Abarth 1000 SP: Chassis and front suspension (I)

For an Italian entry to Le Mans, in 1969, to be running with a worm and sector steering box instead of a proper rack and pinion is astounding. Even more so is the odd central steering link, which connects the underside of the steering idler to the top side of the Pitman arm... every car I have ever seen has the link horizontal. In any case I am guessing the box and idler are Fiat 600 bits, and that Abarth, which was bought up by Fiat in 1971, was in very constrained financial straights by 1969.

The only other bit of note here is the fact that the brake and clutch master cylinders are buried deep inside the footwell instead of outside where they can be gotten at and adjusted easily, in particular the balance between the two brake masters. So given it will never be seen, I decided not to detail them up with piping and hoses. I won't tell if you don't...  

Meanwhile I have made mesh covers for the carburettor airboxes in lieu of the individual little hemispherical mesh bits specified for each throat by the instruction sheet. These proved impossible to make, or at least impossible given my current skill level. This mirrors a couple of online photos of at least one car as it is today, showing square air filters in this location.

Separately, for those of you struggling with the M1.4 X 3 MM screws used by Model Factory Hiro, I have discovered that Amazon will sell you a box of about 800 assorted screws and nuts, M1.0 to M1.8, in various lengths, for under $20 delivered tomorrow. The chassis and A-arm mounting bushings benefit from a slightly longer screw in this application and this is very welcome. Of particular interest is the M1.4 X 10 MM screw which can be trimmed to length needed. Granted the silver head is not countersunk and is 2.5 mm in diameter, compared to the countersunk black screw with 2 mm diameter head, but who is going to complain? Not me if it means it all holds together a little better.

Stay tuned! Progress is being made.

Abarth 1000 SP: Engine (III)

The motor is complete. I like the little clutch return spring on the slave cylinder and took advantage of the large scale to put in alternator and starter wiring. 

Stay tuned! More to come.

Abarth 1000 SP: Engine (II)

What a strange little cylinder head, with the inlets between the cams! Yet it appears Abarth made a large number of these (50 cars at least for homologation). Possibly the relatively narrow bore spacing imposed by the Fiat 600 engine block, combined with the need for really big Webers, meant the carbs wouldn't fit side by side as in a conventional setup. In any case it means the plugs are well off to one side, not to mention inaccessible, and water piping is external. 

Stay tuned, more to come.  

Abarth 1000 SP: Engine (I)

First step as always is to identify, sort and wash all the bits

Then all the sockets in the dowel and socket joints need to be drilled out, generating a nice little pile of scarf. 

Do yourself a favour and get the little 12V drill from Amazon.

Finally assemble bits with a common paint code, and paint (metal primer first). 

It's beginning to look like an engine... 

 

But I will admit I have never seen, in real life or in photos, an Italian 4-cylinder engine with intake ports in the top of the head between the cams. Not only that but they are mounted horizontally on long tubes, one each side of the engine. 

This last photo, from the MFH website, shows the carb setup which is confirmed by other photos on the InterWeb.

Stay tuned! More to come. 

Alfa Romeo TZ2: Complete (#3 for 2024)

Calling this one done. Some last minute screwups around the body, which I will leave for my Alert Reader to identify. No need to point them out, I know where they are. Seen here with the 1964 Le Mans version of the TZ (a.k.a. TZ1) and the chassis from the Lotus Elan. Perhaps the next step would be a lift or jacks to get the body off the ground.

So what's next? That new Abarth 1000 SP is beckoning. As it is 1/12 scale, I expect lots of fun and games. Stay tuned!

 

Abarth 1000 SP: Unboxing a 1/12 Model Factory Hiro kit

For those that haven't seen this, here is what you get when you order an MFH kit. The 1/12 scale kit of the Abarth 1000 SP clocks in at 1.456 kg, relatively light by MFH standards -- the Alfa 8C 2900B kit (complete in the box) weighs 2.368 kg. 

A large part of this is due to lots more resin, but there is still plenty of metal. Here's what it looks like when you open the box. 

Here are the resin bits lined up.

Six baggies full of metal bits are taped to a piece of cardboard in the bottom of the box. These all have numbers, but these are not stamped on the part or sprue; you have to take a guess at it or refer to the online guide as to what is what, as here: 

Bag #1 has wheel centre sections, radiators, brake discs and calipers and some assorted bits and bobs. 

Bag #2 has some chassis bits, more parts of the brake calipers, inner door frames (the outers are resin), more chassis and suspension bits, and some unidentified doodads (UDDs).

Bag #3 has engine components, the major tubular section of the rear subframe, front floor pan section (the centre section is resin), steering wheel, the lid for the front access hatch (the only major external part made of metal), and more UDDs. 

Bag #4 contains the belt drive for the engine, some suspension bits and some UDDs. 

Bag #5 contains a lot of rivets and simulated bolt heads and assorted small bits. 

Bag #6 (which I didn't photograph) contained more UDDs. Here it all is parted out into a small parts bin, more or less by category.

I'll document the construction carefully as I go through it, and hopefully won't wind up shelving it in frustration; this is not totally improbable as there are currently 3 other MFH kits either underway or on the Shelf of Doom, and a further 11 (mostly 1/24) not started. Now I just need to clear the decks, meaning finishing up the Alfa TZ2 which is almost done. Stay tuned!

 

Abarth 1000 SP: New kit from MFH

Model Factory Hiro has made a lot of crowd-pleasing kits lately -- lots of famous F1 cars, the Cobra Daytona Coupe and the Pink Pig to name a few. Most have sold out pretty quickly. But occasionally they come up with something just so totally out there and so totally right up my alley that I utterly am powerless to resist ordering it. To wit: the Abarth 1000 SP entered at Le Mans in 1969 by Ecurie Fiat-Abarth France. The kit turned up today. 

 

 

You might understand MFH modelling this car if, say, it had managed to finish the race. You might understand it if it was a failed but iconic piece of automotive history. But no; this entrant in the Prototype 1.15 litre class, with its 1001 cc engine, DNFed after 2 hours with ignition problems. (Now I know from experience that, although more reliable than those dastardly Prince of Darkness devices, Italian electrical systems can be fiddly, but it seems to me that 22 hours is more than enough time to rebuild a complete ignition system in what is basically a hot-rodded Fiat motor. But I digress). 

 

 

And as for iconic, well, even I didn't know it existed until MFH announced it a while back. (Two years later, Abarth was sold to Fiat, with the race division going to Osella.) 

 

 

It did have an oddball cylinder head, with the requisite pair of Webers growing out of manifolding in the middle of the head between the cams, one on each side. Why the carbs weren't side by side on one side of the motor opposite the exhaust is beyond me. Maybe this explains the ignition problems -- the plugs are well hidden underneath the right side carb. 

 

 

To put things in perspective: the only other entrant in the 1969 Le Mans Prototype 1.15 class, an Alpine A210, finished 12th overall, 80 laps behind the winning GT40. Just think: the A210 was passed, on average, every 18 minutes, for a full 24 hours, by Ickx or Oliver in the Ford, as well as by Hermann or Larrousse in the 2nd place 908 LH. Imagine bearing down on this little tiddler at 200+ mph on the Mulsanne in the dark, every four or five laps... Le Mans sure was a different game back then.

 

More info to come once I finish up the Alfa TZ2, an obscure but successful Italian sports racer.

Alfa Romeo TZ2: Chassis complete

If my intention was only to exhibit the naked chassis, then I'm done and this is #3 for 2024. 

The photo shows two contrasting views of what a state of the art chassis ought to look like in about 1965, for a sports-racer of 1.6 litres. On the right, the Alfa TZ2 chassis with loads of teensy weensy itsy bitsy tubes. Shades of the Maserati Birdcage, or the 300 SL. On the left, Colin Chapman's folded sheet metal device for (probably) a tenth of the cost, and with torsional stiffness contributed by the floor pan and bulkheads of the fibreglass body shell.

 

Visually the biggest difference is the tires. The Alfa was packing 170 hp by the time the 620 kg TZ2 was released, which works out to about 275 hp per tonne. The Cortina-based Lotus twincam made somewhere between 105 and 125, depending on which Lotus publication you believe. Given the Elan weighed 680 kg, this is about 170 hp per tonne. So not as much need for tire tread.  

 

 

As always the photos tend to highlight flaws. The old description of something as "good from far but far from good) is true of everything; the difference is in the definition of "far". Here I think 6" is probably about right -- one of my better efforts but doesn't stand up to the magnifying glass or the camera macro lens.

 

 

The rear suspension is a bit of an oddball, not that Chapman didn't also produce an oddball rear suspension.

Given the 1/24 scale, the engine compartment is really just missing wiring for the battery.

 

I plan to complete the interior and body, so I'm not calling it "Done" yet. This would get posed next to the chassis; and perhaps I can rescue the Elan body that I messed up so many years ago. Stay tuned!