What changed after the Chiron and the Sián
Put the Daytona next to the Chiron and the Sián and the differences are in the parts, not on the spec sheet. All three are 1:8 cars with an eight-speed paddle-shift gearbox and a big engine behind the seats. The Ferrari is the one with no stickers at all, tyres bigger than anything the three cars before it wore, a new pair of differential gears, and a printed display plaque, the first on a Technic Ultimate car.
The full spotlight, with every function, the build stage by stage and the three manual errors, is here: Ferrari Daytona SP3 (42143): Kit Spotlight. This post is shorter and does a different job. It sets the car against the two before it, and it goes through what the three members who have built ours made of it.
What is new on this one
New Elementary went through the inventory at launch and the list is long. A dozen red 2 x 5 curved panels from a new mould, a new triangular tapered panel, mudguards that are the Sián’s shortened by one module at each end, and the Sián’s big 15-module mudguards recoloured from lime to red. Then the wheels. The Porsche, the Chiron and the Sián all ran the same 81.6 mm tyre. The Daytona has an 87.9 mm tyre on a five-spoke rim in silver lacquer, and when New Elementary reviewed it no other LEGO wheel fitted that tyre.
Two of the new moulds are gears. A yellow 22-tooth bevel gear clips onto the differential housing where a 28-tooth gear would normally go, with two 14-tooth gears to match, for a different ratio and more strength. They mesh with nothing else in the box, and they are three of the 54 gears in the set. And the printing: not one sticker. The badges, the fuel filler, the dashboard tile and the 8 x 16 plaque are all printed. Many of the red panels had already appeared on the Ferrari 488 GTE (42125) with stickers on; here they come clean.
It was designed by Uwe Wabra, who also worked on the Sián. The UK price went from £349.99 at launch to the £389.99 Brickset now lists, and LEGO retired it at the end of July 2026, so the library copy is now the easy way to build it.
What it does, the short version
Short versions only. The full spotlight has the longer descriptions. Everything is worked by hand, there are no motors, and the write-ups we hold are a parts review, the launch coverage and the manual errata rather than a build review, so I stop where they stop.
A working 8-speed sequential gearbox driven from a paddle shifter, the same idea as the Chiron and the Sián. Inside, two orange wave selectors have to sit a particular way before a green beam goes in at step 88, and the printed manual left that panel out. Jay’s Brick Blog says it affects how the gearbox works. Check it before anything is built over it.
Twelve pistons move in the V12 behind the cockpit. The members who have built ours agree the V12 block is the most involved sub-assembly in the set and goes in before the structure around it. The differential uses the new yellow 22-tooth and 14-tooth bevel gears, in place of the 28-tooth gear that normally caps the housing.
Both doors open outward and up to show seats built from 64 elements newly recoloured in blue, a printed dashboard tile and the prancing horse on the steering wheel. There is a hole in the top of each door once built. That is the design, not a missing part.
Four 9L coil-over shock absorbers in red, the type LEGO introduced on the BMW M 1000 RR (42130). Brickset tags the set with functional steering; none of the write-ups we hold says how it is linked, so I will only say what it turns: the handed five-spoke rims on the biggest tyre LEGO had put on a street car.
How the build goes, in three stages
No source walks it box by box; this is the shape of it from the errata, the parts review and the members’ notes. Their times were six to eight, seven to eight and eight to ten hours.
Gearbox and chassis core
The first third of the build is chassis and drivetrain, and the printed manual is wrong twice early on: step 88 is missing the wave selector panel and step 104 highlights the wrong part. Our October 2025 build diary notes that the selector linkages run up through the centre and have to be right before the body closes over them. Click through every gear by hand before you move on.
V12 and the rear end
The first third is all chassis and drivetrain, and the V12 is the block that takes longest. Every piston is connected on its own, and all three members say to build it carefully before anything else. The differential goes together on the yellow bevel gears. Turn it all by hand; once the body is on, the pistons are only visible through the rear.
Bodywork, interior, wheels
The ribs at the four corners are stacked quarter-circle macaroni tiles stepped with red jumper plates, and the tail lights use the first translucent macaroni tile LEGO made. The rims are handed, so check the side. The member who built it in April 2026 said the front-end panel clips were the slow part. Work in good light.
The full list is in the main spotlight. These are the three that come up every time.
- Step 88 and step 104. The printed books shipped with the wave selector panel missing at step 88 and the wrong part highlighted at step 104. LEGO corrected step 88 in the digital instructions and, when Jay’s Brick Blog checked, had not corrected 104. Keep the digital manual open here.
- Two black fairings left at the end. Not spares. They belong on the exposed red axles at the back of the car, near the underside. Racing Brick found it and the manual does not show it.
- The front-end panel clips. The April 2026 member singled these out as the slow section. The curved red nose panels have to lock in at the right angles or the gaps show. Not hard, just slow.
On the shelf
It is 59 cm long, 25 cm wide and 14 cm high, so it wants the whole shelf. With no stickers there is nothing to peel or misalign in a year’s time. The November 2025 member photographed it with the printed plaque standing in front, which tells you where it goes.
Members who have built it
Two Daytona builds have come back with photos and notes, from April 2026 and November 2025. The diaries are linked under each picture; the main spotlight carries more from both.
It is the one for you if you have already built the Chiron or the Sián and It is the one for you if you have already built the Chiron or the Sián and want to feel what the new parts did to the same formula, or if you simply want the red one. Allow three evenings. Load the digital instructions for steps 88 and 104 before you open the box, build the V12 slowly, and keep the two black fairings for the axles at the end., or if you simply want the red one. Allow three evenings. Load the digital instructions for steps 88 and 104 before you open the box, build the V12 slowly, and keep the two black fairings for the axles at the end.
If you like this one, try
The rest of the 1:8 line in the library: the three cars this post measures the Ferrari against, and the McLaren P1 that followed it.
The Ferrari Daytona SP3 is in the library
Technic Fan gets up to 6 kits a year, Master Builder up to 12. Delivery both ways is included and the prepaid return label is in the box.