Lego's new interactive Ferrari experience arrives at Legoland California on May 12.
The Carlsbad theme park announced last fall that it would welcome a new Lego Ferrari Build and Race experience in 2022, but had not revealed a specific opening date until now. In Lego Ferrari Build and Race, which is included with park admission, participants will start by building a Ferrari from Lego. But instead of just testing those cars on a Pinewood Derby-style track, Lego Ferrari Build and Race goes high tech.
In an experience designed by Dimensional Innovations, participants will scan their cars, then digitally modify their car's engine size, tires, and aerodynamics. Once set, the cars will take to a virtual track for three laps, where participants will use a touch pad to control their cars as they adapt to changing track conditions to try to set a fast time.
"Working alongside Merlin Entertainments, Ferrari and Legoland California Resort to create this one-of-a-kind digital racing experience has been thrilling for our team," Dimensional Innovations CEO Tucker Trotter said. "Harnessing the power of Ferrari, children of all ages can customize their unique Lego race car and compete for the fastest lap time on a virtual racetrack inspired by Pista di Fiorano."
Overhead monitors will allow guests to see the action on track, while leaderboards will display current lap times as well as the best performances of the day.
The Lego Ferrari Build and Race experience also will include a photo op with a life-size Ferrari F40 model developed by Lego. If you're interested in visiting and looking for deals on tickets, please visit our authorized partner's Legoland California tickets page.
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I wish they met in the middle of the physical and virtual design elements on this project. Perhaps you modify the physical elements of the car and then took that back to a virtual display area to test your design?
That's what I was hoping for too Jacob...The Mindstorm activities do such an excellent job of combining the build portions with the design parts of the activities. The way this is described, the build part seems pretty boring and very un-Lego.
FWIW, I felt the Mindstorm workshop in Florida was much better than the one in California. Perhaps this Ferrari partnership California is the Carlsbad park's way of trying to match what they're doing in Florida, which had more of a challenge element to it versus the more coding-based elements used in California.
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Is this replacing Mindstorm?
I can see why they don't want kids physically racing their cars, but turning this into something similar to TestTrack with virtual designing and racing is pretty lame. The appeal of Lego is that it's hands on, and making modifications to a virtual car and watching the design race on a virtual track doesn't seem to fit with Lego's purpose to encourage physical play.
I am curious if the Lego sets will be the current 275-piece Ferrari Speed edition or something else (they obviously wouldn't use the Technic version that has 1,682 pieces). We have the Speed set, and it took my then 10 year old a solid 45 minutes to build with a little help from mom and dad. I would guess either a different set will need to be used or certain parts will need to be Kragle-d together to expedite the build process.