Legoland California will soon have one more attraction: The life-size Ferrari F40 comes up with remarkable technical data.
Spring time is theme park time. As the temperatures rise and the days get longer, visits to the amusement park are a welcome break from everyday life. In this respect, the current season is also predestined for theme park operators to open new attractions for their visitors. That's exactly what's happening at Legoland California, which is located south of Los Angeles on the Pacific Coast in the town of Carlsbad.
In cooperation with the Italian sports car manufacturer, the "Ferrari Build & Race" theme world was created there over the winter and will open on May 12th. Their main attraction: a Ferrari F40 (almost) life-size. With a length of 4.27 meters, the copy is 16 centimeters shorter than the original – with an almost identical wheelbase (2.44 instead of 2.45 meters). In the other dimensions, too, the building block athlete does not quite match the V8 biturbo bolide. The Lego version is a bit narrower but taller. And heavier: The weight should be more than 1,360 kilograms; the correct F40 is just over the 1.2 ton mark.
A total of 3,700 working hours
More than 358,000 Lego bricks weigh a lot. And they are a lot of work: the conception and development consumed more than 1,800 working hours; the construction itself took even longer (1,900 hours). Visitors should also allow plenty of time if they want to take a close look at the Lego F40 or sit inside it. The latter is possible, but the queues at the driver's door are likely to be extremely long.
Inside, the Ferrari F40 is only partly made of Lego bricks. Details such as the dashboard, the steering wheel or the driver's seat are made of different materials. The doors and tailgate can be opened, and owners of the real sports car who live there would certainly pay a lot of money for the license plate ("California F40") in the real world.
First build, then drive
Of course, the new "Ferrari Build & Race" area offers even more. The main thing is that guests can build their own sports or racing cars there. On a digital race track - a replica of the Ferrari test track in Fiorano, of course - they can then try to hunt for lap times in virtual reality, how much talent they have as a designer and/or racing driver.
Conclusion
With great effort, Lego created a Ferrari F40 for Legoland California, which is almost the original size. The car is part of a new themed area that the building block specialists have designed together with the Italian sports car manufacturer and which will open on May 12th.
