Heres another entry in my 1967 BOAC 500 series. This is the race winner, driven by Mike Spence & Phil Hill. This car has been modeled in the recent past by both MRRC and Scalextric so why did I bother? Well, those two models are pretty good but they both have some serious setbacks. I bought both and wasnt happy this car is a very important part of motor racing history. When I started thinking about the problems with each model it turned out that you could combine the two and make one really good model so I did. My hybrid is made up like this:
Basic Body: MRRC this is an accurate shape, with very good body detail. The Scalextric model has a cockpit thats too narrow and most of the body detail is fuzzy or not there at all.
Chassis: Scalextric this is a standard Scalextric sidewinder and once the fat magnet is consigned to the Fat Magnet Stack and replaced with a thin one it drives brilliantly, with good road holding and predictable tail breakaway at the limit. The MRRC chassis is bearable as long as the super strong magnet isnt removed but theres no way to make it work OK if you want a car that isnt stuck down like glue.
Insides: Scalextric seats/driver/lights. Both interiors are fine but the MRRC car lacks lights.
Wheels: MRRC but they needed work. The MRRC wheels look much better than the Scalextric from the side (top left pic, Scalextric at the top, MRRC below) but they are much too narrow (top right below Rear at the left).
To fix this I moved the rears to the front and extended a new MRRC rear wheel using the old front wheels thus:
Twiddly Bits: The Scalextric wing was used because it has better struts and the rear deck used the Scalextric photoetch grille, with a decal mounted underneath for the spare tyre. The side radiator outlets were matt black.
Paint: This is a highly contentious issue among Chaparral anoraks. The legend is that Chaparral used a pure white paint that turned creamy in the Texan climate. Could be true but its a fact that Can Am Chaparrals look a heck of a lot whiter than most European Chaparrals. Its also a fact that every US photo of a Chaparral is in full sunlight and almost every European shot is taken under clouds! Anyway, I used Montana Gold White Cream 59110 and to me it looks perfect. These paints are satin so they need a gloss varnish overcoat. I used Amsterdam Clear Lacquer 133 which is designed to protect objects that have been sprayed with acrylic.
This is as far as Ive gotten with this particular race
And this is why my rate of car building has suffered this year
That's Annabel.
Andy