Civil engineer Dave Collins tells us how he built a superb recreation of the Renault 5 Turbo 3E
Dave Collins’ superb Lego recreation of the Renault 5 Turbo 3E could soon be headed to a shop shelf near you, having passed a vital stage in its approval by the plastic brick maker.
Collins’ model was submitted to Lego Ideas – the platform on which fans of the bricks can post their own models, with the potential for them to become a real set – in April, soon receiving the backing of Renault UK. It has now received 10,000 public votes of support, meaning it will be passed to Lego insiders for review.
“We will build concept models and determine if the concept meets our high standards for what it takes to be a Lego product,” the Danish company said. “This includes factors such as playability, safety and fit with the Lego brand. Every potential Lego product goes through a process like this and must meet the same standards.”
The 5 Turbo 3E will be included in Lego’s second review for 2026, which will include proposals that breach the 10,000-supporter milestone by 7 September.
It said reviews “can take several months” and that, following approval, the development phase “also takes several months”. That means that, should it be approved, Collins’ set could be on sale late next year.
In this interview, he tells us about the painstaking process of recreating the 5 Turbo 3E in miniature.
The yellow brick road: Building a Lego Renault 5
“It’s my wife’s fault,” says Dave Collins. “I put the model on my bookshelf along with my others. We engineers don’t seek the limelight, but she insisted I photograph it and send the pictures to Renault.”
That’s how his 1:12-scale model of the £140,000, 550bhp Renault 5 Turbo 3E, conceived and built entirely by him from Lego, found its way into Steve Cropley’s 8 April column in the Autocar magazine – an appearance that has since helped it attract 10,000 supporters on the Lego Ideas website, where people can promote their creations.
Collins’ remarkably accurate model will be now put forward to Lego’s review board for commercial consideration. It will have to pass through many hoops, but we have our fingers crossed that the board will be sufficiently confident in his car to add it to Lego’s range of model sets. Then Dave Collins, 40-something, husband, father and civil engineer, will be officially recognised as a Lego Fan Designer and earn 1% commission on his model’s net sales, plus 10 complimentary copies.
Not that he set out to do it for the money. “I just enjoy building with Lego,” he says. “It’s a mindful process, one of trial and error. Playing with Lego, you might call it!”
Collins’ relationship with the plastic bricks began, naturally enough, in childhood. In time, he graduated to more challenging Technic sets, including Forklift Truck, Hook and Ladder Truck (a fire engine) and Snorkel Squad (a large flatbed with a fireman’s ladder), which he still displays in his hobby room. Eventually, he left home for university to lay down the foundations of his present career in civil engineering. Then years later, in 2020, Covid struck…
“One of my friends who had older children was giving away all their Lego and, knowing of my past interest in it, offered the lot to me,” says Collins. “All told, the pile of bricks and other parts weighed around 20kg. I’ve always liked cars; my passion is Group B rally cars of the 1980s. I thought that, to help me and my daughter get through the pandemic, it would be fun to use the Lego to design and build cars that I’d owned, and maybe a rally car too from the same era.”
Which is how, over a period of months, Collins’ Lego model of a Mk1 Toyota MR2, a Ford Escort XR3i (the version he once owned was a more modest 1.4 L) and a Renault 5 Turbo (a car he had never owned in any form) came into being. You can see the XR3i on his Instagram page, under his building name Devonbricks. He also created a superb model of an MG Metro 6R4 (he had owned a Metro 1.4 Si), which he submitted to Lego for board review early last year. It has so far attracted more than 2800 supporters. It’s pictured below; you can see more of it on his Instagram page or the Lego Ideas website.
That all four cars were created by trial and error is remarkable but more remarkable still are their features and detail. Collins is a modest man, but he accepts that his models are a cut above even Lego’s premium sets: “I’ve taken Lego to the next level, to something as close as the real thing as possible and which doesn’t look like a typical Lego model.”
Whether it’s an approach that can be made commercially viable (the MR2 and XR3i are made from around 1200 parts and the 6R4 from 1700 parts) is another question, but then Collins insists that he has never considered the marketability of his models when creating them.
Of the four he built during and after lockdown, it was the 6R4 that he enjoyed most: “I like the flared-arch look, while it and ’80s cars in general have an angular quality that is easier to build in Lego. It’s a look shared by the new Renault 5. Retro-futuristic, Renault calls it.”
It’s a look that Collins was instantly attracted to: “Electric power is the future of motoring and the Turbo 3E is a mind-blowing example of what lovers of performance cars can expect. I love its aero and wide wheel arches. It’s a beast and I just had to build it. It turned out to be a process that excited me from start to finish.”
If, like most of us, the furthest you’ve got improvising with Lego is building a toppling tower block, you doubtless will be wondering how Collins transformed the rods, wheels, bricks and countless other old Lego parts given to him by his friend into the stunning 5 Turbo 3E that has captured the imagination of his supporters.
In fact, as with his other models, the process began with sheets of A3 paper. Onto them he traced images of the Renault from his large computer screen to give him templates of the car’s sides and front and rear ends. He then laid the traced images on sheets of card, cut them out and arranged Lego parts on the cut pieces to achieve the vehicle’s basic shape and outline and to judge the suitability of each piece. With the sides loosely prepared, he then built the chassis from Technic pieces, fitted the wheels and joined everything up.
More trial and error followed. “I have a frustrating eye for detail and perfection,” says Collins. “Everything has to be spot on. Every day I’d see the Renault on my shelf and I’d have to keep tweaking it. The hardest part was the roof: I had to figure out how to give it good structural support so that the doors and the tailgate could open and close. Getting the tailgate to fit flush to the body was also a challenge. In the end, the roll-cage saved the day. The easiest part was the basic chassis, not least because, unlike my other builds, there was no exhaust system and silencer to make or engine to install.”
The 5 Turbo 3E’s interior was also difficult to model, with Collins’ eye for detail creating all sorts of challenges: “I wanted the seats to be as authentic as possible, so each of them has side supports, bolsters and headrests. I reproduced the tartan print on the upholstery using AutoCAD software and printed the design on A4 paper. I painted the wheels with white fabric paint. I tried to make it look like a radio-controlled car but as realistic as possible.”
To do so required 1300 Lego pieces. Many he was able to source from his friend’s old collection while others, especially those in the right colours, came from eBay and BrickLink, an independent marketplace for Lego parts. “These extra pieces cost me around £50,” says Collins, “but if I’d had to buy all the parts for the car, the total build would have cost around £200.”
The project took three months and around 100 hours to complete, concluding this February. Job done, the 5 Turbo 3E was destined for Collins’ shelves while he considered his next project. But, as we know, his wife had other ideas, with the result that the little car (it measures 320mm in length) has placed its shy and retiring creator in the spotlight.
“The attention the car has attracted from Renault and Autocar and, of course, from the Lego supporters, to whom I’m extremely grateful, has been a shock but an enjoyable one,” he says. “One minute I was sitting in my office and the next I was on a train with the car beside me in a cardboard box going to London to be photographed by Renault. Arnaud Belloni, Renault’s brand chief, even popped into a video call to tell me he thought my car was brilliant. Renault are keeping the car for a short time for media purposes. I hope no one drops it. So it can’t be rolled along the floor, I’ve locked the wheels.”
During his time with Renault in London, the best moment for Collins was when his model was placed next to the real thing: “At first, it was nerve-racking to see it. Would it look like it and would the proportions be correct? Fortunately, it did and they were. To say I was pleased is an understatement.”
To follow Collins’ 5 Turbo 3E in its bid to be adopted by Lego as an official product, visit ideas.lego.com.
