1/18 Tamiya Lola T160-TS CanAm

[fazmodeller]

 The Lola T70 had had a successful Can-Am career, winning the inaugural Championship in 1966 with John Surtees, Mark Donohue and Dan Gurney winning five out of the six races and Surtees and Donohue finishing 1-2 in the Championship standings. Surtees began to develop the car to his own ideas in 1968, most obviously fitting a high rear wing and modifying the bodywork, in fact Surtees now called his car a Lola TS160.The CanAm was an American Canadian road racing championship that ran from 1966 to 1980 and was famous for its open rules which allowed enormous horsepower and almost unlimited chassis design. In their time they were faster than Formula 1 and absolutely spectacular to watch.
Tamiya released a series of 1/18 scale cars back in the late 1960s including this Lola TS160 and the McLaren M8A which were impressive for their tooling for the time. They did suffer a little for detail and incorporated the provision for the addition of a "rectric motawh" (Japanese for electric motor - popular in kits of the time) and hence battery compartments which had to be modified in building the static model. Aside from this a distributor and wiring was added as well as turned aluminium intake trumpets, braided line and aluminium fittings and seat belts. Paints were Tamiya lacquers decanted for airbrushing along with Alclad and Testors metallizers. Although for various reasons this kit has taken a while I finally have just finished it and am pleased with the result. Hope you enjoy. 
Steve Hansford
Melbourne, Australia.

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Edited September 11, 2020 by fazmodeller

[Rich Chernosky]

Nice job bringing this old tooling to life. I like your engine work. I may have to spruce mine up. 

[iBorg]

I have one in the waiting stack. Yours is a top notch build.

[bbowser]

Great model of an awesome racer!

[Dave B]

Nice build Steve, I have a couple of these and a Mclaren to restore one day!!

Dave B

[Silver Foxx]

A lot of nice work in this , looks great .

[Phildaupho]

Excellent model of a beautiful racing car. Have always liked the Surtees livery 

[sflam123]

Very Nice!!  I was a huge fan of the Can-Am series.  This is a great job of recreating one of the landmark cars!

 

[Dragline]

Very well done here. Nice detailing and finishes.

[fazmodeller]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I also have the McLaren M8A on the bench - painted but still working on the build. Will post some more of my builds soon.

Cheers, Steve.

[1959scudetto]

Steve, great model - you made definitely a winner out of a car that has been a loser in real racing

(due to lack of funds and therefore less of development).