26 Mar 2019

• Ultimate 1:1 scale LEGO® version of the McLaren Ultimate Series road car unveiled
• Astonishing feat of LEGO® model-making endurance: nine real McLaren Sennas could have been hand-assembled in time it took to make
• First interactive McLaren LEGO® model in which you can sit behind the wheel and start the ‘engine’
• Incorporates seat, steering wheel and pedals from production McLaren Senna

A unique, full-scale LEGO® McLaren Senna has been created in secret by shifts of specialist assemblers working around the clock.  Taking nearly 5,000 hours to assemble, it comprises almost half a million separate components. Unusual for a McLaren, the LEGO Senna is something of a heavyweight, tipping the scales at 3,348lbs – 1,102lbs more than the McLaren Senna that sold out as soon as it was announced in 2017.   

Built to click with fans the world over, this surprise new Senna is the most realistic and ambitious McLaren ever made by LEGO. Pieced together from one metric ton’s worth of LEGO elements, you may not be able to drive off in it, but enthusiasts young and old can climb aboard, sit behind the wheel, push the start button (located in the roof), and even hear a simulation of the 208mph car roaring to life. Fans can also operate the lights and infotainment system on the model.

The astonishing life-size re-creation of the most track-focused road-legal McLaren is the latest in the model partnership between McLaren Automotive and the LEGO Group, the iconic Danish toy manufacturer. Generally, the LEGO Speed Champions range of McLaren kits is available in more manageable sizes for younger hands to put together. But as McLaren and LEGO showed with the McLaren 720S model in 2017, a 1:1 scale McLaren built entirely of LEGO bricks makes for a uniquely immersive, interactive and, above all, fun experience.

Now the brick-built Senna moves the model-car game on in ways befitting an Ultimate Series McLaren. The statistics behind it are mind-boggling: in total, 467,854 individual LEGO® elements were used in its construction, which is almost 200,000 more bricks than were used to construct the 720S model two years ago. Working in shifts around the clock, teams of up to ten model-makers needed 2,725 hours to click together all the pieces for the LEGO McLaren Senna, nine times longer than it takes to produce each painstakingly hand-assembled Senna  production car (300 hours). Including design and development, a total of 4,935 hours went into creating the model, involving no fewer than 42 men and women from the LEGO build team.

The McLaren Senna is the first LEGO® McLaren to incorporate interior parts from a real car, underlining its authenticity. Inside the extreme, driver-focused cabin are the lightweight carbon-fibre seats, steering wheel and pedals from the real Senna. Actual McLaren badges are fitted and the wheels and Pirelli tires are exactly as specified on the actual car. The dihedral doors are made from LEGO® bricks and are removable to allow people easy access to the cabin.

Rendering the ultimate form-follows-function McLaren in plastic bricks with such accuracy required months of design and development work, involving both McLaren and the LEGO team. The car’s brick-work is finished to replicate Victory Grey with contrasting orange highlights, just like the 5in-long, 219-piece, McLaren Senna LEGO Speed Champions edition that went on sale earlier this year in toyshops, priced at $14.99.

For young McLaren owners of the toy model, seeing its full-size LEGO equivalent promises to be a magical, double-take moment. McLaren and LEGO fans of all ages will be able to get up close at a variety of events throughout 2019, including the Goodwood Festival of Speed in Sussex, UK, in early July.

Ends

Notes to editors:
A selection of high resolution images accompanying this release is available to download from the McLaren Automotive media site – cars.mclaren.press

About McLaren Automotive:
McLaren Automotive is a creator of luxury, high-performance sportscars and supercars.

Every vehicle is hand-assembled at the McLaren Production Centre (MPC) in Woking, Surrey, England.

Launched in 2010, the company is now the largest part of the McLaren Group.

The company has three defined product families: Sports Series, Super Series and Ultimate Series which are retailed through over 80 retailers in 30 markets around the world.

McLaren is a pioneer that continuously pushes the boundaries. In 1981, it introduced lightweight and strong carbon fibre chassis into Formula 1 with the McLaren MP4/1. Then in 1993  it designed and built the McLaren F1 road car - the company has not built a car without a carbon fibre chassis since. As part of the Ultimate Series, McLaren was the first to deliver a hybrid hypercar, the McLaren P1™.

Announced at Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2018, the company’s Track25 business plan will see it invest £1.2billion in research and development to deliver 18 new cars or derivatives by the end of 2025.

2017 saw the company launch further models including the second-generation Super Series, the 570S Spider and the McLaren Senna. In 2018, the company launched the 600LT and the first two cars of Track25, the McLaren Speedtail, the next Ultimate Series and McLaren’s first ever Hyper-GT, and 720S Spider. In 2019 the 600LT Spider was confirmed as the third car of Track25, with a new GT car announced and the previously-confirmed track-only Senna GTR unveiled.

To support the development, engineering and manufacture of its range of innovative sportscars and supercars, McLaren Automotive partners with world leading companies to provide specialist expertise and technology. These include AkzoNobel, OnePlus, Pirelli and Richard Mille.

McLaren Group:
The McLaren Group is a global leader in luxury automotive and technology and comprises three businesses: Automotive, Racing and Applied Technologies.

About the LEGO Group:
The LEGO Group’s mission is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow through the power of play. The LEGO System in Play, with its foundation in LEGO bricks, allows children and fans to build and rebuild anything they can imagine.

The LEGO Group was founded in Billund, Denmark in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, its name derived from the two Danish words LEg GOdt, which mean “Play Well”.

Today, the LEGO Group remains a family-owned company headquartered in Billund. However, its products are now sold in more than 140 countries worldwide. For more information: www.LEGO.com

Further information:

Roger Ormisher
Vice President, Communications & PR | McLaren North America
Phone: +1 714 501 8137
Email: roger.ormisher@mclaren.com

Laura Tilley
Public Relations | McLaren North America
Phone: +1 765 517 2186
Email: laura.tilley@mclaren.com

Media website: cars.mclaren.press
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mclarenautomotive
Twitter: www.twitter.com/McLarenAuto
You Tube: www.youtube.com/mclarenautomotivetv