McLaren Senna Made of 467,854 Lego Bricks Took Longer to Build Than the Real Car
The cabin features real-deal Senna seats, pedals, steering wheel, and a roof-mounted push-start button that fires up a digital 4.0-liter V8.
Think your last Lego build took some precious hours to assemble? Think again, because the folks at Lego and McLaren just spent a mind-boggling 5,000 hours to build a life-sized, perfectly to scale, Lego version of the sleek McLaren Senna supercar. All in all, McLaren claims that nine real Sennas could have been hand-assembled in the time it took to create this big boy (or big girl) toy.
Much like the real deal, the Lego Senna is an imposing creature to admire, especially the dihedral doors that swing wide open into the sky to allow passengers inside, and the larger-than-life rear spoiler. Unfortunately, Lego bricks aren't made out of real carbon fiber, so this Senna is slightly heavier than the production model that folks have paid millions for, tipping the scales at 3,348 pounds—or 1,102 more than the real one.
This particular Senna is the first 1:1-scale Lego McLaren to feature actual components from real-life cars. In this case, McLaren installed the lightweight, carbon fiber bucket seats as well as the steering wheel and pedals from the Senna. Once inside, passengers can reach for the roof-mounted push-start button, and hear a digital recording of the 789-horsepower 4.0-liter V8 come to life. On the outside, actual wheels and Pirelli tires from the real supercar were also fitted, but the brake rotors and calipers are still built with Lego bricks. Lastly, actual McLaren badges were fitted to the Lego creation in order to give it the official seal of approval from Woking.
As impressive as this build is, it's not the first life-sized McLaren made out of Legos and certainly not the first one of its kind either (regardless of the brand). The previous 1:1-scale Lego McLaren was the 720S supercar, which was released in 2017 and didn't feature any components from the road-going model. The 720S also took nearly 200,000 fewer bricks to complete and, therefore, is considerably lighter, according to the automaker.
In 2018, Bugatti and Lego completed a life-sized Chiron that can actually be driven, and also launched a 3,599-piece Lego set for brand loyalists to take home.
