Watching These 1970s LEGO Sports Cars Crash in Slow Motion Is Weirdly Satisfying

Take the following scenario: LEGO cars. Show up with a box of Danish toy bricks at a 'white jacket black tie' reception. Within two minutes, you’ll see exactly who’s who and what sort of torque allegiance they pledge. It’s almost incredible how patient an otherwise ferral and hyperactive child can become when exposed to the wonderful and captivating world of LEGO magic. The formula works on adults, too.

Particularly with cars – there’s an unexplainable attraction in building intricate models and effectively transposing oneself into the miniature world of hot-red-actioned fantasy races, car chases, or a myriad of other car-centered setups.

Then there are the misfits who play with toy cars but stick to real-world-inspired scripts to the tee – how many times have you been the 'I'm Richard Petty racing his famous Barracuda' scene? The names, places, and events can be endlessly changed, but the general concept is always the same.

And don’t think that’s the end of the story. There is one certain section of this already-confusing society that absolutely loves high-speed events. Particularly crashes – the more volcanic and devastating, the better.

Then again, massive car pile-ups at 200+ mph (that’s over 322 kph) are not something we want to see or have occurred in real life. Hollywood is fine, but that is a costly endeavor and not to everyone’s budget. The cost of building a car for the sole purpose of intentionally crashing it to a gazillion pieces takes a lot of time and money.

But what if all of the above have a meeting point? What if a LEGO-centered universe, a high-intensity-action car play, and videography came together under one roof? The perpetual four-year-old in me would immediately grab it hook, line, and sinker, and I’m willing to bet a muscle car’s full tank of gas’ worth that I’m not alone in this.

There is a gearhead who has put them all together under the same YouTube roof, and the following video is solid proof that one doesn’t need high-octane fumes to get in a car-induced trance. The Renbricks channel has been meticulously putting together spectacular videos for quite a while now, and the latest is another visual masterpiece.

The oddly satisfying feeling we get from watching slow-motion, high-fidelity videos (on any given matter) has probably escaped the grasp of psychologists and other third-party non-car people alike. And when the subject of the video happens to be wrecking car crashes, the satisfaction is at a level where even Mick Jagger would admit defeat.

Add LEGO into this equation, and we are in for the treat of the week. The vlogger behind the Renbricks YouTube channel puts a lot of work into his videos, and the results match the efforts. Apart from building custom models from scratch, the passionate gearhead is a talented cameraman with a wild imagination.

The latest creation is a 1970s sportscar-themed crash compilation, and the 524-second-long (eight minutes and forty-four seconds) video is a feeling-mixer of industrial proportions. First, building the cars takes a lot of time and dedication. Secondly, filming at this quality level is a painstakingly demanding process – every shot must be perfect.

Picture this (pun intended, yes): everything is set for shooting the first take, the camera is rolling, the lights are straight on point, and the cars don’t crash the right way. Or they go out of shot before exploding into smithereens. Or the accident is not spectacular enough. And the list could go on and on forever.

And then there’s the rebuilding part – after each crash, the models must be put back together unless several identical copies are used. Then, it’s back to square one for the next shot. However, this is remarkably similar to a project build process, wouldn’t you say? It’s like putting together a car for racing, taking it to the track, then throwing the wrenches at it for the next race. It’s never-ending and weirdly satisfying at the same time.

The YouTube creator built several models for this video, and one of them is immediately recognizable for proper LEGO addicts. The 1970 Ferrari 512 M official LEGO set no. 76906 – the red car with race number 4 on it.

The others are MOCs – My Own Creations – imagined, designed, assembled, and tested by the YouTuber. Those LEGO brick model cars are based on other 1970s racers, like a Porsche 908/03, a Fiat Abarth 3000, or an Alfa Romeo 33/3.

Anyone who ever laid their hands on a LEGO set will immediately tell that these models don’t behave like real-life LEGO cars, and there is a reason for this. The Renbricks creator designed the YouTube stars to be as ‘brickable’ as possible – that is, to break into the highest number of individual bricks for a cinematic effect.

To attain this, the cars’ ‘underpinnings’ were altered to the point where they’re strong enough to stay in one piece when the models roll on their wheels but also weak enough to fragment like a Shrapnel shell in a collision.

The slo-mo video is shot at a speed 1,000 fps and edited to play at regular YouTube speeds (usually 50 frames per second, so 20 times slower than what the action looked to the naked eye of a first-hand witness).

And, in case you’re thinking about safety regulations, please note that no LEGO minifigures were harmed during this – or any other Renbricks – video shooting. Enjoy the video; this is one rare instance where you try it at home.