2017 Year in review Part 2

Part 1 of this post covered Le Mans and GP cars, as well as a 3D-printed motor. The remaining multi-media kit completed in 2017 was of a 1986 Audi S1 from Profil 24. This is a decidedly modern car, with turbocharged 5-cylinder and an early iteration of the Audi quattro 4WD system. A brutal little package, the wing is full of radiators and rear vision is essentially non-existant as a result. It was driven by people like Walter Rörhl, and had a successful career at places like Pike's Peak after Group B rally cars were banned. The kit was challenging because it was one of my first resin kits, and in retrospect I could have done better. The pictures are carefully chosen to hide the flaws!

 

Moving on to styrene, the Chevy Belair wagon, a so-called Tin Woody because the wood trim was painted on, is an AMT kit with a complete resin body from Best Model Car Parts. The resin transkit works well, and the injected six out of the AMT kit is a refreshing change from the usual blown V8s found in hot rods. The primary flaw is the fogging of the windows which arose from the cyanoacrylate glue used to attach body to chassis; otherwise the lightly rodded engine and lowered chassis look good. Now I just need a surf board...

 

Speaking of hotrods, the Suzuki Jimney has a blower, but the engine is the 4-cylinder from AMT's Opel GT. The blower came from the parts bin and the manifold was scratch built. I think it looks good next to the Suzuki Samurai I built many years ago, with a twin-turbo V6 from the Dodge Stealth in the back seat. Hot but not exaggerated.

 

Two Mopars round out the year. The Chrysler 300 is a lovely big brute; you can find nice ones for $25,000 on the Hemmings News site. The main modifications are ride height and steel wheels, as well as two small air filters for the pair of four-barrels atop the 440. Can you hear the slurping sounds of fuel being sucked out of the tank? No need for a blower here, there should be plenty of torque to move this along quite nicely.

 

Finally a truck: I built the Dodge L700 as a kid and fought with the doors which are a challenge. The rest of the kit has some problems as well; vague locating tabs and poor instructions mean you need to be patient and trial fit everything. But once complete it's a nice one and next will be to identify a trailer to go with it.

 

So that's it. Although the BRM was a lovely little kit, the highlight has to be the 917K; plug wiring is unfortunately not visible once the motor is in but I know it's there, and now so do you! The chassis with the flat 8 motor in the foreground is from the 908/03. The picture provides an interesting comparison between the two; both were run at the same time, with the 908/03 used in twisty circuits (Nurburgring, Targa Florio) and the 917K on high-speed tracks (Daytona, Le Mans). The location of the final drive is interesting, between the engine and gearbox on the 917K and at the back of the gearbox on the 908/03; presumably this allows for a similar wheelbase with four fewer cylinders on the 908/03. Otherwise the chassis are pretty similar.



So what have you been up to? Please write. Meanwhile allow me to wish all of my readers a very merry holiday season and a healthy, happy and profitable 2018. Keep on building!