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Saw this one, a completely scratchbuilt Bonneville Salt Flats racer in 1/8 scale!


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This was a total surprise entry at the Goodguys Indianapolis show this weekend, by a heretofore unknown model builder, Charlie Farmer, from Beloit WI, who along with his wife, drove a fantastic '34 Ford 5-window hi-boy to the show (I'll post some pics of it in the appropriate topic area later tonight).

This model is completely scratchbuilt, from almost all metal parts--not a single piece was purchased, nor was any hobby raw material used at all, save for paint! Rather, Charlie slowly gathered up bits and pieces of this and that, from ordinary household stuff, bits of junk parts from real cars, even a 4-leg stamped steel base of an office desk chair!. He told me that he had never before entered a model in a contest--but look what he came up with! We had a couple of GG's classes that had no entries, so it was our choice what to award those to: In this case, in addition to this model being our "Best Of Show" award winner, was also awarded what we decided to call it, "The Most Innovative Model", and it sure is that.

For example, the wheels and tires are actual office furniture casters, reshaped on a lathe to create LSR units, the "radius rods" down the sides are bits of windshield wiper arms, also reshaped. The Moon fuel tank was made from a hair spray can--the list goes on!

GGssaltflatracer1.jpg

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While I could not get a good shot of the body yesterday, you can see the "side pod", which was made from a section of a lightweight aluminum alloy bicycle rim!

CharlieFarmersBonnevilleracer2.jpg

Hopefully, one of my close friends, who shot pics of the car today, can get me a side view picture of the car, taken after Charlie mounted the body shell back up on it.;

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Absolutely beautiful craftsmanship, no doubt. But where are the driver's legs and feet supposed to go?

If we're going to go into the engineering of it (and why not?)...

I wonder if this is a model of a "real" Salt Flats racer... or at least if the engineering is true to life. Specifically I wonder about coilovers and leaf springs? Is that how it's done on these cars? And if so... why?

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If we're going to go into the engineering of it (and why not?)...

I wonder if this is a model of a "real" Salt Flats racer... or at least if the engineering is true to life. Specifically I wonder about coilovers and leaf springs? Is that how it's done on these cars? And if so... why?

People build some weird things for Bonneville, and even a fair number of the real ones fail to pass tech inspection due to questionable engineering.

Coil-overs, especially made with two differently-wound springs, would be unnecessary on a car like this. Coil-overs CAN be used to augment or fine-tune a leaf-spring setup, but I've never seen anything like what's represented here. I have a feeling there's some artistic license being taken, and parts were made to look vaguely mechanical but that don't have 100% analogs in reality.

What WOULD be necessary is a lateral-locating link for the front axle. The quarter-elliptical front springs do not provide sufficient positive lateral rigidity to keep it going straight; nor do the coil-overs.

But my intent wasn't to start picking the model apart...as I said, the craftsmanship looks to be excellent...but rather to ask about something that jumps out immediately.

I have seen people build real cars and never once sit in them to see if it's possible to drive the things....until they push them outside, get in, and find their knees in their faces. I'm always baffled by major oversights on full-scale pieces, as well as a seeming lack of regard for an understanding of the functions of subjects being 'modeled'

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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I don't mean to bash the model either. It's just that the guy is so obviously talented and an apparent stickler for detail... so I wondered just how true-to-life this thing really is.

It's simply one man's interpretation, probably based on the relatively few images of Salt Flats cars that exist, showing their inner workings. Sometimes, at contests, almost any contest, there shows up a model that is just so amazing, that the workmanship far outweighs any imperfections in practicality, We who have staffed this contest since 2004 (3 years at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Clermont IN (home of NHRA's US National Drags), then a couple of years hiatus due to no indoor facility anymore at the dragstrip, three years (2011- 2013) an exposition building at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, finally moving to the Indiana State Fairgrounds last year, and agreed that this model is probably the most innovative any of us had ever seen.

That's what intrigued everyone who walked in, viewed the models, spectators and contest entrants as well.

Art

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  • 3 weeks later...

It has always been my VERY personal view that unless a scale model is build from an actual 1/1 counterpart and claim that is a scale replica in miniature of that particular vehicle, I will just appreciate the model work and its concept/creativity execution in scale by the builder....I just enjoy seeing superb and inovative scale modeling like this spectacular 1/8 model, the fact that is all from the imagination,craftmanship talent and dedication of a modeler who wanted to do something special and from his own inspiration in design is priceless, I enjoy this magnificent scale model for what it is, a personal expresion of the hands and mind who build it and all the effort to make and/or modified scrap parts to make such a beautiful model in the art of miniature model building.

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