Skip to main content

Mercedes-Benz Renntransporter made out of Legos makes us wish we were kids again

Well-known Lego enthusiast Firas Abu-Jaber has published pictures of his latest creation, an accurate replica of the iconic Mercedes-Benz Renntransporter that was built to haul cars to races all over Europe during the 1950s.

You might be thinking “my five-year old kid can build a tow truck with Legos!”  However, Abu-Jaber’s replica is impressive because he built it entirely from scratch, it’s not a kit that you can simply buy in stores or online. The truck’s proportions are surprisingly lifelike and the short hood, the concave two-part rear window and the curved rear fascia are all faithfully represented.

Moving beyond the overall silhouette, careful observers will notice that the Renntransporter’s round headlights, its Ponton sedan-sourced front turn signals and its single-slat radiator grille are accounted for. The story is the same around back, where Abu-Jaber has even gone through the trouble of adding the truck’s gasoline filler cap above the passenger-side tail light.

The Renntransporter’s body can be removed to reveal a relatively detailed cockpit with two individual seats, a pair of pedals, a full center console and two levers. The truck’s straight-six engine is located directly behind the passenger compartment, and examining the chassis reveals that it is fitted with a four-wheel independent suspension system.

The ramps are fully functional, and Abu-Jaber has built an equally impressive replica of a Gullwing-bodied 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL to go along with the Renntransporter.  The gullwing doors open and close, and the hood pops up to reveal the SL’s fuel-injected 3.0-liter straight-six engine.

How long it took Abu-Jaber to build each model is up in the air. As far as we know, Lego is not planning on offering an official Renntransporter/300 SL kit in the near future, but we’d be the very first ones in line if such a project ever sees the light of day.

Editors' Recommendations

Ronan Glon
Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…
We tested the self-driving Mercedes tech so advanced, it’s not allowed in the U.S.
Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan with Drive Pilot.

You can’t buy a fully self-driving car today -- and may never be able to -- but automakers are looking at ways to shift more of the workload from human drivers to machinery. Mercedes-Benz may have taken the biggest step in that direction yet.

Mercedes claims its Drive Pilot system, which was recently launched in Germany, is the first production system to achieve Level 3 on the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) autonomy scale, meaning the car can fully drive itself with the system active, but a human driver may still need to take over from time to time. It’s still a long way off from autonomous driving, but the Level 3 designation signifies a greater degree of capability than competitor systems.

Read more
We drove Mercedes’ hand-built EQXX concept, and it’s unlike any other EV
Front view of the Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX.

It may have the familiar three-pointed star on its hood, but the Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX is like no other car Mercedes — or any other automaker — has ever built.

The Vision EQXX is an electric concept car that debuted at CES 2022 earlier this year. But where many concept cars can’t even move under their own power, the Vision EQXX spent the months after its Las Vegas reveal setting range records with a pair of epic trans-European road trips. Because while most concepts focus solely on design, the Vision EQXX pushes the envelope in all areas, from the shape of its body to the code in its software.

Read more
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQB first drive review: An EV better than its gas sibling
Front three quarter view of the 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQB.

Mercedes-Benz aims to go all-electric in at least some markets by 2030 but to do that it will need to launch electric equivalents of each of its many gasoline-powered models. The 2023 Mercedes-Benz EQB fits that description to the letter.

Where the EQS sedan aims to fill a similar role to the S-Class without directly copying it, the EQB is literally an electric version of an existing Mercedes crossover SUV — the GLB-Class. It uses the same body shell as the GLB, even retaining that model’s optional third-row seats.

Read more