Category: Commissioned models

Hi,

This time I have a model that is different in many ways. It may look like just another 1:10 scale LEGO Technic supercar, but it’s conception, the execution and what will happen to it are all different than normal.

It all started in May 14th 2018 when I sent a message to Grum64, a member of the Eurobricks forum. Grum64 is posting detailed accounts of the process of him building official LEGO Technic sets.

Now you could think that this is something many people do, but the special thing about him is that he is a C4/C5 tetraplegic. In layman terms, he is paralyzed from the neck down. Despite this massive handicap he has a cheerful, buoyant take on life. Even though it takes him weeks to assemble a set that I can build in a couple of hours, he keeps his spirits high and shows incredible determination to get the task done.

So when he finished the largest LEGO Technic model in existence at the time I sent him a message that I wanted to design something for him as a token of respect for him. I told him in the same message that I wouldn’t take no for an answer, since he is the kind of guy that would refuse such an offer.

As predicted he wanted to refuse, but since I didn’t give him that option he instead proposed to design a model and then auction it for charity. I agreed on the condition that he would determine the model. After careful deliberations he chose the Pagani Huayra.

We than quickly settled on the colourscheme of the BC version and the design could start. I don’t know whether it was due to the special circumstances, or because of the design of the real car, but I have never had a design that was such a joy to work on. From day one the design simply flowed from my fingerprints.

I started with the gearlever, since that is such a centerpiece in the design of the real car. I wanted to get the same functions in that lever as the real car has. That meant to design a lever that could move sideways to select between Drive and Reverse. With the LEGO gearbox elements that automatically gave a Neutral in between. When the lever is in the Drive position it should be possible to move it forward and backward to shift up and down.

I drew inspiration from a lot of different cars I had designed up to this point. The gearlever mechanism was inspired by the mechanism in my BMW 328 Hommage. The adjustable chairs with their own HoG’s are much like the ones in the Mercedes-AMG GT R. The HoG of the gearbox was the last addition to the design and was inspired by the similar HoG on the Aston Martin DB11.

One of the challenges of building LEGO Technic supercars is to make them stiff enough. For this car that was extra hard because there is no central column in the car. Normally that is a major part of the structural design. Instead the model uses torsionducts at the doorsteps. I had a similar design in the McLaren 675LT Spider, so I drew inspiration from that. The endresult is a model that is so structurally sound that you can lift it by the roof with hardly any flex in the chassis.

One of the joys of designing this model was the way the puzzle pieces continuously seemed to fall in place. In the real car for instance the gearbox is mounted transversally in the chassis to save space. I wanted to replicate that, because, surprisingly, that would save space. As a consequence it made a lot of sense to use the old type differential. And that meant that the whole rear axle could be built lower, because that differential is just a little bit smaller.

The cantilevered suspension setup was another such pleasant surprise. The old yellow triangle pieces seemed just perfect for the upper cantilevers. But that meant that the lower wishbones should have a length of 2.8 studs (2*sqrt(2)) to keep a parallel travel of the wheel. Using a 4×4 bent liftarm in the chassis a near perfect geometry was possible that gave a close to vertical travel.

I can continue with these examples, but I’ll restrain myself to just one more example. One of the (many) defining elements of the Huayra is the aerodynamics package that consists of flaps in the front and rear of the car. I wanted these to be in of course, which meant I needed to route two axles all the way from the front to the back. When it was time to add them I found that there were actually two 1 stud wide channels available in the chassis. If I would have designed for it they wouldn’t have been better placed.

The real Pagani is an amazing work of art. There are so many details that make this car unique it forced me to think about every part I added. The engine is a mix of carbon fiber, gold-coloured metal and big grey pipes, enclosed in a mesh of thin rods. I’ve tried to replicate it as truthfull as possible.

The rearview is just as expressive. There is no detail on this car that doesn’t immediately identifies it as Pagani. The signature 2×2 grid of exhausts, the slightly tilted lights and everywhere the ellipse shapes from the Pagani logo.

The little black panels above the upper blue line are the rear aerodynamic flaps. They are operared with the steeringwheel. That aforementioned blue line is actually made from parts that are not available in blue on the market, because LEGO never released them. I however had still a few in my collection from the time that I worked as a LEGO Technic designer.

The attention to detail is of course nowhere so visible as in the cockpit of this beautiful car. We chose a dark-blue and white interior with chrome accents and a few blue details to bring that BC colouscheme inside as well. This colourscheme is carried to the inside of the doors as well.

Of course there is also a video available on my youtube channel:

When the model reached the finishing stages Grum reached out to the Pagani company to see if they would like to sponsor our charity auction. To our delight they responded very positive. They in fact offered two huge computer drawings of the real Pagani Huayra BC, signed by Horacio Pagani himself. They will be added to the auction of course.

All in all this model was an absolute joy to design and build. As I said at the start, this model will be auctioned for charity, so you can become the owner if you place a bid. The auction will be held on Catawiki from April 19th-26th 2019.