Christmas Day, 2014: 15-year-old me was lucky enough to unwrap a Lego Technic 4x4 off-roader, courtesy of Father Christmas.

The days between Christmas and New Year seemed to melt into one as I beavered away at the dining room table, building the model from bags of bricks to a fully functioning car, of sorts.

Fast forward 10 years and, like many of you, no doubt, I still love the therapeutic assembly of a Lego set. I’d argue that Lego’s automotive sets were also among the, er, building blocks of my career writing about cars.

The pre-eminent Danish toy maker has excelled itself in recent years, releasing a range of ultra-technical sets as part of its Lego Technic Ultimate Car Concept series, by which the firm brings an iconic car to life.

So far it has rolled out plastic brick-based renditions of the Porsche 911 GT3, Bugatti Chiron, Lamborghini Sián and Ferrari SP3 Daytona – the last of which is still sitting on my parents’ dining room table waiting to be finished. Sorry, Mum.

The level of detail that goes into these exclusive sets is extraordinary, with such models considered so challenging that Lego sticks an ‘18-plus’ age guide on the side of the box.

So how does Lego and its team of engineers go about turning a supercar into an authentic Technic set? To find out, we spoke with Lego Technic designer Kasper René Hansen, the man behind the firm’s latest Ultimate Car Concept model: the Lego Technic McLaren P1, a 1:8-scale replica of the storied V8/hybrid hypercar.

“The collaboration started around two years ago,” explains Hansen. “After we decided to go with the P1, I began development in December 2022 and finished it around a year after that.

“I was able to do a lot of research using CAD (computer-aided design) files, sketches and technical information of the car, given to me by McLaren. We made a 1:8-scale model of the car to understand its proportions and then started on the prototypes, of which I built just shy of 20.”

Hansen points to the very first P1 model and claims the Lego P1’s level of detail is “unsurpassed”. When you consider the features that have been carried over from the real car to the model, I’m inclined to agree.

The Lego model has the same seven-speed gearbox (you can change gear using a little paddle behind the steering wheel), wheels, dihedral doors, adjustable rear wing and V8 engine as the real P1.

If that wasn’t enough, Hansen even managed to incorporate the P1’s different engine modes: flick a tiny switch forward inside the cockpit and the gearbox and V8 engine ‘run’ as you roll the car around, mimicking the hybrid mode of the real car.

Flick the switch backwards and it swaps into E-mode, with the tiny electric motor rotating underneath the car.

The Lego P1 is made using 3800 existing Lego Technic parts, with just eight bespoke elements created for the new model – some of which proved harder to design than others.

Among those unique pieces are the P1’s wheels. “They were very tricky to develop because they needed to be as close to perfect as possible,” says Hansen. “We had to make sure they could take the weight of the model, and make sure the spokes were strong enough so they wouldn’t break.”

The P1 isn’t Lego’s first McLaren model: it has partnered the Woking-based brand on several occasions since 2015, creating a number of Technic models including the Senna GTR and the 2022 MCL36 Formula 1 racer.

When Lego approached McLaren to create an Ultimate Car Concept series set, it seemed only right that the P1 should become the next model, as McLaren design boss Tobias Sühlmann explains: “When we first discussed the idea with Lego, we knew straight away it had to be one of our highlights, one of our Ultimates.

"The P1 was a very special car when it launched at the Geneva motor show in 2013 because it had hybrid technology. It seemed like the right time for its rebirth 10 years later as a Lego model.”

The McLaren Solus designer said the “strong teamwork” between the two companies ensured that the final model stayed true to the P1’s unique, compact dimensions.

“Lego is very similar to how we work in terms of pushing boundaries and trying to get the best out of a project,” continues Sühlmann.

“What fascinated me the most was how Lego captured not only the P1’s shape but also the technical side of the car, with the movable pistons of the engine, the gearbox and the driving modes. It was an extremely cool project to be a part of.”

Sühlmann has no doubt that more McLaren/Lego collaborations are to come – and if Hansen, who claims to “have the best job in the world”, has anything to do with it, I’m sure we’ll be seeing plenty more brick-based McLarens.

That’s good news for Lego enthusiasts – and bad news for my bank account.