Autos Aus Deutschland Roundup

So...we've gone all German on you and made a build challenge strictly based on German cars. It was bound to happen really, what with the German auto industry being so strong...and contrary to Henry Ford would like to think, Germany is the birthplace of the automobile. In spite of our love for the German automakers, the entries were a little sparse at first. I was going to crack some joke about this roundup being as quick and efficient as the German people themselves, but a lot of entries poured in at the last minute, rounding out this challenge to be a pretty good one. So, how do we fare when the challenge is based on a place where they make great cars, the beer is good and plentiful and David Hasselhoff is king? Lets get to it!

Jmaokoen is the first off the starting line with appropriately might be the fastest car of the whole lot...this Mercedes GP W02 F1 racer. He proves to stay well within his comfort zones on this one by building yet another F1 racer. Some people are like that. Eh, at least its German.



You might say he veered just a little outside his comfort zones with this rather neat little Porsche 908/3 LeMans racer. Its chock full of that slick rounded Porsche goodness. Jmaokoen tells us it took all kinds of victories in its dozen year history. Alright!



Dohoon Kim shows us all how the 1980 Audi Quattro is done. Turns out its done by trying to build the Audi R8, failing miserably, then cranking out this instead. Good to know whenever I'm trying to build the 1980 Audi Quattro...start it as an R8, throw it against the wall, then build Quattro. Thanks for the tip!



Next he shows us an entire Mercedes-Benz racing team...or rather a group of vehicles that would be a team had they all been the same color scheme. The black truck is the Actros Tractor Trailer, the blue is a '54 Renntransporter "Blue Wonder" towing a Silver Arrow racer. The F1 racer in a slightly different scale is a Mercedes-McLaren MP4-24. Its a whole mismatched team!



In my opinion an all German challenge would be nothing without an old or new VW Beetle. Luckily Dohoon pulls through on his final entry with this little red 2005 convertible Cabrio. Just look at that pudgy, round little form! We can all die happy now. But before we do...



You know who likes the BMW 635 CSI? Jason Son, that's who! I think I've got two of these parked under my carport...both owned by my landlord and both in rough shape collecting dust. Dust so thick there are words and phrases smudged into the grime. Words like "wash me", "I love daddy" and "vagina". Its true. Thankfully this one is pristine, well constructed and dust free.



And speaking of pristine and well constructed, Jason son,s second entry is the iconic Bugatti Veyron. This shows you what I know. Bugatti sounds like a fine wine you'd drink with a nice Italian fettucini alfredo but its a French car brand, an Italian creator, hence its name, and is parented by the Volkswagen Group, making it indeed a German car. Thats a truly international fine wine!



Also fine is Jason Son's final entry...the Mercedes-Benz SLS Roadster complete with flip up doors and a red on white color scheme. Its multiple entries like this that turn what would have been an otherwise sparse challenge into something pretty special. Thanks all those who have submitted multiple entries.



Chiming in with only one entry but no less important is new guy Nboston with his 1990 BMW E30 M3 complete with engine on a hoist. The blue lighting effect makes it look like its nighttime in a florescent lit cardboard garage. Yep, that's what I'm going with...florescent lit cardboard garage.



If you need a stubby truck to hall all your...um...stubby things, look no further than this 1975 Mercedes Unimog 406 built by hgaphoto. Funny word, Unimog. If only LEGO would team up with Mercedes to come out with a future Technic set of an Unimog preferrably in orange with new never before seen tires and a working winch. Sigh...If only. A boy can always dream. ;)



Also with Unimogs on the brain is dockfisher98 with this fire Unimog. It almost sounds like Oh my God, its a Unimog! Yeah, thats all I got for a joke on this one. Yeah, I know...probably the most deserving of some good jokes is this entry and I've got nothing. Oh well.



Ralph Savelsberg knows that sometimes even the most practical and efficient of German people get a little rowdy on occasion...usually during Oktoberfest. This is when they recruit the help of this Polizei BMW wagon. Ralph tells us this is a German car found only in Germany. He also tells us "Ich habe es geschafft", which according to google translator means "I did it!"



Lino Martins had low expectations for this Mercedes SLR Stirling Moss Edition. Its gray, sort of plain looking, not my usual thing. But it quickly got within the top ten of your faved images of all time...and that was before making it onto Brothers Brick. This ended my 9 month losing streak on BB, 11 months if you consider only cars. Thanks for all the faves and the confidence, guys!



There's a phenomenon online where you yell (or rather type) FIRST! when you're the first to comment on something. Vmln8r did this but he wasn't first to enter our challenge, but rather 12th. In this case he's referring to something much more profound...the first gas powered automobile, the 1886 Patent Motorwagen as invented by Karl Friedrich Benz. I'm sure Mr. Benz yelled FIRST! once he got this baby rolling!



Lego911's childhood must have been full of fine german automobiles as he presents a selection of renders from his childhood. First is the Porshe 928-S4. Kinda like Return of the Jedi, this is the mid-eighties update to the 1977 original. Also like the original Star Wars series (not the prequels) this car design withstood the test of time remarkably well.



Also from his childhood is this 1976 BMW E24 6-Series Coupe. It must have been good being Lego911 as a kid in the 70's My childhood was mostly spent in the backseat of a 1970 Pinto moving from one Navy base to another. And with the reputation for the Pinto to explode and its legacy of being one of the world's all-time crap cars its a wonder I turned out even remotely OK.



I sometimes wear aluminum foil wrapped around my head to keep the aliens from stealing my brainwaves. And I like to sleep with my head in a catcher's mitt. So much for me turning out even remotely OK then. But what turned out more than OK is this third entry by Peter, the Audi R8. It shares some design cues from the Italian Lambo, that's because VW owns Lamborghini. Who knew?! But one thing they don't own is my brainwaves thanks to this foil hat. They'll never get me!



If its cool, refreshing and yellow, it might be a tall glass of lemonade...or this classic 1972 BMW 3.0CSL built by Legogil. There is no mistaking that iconic BMW grille or its tart, lemony goodness. I'm talking about the car and a glass of lemonade, not one thing...ah never mind! Just enjoy the bright yellow car pic.



Also with bright yellow cars on the brain (and if he knows what's good for him, an aluminum foil hat) is Raphy with his Audi Quattro. Whatever happened to the LEGO line for babies called Quatro? They were like 8 times the size in volume of Duplo bricks but I'm sure some dumb kid found a way to get hurt with them anyway. This is why we can no longer have Easy-Bake Ovens or Snoopy Sno-cone Machines.



And for his next stunt, Raphy goes with this mostly badly built unspecified year (his words, not mine) Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL 6.9. Badly built or not, he's going a little avant-garde with the photography...placing the car small and to the lower right like a lonely orphan on a field of gray. And I've gone a little avant-garde with that writing description!



Next Raphy went with the also unspecified year NSU Ro80. He tells us he "chose something a little more less known for this one, he didn't want to make only mainstream cars, even though it's not totally obscure - they made about 80,000 of 'em." He also tells us this was the only German car powered by a rotary. Is that like those oldschool rotary phones?



Last on the Raphy slab is this BMW 2002 Turbo...also built in an unspecified year. Nope, 2002 is not the year, but rather its class. The years in production of this model was 1968-1976. The production for this particular model was probably an hour or so sometime in the last week of April. See what I did there?



Ace tells us the unspecified year Porsche 935 is the fastest 911 in history and also the ugliest. I don't know, the real Porsche 935 isn't without its charms. This one...not a very faithful replica but considering its small scale its not bad either. Its just alright. It leaves me no jokes about lemonade or foil hats so...lets just segue into the final paragraph.



There has been a lot of unspecified year entries late in this challenge but for next month, all entries must be year specifc. Let me explain...we're calling it Plus Or Minus Ten. You take the year you were born, then build any car, truck, or bike from either ten years before or ten years after your birth year. We can all choose from two vastly different eras exactly twenty years apart. Already we're seeing a generational divide between many LUGNuts members. Youngins will probably build something either super modern or...also modern while the oldsters may likely go retro with ten years before their birth. Everyone seems to agree that they'll skip the 80's. As of writing this passage we have very little entries, but the month is still young so stay tuned to see how we pull this one off. Until next time, I'll keep my foil hat on so no one knows what I'll be entering. I suggest you all do the same.