How Do You Build a Ford GT40's Curves Out of Lego?

Generally speaking, race cars are built for purpose, not for looks. Their shapes and details are dictated by aerodynamic requirements, so their beauty isn't usually something everyone can agree on. Not the Ford GT40, though - this car could have won just as many beauty contests as it did endurance races.

But the thing that made it so great in the real life is the same as the one that presented so many challenges for the Lego team tasked with finding a way to include the famous race car in the company's Speed Champions series: it's curvy body.

Lego has gone a long way from when the Danish bricks were first introduced, but throughout the years, it has tried to remain true to its identity: the use of building blocks. Now, though, Speed Champions head of design, Craig Callum was faced with possibly the biggest challenge.

It's not just the apparent incompatibility between a curvaceous car and Legos that poses a problem, but also the greatly reduced scale. Build a life-size Ford GT40 out of the plastic bricks, and you'll get something very accurate, but to it on the scale needed for the Lego minifigure to climb aboard, and you need to think differently.

Callum says him and the team get plenty of inspiration from images of the vehicle, 3D models, CAD data and, sometimes, even real models to help them "capture the essence of that car." In the Ford GT40's case, identifying that essence couldn't have been the problem, but relaying it in a convincing manner. Bear in mind the GT40 has some pretty fanatical fans, so there was a lot at stake.

So, to answer the question posed in the title, you don't. What you can do, though, is find an excellent way to emulate that shape using the trusted bricks. Even though it has to be said, it looks like they cheated a little with a few pieces created specifically for this model.