Winners of 24 Hours of Le Mans in Scale

[Gramps46]

Winners of 24 Hours of Le Mans in Scale

To all fans of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  A couple of us decided to start a topic dedicated to completed models of winners of Le Mans in 1/24/25 scale.  Rich and I will kick it off in the Under Glass/Other Racing category and ask you to join in with your builds.  Please give us the Year – Make and Model – Drivers Names – Kit Maker – and any notes you would like to add.  Duplicates amongst posters are welcome and encouraged.  Just one comment though, some of these models may be 50 years old or more and reflect the modeling times and reference material before the internet.

 

Edited March 28, 2022 by Gramps46

[Gramps46]

1996 Joest TWR Porsche WSC 95  Wurz/Reuter/Jones Le Mans Miniatures

The Porsche WSC-95 was a Le Mans Prototype originally built by Tom Walkinshaw Racing. It was modified by Porsche from the original Group C Jaguar XJR-14 from which it derived from and run by Joest Racing. Originally intended to race in the IMSA World Sportscar Championship, the WSC-95 saw very little race action even though it won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in both 1996 and 1997 without being acknowledged as a factory supported project. (Wikipedia)

Edited March 28, 2022 by Gramps46

[afx]

Gary, would you consider opening it up to all Le Mans entries?

[vamach1]

I blew some dust off of these oldie but goodies for pictures.  Thunder Valley/Fujumi Gulf GT40, Testors MKIV and Fujumi MKII.

[vintagerpm]

1 hour ago, Gramps46 said:

Winners of 24 Hours of Le Mans in Scale

To all fans of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.  A couple of us decided to start a topic dedicated to completed models of winners of Le Mans in 1/24/25 scale.  Rich and I will kick it off in the Under Glass/Other Racing category and ask you to join in with your builds.  Please give us the Year – Make and Model – Drivers Names – Model Maker – and any notes you would like to add.  Duplicates amongst posters are welcome and encouraged.  Just one comment though, some of these models may be 50 years old or more and reflect the modeling times and reference material before the internet.

 

Would you also please list the manufacturer of the kit.

 

[vamach1]

1/43 Grand Prix, Marsh and Starter kits built in the 1990s.  Had to share the smaller ones since it’s a matched set.

Edited March 28, 2022 by vamach1

[Rich Chernosky]

A Lemans presentation wouldn't be compl;ete with out the famous Ford GT-40 1-2-3 finish. Here they are. All Fujimi kits finsihed in the last 10 years.  The eventual winner was declared as the Mclaren/Amon #2 car by virtue of it starting 20 meters behind the #1 car of Ken Miles/Denny Hulme. Third place

  went to Dick Hutcherson/Ronnie Bucknum in the #5 car.  Ken Miles was 4 laps ahead in the final stages of the race when he was pulled in for a brake rotor change. He came back in with a brake vibration because the rotors fitted had not been bedded in. His rotors were given to the #2 car. He was also given orders for the photo finish at this time. All this caused the #1 car to lose most of its lead.  When they eventually slowed they were on the same lap and the rest is history. 

The famous dead heat finish.

Just before the checker flag both drivers gunned their cars with Mclaren showing a very slight lead.  All the drivers were told this would be a dead heat finish but the sanctioning body changed its mind at the last minute and awarded the win to the #2 car. 

I know this was supposed to be limited to 1/24 but I couldn't resist sharing the same photo with these A/FX Tomy slot cars. 

 

[vamach1]

Before the Fujumi kits this was about the only game in town to be able to build something resembling a Mark II.  It was built box stock except for Fred Cady decals.  The 1/25 IMC/Testors/Union kit were basically one in the same.  I originally built this Testors kit in the 1990s and I added the carb inlet and scoop a few years ago from a Fujumi kit.  If I am a glutton for punishment I could build the #1 and #5 car or even the entire eight entries for 1966 Ford @AMR MKII lineup. 😮

[Gramps46]

1 hour ago, vintagerpm said:

Would you also please list the manufacturer of the kit.

 

Hey Mike.  I guess I should have asked for Kit Maker instead of Model Maker.  Sorry for that.

[TonyK]

This is great. Really enjoying the models and info provided. Good idea.

[Gramps46]

Since we seem to be focused on 1966 here is my Ford MKII winner.  Anyone want to guess what is wrong with this model?  The tires are wrong for a clean car.  McLaren and Amon were contracted to Firestone but once the rains came Shelby had them switch to Goodyear rain tires and they finished on Goodyears.  All of us who built our models with Goodyears need to weather them to match the tires.

[Rich Chernosky]

Beautiful model and some great photography. If I  had to guess  I would say the wheel centers should be a dark metallic grey. 

[Rich Chernosky]

4 hours ago, vamach1 said:

Before the Fujumi kits this was about the only game in town to be able to build something resembling a Mark II.  It was built box stock except for Fred Cady decals.  The 1/25 IMC/Testors/Union kit were basically one in the same.  I originally built this Testors kit in the 1990s and I added the carb inlet and scoop a few years ago from a Fujumi kit.  If I am a glutton for punishment I could build the #1 and #5 car or even the entire eight entries for 1966 Ford @AMR MKII lineup. 😮

Rex,  real nice build on a kit that was tough to get right.

[afx]

1046 wore several different sets of wheels during the race - the restored car has gold rims for what its worth.

Variation during the race:

Edited March 28, 2022 by afx

[afx]

Could be Firestone on front and Goodyear on the rear.

[vamach1]

1 hour ago, afx said:

Could be Firestone on front and Goodyear on the rear.

My guess is they put on whatever tires worked best for the conditions and the color of the wheels was not important over the 24 hours if they were perhaps originally intended for another car that went out of the race early.

Based upon these Indycals pictures most of the cars had gold wheels but I guess it depends on what period do the race one is trying to represent over the course of the 24 hours.

 

1 hour ago, afx said:

Looks that way so we’re half right. 😄

Edited March 28, 2022 by vamach1

[1959scudetto]

6 hours ago, vamach1 said:

I blew some dust off of these oldie but goodies for pictures.  Thunder Valley/Fujumi Gulf GT40, Testors MKIV and Fujumi MKII.

Very nice pictures of Ford's winners circle (1966, 1967, 1968/69), Rex !

[1959scudetto]

4 hours ago, Gramps46 said:

Since we seem to be focused on 1966 here is my Ford MKII winner.  Anyone want to guess what is wrong with this model?  The tires are wrong for a clean car.  McLaren and Amon were contracted to Firestone but once the rains came Shelby had them switch to Goodyear rain tires and they finished on Goodyears.  All of us who built our models with Goodyears need to weather them to match the tires.

Very cool model in a rather realistic looking setting, Gary - Especially the picture where the car is going to leave the pit area heading for the track again.

[1959scudetto]

Here are my 1966 Mk II's (both from Fujimi) - the black one needs a light restoration (the decals were not opaque at all, and the tire lettering is wrong):

and here is the 1967 winner (Dan Gurney with "rookie" A.J. Foyt) - 1/25 Union kit (= IMC reissue from the 80's) - the kit has full detail, but has a lot of issues (it was already designed in the 60's) - the opening front and rear panels don't fit at all - I sold this one off (have a nice 1/24 resin kit from Le Mans miniatures in my stash):

 

[vamach1]

Helmet, good looking Mark IV and MKII’s.  I hear you about the IMC/Testors kits.  I built a 2nd one (dark blue #4) and that kit fought me a lot and it did not go together as wall as my first try.  I also have a Renaissance kit still in the box and was going to do either the yellow #2 or the bronze #3 car.

[Gramps46]

I am loving these guys, let's keep it going.

[vamach1]

Wikipedia has the list of overall winners.  If expanded to class winners it would be much longer.  Here post WWII to 2016 list.

[Gramps46]

Thank you Rex for the excellent reference list.

[Gluebomber]

Here are a few new ones along with the 1966 winner.  A couple of these were built over 20 years ago!

This is the 1998 winning Porsche 911 GT1-98 driven by Laurent Aiello, Allan McNish, and Stephane Ortelli.  Kit is by Scale Production.

This is the 1992 winning Peugeot 905 Evo1 drive by Mark Blundell, Yannick Dalmas, and Derek Warwick.  Kit is by Profil 24.

This is the 1988 winning Jaguar XJR-9LM driven by Johnny Dumfries, Jan Lammers, and Andy Wallace.  Kit is by Tamiya.

This is the 1970 winning Porsche 917K driven by Richard Attwood and Hans Herrmann.  Kit is by Fujimi with Historic Racing Miniatures engine.  

This is the 1966 winning Ford GT40 MkII driven by Chris Amon and Bruce McLaren.  Kits is by Fujimi. Sorry for the duplication - looks like this car was a popular subject!  Based on the previous postings, I'm not sure the tire markings are correct.

This is the 1965 winning Ferrari 250LM driven by Masten Gregory, Ed Hughes, and Jochen Rindt.  Kit is by Academy.

This is the 1964 winning Ferrari 275P driven by Jean Guichet and Nino Vaccarella.  Kit is by Monogram

This is the 1950 winning Talbot Lago GS T26 driven by Louis Rosier (23 hours, 20 minutes) and his son Jean Louis (40 minutes).  Kit is by Fernando Pinto of Portugal Models.

 

[Phildaupho]

Here is my MPC Gurney/Foyt MKIV '67 winner. I actually have touched the actual car when I helped push it into position for a photo shoot at the Monterey Historics honouring Dan Gurney.