Porsche 910 - 1967 BOAC 500

Regular viewers of the Scratch build Forum will know that theres a small band of devotees on the Forum to 1967 BOAC 500 sports car race. This was a famous victory for the winged Chaparral 2F and it was also the deciding race in the 1967 World Sports Car Championship, so all the major teams turned up, apart from Ford of Detroit who had already been ruled out of the Championship race when the Gulf Mirage (the winner at Spa that year) was declared not to be a Ford. Porsche and Ferrari were neck and neck after 2 victories each and good places elsewhere, so whoever finished ahead in the final race would win the Championship. Three Ferrari P4s and one P3/4 (or 412P) showed up and five works Porsches. The Porsches were down on power, with 2.0 and 2.2 litre engines vs the 4 litre Ferraris but Brands Hatch is a twisty circuit so the performance difference wasnt that great.

Because the stakes were high the top teams tried to get the best drivers. Seven World F1 champions were on the grid that day and some unusual sights were to be seen, such as Jackie Stewart in a works Ferrari. The car modeled here (number 10 above) had two F1 Champions Graham Hill and Jochen Rindt and the larger engine so it was unsurprisingly the fastest qualifying Porsche with the same time as the Amon/Stewart P4. It worked its way up to fourth place before dropping a valve, leaving the fight to the sister car of Siffert/Mclaren (not a bad driver lineup either!), which finished third, behind Stewart/Amon who placed second and won the Championhip.

The body of the model was a pretty simple conversion from the MRRC Porsche 910 on the left below (modeled on one of the Nurburgring 1000km cars).

It just needed roof removal, a couple of modified inlets on the bonnet and a few little tweaks. One that might interest you is the sunshading on the windscreen and side screens. In the past Ive tended to just use black decal but it never looked that great. MRRC used bright green tampo printing, which is horribly wrong as it was really see-through dark blue. After sanding this off then polishing with Tamiya polishing goop I tried a blue marker pen. BIG mistake - blue marker pen dissolves polystyrene screen! More sanding, more gooping then a visit to the local Hobby Emporium which stocks glass paint. Ive used this previously for rear lights and indicators. Its basically clear enamel paint in loads of different hues. It worked quite well but its tricky coats unevenly and dries quickly.

Under the hood its was all change from MRRC. I hate the Sebring chassis, because if you remove or downtune the magnet, the car is unhandleable. Also, the thin Mabuchi motor revs like a motor cycle engine nothing like an old sports car. My standard fix is either Slot.It or Fly and this one was the Porsche 906 chassis, which has an identical wheelbase and you get beautiful accurate exhausts too! This model handles well with a lowish downforce magnet and is fun to drive.

Heres some shots of the finished model, with the sister 907 from the same race, at the Coides Raceway.