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A few weeks ago I rediscovered an old kit I had started around 1990: Body had been painted and kit decals (1989 version) applied. When in MRRN #1 (?) Mike Quarterman wrote an article about this racer, I got me a Fred Cady decal sheet (for the 1990 version) and removed the kit’s decals and the paint, then stalled – in this state the kit had been stored away for more than 30 years ! Time to finish it, isn’t it? It will be built mostly box stock except some modifications that are absolutely necessary: While Italeri got the front panel and spoiler right, they left the rear mesh like the stock version (I have built this one also) which is wrong. It is a mixed bag: the rear wing looks to be correct, whereas the wheels aren’t. They do have the look of the OZ wheels, but the rims and tires have the same dimensions front and rear which is a NO GO. So the first is to cut off the rear mesh and fabricating a replacement using the remaining frame. Photoetched mesh from the spares was used and I cut 4 small rings from a aluminum pipe of the right diameter which will serve as light housings. All was glued together with 5-min.-epoxy. First version did not work - but the second trial went ok: Now it needs some black paint... I also fabricated a window net that was necessary in IMSA racing – therefore I had to cut out the driver’s side slide window. I used small strips of fabric tape. Though the kit supplies 2 different sets of rearview mirrors both are wrong – again something for do-it-yourself. For the wheels, I am still looking for a solution (several possibilities are there: the real car was run with the OZ wheels, with aero-discs on all 4 wheels or only discs at the rear !)

The 1000 km Paris at the dangerous racetrack of Monthléry, one of the most important GT races of the season, took place at the end of October. In 1961, Mexican brothers Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez won, driving a Ferrari GT 250 SWB. The following year, 8 Ferrari GTO's participated in the race, Luigi Chinetti's NART entered # 3987 GT for the Rodriguez brothers, who took again the laurels in record time, lapping every other car This was the last win for Ricardo, who died 11 days later in an accident with a Lotus on a Mexican racetrack. Here is a 45 sec. video of that race and a picture of the winning car: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=8teb0zuHEwE I built it using the old Italeri 250 GTO :

This is the original release from 1983, built in 1984 straight out of the box - nothing added (This is my only 1/24 truck, all others are 1/25 scale). Though the box says "Freightliner by Mercedes Benz", my decal sheet had only stripes and license plates, but NO Freightliner logos - so I had to take a silver pen for the front and hood sides and a black ink pen for the mudflaps! The door decal is from ERTL. And here, hooked to one of my trailers: