This is a 1/24th scale heavily kit bashed/scratch built spyder that follows the original idea for IMSA's WSC racers. I finished it for the second NAMCC in Chicago a few years back, and I figured the SAE contest was a good reason to un-moth ball it! Besides, I always felt that there should be a secondary sponsor to fill in the white space on the side....
The basis for the project was a Tamiya Tamtech Lancia LC2 Group C body, a Monogram Buick Lola Indy car kit, and parts from about two dozen other kits. The Buick V6 is from the Lola kit sans the turbo and injection system from the kit. A scratch built ram tube FI system was built from plastic and aluminum tubing topped of with a parts box air box.
The chassis was scratch built around the interior tub from the Monogram Mustang GTP, with suspension coming from the same kit (front) and the Lola Indy Car(rear.) The interior was a lot of fun to do, in that it is wide open with lots of room to detail. Lots of electrical boxes were wired into the car as was a fire extinguisher system and a water tank for the cool suit. The dash is a modified Protar Porsche 956 unit with drilled out gauges with tubing bezels surrounding Slixx gauge decals. The driver figure was from the Lola Indy car kit. The removable wheels and tires are from a Hasegawa Group C kit.
Minimal aftermarket pieces were used, most notably the braided line, photo-etched wing end plates, Dzus fastners and heat shrink tube brake hoses. All of the A/N fittings (45 or so) were scratch built from aluminum tubing using the method outlined by Randy Derr in one of his SAE articles.
Having looked at the little silhouete decals on the Tamiya sheets for a while, I decided that they would work for the SAE theme. Sort of up-dating the Oscar Kovaleski slot car track idea.
This Viper RT/10 is a Revell kit mostly OOTB with the following additions: Le Mans Miniatures wheels and tires; the decals are from Scale Designs and the roof is a vacuform piece that I market under the Penguin Productions Race Replicas name. The roll cage is scratch built and the wing and seat came from the parts box.
The Mini Cooper S is from the Tamiya rally kit and depicts a typical SCCA sedan. I was informed too late that H-production would be the wrong class. Need better research I guess. The fictitious Clockwork Motors entry is known as the Orange....
The model was built mostly OOTB with the addition of full wiring, a modified roll bar, scratch built racing harness, sheet plastic airdam, fuel cell and single Webber carb from the parts box. The kit tires had the tread sanded completely off for really small slicks. Paint is Testors through out. Decals are from the spares collection.
