Lego McLaren Senna GTR Turns Your Track Dreams Into ABS Plastic

• The fourth McLaren Lego set, featuring the Senna GTR, is the largest yet, mostly because this one uses the more detailed Technic building system.
• Using Technic allowed the Lego designers to add a small V-8 engine with moving pistons and working dihedral doors (that means they hinge forward and upward).
• The 830-piece Lego Technic McLaren Senna GTR will be available in January for $50.

If you find the million-dollar-plus price of a McLaren Senna GTR a bit steep, Lego will sell you one for $50. Sure, it won't have over 800 horsepower, but it will have 1 Big Kid power, and that's worth something. Also, you can make it go vroom anywhere you want, instead of just on the track like the real thing.

Lego has released four previous sets featuring McLaren vehicles, all part of the Speed Champions line. This is the first official McLaren supercar made with Lego Technic pieces, though, and as such, it's made on a larger scale that allows for a tiny V-8 engine with moving pistons, functional steering, opening dihedral doors and special blue bricks. The new McLaren set is 12 inches long and is designed for builders ages 10 and up. The new set will be available January 1, 2021—sorry, not in time for holiday gift giving—and will cost $49.99. Unlike the real Senna GTR, two seats are standard in the Lego version.

Lego worked with McLaren designers to re-create the hypercar's swoopy lines in plastic. A fair amount of printing (or stickers) on the Lego model make it look a little busy, but the car is still easily identifiable with its rear spoiler and roof-mounted steering wheel. Actually, that last item is only for the toy model. Even with functional differences like this, McLaren Automotive design director Robert Melville is a fan. "We're as proud of the model as we are of the real car," he said in a statement.

Three of those earlier Lego McLaren sets were just the vehicles (and cool minifigure drivers): a P1 in 2015, a 720S in 2017, and a Senna in 2019. There was also a McLaren Mercedes Pit Stop set in 2015. The scale for the new Technic McLaren Senna GTR is large enough that the mini figures won't fit, and it's made up of 

almost as many pieces as the four of them put together (852, versus 830 in the new set).

So give your favorite gift recipient (or yourself) an IOU for the new set, which will be out on New Year's Day, and meanwhile there are plenty of other McLaren choices for Lego fans.