DonW

During testing of the Mercedes W196 F1 car, Rudi Uhlenlhaut , the Mercedes engineer who appropriated one of the two SLR coupes that had been built for his own personal use, was putting in laps quicker than their star driver, Juan Manuel Fangio! I love this car and the model does it full justice. Excellent!

As soon as I saw that I thought 'it's .........' - and I was right! !00% success so far this year!? Thanks Michael.

BMW 323i, E21. Plenty of power, understeered like a pig, not helped by the feeling that the steering box was only connected to the chassis by force of habit. There was about half a turn of free play at the steering wheel. As I recall I sold it as a breaker within weeks, which is why I'm still alive to type this! I always have owned and driven BMWs and they've all been excellent except for this beauty.

Sounds a bit dodgy in copyright terms?

Would it matter as long as it took it a long time away...?

Airfix also did a Porsche 917 in 1:32, that was a good little model too. Worth looking out for if you enjoy building the Ford.

I built one of these about 45 years ago, not a bad kit given its simplicity.

I don't imagine a ripe banana skin would flex with that roll cage and chassis under it! ?

Thanks Greg. That does strike a chord in my mind. I can see it all now, as an avid 'Alias Smith and Jones' watcher in my younger days... Cheers, -Don.

Fantastic work, although the early aircraft carrier concept is a little flawed!?

Beautiful. That smokestack is insane! Can you educate me as to what it's for, you don't see those designs on UK steam trains, just a simple funnel. Cheers, -Don.

Thanks both for the clarifications. To my mind the upshot is that the exercise looks good. And clearly Malcolm Sayer and Bill Heynes had it completely wrong, as did Enzo Ferrari when he described their Jaguar E-Type as "the most beautiful car ever made". ?

An eclectic mix, all good!

Thank you!

This is a rather rushed build of a Dodge Charger, based on the Revell DoH kit but not in orange! First model I've made for years, if I did it again it would probably be a lot better! No attempt at detailing, but I did find some slightly bigger rear tyres for it. And I did the usual black wash on shut lines and oily bits. I had to make up the gap between the headers and the rest of the exhaust with sellotape as they didn't quite meet. Let's call it heat resistant wrap! The rear bumper needs re-fitting and chroming but my wife (who it was for) is happy with it as it is, it looks good up on her shelf. That was my goal.

'I would take LESS out from in front of the rear wheels. The visual centerline of the C-pillar should intersect with the center of the wheel. Have you ever noticed SAABs from the 80's look weird? That is why.' I don't understand what you mean, Bill. A drawing would help! To me it looks fine.

Makes sense, but your old skool racer would have a big red light that came on when the oil pressure dropped below the safe limit.? Yes I am a Luddite!

Don't apologise, this is a good thread!

It so needs a hood, in my humble opinion. But its not my build!

I'd give it space on my shelf!

Looks like a chilled neighbourhood. Is the BM a manual or a slushbox? Guards Red is up there with Viper Green!

Yep! Check out 'Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters' by Bob Calvert, with Lemmy on bass. Back in the sixties I was in a German village on a family holiday. Two Starfighters flew overhead, fast and low and silent. Two or three seconds later there was thunder, the trees shook and some leaves drifted down.

Some would cite the F104G Starfighter as 'developed' by Lockheed for the Luftwaffe, but 'just look at the shape of this beauty': So in terms of aesthetics and recorded death rate per mile, easily the worst aircraft ever built (you can't really call it an aeroplane!) - the Flying Flea: '... the original HM.14 revealed design flaws that could lead to an unrecoverable and often fatal dive under certain conditions; when the front wing was put in a high attack angle for climbing, the high-speed flow of air deflected by the front wing went to the rear wing upper surface, greatly increasing the rear wing's lift, and putting the nose down, the instinctive reaction of pilot being pulling even more the stick, this worsened the situation, as the way to go out of this 'vicious circle' was reducing the front wing incidence, as to command a nose down descent. Also some homebuilders attempted to simplify construction by modifying components such as the wings tips curving up, resulting in extremely dangerous airplanes and deadly accidents that forced the air authorities to ban building more of them'

My dad the fighter and test pilot always turned the dashboard instrument lighting off when driving fast at night. Trust your ears and the seat of your pants and use your eyes for the road ahead (and behind)! Unless you really want to know your exact speed and rpm, maybe the oil pressure too at the moment of impact with the motorbike / schoolkid / tree you failed to notice in time!?

I think your search is too generic. There is no Alfa called 'Alfa Romeo Spider Touring Gran Sport'. They were mostly known by engine capacity / number of cylinders then body style, e.g. Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Grand Sport. Jonelle's selection looks like it might be what you're after. Cheers, -Don