PatW

Yes these are available also as Fiat Twin Cam engines in some of the rally and sportscar kits of that era ( 1960-1970's) I have used a Ford Escort Mk2 kit and bought a resin Mk1 bodyshell with bubble arches. This is before the top brace bar was fitted.

There's some guys here in the UK, replicating model car bodies, ready to put onto a chassis. I've recently looked at a few at a local electronics shop, they start at £500 and go up to £2,500! They have a trial printer in the shop and show how to replicate various small items.

We have a number of teams based here where I am near the Silverstone race circuit. The new Nissan GT-R front engine/front wheel drive, Rebellion and Strakka are just three of those teams. The LMP1's can get up to 230 mph along the Mulsanne straight, but after a few flips they put chicanes in to slow things down a little. I was there when one of the Mercedes cars went over in practice/qualifying, everyone in the stands near the pits could see this on the big screens. It's amazing how quiet it went. The driver Peter Dumbreck climbed out after the car landed on it's wheels in part of the forest, completely unhurt! I've been to the race a few times, but watching on TV the lenses foreshorten the images and therefore the speed. It was good to see a virtual rookie team win in the Porsche 919 Hybrid with our local driver Mark Webber second, in the sister car.

Why don't you get a lump of modeling clay and design and mold the shape yourself, give it a try.

I've just got this from our ebay UK. It's difficult to get the 'American' kits that you want here.................

Just delivered by the Post Office from one of my on line suppliers, emodels. I thought I would try something different................

That's brilliant Dale, I've built two of these but didn't think of the salt!

What a little cracker! well done Johan. Our first car after we were married was a 1965 1300 Beetle it was just great.

Yes afx I stand corrected. Shay has supplied a picture of the Eaton Yale car of the day, which I should have remembered as a rally marshall on the RAC Rally at the time!

Well done Sam. Brilliant Baja Bug ,great colour, right tyres as you say ready to race.

I live in the motor racing triangle in the UK with Red Bull 12 miles, Mercedes 6 miles and Force India 5 miles away. None of them are particularly happy with this possible change of regulation. For the chassis and the driver a far more bumpy ride with the lower profile tyres, when the ride/suspension is already stiff enough. Also with the present higher wall tyres the wheels themselves especially the rears are 'inside' the tyre, so less damage when banging wheels with others. Extra cost of manufacture of both the wheels and tyres as no manufacturer has numbers to use. Plus a disagreement by the FIA last week on bringing in multiple tyre suppliers, so still only Pirelli. Therefore the same problem as a few years ago with tyre development, compounds, hard rubber, soft rubber, intermediates, full wets(try and cut a deep, tread to disperse water with much less tyre rubber depth on the carcass. This is just another 'idea' that the FIA is hoping will spice up an already boring formula. By the way super model Phil.

These are the only three snap-kits that I can remember.

Hi very nice so far. We've seen quite a few of these in the UK, very quick on our twisty roads. I was at the launch of the race version at Silverstone on the 22nd March 1994. And it was a winner the first time out!

White or silver wheels, or even black would look better with a blue bodyshell.

We had three of the real ones of these in the family, mostly 190 diesels. I've built two of the models and had the same problem with each of them. The rear window just sits in the space and is difficult to fix. Both were oversize and had to be shaved down and then had to stand the car on it's nose and try and use clear fix or superglue to hold it there. Yours looks superb, just like the real ones that I saw parked nearby when I marshalled at the F1 GP at Silverstone just 5 miles away in the day. Well done. We done have the real ones anymore as they have changed the latest design to boy-racer hatchbacks that don't have the space we need. We sold them and bought new Renault Capturs.

Thanks guys. Yes stray, having holey, rusty bodywork here is a definite NO NO! When the annual (all cars over 3 years old) Ministry of Transport Test ( MOT) comes up and there's any hint of rust it's 'Off the road' and get it fixed. In some places even rust spots on the paintwork is dodgy. You mentioned bullet holes, a good few years ago there was a gangster theme going around, notices in car windows 'You tucha my car I puncha your face' The car accessory shops were selling bullet hole decals/sticker's in ones or sheets! Also no uncovered tyres and beetle engines in buggies ( Fan belts and pullies flying round) no moving parts uncovered! Some have got round the rusty look by painted patina or acid dipping the bodyshell (or just panels) and spray coating with gloss or matt varnish. Also the Vinyl Wrappers are looking at that patina effect as well. So just coat the panels or whole body the a rusty looking wrap!

Just delivered from Japan a car that was racing in Europe in endurance sporstcars the same year that I was married 1968. The Mazda Cosmo Sport.............

As I'm trying to extend my casting skills I'm watching a fair few 'YouTube' videos on the subject. On one or more when the beginning of the process begins the narrator talks about 'warming' the flexi clay so it adheres to the plastic bodyshell and is easier to shape. I'm finding that by the time I'm nearly all the way around the shell the first lot of clay is drying out and falling away! How is this done, does anyone know please?

Cheers guys, yes my method needs to improve. On searching Google for rat rods (and there are hundreds) I notice that a vast majority have a large percentage of their original paint from the factory and show rust spots or in fact rusty holes in certain raised areas, around wheel arches or the bottoms of doorswhere this would normally form/appear in reality. I need to focus on that more next time

This will be number 7 ( plus my Dakar Offroad /Purple that I have already built) and be used to extend my skills of resin casting to develop a 4 seater on a standard length beetle chassis/floorpan, and produce a 6 wheeler as well! This was bought from Omnimodels in the USA to me in the UK in a very short time of 6 days, the best shipping time so far from US suppliers!

Cheers Rob, the other problem is that we don't see many American cars/ trucks here so we don't now what or where the mold lines are or aren't!

This my first attempt at a rat rod! I bought a box of spares from ebay here in the UK. Included in it was the Ford body parts and nothing else relating to it. So I sourced, wheels, tyres, seats, dash, steering wheel, head and tail lights from my parts boxes, made the alloy tube grill, wiper and door handles from wire, shortened the pick up bed and cut the windows from thin retail acetate. I painted it with a mixture of red, red/brown,black, silver and green all matt...

Hi again Rambenna, yes all but the Manx Purple I've just finished.

Thanks guys, look forward to seeing your builds Michael.

Yes Jurgen, very nice indeed. I remember these when I was a rally marshall in the day, very quick car with a relatively small engine, all down to the plastic/fibreglass bodyshell!