42115 Lamborghini Sián FKP 37: Building the chassis
Posted by Huw,
I'm now half-way through the build of 42115 Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 and the chassis is complete. It's taken around 5 hours and over 500 construction steps to get this far.
Before I start on the bodywork, I thought it would be worthwhile taking a closer look at the way it's built and, in particular, the improvements that have been made to the gearbox and suspension compared to the last Technic supercar, 42083 Bugatti Chiron.
I'll also tell you about something rather frustrating that I encountered, in the hope that you can avoid it when you build yours.
Construction begins with the rear axle and suspension and it is here that the first major improvements are evident. The suspension on the Bugatti is not quite stiff enough to carry its weight and it's possible to press down on the car and cause the wheels to touch the wheel arches.
Both issues have been addressed in this set. The suspension is now very stiff indeed and it requires quite a lot of force to push the wheels up. This has been achieved by reconfiguring the way the springs are compressed, by mounting them almost horizontal.
I don't know for sure yet, and won't until I've finished the car, but I suspect that the springs will not be compressed at all when it is on display and not being pressed down upon.
There is also a mechanical limit to the vertical travel of the suspension which prevents the springs becoming fully compressed.
The next significant improvement to the design of the chassis compared to the Bugatti concerns the gearbox, and it's been made possible thanks to the new large Technic frames. These have allowed it to be assembled as a sub-assembly rather than building upon the rear axle in a piecemeal fashion.
The gearbox is always the most complex part of these supercars and building them is fraught with difficulty and previously you had no real way to know whether you've done so correctly until you reach the end of the bag and find out whether you have any gears left over! That's not the case this time.
Although testing it is not documented in the instructions you can nevertheless twist the orange connectors poking out the back, see the effect and check that it all looks to be working.
It's attached to the axle assembly with a couple of pins
Compare this with the same stage of the build of the Bugatti:
Assembly continues towards the front of the car and this picture shows how it looks once you've finished parts in box number 1. At the front left you can see the gear shifting mechanism which is very similar to the one in the Bugatti, as shown in the picture below it.
Moving on to box 2, the engine and front suspension is constructed. Other than the addition of steering, of course, the front axle and suspension assembly is very similar to that at the back.
Turning the car on its side to show the bottom reveals that the gearbox can be clearly seen and not buried somewhere within as was the case with the Bugatti.
During an interview last week with Aurelien Rouffiange, LEGO Technic senior designer, I asked about this and whether it was done in response to feedback about the Bugatti and the Porsche before it. He said that, yes, "we felt like we should add more openings" and that having the new Technic frame helped: "there was this new frame being developed, so we felt like we needed to have it in our designs and in the model. So that helped a lot."
At the half-way point, after box 3, the chassis is complete and it looks as if the rest of the build will be cladding it with bodywork.
Let's take a look at some details before I get stuck into that.
The V12 engine is built in the time-honoured fashion, as you just about see under the cover. Although the cover hides the cylinders and makes it more difficult to see the effect of the gearbox, I think it's acceptable given you don't normally see exposed cylinder heads in an engine.
The decorated tiles on the top are all printed. There are no stickers whatsoever in this set.
The seats in the cabin are dark grey and lime green so while their colour is no doubt authentic there is not much contrast between them and the car itself. I prefer it when there is, as was the case with the Bugatti's dark tan upholstery
This lever in the passenger foot well operates the spoiler, which is linked to it along the length of the car.
The part on the yellow axles moves up and down as the lever is turned. I hope the yellow axles are not quite so prominent when the car is finished!
The gear shift paddles are situated either side of the steering wheel. The 1x1 round tile on the wheel is printed with the Lamborghini raging bull emblem. A tile printed with speedometer and other gauges can just be seen behind.
I almost forgot to tell you about the frustrating thing I encountered! It concerns the alignment of the steering wheel with the front wheels.
When the front wheels are straight, the steering wheel should be as shown in the picture above, with the cross bar horizontal. However, unless you take care when placing a gear at step 345 of the build it won't necessarily be so, and it won't be evident that it's not until much later in the build when it's too late to do anything about it.
So, when putting this gear on the axle, ensure that the wheels are straight and that the axle that the steering wheel will attach to is rotated to '+' and not 'x'.
Unfortunately, mine is one tooth out, but I'll have to live with it. There are more pressing things to worry about at the moment, after all...
I'll get on with the build, then, and complete my review once I've done so.
Thanks to LEGO for providing this set for review. All expressed opinions are my own.
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30 comments on this article
Nice review Huw, but why the last comment?
Thanks for the review, top job, cannot wait for the finale.
You are a stronger person than I, as I could not leave the steering like that, not for one second. I would have to pull it down and rectify it immediately.
The chassis in this set is insane! As someone who isn't good at Technic I can only marvel at the beauty of this set. Can't wait to see the frame in place.
Always read these reviews with much interest even though they every time convince me in my continuing absolute disinterest in all things Technic.
@damien said:
"Nice review Huw, but why the last comment? "
Which one?
Really good to hear that Lego have listened to and acted on some of the feedback on the Porsche and Bugatti models. Reading your review is starting ti make me change my mind about not buying this set. Some really great photographs of some the detail. Looking forward to the final part of your review.
The improved suspension and more visible gearbox are good. This seems like less of an improvement on the Bugatti than the Bugatti was on the Porsche, but I think that that is understandable.
Similar to the Bugatti, if/when it hits somewhere in the £200-£225 range I'm sure I'll bite.
Still, the 2019 Land Rover exists, and packs a pretty similar feature set at a slightly smaller size and a much cheaper price. So are these supercar sets going to continue to be the size and cost they are because no premium brand wants to be the cheap alternative to Bugatti, Lamborghini or Porsche in the lego lineup?
@Huw said:
" @damien said:
"Nice review Huw, but why the last comment? "
Which one?"
"There are more pressing things to worry about at the moment, after all..."
I think I know what you mean. So therefore it's maybe better to discuss this by mail if you like
It is mathamaticly not possible to alling the steering wheel perfectly with the wheels. you will always be 1 tooth of.
there are an even number of gears between the wheel and the steering mecenism, and the orientation of the gears alternate between gears.
@TomKazutara said:
"So disgustingly colorful.
The lime is pretty ok and some red accents are also allright, but the rest with orange, yellow, brow and the allways annoying blue pins, are looking so cheap."
I don’t know if you build with Technic but there’s no reason to not have those pieces be colorful. First off, Technic sets have only recently started to come in somewhat interesting colors, but the vast majority of parts are still in black and grey. Both mocs and GBC are greatly improved with a wider color palette. Also, it makes building things like gearboxes much easier to follow when not everything is one color. Not to mention the fact that all of these are covered up in the end, so they don’t affect the appearance of the car.
And the blue pins complaint is as tired as complaining about visible studs in a model. If you want a medium without blue pins or studs, just don’t do Lego. It doesn’t ruin the appearance, it’s the authentic Lego look
@legoverslinder said:
"It is mathamaticly not possible to alling the steering wheel perfectly with the wheels. you will always be 1 tooth of.
there are an even number of gears between the wheel and the steering mecenism, and the orientation of the gears alternate between gears."
Not if he turns the 12 tooth gear at the steering rack some 45 degrees :)
@fakespacesquid said:
"And the blue pins complaint is as tired as complaining about visible studs in a model. If you want a medium without blue pins or studs, just don’t do Lego. It doesn’t ruin the appearance, it’s the authentic Lego look."
No it isn't. I have been building Technic sets for decades and that disgusting colour mishmash is not the authentic LEGO Technic look. Those pins used to be black you know? A much more neutral colour that went much better with other colours. It is only with the trend of dumbing everything down that TLG has introduced the myriad of colours for stuff like axles that used to all be simply black or light grey back in the day.
Mass producing Technic parts like pins/gears/axles in 1 color is just easier for LEGO.
I'm not saying Blue Pins look great, but I can see the reasoning for standardizing some parts types by color.
I know they were black from 1993 until 2007, LEGO just swapped to blue since 2007-now, not sure why they are blue, but the fact stands they are for 13 years now.
It's probable they chose blue not to confuse them with the other black 3L pins (with 1 axle hole on the side).
Also standardizing parts colors isn't new to Technic, they also are doing it with System parts where they are able.
Also LEGO seems to use contrasting colors for the non-visible internal parts where possible, so goal of the ease of building/instruction is clear as well.
Under the announcement article for this set, a wise member observed that it would be nice if LEGO sold a fully-functional chassis, similar to what you've finished up with here, and then sold a non-functional fancy car separately.
Some people couldn't give two hoots about these exercises in vanity, but would quite like all the delicious gearboxes, engines, suspension, and steering. Similarly, there are people that won't care about all the mess under the bonnet once the car is on display.
This really hammered it home:
"Although the cover hides the cylinders and makes it more difficult to see the effect of the gearbox, I think it's acceptable given you don't normally see exposed cylinder heads in an engine."
...so why bother having the moving cylinders & gearbox...??
To echo another shrewd comment: anyone wanna go halves on one of these? You can have the green bits, comfy chairs, branded steering wheel, engine cover, blingy wheels, -even the handbag!- and I'll take all this mis-matched mess of colours off of your hands... ;-D
Thanks for this stage of the review. The crisp photos and clear words are very helpful, as usual - especially the comparisons with the Bugatti.
Eurobricks automatically replaces "juniorized" with "insert that tiresome argument here." I wish the same could be done with "blue pins".
@Zerobricks said:
" @legoverslinder said:
"Not if he turns the 12 tooth gear at the steering rack some 45 degrees :)"
In that case the solution is even further back in the build!
There's quite a lot of play in the system so moving the grey gear by one tooth would be enough to make the steering wheel align, even it was not mathematically correct.
Good review, as far as I can see the build of the chassis, around the gear box to give two 4 position paddle shifters is similar enough to the Bugatti that if you already own this vehicle then just buying a refinement, with a new body shell, rather than a completely new building experience.
Following on from BananaWorld, I think there is a wider teenage market for a simplified build of supercars without gearbox and other detailing, as in the 42096 Porsche 911 compared to the collectors 42056. This also leaves plenty of empty space to make motorizing easier for those who want to go a step further rather than just displaying.
The chassis looks more appealing than the completed model
Why the horrible looking color mishmash tho? The world was perfectly fine (actually much better) with black pins and axles and grey gears.
I’m really liking the way they have redesigned the suspension especially in the rear. The crossbrace over the engine looks cool too. The more of this I see the more I want one. Still gonna wait for a discount though.
@TeriXeri said:
"Also LEGO seems to use contrasting colors for the non-visible internal parts where possible, so goal of the ease of building/instruction is clear as well."
The dumbing down of LEGO is an interesting argument to me. Ultimately it is a toy and should largely be targeted to that audience, I’m sure they’ve spent a ton of money researching all this and determined children wanted/needed simpler instructions. I get that’s frustrating for AFOLs (I too get annoyed when a build step only adds one part) but I am playing with something that isn’t targeted to me.
Yes we now see LEGO moving to marketing sets to AFOLs but it’s unreasonable to expect a separate system of different colored standard parts for AFOLs.
I’ve found that if instructions are too basic for you go find some MOCs, MOCs usually have far more challenging instructions perfect for nostalgic AFOLs.
@jaredhinton
I have no issues with the current color / instruction system.
I certainly don't call it dumbing down.
@AustinPowers said:
"No it isn't. I have been building Technic sets for decades and that disgusting colour mishmash is not the authentic LEGO Technic look. Those pins used to be black you know? A much more neutral colour that went much better with other colours. It is only with the trend of dumbing everything down that TLG has introduced the myriad of colours for stuff like axles that used to all be simply black or light grey back in the day. "
Key word there being 'used' to be black. They ran as black for 14 years and they've been blue for 13, so this isn't exactly a new change. If you're going to build a model by the instructions once and then not touch it again, sure maybe having everything uniform works better. But if you're looking to rebuild, or build mocs, or even just sort your pieces, having different color locks helps tremendously. And 'dumbing down' is a weird complaint. Axles used to be all black and grey, would you rather they be all black? No, having grey for odd and black for even helps to differentiate them. That's not dumb. That's smart. In the same way, sifting through black pins to find a 3l in a pile of 2l is dumb. It's a waste of time, and having 3l be blue is a smart choice, same as having 2l nonfriction be grey, same as having 3l nonfriction be tan. Having all of those be black would be dumb.
After lengthy discussions about blue pins and parts in weird colors, I would like to use the following word for the second time on this page: stickers. The set does not have any. Isn't that unexpected and amazing?
One might actually get the impression that Lego finally begins to understand what a premium collectors' item for adults ("18+") is all about. :-) If only they would apply that line of thought to Star Wars UCS ...
What is this idea that Lego "dumbs things down"? Is Lego the toy version of Rick and Morty, where only people with a very high IQ should be allowed to play?
@deikoon said:
"After lengthy discussions about blue pins and parts in weird colors, I would like to use the following word for the second time on this page: stickers. The set does not have any. Isn't that unexpected and amazing?
Props to you for mentioning this. For the amount of people who complain about stickers, this comments section has been surprisingly quiet on the topic.
I for one think the color variety in the gearbox is gorgeous. Every part clearly conveys its function in a way that makes the set not only easier to build but also to understand. Some may complain that this is "dumbing things down"... and to them I say go work on building a real car if you're going to complain about a toy version being made more user-friendly. I was around for the era of black and grey pins, and I don't miss it. It could be confusing then and would be monumentally moreso now that so many more varieties of axles, pins, gears, and combinations thereof have been introduced.
Just looking at those images hurts my brain... It will no doubt be a fine accomplishment once complete.
Huh. @TomKazutara b!tc!ng. That's new.
Just got to remember this step at 345 for when i get mine hehe! thanks it looks great!
Can someone show me where it is in the image? Thanks :)
"There is also a mechanical limit to the vertical travel of the suspension which prevents the springs becoming fully compressed."