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Welcome to another of my build threads! I am much better in starting them than closing them! 😁 So here goes an other build thread, but I felt that I am flooding the CBR thread with my details so I thought I separate it. For those of you that haven’t seen the group build thread this year the theme is Cannonball run 1975 so everything available in 1975 or before is ok to use even though it might not have been combined yet in 1975. So I decided first to build a Cuda that I already had since long, I got started band came quite far but something was missing for me and the thought of a Elephant motor on a long distance race felt wrong. I read in mag that when the Gurney Cuda was sold to Europe in 1971 it was motor swapped to a Hemi, and when they later ran a 24h race at SPA, which is a long track, they had to refuel every 9 laps or so. So gas consumption on one of those is ridiculous in high speed. That got me thinking of diesel engines which usually have great MPH. When reading up on diesel engines I found out that there wasn’t much around in 1975 for cars but Mercedes had them in their 300D. So I read up more on them and stumbled across the Mercedes 1968 300SLE AMG Red Pig which has a great stance. Found files for the body but no chassis So I ordered a Italeri 1971(I think) Mercedes 500 SLE as a donor and planed to print a body. After more discussions with my MB enthusiast friend and struggling with making a printable body of the Red Pig I decided to do a flared 500 SLE instead inspired by the Mampe race car. And later I also found the later König and some other that have inspiered me. The stock body has been modified with printed flares that was secured with CA and then reshaped and adopted with CA and baking soda, and to Finnish it of I used Tamiya fine putty. I did remove all the side moldings and such to give it a more sleek look. I also ended up removing the aluminum gills in the rear side windows since that felt more like my style. I wanted that race look like Mampe and I saw that a front and rear spoiler from a 1970 Camaro Baldwin motion would fit with minor mods. I wanted the diesel engine, the biggest diesel they had back then was the OM617 which is a 5cyl diesel with SOHC. There are no such engines in kits or any engine that are close on files, except for maybe the 300SL engine that come closer but it’s a much older design, I bought that file to se if I could use it but I ended up going a different route. I used a couple of different engines from my parts box, mostly Japanese 6cyl that I cut down to resemble the 5cyl MB OM617. Then I scrambled and cut and modified parts to look similar to what a OM617 would look regarding intake and exhaust. And actually the valve cover come from the MB V8 that came in the kit, but yes it’s modified. I also modified a diesel pump in Cad and printed it. First plan was to make a single Turbo Intercooler since that was done at Porsches at the time. But when looking at it and thinking about it I figured that it would have been super laggy with the turbo tech of 1975. And compound turbos had been done since the 50’s on airplanes so I went that route instead. Wheels are same as Red pig uses and a classic wheel on Mercedes of all years. They are 15x10 and 15x12 with big meat, fun fact is that Red Pig actually had super wide tires it ran 285/40R15 in the front and 335 in the rear. I had some tires that looks the part from various kits, rears are from AMT 454SS. Interior was planed to stay mostly stock but the Italeri kit is so basic so I could not leave the interior like that. So I added the piping to the leather seats front and back. Scratched up an armrest for the driver seat as well as knobs for adjusting the seat angle. I also removed the lower part of the seat since it was to straight and long, I reshaped the lower part of the seats and redid the upper and back part of the upholstery to smooth style instead of the more fabric looking pattern that it came with. I also made the armrest and handle for that in the otherwise rather plain back seat. The dash also got a treatment with removing the gauges, adding in brass grosses to the vents and a brass piece to the light knob. I left the middle vent out since I will be placing a gauge there, Boooost. I also added detail in the center console where it was al flat and empty. I cast a radio from an other Tamiya kit and installed it as it should have been. Then I crafted the vent adjusters and glued in the adjuster it self. I also removed the automatic shifter and made a custom from two others I had. the chassi has also gotten allot of work.. it was a simple chassi with very little detail, so I removed the molded in rear end and such and replaced them with a Tamiya 635 CSI unit since it looks very similar. I also remade the front suspension brace since I wanted the engine to come rearward. And it actually came to look more Like The 1:1. The front uprights have also seen some modifications with removal of the molded in disc brake, this so I can adjust the track better. Paint will be black and gold with JPS sponsor decals since I decided that this will be a tribute to Ronny Pettersson the most successful Swedish F1 driver that was active in late 60’s until 1978 when he crashed at Monza and passed away. He drove most of his F1 career for Lotus with the classic JPS livery of Black and gold. I will have a red interior since that’s the best combo I know. I will ad some depth to it so it will be several types of red as shown below. I also added in 2 sections with darker red in the doors to give it more depth as this is some thing g I found at some 1:1. o, and this is all that came in the kit, it’s like one three with black parts a chrome three and a glass three. Thanks for watching and please leave a comment and give some feedback.

Just finished my entry for this year's Cannonball Run Community Build, The Birthyear Ball. It's a 1978 Dodge Monaco built from amt´s Joker Goon Car kit: Paint is Tamiya TS-92 Orange and Vallejo Gun Metal Wheels and disc brakes came from a Tamiya DTM Mercedes CLK and were set into 23" aluminium sleeves and tires from Scaleproduction. I scratchbuilt the headlights and grille inserts as well as the license plates snd the LED taillights. Exhaust tips were made of copper tubing. The interior features four Dodge Viper bucket seats, resin speakers and amp... ...a touch screen GPS for the co-driver... ...Viper center console and a digital instrument cluster. Under the hood a Viper V10 from a die cast provides some horse powers. I had a lot of fun with this build and I hope you like it! Thanks for looking,comments are welcomed and appreciated! Greetings from Cologne, Germany

Hagerty Drivers Foundation film released 1/12/22. Takes about 1/19th the time of the last record to watch this awesome film.

Here we are again folks, at the start of a brand new year and of our 12th (!!!) Cannonball Run Community Build Project. I continue to be impressed by the dedication of our builders, year after year. Our theme this year is VANS! Your build must feature a vehicle that is a van or a panel truck. It must be built as a vehicle that could race from coast to coast. Please note: a sedan delivery is NOT the same thing as a panel truck. A sedan delivery is based on a passenger car body/chassis and a panel truck is based upon a pick-up truck body/chassis. Many kits that are not vans, call themselves vans on the box. That will not make them allowable. Please do your research on the kit you choose. Also, the cargo area and the cab are usually the same space in a van, though the partial bulkhead behind the seats of a step van doesn’t disqualify it as a van. The body is all one piece. A truck with a topper doesn’t qualify. However, if you were to seamlessly mold the topper to the cab and bed, and make them one space inside, you would have effectively created a phantom panel truck, which would be legal, assuming it is a full size truck. Please don’t try this with a little Chevy Luv, topper or not, no one would call that a van. Now his might seem like a very limited field of available kits. It is, until you factor in the aftermarket (resin) like Jimmy Flintstones ’66 Chevy panel truck, show rods like the Vandal (though the Vandal will need some tweaking to be legal) and the Baja Beast, and the myriad offerings from Aoshima, Fujimi, Hasegawa and Italeri. The rules: - Your build must feature a vehicle that is a van or a panel truck. It must be built as a vehicle that could race from coast to coast. - The build can be either a new or started kit up to 25% complete. A rebuilder or parts box special is okay too. 1/24 or 1/25. If you absolutely must do a 1/20 model we’ll likely bend the rules as we have before, but that’s the limit. - If you have a previously started racer from a previous running of the Cannonball (SA or MCM) 50% complete or less, they are eligible to run this year as long as they meet the theme requirement. All of our previous runs are still available on either of the two forums. If you are going to do this, please be certain it was involved in a previous run. - Before starting please post a photo of your kit(s) or pile o’ parts. No limitation on technology used. - Note: vans are not the best for displaying engine work. Unlike previous runs, a kit without an engine, like some Asian kits tend to be, is permissible. - The car must appear to be street legal. Headlights, tail lights, license plate etc. Optional - Just like we did for the Brock Yates Memorial Run, a couple years back, if you’d like to add some sort of detail to your build to honor the late Burt Reynolds that would be a cool idea. As always, have fun and watch out for two priests in a red Ferrari. That’s it for rules. The following is just FYI. - You may start a separate build thread for your build if you wish, but please keep the CBP thread updated. Your work will help inspire others. - The car can be as eye catching or non-descript as you wish. Bright colors and/or racing livery will make you more noticeable to local law enforcement, but that’s your problem. - Build time begins on January 1st, 2019, local time and ends at 11:59PM on December 1st, 2019, local time. That’s 11 months folks. - After the finish, we will create a poll and we’ll have the “race”, a public vote. - A few weeks prior I’ll start a completed builds thread, for posting up your work and we’ll work the poll from that thread. Take some GOOD PHOTOS! I cannot emphasize this enough, good photos are essential. No one has won this with crappy photos in poor lighting. - You may build as many models as you wish for this CBP but only one can be entered in the public voting poll after Dec. 2. - You can enter this CBP at any time up to 48 hours before the end date.

The VOLKSWAGEN TRACKRAT It is a VW Bug frame with a turboed Acura I4 engine, 90s mustang lower A arms front and rear and a homemade roll cage. Comments welcom.