First look at LEGO Speed Champions BMW M3 E30

BMW has teased a first look at an upcoming LEGO Speed Champions version of the M3 E30, which will apparently have a ‘unique’ livery.

The next LEGO Speed Champions set to come racing out of Billund will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the BMW M3, and while the model has yet to be officially unveiled by the LEGO Group, BMW has published an interview with LEGO Head of Design Will Thorogood and BMW Head of Design Michael Scully that offers a sneak peek at the upcoming car.

The concept images show off plain white and red prototypes of the LEGO BMW M3 E30, but according to the designers it will sport a ‘unique livery’ to pay tribute to 40 years of BMW M Motorsport history. You can see a glimpse of that on a real version of the car on BMW’s Instagram page, and Michael has also described what it’ll look like.

“The livery visually embraces the layered block form construction inherent to LEGO, while also referencing BMW M Motorsport race liveries of the past and present with a bold diagonal schematic traversing the entirety of the car,” Michael said.

“Adding to the high contrast layout, the large number 40 emblazoned on the hood celebrates a significant anniversary of the M3 production car in a graphic language which again draws inspiration from LEGO’s geometric aesthetic.”

According to Will, the car took around four months to design in collaboration with BMW. “It was great working with the BMW Group design team on bringing this special livery to life,” he said. “Being able to discuss the history and legend of the E30 M3 as well as where the brand is headed in the future really helped us create a unique livery.

“We kicked off with an online call to get things going but then had a workshop together at BMW Design in Munich where we could study the real car and discuss the livery together in real time. We left with a shared view on what the most important aspects of the design should be and then we went back and forth on calls and emails to finalise the design.”

It’s tough to spot in the initial image further up, but one neat technique Will highlighted in the LEGO M3 E30 is the use of cutlery. “The build of the iconic kidney grill uses two forks – a really fun surprise during the build!” he added. “We decided to use the forks as they were the best elements to accurately recreate that specific detail, and that is a key feature of many LEGO Speed Champions sets. Surprising parts usage always keeps the builder on their toes!”

LEGO Speed Champions’ only other BMW set is the sticker-heavy double pack 76922 BMW M4 GT3 & BMW M Hybrid V8, and it sounds like the new livery will use a combination of stickers and prints, as per most cars in this theme. Exactly how many stickers remains to be seen – as does the livery itself, at least in full.

But if the tease over on Instagram is anything to go by, we’re probably looking at a white car covered in red, black and blue graphics… so fingers crossed the scales tip towards prints over stickers. The full set will apparently be revealed on May 22, so check back then for all the images and details.

LEGO Speed Champions 2026 sets

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