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Watch 280,000 Lego bricks become a McLaren 720S in just a minute

At this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed, McLaren brought a bright orange 720S constructed almost entirely of Lego bricks. The only parts not obviously made of the little plastic pieces were the wheels and tires. As cool as the finished product is, one of the most fun things about building with Lego bricks is building it, and seeing everything come together. Fortunately, McLaren let us get a peak at the process by releasing this time-lapse video of the process. According to the video, the final model used 280,000 bricks, and it took a whopping 2,000 man hours to finish it. It's all condensed into a one-minute video. One of the impressive things to note during the build is that the vast majority of the car really is made of the plastic pieces. Only a metal base and two structures on which to mount the wheels and tires weren't made of Legos. The Lego 720S also is clearly quite sturdy, as there are a number of times when builders are sitting on the hood section without any issue. It's a fun way to spend a minute of your day, so check it out above. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Image Credit: McLaren / YouTube Toys/Games Weird Car News McLaren Coupe Supercars Videos Lego mclaren 720s

McLaren testing an EV, but challenges remain to electrify a hypercar

There are new details on McLaren's ongoing quest to build an all-electric supercar. Autocar reports that the specialty carmaker has been testing an EV mule to evaluate driver engagement and has discovered it's still a big leap to fully electrifying a track car. The biggest stumbling block remains the battery technology and the enormous energy demands of track racing. "Let's say you want to drive on a track for half an hour," Dan Parry-Williams, McLaren's engineering design director, told Autocar. "If that was an EV, that car would have over 500 miles of EV range, and it would be flat as a pancake at the end. The energy required to do really high performance on track is staggering. And then you have to recharge it." He notes that the technology is improving but adds that "there's a lot more investment" going into range-extending energy-dense batteries than into the kind of power density needed for supercar performance. McLaren has been talking about making fully electric versions of its cars for a while now, but it sounds like a pure EV hypercard is still a ways off. Meanwhile, expect it to focus on hybrids: McLaren plans to have half of its fleet feature hybrid powertrains by 2022. Its P1 already has a hybrid powertrain, as will the forthcoming BP23. "You can potentially manage (a flat battery) with a niche car," Parry-Williams told Autocar. "If you exhaust the battery but then have to do one recharging lap, that strikes me as being OK. But if you haven't got an on-board generator (and) you've got a full EV, you haven't got the luxury of doing that."Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. McLaren 720S First Drive | Autoblog

McLaren 675LT aims at the track with more power, less weight

Rumor had it as the McLaren 650S GTR, but it's actually the 675LT – "LT" being for Long Tail – that will come to the Geneva Motor Show. This will be the track-honed, road-legal version coupe in the Super Series, getting 666 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque from its 3.8-liter V8. Combined with a weight loss of 220 pounds for a 2,711-pound dry weight, the hard-charger gets from 0 to 62 miles per hour in 2.9 seconds, and reaches a top speed of 205 mph. Changes outside include a large carbon fiber front splitter at the base of a new front bumper, end plates ahead of the front wheels, an extra cooling intake nested in a larger door blade, and twin titanium exhaust pipes in back below a longtail airbrake that's larger yet 50 percent larger than the one on the 650S. Inside will come carbon fiber buckets inspired by those in the P1, and a "stripped out" interior. In addition to McLaren Orange, five brand new exterior hues will be available: Silica White, Delta Red, Napier Green and Chicane Grey. If the 650S had you on the fence, this might be the not-so-gentle nudge you've been waiting for. The press release below has more details. McLAREN 675LT: POWER, WITH MINIMAL WEIGHT, IS A VERY BEAUTIFUL THING - 0-62 mph in 2.9 seconds; 0-124 mph in 7.9 seconds - 220 lbs weight savings makes the 675LT the lightest in its class, and gives a power-to-weight ratio of 4 lbs per bhp (549PS per ton) - 33 percent of parts are different from the 650S, which it sits alongside in the McLaren Super Series - Five unique 'By McLaren' hero specifications to be offered - Global premiere at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2015 on stand 1240, at 12.15 CET (11.15 GMT / 6:15AM EST) The McLaren 675LT will make its world debut at the 85th Geneva Motor Show, with a clear focus on outright performance, weight reduction and ultimate levels of driver engagement – all key attributes of a 'Longtail' McLaren. Offered as a Coupe only, the 675LT will be the most track-focused, yet road legal, model in the McLaren Super Series, with a power to weight ratio that eclipses established rivals. The sprint from 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) takes just 2.9 seconds, with controlled torque delivery ensuring optimized traction off the line. Acceleration continues at a relentless pace with the 124 mph (200 km/h) barrier broken in 7.9 seconds, on to a top speed of 205 mph (330 km/h). The first images of the car show a darker side of the McLaren brand than has been seen before.