Matt Bacon Posted April 11, 2020 Posted April 11, 2020 (edited) Inspired by a recent edition of Octane, which took this beastie for a test drive, I decided to build one of my Fujimi "911 Turbo 1976" kits as the Le Mans GTX class winner from 1975. I particularly liked the fact that it was was raced as pretty much the regular road car, with rear seats, tartan doorcards, winding windows and even a radio fitted. There's a roll cage, and some minor body mods, but a class winning "run what you brung" is a rarity at le Mans, to say the least... You can read more about it here: https://www.tartantarmac.com/readers-cars-1975-le-mans-winning-porsche-930/ Probably the most obvious modification is the chin air intake and smooth valance. It's nothing like as aggressive as the 934s or 935s to come, and the air dam is the sames as the road cars... very restrained. The front fenders on the kit body didn't look right to me. The wheel arches are IMHO too tall, and too rectangular. The curve of the arch should be concentric with the circular wheel, with a constant gap between tyre and the top part of the arch. I added some plastic card, and handily discovered a cylindrical sanding attachment for my drill that happens to be just big enough to use to shape the arch into a circular section. Time for a second round of sanding, but we're getting there... best, M. Edited April 12, 2020 by Matt Bacon Duff gen
Dann Tier Posted April 11, 2020 Posted April 11, 2020 Looking BRILLIANT, bud!!!!.....looking forward to more!!!
iamsuperdan Posted April 12, 2020 Posted April 12, 2020 Can never have too many Porsches! Watching for sure.
vintagerpm Posted April 12, 2020 Posted April 12, 2020 Model is looking good, but this is not the first 911 to race at Le Mans. The first was in 1966. See this article at Total 911
Matt Bacon Posted April 12, 2020 Author Posted April 12, 2020 2 hours ago, vintagerpm said: Model is looking good, but this is not the first 911 to race at Le Mans. The first was in 1966. See this article at Total 911 That’ll teach me to believe what I read in magazine articles... best, M.
afx Posted April 12, 2020 Posted April 12, 2020 (edited) I wasn't going to point this out but since it has been brought up... Edited April 12, 2020 by afx
beeRS Posted April 13, 2020 Posted April 13, 2020 Great work on correcting the Fujimi wheel arches on this one.
Matt Bacon Posted April 18, 2020 Author Posted April 18, 2020 Thanks all... slow progress, since my day job has got a lot busier in the world of Covid-19. But I have mostly been going through several rounds of body shaping: If you look closely at the front in that last picture, you can see where the extra lights are going to go. Picking up a just-started "rally" 2.7RS in a charity shop for £5 as part of my on-going Singer project has yielded up a good few handy spare parts for this project, like the spotlights and roll cage... This is the full fat version Enthusiast Kit... not much point in doing the first Turbo 911 at Le Mans without the Turbo! I think this is the best representation of the engine in a 1/24 car kit that I have ever had the pleasure of building. Mostly Humbrol "Polished Aluminium" with a wash of Citadel "Nuln Oil" to pop out the relief. Still some detail painting to do... Distributor ready to wire the plugs. The right hand side leads go over the fan casing, and the left hand side along that "gutter" below the "plugs." I have made up some material ready for the door cards, too... best, M.
Matt Bacon Posted April 19, 2020 Author Posted April 19, 2020 Dontcha just love masking? Tamiya's new Lacquer Paints in a jar.... tomorrow, the great reveal! best, M.
Gary Davis Posted April 19, 2020 Posted April 19, 2020 LOL...I hear you on the masking Matt!! This is looking good though. You body work sure turned out nice. Looking forward to the reveal...
Belugawrx Posted April 19, 2020 Posted April 19, 2020 Nice work on those front wheel arches Matt.. I'll need to remember that when I get back on My 930 build...some day Stay well ..Cheers
Matt Bacon Posted April 20, 2020 Author Posted April 20, 2020 Thanks, guys! All that time to put the masking on turned out to be worthwhile in the end! best, M.
Matt Bacon Posted April 26, 2020 Author Posted April 26, 2020 I normally hate those reviews that begin "Construction started with the engine, which was almost a kit in itself..." But in this case, it really is. The beating heart of the 911 Turbo is a complex beastie, but Fujimi really have made a great job of it... I'm paying the price for wiring the distributor and plugs, but fortunately I manged to rejig things so the wires to the left cylinder bank could squeeze under the left tube (which I think feeds air over the hot exhaust manifold to the cabin heater, if I remember the teardown I used for reference rightly...) Upper pipework and turbo fitted. Its most solid location is into a socket on the flat rectangular section pipe at the bottom, and the narrow pipe goes into a D-socket on base of that cylindrical part sticking up at the left. Last two ducts bringing air to and from the centrifugal blower. Considering that this kit predates widespread CAD, it's extraordinary how well the multipart pipework all fits together. Any problems I had are almost certainly due to the plug wiring, not the original design... A dust down and some final touch up painting, and it'll be ready to be installed in the car... best, M.
Matt Bacon Posted May 3, 2020 Author Posted May 3, 2020 (edited) Finally got back to the bench to make some progress with body and chassis: And a very quick (and wobbly) mockup, just to see how it looks with wheels in place... The wheels are intended for a sporting Firenza, but they were the only 15" BBS wheels I could find with five lugs instead of the big centre lock nut that Porsche used on the 934/935s... best, M. Edited May 3, 2020 by Matt Bacon
Matt Bacon Posted May 7, 2020 Author Posted May 7, 2020 Cockpit making progress: Needs some black at the top of the "door cards"... but I think it's supercool to win your class at Le Mans with door cards, electric windows and a fully-functional radio... best, M.
Matt Bacon Posted May 8, 2020 Author Posted May 8, 2020 The engine fits in remarkably well... very impressive engineering that gets the two rear crossbeam mounts (the black dots in the angles of the frame corners at the back) in place along with the transmission mounts underneath and the gear box linkage all lined up. The wheels are just push fitted, and need some fettling, but it's starting to look the part... best, M.
Matt Bacon Posted May 9, 2020 Author Posted May 9, 2020 Body's on and wheel hubs trimmed so the tyres sit more accurately... Body details and decals to get on with! best, M.
Matt Bacon Posted May 10, 2020 Author Posted May 10, 2020 A pretty productive afternoon at the bench, with a bunch of generic sponsor decals... pretty much done. Beauty shots tomorrow, I think... ...and finally, with the article that inspired this whole thing... best, M.
randyc Posted May 20, 2020 Posted May 20, 2020 Nice! I'm working on finishing the Rally car now. I sterted it a long time ago with less skills and it is going to show in the finshed car unfortunately. but this kit is going to be finished. Yours is inspiring to get me to the next checkpoint. I'll finish the stage eventually. lol I wish I could justify starting again from scratch. These are such nice kits.
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