Nifeliz R18 Race Car review: A sleek and stylish build

Nifeliz is one of the newer Lego alternative company out there, and although it’s mostly known for reboxing sets, it does make a few original sets that are worth checking out.

One of those is the R18 Race Car set, which imitates the look of the iconic 2015 Audi R18 prototype race car at a 1:10 scale. It isn’t licensed, so it doesn’t exactly say that on the box, but fans of the Le Mans hybrid racer will appreciate the design.

So is it worth buying? Keep reading for our full Nifeliz R18 Race Car review!

Black Friday: Just a heads up that Nifeliz is in the middle of a huge Black Friday campaign, so you can pick this set up at a nice discount at the link below!

Note: Nifeliz provided this set to Tiny Workshops for review, but our opinions are our own.

Affiliate disclosure: Articles on Tiny Workshops may contain affiliate links.

Overview

Technic race car sets are a dime a dozen these days, and the alternative brick market is the best place to buy them with the Danish giant charging exorbitant prices for its car sets.

Although I’m not big on race cars (or Technic sets for that matter), I have to say that the Nifeliz R18 Race Car set really impressed me.

The 1685-piece build is certainly challenging, but the instructions made the process relatively seamless, and the finished product is absolutely enormous, at 50 x 23 x 15cm (20 x 9 x 5.5in).

I was hesitant to put the stickers on the finished model since they span across several pieces, but I’m so glad I did. It really brings the whole race car look together.

There are both normal stickers and transfer stickers, but the latter definitely looks better.

Apart from aesthetics, this set packs a few interesting features under its hood. For example, the back section lifts to reveal a motor with working pistons, the doors can open, and the steering wheel works.

This also means that it can be motorized with a few modifications. I know this for a fact because it bears a striking resemblance to another set from a few years back that could be motorized, but more on that later.

At the end of the day though, this set retails for just $70, which makes it an incredible value. That’s much cheaper than even other alt brick car sets from other brands like Mould King or CaDA.

Build

The Nifeliz R18 Race Car set lists that it’s for ages 16 and up, and in my experience, that number is spot on. This is not an easy build, with lots of small parts and intricate sections, so it’s best left for older builders and adults.

That said, Nifeliz did do a few clever things to make the build more manageable. For example, there are three small trays in the box, which help immensely throughout the process.

The bags are also numbered to match the steps in the manual, and they don’t contain too many pieces. My process was to keep the small connectors in one tray, the larger connectors in another tray, and the bag I was actively working on in the other.

However, the text on the bags can be really hard to read, so you might want to sort them out beforehand. There are more than twenty bags in the box, so sifting through them mid-build can really break your concentration.

The manual is a thick book with lots of great images, and it’s easy to follow if you have a bit of experience with Technic-style builds. It’s definitely satisfying to see the more complicated bits slot into place, although it sometimes feels like you need a third hand to get the gears to stay before they’re secured.

The whole thing comes together very nicely at the end, but my least favorite part is the cockpit. The doors don’t open very smoothly, and the flexible bars don’t quite fit as snugly as I would like. It feels like they’re going to come off if I fiddle with them too much.

Overall though, this is a great build that race car fans will enjoy building and displaying.

Quality

The quality of the pieces in the Nifeliz R18 Race Car set is just ok, and although it’s the worst part about the set, it isn’t a dealbreaker. It’s the sacrifice you have to make to hit this price point.

Everything snapped together just fine while I was building it, although a few pieces were just a bit too snug or too loose. There weren’t any missing pieces in my set, but Nifeliz will hook you up with replacements if you get unlucky.

The biggest sticking point for me was that there was a sharp piece of mold flash on a lot of the smaller connectors. This didn’t affect the connection at all, but it did start to wear on my poor fingers over the course of the 5+ hour build.

I do wish that Nifeliz had included a tool to aid in pressing pieces together or taking them apart. I never had to break out the pliers, but I did have to take more regular breaks to let my fingers rest (and heal).

Similarities to other sets

In the past, the world of alt bricks was surprisingly cut-throat, with companies copying builds from their rivals and lowering the price. The industry appears to be (somewhat) moving to more of a licensed model, but similarities between sets do still pop up.

In this case, the Nifeliz R18 Race Car set bears a striking resemblance to the CaDA Porsche 919 set (C61016), seen below.

Granted, it’s not exactly the same. There have been a number of modifications, including the hood, headlights, front wheel arches, etc.

However, the main structure and moving parts are nearly identical. The rear structure and doors open in exactly the same way on both models, with a small switch in the same place to enable the movement.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that the CaDA set (which I believe dates back to 2019) was itself adapted from another model. I also haven’t seen this set on sale in many retailers, so it may be out of production.

Additionally, the Nifeliz set makes a few improvements, most notably numbered bags. This change alone is reason enough to prefer the Nifeliz set in my eyes.

In any case, the CaDA set was available in both motorized and non-motorized versions, so it stands to reason that if you buy the motor kit from CaDA (which you can get separately), it will fit into the Nifeliz R18 Race Car set with a few minor modifications.

This should allow you to motorize just about everything: not just steering and power, but also the raising back fin and doors. This will cost you quite a bit of extra money though, and the set still works well as a display piece without it.

Nifeliz R18 Race Car review: Is it worth it?

If you’re a fan of hybrid race cars, the Nifeliz R18 Race Car is a great buy. The quality of the pieces is good enough, and the finished model is absolutely gorgeous.

Just be aware that it’s very large when finished. You will need a significant amount of space to display this bad boy in your home.

The $70 price tag is a much easier pill to swallow than what the leading brand is charging, and if this set is out of stock or the design doesn’t quite do it for you, Nifeliz has a nice little collection of equally great sets to choose from.

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That’s it for this Nifeliz R18 Race Car review! Drop any questions in the comments and I’ll get to them as soon as possible.