First of all - on this website I found a side view which turned out to be quite useful in building bodywork.

I also realized a strange issue with the wheelbase of my original chassis - while the wheelbase was right, everything else seemed off because the A-pillars were mounted too close to the front axle. It would be possible to avoid this issue by shortening the roof....which I decided not to do.  Instead, I've added two more studs right behind the front axle to improve the proportions a bit (the length is now around 70 cm).

Therefore, let's call it the Bentley Turbo R LWB from now on (1211 were made according to the mighty internet).

 

It has been already equipped by all four doors, as well as some 'ratchet' mechanism, which produces a satisfying click when closing each door.

 

 

 

A spare wheel has also found its place on the underside.

There are a few issues that I'm aware right now:

• The suspension - these shock absorbers are far too weak for such a build (over 4 kilograms - the bodywork isn't even finished, every seat consists of 500 parts....). I'd like to use the old 11,5L but they seem to be quite pricey and I wasn't able to find a single test of their strength. This leads me to a question. According to some sources the rear sub-frame is anchored by a Panhard rod. I have honestly never seen a Panhard rod on a semi-trailing arm suspension (only on live axles). Is there anyone who could explain this to me?
• Another one: 

  On 7/20/2024 at 4:17 PM, msk6003 said:

  Is it okay to use just one wheel?

  I thought so some time ago. Not now. As the tyre is supported only on one side, after some time it stretches and comes off easily. I really want to use these rims as they're the only ones that can be connected to not fall of but then there's no other tyre choice as well 

Anyway, let's move on to my most ridiculous LEGO purchase ever - a unicorn minifigure 

Its wing piece was needed to resemble the Flying B logo of Bentley.

 

 

 

 

I know that an illuminated hood emblem is rather a domain of Rolls-Royce's Spirit of Ecstasy but look at that!

 

I've experimented with headlights as well. Unfortunately metallic silver dishes don't reflect as much light as I hoped to.

I was really delighted when LEGO Poinsettia came out because there are a few dark green wedge plates that will make the bodywork much cheaper than the currently available ones.

And finally another question for @Seasider:

These two cars have somehow different front side window support and mirrors arrangement are these two different versions from the same time or one is newer than the another one?

 

Thanks for reading and any advice, have a nice day 

Edited September 2 by MP LEGO Technic creations

[1gor]

Actually it is very clean looking build and IMHO you made perfect front end.

[tomek9210]

As for the suspension - try pneumatic cylinders. Or add some torsion bars to that.

Is the front suspension working okay? The wishbones mounting points to the hub do not match with the turning axis of the hub.

[MP LEGO Technic creations]

6 minutes ago, tomek9210 said:

Is the front suspension working okay? The wishbones mounting points to the hub do not match with the turning axis of the hub.

The front suspension uses 4 standard wishbone parts per wheel and all four of them are connected together by a liftarm at an angle and held by tow balls. There's an axle connected to this liftarm which is used as a pivot point for steering. The tow balls are not involved in steering at all. It might not be a completely legal solution, I haven't found any stressed parts, though.

(I know that quoting images form the same page is not ideal....)

On 7/20/2024 at 2:10 PM, MP LEGO Technic creations said:

 

[1gor]

I suggest using Audi hubs instead of hub reduction because driver would turn in third streed after desired 

[tomek9210]

43 minutes ago, MP LEGO Technic creations said:

The front suspension uses 4 standard wishbone parts per wheel and all four of them are connected together by a liftarm at an angle and held by tow balls. There's an axle connected to this liftarm which is used as a pivot point for steering. The tow balls are not involved in steering at all. It might not be a completely legal solution, I haven't found any stressed parts, though.

 

I know what you mean, but there is 2 studs difference between two axis - wheel turning axis and up and down movement axis. 

[Appie]

5 hours ago, MP LEGO Technic creations said:

The suspension - these shock absorbers are far too weak for such a build (over 4 kilograms - the bodywork isn't even finished, every seat consists of 500 parts....). I'd like to use the old 11,5L but they seem to be quite pricey and I wasn't able to find a single test of their strength.

In a car I build a few years ago with a weight of about 5kg, I needed 3 hard 6.5L springs for each wheel to keep the suspension functional (and to this day it still is). Instead of the old 11.5L springs from motorbikes you linked, you could consider these springs Lego uses in current 1:8 car sets (Ferrari and Mclaren) and 1:5 motorbikes (BMW and Yamaha).

 

It's outside spring actually does nothing, the heavy duty spring is internal and is stronger than about 3 of these 9.5L very hard springs based on a quick test of a buddy.

So this should give you quite some wiggle room compared to my setup of 12 6.5L hard springs to keep 5kg up.

 

Great progress on your build btw, will be following this with great interest

Edited September 2 by Appie
had to fix links

[Seasider]

I’ll have to do some digging around but on first look you’ve got a US spec LHD car in the top image and a U.K. spec car in the lower image. So that could account for something, but I’d need to ask someone who knows more about this era than me.

Found it … the smaller door quarter glass is from RT which was the end of the Turbo R vehicles. So you have two cars from the start and end of production there.

As to your illuminated mascot. The current Flying Spur has an option for an illuminated Flying B.

and in terms of wheelbases lots of Bentleys have been done in various wheelbases some even just for a single customer or very limited numbers.

looking forward to seeing how you capture the 6 and 3/4 engine 

Edited September 2 by Seasider

[msk6003]

I think I has almost lego spring and those BMW/Yamaha/1:8 9L spring is strongest one I have. Even more stronger(feel like x2 harder) than that 11L Lego RC spring.

[Michael217]

Very cool! I wonder how you will find so many such details, the rarest thing and the most expensive)

[2GodBDGlory]

I love this model! So ambitious, and so different from your typical Technic car, both in scale, and in being studfull

[_Electro_]

I think roof not must be so flat, in original roof is a little curved, you can realise it with curved slopes.

And in my opinion is that body pillars have thick ending, but other things looks good, and I want to see the final version!

[Seasider]

I’ve gone back and looked at your model a few times and I can’t work out what’s off. I’ve found some side views of the Arnage, the car that replaced this, and found a few things.

1. I don’t think your wheels fill the arches enough (too much air gap)

2. I think the relationship between the a-pillar (windscreen pillar) and front axle is wrong. If you draw a line down the a-pillar this line should be behind the axle.

3. I agree with @_Electro_ that the roof is too flat. They do have a slight crown to them

but I think in general the model looks too flat and long and not tall enough somehow, difficult to explain where it feels off. I’ll try and find some side images of a Turbo R

edit - here you go an eBay advert for a Turbo RL LWB I think this shows the issues I see

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266969920641?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=sKislBlDSSW&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=Rv3OAP9sSQO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

Edited September 7 by Seasider

[MP LEGO Technic creations]

Alright, thanks for feedback, guys!

@Appie and @msk6003 I've decided to drop those old shocks in favor to the new super hard ones.

On 9/6/2024 at 1:24 AM, Michael217 said:

the rarest thing and the most expensive)

In a new set called Poinsettia, these  are introduced in dark green, so I'm going to use them instead.

 

16 hours ago, _Electro_ said:

I think roof not must be so flat, in original roof is a little curved, you can realise it with curved slopes.

I've used curved slopes all around the roof but that doesn't seem to make the roof much curvier.

 

4 hours ago, Seasider said:

that the roof is too flat. They do have a slight crown to them

The only way to make it look like it should, I suppose, is to split it into a few segments and tilt each of them slightly more than the one before. The downsides of this solution are that the roof would be much less sturdy and there would be ugly gaps between each pair of these segments. I've considered this solution in the beginning, then decided not to go this way, though.

 

4 hours ago, Seasider said:

1. I don’t think your wheels fill the arches enough (too much air gap)

Unfortunately this is going to be only worse after installing harder shock absorbers 

 

4 hours ago, Seasider said:

2. I think the relationship between the a-pillar (windscreen pillar) and front axle is wrong. If you draw a line down the a-pillar this line should be behind the axle.

I think you're right, although I've thought that this had been eliminated by adding two studs of length to my original chassis frame. Obviously not... I could add two more studs or move both A-pillars backwards by shortening the roof and front doors by two studs but neither of these solutions are going to look much better (in my opinion). If you could estimate - how big is the difference between the current and the wanted placement of the pillar?

Edited Saturday at 11:49 AM by MP LEGO Technic creations

[1gor]

All those comments from @Seasider are actually true, but extremelly hard to achieve... about 15 years ago I wanted to make Mercedes 600 coupe (W100), but from same reasons (and some crises that I could not recover from them even tiday) that noticed by @Seasider I decided to abandon project. True today there is more parts, but chassis is somewhere collecting dust...

But I'm still intetested how you will make your Bentley; yes some proportions are not ideal but detalis like front part are very very nice

[Michael217]

25 minutes ago, MP LEGO Technic creations said:

I think you're right, although I've thought that this had been eliminated by adding two studs of length to my original chassis frame. Obviously not... I could add two more studs or move both A-pillars backwards by shortening the roof and front doors by two studs but neither of these solutions are going to look much better (in my opinion). If you could estimate - how big is the difference between the current and the wanted placement of the pillar? 

It's about tilting the racks, not moving them) here, it's clearly visible. I also noticed that the doors should not be lowered to the end, the car has a threshold. I think this is an important detail, if you build on such a scale, you need to take into account all the little things)

\

[MP LEGO Technic creations]

1 minute ago, Michael217 said:

the car has a threshold

I'm very well aware of this and I've spent a really long time with this particular thing - unfortunately, the distance (probably thanks to small gaps between doors and SNOT) between front and rear mudguard/wheelarch isn't in whole studs, not even in halves, therefore these doorsills would have to be either divided into parts or it just wouldn't look well. In fact, the other side of the car still has it.