Making the Lego Race Car Transporter Minifigure-Compatible

I don't build a lot of Lego vehicles, but with Amazon selling the LEGO Creator 3in1 Race Car Transporter (31113) for just $16, I decided to give it a whirl. With a little work, it might have a place in one of my upcoming modular buildings,.

I built the car transporter with two race cars. It was a quick build, but not particularly useful for modular city collectors since it is not minifigure-compatible. (The cab is a solid block of bricks with no room for a driver and the race cars have built-in miniature drivers.)   Fortunately, the set has good bones and made for an easy conversion to a 6-wide truck cab with two drivable go-karts.

The truck portion of the set needed a total overhaul to make room for a driver and stretch the set out to 6-studs, which is the standard for commercial vehicles in my Lego city. I reused a lot of the pieces from the set, but added several additional pieces and the standard vehicle parts - doors, windshield, roof, etc. I also upgraded the tires and wheels to a chunkier style.

For my purposes, the Lego-designed trailer was fine. I only added a few of the left over pieces finish the front edge of the upper deck.

The race cars were surprisingly flimsy with the side panels falling off with the slightest touch. Since I wanted the cars to be drivable, the issue resolved itself when I changed the side panels from a dropdown attachment to one that sticks up to form the driver's cockpit. After adding a steering wheel and a few pieces to form an engine in the back, I had the drivable go-karts I was looking for.

With a handful of additional pieces, this set can easily be transformed into a minifigure-compatible car hauler that's on par with Lego's more expensive line of Great Vehicles.