300 SLR

[Lizard Racing]

I wanted to do something different in the racecar area.  

This car won the  1955 Mille Miglia, an open-road race down the west side of Italy and back up the east side.  Driver was Stirling Moss, with Denis Jenkinson navigating.  Jenkinson prepared course notes in advance and fed Moss directions as they went.  Moss later said he completely trusted Jenkinson's directions: if the said a curve could be taken flat out, it was taken flat out.  They averaged just under 100 mph for the 1000 miles.  The photo is Sir Stirling Moss giving Jay Leno a ride at Laguna Seca, I believe. 

Notice the inboard drum brakes!  There is lots of detail in the kit, but I experienced some fitment problems.   I had to tweak and modify some parts to get the proper fit with the major assemblies.

One oddity of the car:  The engine is not only tilted to the right (to get a lower hood line), but also shifted to the left to keep it in the center of the car. This means the clutch pedal is on the left and the driver has to straddle the transmission to reach the gas and brake! '50s tech.

[Gramps46]

Very nicely done build on this iconic racer.

[Jim N]

Great work!  Looks stellar.

[spencer1984]

Very clean work, that turned out great!

[Richard Bartrop]

Looks good.  Gotta love these old '50s racers.

[bbowser]

Very nice, first time I've seen this kit built.  Did those wire wheels come in the kit?  They look pretty good.

[Italianhorses]

Very nice, love these cars.

[Chuckyg1]

Nice, clean build. Love the seats. This is my favorite era for these types of cars.

[Silver Foxx]

A real nice build , well done .

[Rich Chernosky]

Very nice build, the added picture is a great idea.

[Lizard Racing]

5 hours ago, bbowser said:

Very nice, first time I've seen this kit built.  Did those wire wheels come in the kit?  They look pretty good.

The wire wheels were part of the kit.  One of the best parts.

To CHUCKYG1:  The seats are covered with the kit decals.

The only change from the kit is the Union Jack decals on the head fairings.  The photo shows them, but they may not be original.  The decals are from Vintage Racing Miniatures (VRM).

Thanks for the kind comments.

[89AKurt]

Nice to see this kit built, nice job!  I got one, but decided to sell it, still a cool subject.

[TonyW]

A fine build.

Apparently things didn't go completely smoothly on the race.

At one point Jenks gave the OK for a flat out stretch of road that in fact had a hump in it. While the car was airborne Moss glanced over at Jenks, who returned a glance of his own. Having made his point, and Jenks giving the correct reply, Moss rescued the flying car on landing and they got back on with the race. Classic Brit cool.

[peekay]

Great looking model! 

And nice to be reminded of Moss/Jenkins' epic ride.

(Perhaps not everyone here knows that Pat Moss, Sterling's sister, was a very successful rally driver, sometimes in the most unlikely of cars (eg. Morris Minor, Austin a40 Farina).

[oldscool]

Very nice!

[ChrisR]

Looks great!!

[Peter Lombardo]

Very, very nice.  Love old race cars, and those old Silver Arrows were exceptional.  Very cool.

[Dave B]

Nice build George. I don't have it but have built the Ulenhaut could and that was not an easy build so assume this would be the same.

Dave B

[PappyD340]

Very nice!!

[ATHU]

Looks amazing, well done!!

[Lizard Racing]

On 8/15/2019 at 11:32 PM, TonyW said:

A fine build.

Apparently things didn't go completely smoothly on the race.

At one point Jenks gave the OK for a flat out stretch of road that in fact had a hump in it. While the car was airborne Moss glanced over at Jenks, who returned a glance of his own. Having made his point, and Jenks giving the correct reply, Moss rescued the flying car on landing and they got back on with the race. Classic Brit cool.

Yes, the day wasn't perfect.  Look at photos of the front end in the day to see there were at least two prangs.  But they got the job done.

[Dann Tier]

This is such a cool car!!  -FANTASTIC build!!!