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• The Daytona SP3 is the latest Ferrari model Lego’s brought to its Technic line.• The miniature Ferrari features functioning doors, working shift paddles, and a V-12 engine with moving cylinders.• The 3778-piece set is priced at $400.At nearly two feet long and awash in a sea of red and rubber, all of the moving parts in Lego’s Ferrari Daytona SP3 are hard to notice at first. This is not some convenience store die-cast replica of the limited-run 829-hp Daytona SP3, but a model marketed under Lego’s Technic line. As such, this miniature Ferrari has to do more than just look good on a shelf (though it does that, too); it also has to help its builder understand the engineering that resides beneath its plastic-brick shell. And to teach those lessons, Lego had to design a bunch of new parts.

Lego

In celebration of Lego’s 90th anniversary, we met with Technic designers at the brand’s headquarters in Denmark to talk about the moving parts behind the prancing horse decals. From the start of the two-year-long project, Lego knew the Dayton SP3 set would be one of the most challenging to date. And that didn’t account for the COVID-19 pandemic making it difficult for Lego’s team to travel to Maranello, Italy, to see the full-size Daytona SP3. In fact, Ferrari’s designers were tweaking the car at the same time Lego was trying to make a replica of it.

Ferrari Daytona SP3

lego
lego.com

$399.99

“So many times you spend two to three weeks on a small detail and [Ferrari] said ‘Yes, it’s good,’” Aurelien Rouffiange said. “And then the week after, ‘By the way, we changed it. It’s not like that anymore,’ and then you have to go back and do something new.”

Lego

Rouffiange served as the model lead and senior designer for the 1:8-scale Daytona SP3. Previously, he worked on Lego’s interpretations of the Bugatti Chiron and Lamborghini Sián FKP 37. You assemble the Lego set in a similar schedule that Ferrari builds the Daytona. First, the V-12 engine, eight-speed gearbox, and rear suspension, then you move on to the front suspension and steering. You finish up with the red body panels that give the model the organic flow of the real car, which takes its design cues from the sumptuous lines of the Ferraris that won the 1967 Daytona 24-hour race.

Lego

Despite relying on a handful of specially developed pieces, Lego’s Ferrari Daytona SP3 shares a number of other features with the Danish toymaker’s other sets. The small Ferrari’s tires spin; its steering wheel turns; and its hood, doors, and trunk open. While Lego’s team tells us the car’s butterfly doors required a bit more thought to bring to life, they say it was the Daytona SP3’s targa roof that was a particularly big challenge, as it threatened the model’s structural capability. “Technic is known for strong models that do not fall apart easily,” Rouffiange said. “But here the roof can be removed, and usually [the roof] helps us add a lot of stability. But the way this model is assembled, you can hold the car with one hand, from the front or rear, and it will not bend at all.”

Lego

Lego ultimately created 12 new parts during the development of the Daytona SP3 Technic kit. This included aesthetic pieces, such as the model’s exterior panels and wheels, as well as more mechanical ones, including new plastic gears designed to improve the functional feel of the scaled-down Ferrari’s moving parts. Even a part as simple as the wheels proved a challenge, as the real Daytona SP3’s wheels are asymmetrical in order to better manage airflow. Due to this, Lego had to design two versions of the same wheels (a set for the left side and another for the right) to ensure its model kept true to the real car.

Lego

Like the real Daytona SP3, the Technic car features paddle shifters mounted aft of its steering wheel. Though such a shifting mechanism may be common across the automotive industry, it’s less so among Lego models. Tapping the paddles works through the model’s eight gears, and like a real car, each cog affects the top speed of Lego’s Ferrari Daytona SP3. You can even see the mechanical motions at work, from the spinning of the model’s plastic gears to the up and down motions of its mid-mounted engine’s pistons.Such authenticity doesn’t come cheap, and the Lego Technic Ferrari Daytona SP3 stickers for $400. The set is currently available through Lego’s website or at its stores, with retail sales set to begin on August 1.

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Ford is working on a robotic charging station that could help disabled drivers with the electric-vehicle charging process.The robots are custom-made by Dortmund University in Germany but are just a research project at the moment.Ford claims that developing the system could lead to more powerful charging to reduce overall charge times in the future.Many of us often forget as able-bodied people that for significant portions of the population, daily tasks such as filling up a gas tank, or getting an electric vehicle plugged and unplugged at a charging station, can be difficult or impossible. Ford is testing a robotic charging station that would allow drivers to park near the robot, as at any other pump or charger, and allow the camera-guided robot to guide itself into the charge port.
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The automaker also mentioned a study in Europe that showed 61 percent of disabled drivers would only buy an EV if it were made easier to charge. Ford says its robotic charging station could potentially be installed in parking ramps, installed in disabled parking spaces, used to power fleets, or be installed at customers’ homes. It’s a research project for now, but Ford intends to do a “follow-up project” with Ionity, a European charging network, to make further improvements to the idea, and that sounds promising. It’s not the first effort by an automaker to roboticize the charging process. A company called EV Safe Charge is working to deploy a robot charging station named Ziggy to dominate EV charging in parking ramps. Unlike the Ford, Ziggy does not have the ability to plug in or out on its own. And both Tesla (with a metal “snake charger”) and Volkswagen have piloted similar robotic setups in the past.”Looking ahead, the process could become fully automated, with minimal or no driver involvement,” said Ford. “The driver would simply send the vehicle to the charging station, with the infrastructure ensuring it reaches and returns from its destination autonomously.” Although the automaker makes it clear that this is not intended for production and sale, it does show the focus is on making the EV operation process more accessible to more future customers.

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• This 1941 Ford COE flatbed truck powered by a 454 Chevy big-block engine is up for auction on Bring a Trailer.• The V-8 engine is mounted behind the stubby cabin and routes its power through a three-speed automatic transmission to the rear wheels.• The green-and-white paint job is echoed by the interior color scheme, and bidding ends in six days.Many of the Bring a Trailer auctions that we highlight on Car and Driver take the form of track-focused supercars like a low-mile 2012 Lexus LFA Nürburgring or a Martini-liveried 1985 Ferrari 308GTB. While you could easily tow your track-day toy to the racing circuit with any number of modern pickup trucks or SUVs, why not also have a little fun on the commute to the race course? This 1941 Ford COE flatbed truck could provide just that, with power coming from a 454 big-block Chevy V-8 engine, and this unique hauler is up for auction at Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos.

Bring a Trailer

While the body of this cab-over-engine truck comes from a 1941 Ford, the flatbed is mostly Chevrolet underneath, with the cab mounted onto a “later model” one-ton Chevy frame, according to the listing. The engine also hails from Ford’s crosstown rival, and the 454 Chevy big-block V-8 is fitted with an Edelbrock carburetor and intake manifold and is mated to a three-speed Turbo Hydra-Matic automatic transmission that routes power to the rear wheels. We imagine this truck wouldn’t necessarily be quick, especially when loaded up with a sports car on its bed, but the 7.4-liter beast of an engine, which resides under a diamond-plate cover behind the cabin, should sound pretty epic.

Bring a Trailer

The Ford cab is also beautifully finished, painted in a pale green, and accented by an off-white trim piece that runs up the sides of the grille and beneath the windows. The truck is full of neat retro design cues, from the single yellow-tinted fog light to the split windshield and the stubby cab-over proportions that were more common on trucks of the 1940s and 1950s. The 1941 Ford rides on 16-inch chrome wheels that hide power-assisted front disc brakes and rear drum brakes. The immaculate wood-plank bed floor features bright metal strips, and storage boxes are mounted along the side of the truck.

The interior is also very green, with seats decked out in green upholstery and white piping to match the exterior. The dashboard is simple with only a couple of gauges, and the shift knob is styled to look like an old-school metal microphone. While the truck looks to be in spiffing condition, it might take a bit of work to turn it into a transporter. A ramp is needed to load a car onto the flatbed, and some hooks would need to be installed to tie down the load, but it wouldn’t be too hard to get it ready to haul. But even if you don’t end up using this 1941 Ford to carry your 2006 Ford GT Heritage Edition to the racetrack, it is sure to turn heads while you cruise down the boulevard on a Saturday night. Bidding currently sits at $25,000 with six days remaining before the auction ends on Thursday, July 28.

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