Technic

App-Controlled Top Gear Rally Car

A licensed rally car with real Technic guts, but the app steering left me cold.

Brick Rated Score

3.1/5

Set 42109 · 2020

Pieces463

Minifigsn/a

Year2020

Set number42109

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The verdict

I went into this one excited.

A Top Gear tie-in, a Powered Up Smart Hub, an XL and an L motor, and a proper app to drive it with. The build itself is genuinely enjoyable, it just does not translate into a rally car that feels fast or fun once it is finished. I get why LEGO wanted to show off the Control+ platform here, but the touchscreen steering and the underwhelming top speed take the shine off. This one is for the Top Gear die hards and the people who collect every Powered Up set, not for someone hunting a thrilling remote control car.

Best for: Powered Up completionists and Top Gear fans who want the licensed tie-in more than raw speed

The full review

What it is

This is LEGO Technic's licensed nod to Top Gear, and on paper it reads like a dream spec. A Powered Up Smart Hub, one XL motor, one L motor, and full app steering through the Control+ platform. You snap in the hub, run the wiring through the chassis, and watch a rally car take shape with independent suspension and a real differential doing actual work under the hood. The building experience holds up well. There is enough mechanical substance here that I did not feel like I was just stacking panels onto a shell.

The catch

Where it falls apart is the drive. Once the car is finished and you connect it through the app, the top speed just is not there. More than one reviewer called it sluggish on a smooth floor and worse on carpet, which is a rough thing to hear about a car branded after a show built entirely around going fast. The touchscreen steering does not help either, you end up staring at your phone instead of the car, second guessing which virtual button you actually pressed. At its original RRP of about 130 US dollars or 125 pounds, that is a tough pill to swallow for a toy that undersells its own name.

Who it's for

If you are the kind of builder who wants every Powered Up set for the shelf, or you genuinely love Top Gear and want the crossover piece, this will still bring you some joy in the build. If you are shopping for a remote control car that actually thrills a kid tearing around the living room, I would steer you toward a different Technic RC set instead. This one is a nice engineering exercise wrapped in a disappointing driving experience.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Assembly moves at a comfortable pace for a mid-size Technic set. You start with the chassis and differential, work outward into the suspension arms, then wrap the whole thing in bodywork panels that give it a genuine rally silhouette once the wing and side mirrors go on. Running the Powered Up wiring through the frame without pinching anything takes a bit of care, and fitting the Smart Hub in cleanly is the fiddliest stretch of the whole build.

The standout here is the mechanical package rather than any single new mold, the XL and L motor combination paired with real independent suspension is more hardware than you usually get at this piece count. At 463 pieces for the original 130 dollar price, the value is fair for a licensed app controlled set, though plenty of that cost is clearly going toward the electronics rather than exotic new parts. There are no minifigs, this is a vehicle-only Technic build through and through.

Fun facts

01This was one of LEGO's first sets built specifically around the Control+ app platform paired with the Top Gear television brand, a fairly unusual licensing pairing for the Technic line.
02The set uses a Powered Up Smart Hub driven by one XL motor and one L motor, the same generation of electronics LEGO was rolling out across its app controlled Technic vehicles at the time.
03It launched in December 2019 for global release timed close to the 2020 catalog, carrying an RRP of about 129.99 US dollars or 124.99 pounds.
04Multiple independent reviewers, including Brick Architect and Rebrickable, singled out the slow real world speed and awkward touchscreen steering as the set's biggest letdowns despite a solid build experience.