Legoland upgrades from Ford to Ferrari

An Orlando, Fla.-area theme park is now home to a lifesize Ferrari 296 GTS that's made almost entirely of Lego bricks and weighs roughly the same as the real thing.

Legoland Florida built the car for the Ferrari Build and Race attraction it opened last week. The tires and steering wheel are the only visible parts not made from Lego A/S' signature interlocking ABS bricks.

"There are a couple of Ferrari-specific features in the model — like the steering wheel is out of a real Ferrari," Ryan Wood, a master model builder for Legoland, told the Orlando Sentinel. "Just holding that steering wheel is such a powerful feeling."

Unlike other full-scale Lego vehicles the park has displayed since opening in 2011, the Ferrari is open for visitors to sit in. Legoland designers worked with the automaker to get every detail exact, including a pair of functional headlights.

"Those are in sort of a two-tone color combination that Ferrari was actually very specific that we get right," Wood said. "Guests aren't just going to see transparent lights; they're going to see transparent and smoke-colored lights that are realistic to the actual thing."

Legoland won't say how many bricks were used to create the Ferrari, because it's asking visitors to guess the number. A Ford F-150 Lightning shown at the park in 2022 was made with 320,740, a Ford Explorer required 382,000, and a first-generation Ford Mustang took 194,900. Those vehicles were made to promote the park's partnership with Southern Ford Dealers.