1980 Kenny Roberts

[Keavdog]

All right - ready for some MotoGP history.  The man that changed MotoGP forever bringing American dirt track style to European MotoGP racing... Mr Kenny Roberts.  The young American that brought the knee down, sliding around corners to the race winning the championship in 1978, 1979 and 1980 pushing that Yamaha around the track and giving us what we see today in MotoGP - here is the 1980 winning build!

Starting with the frame.  This is an old Tamiya kit and it shows.  The new kits have zero mould separation lines... this has many.  Still fun to build

Working a few alclad metals

Got a bit of the motor together, more to come

[Keavdog]

Progress.  The new kits are so much better, engineering, fit etc.  This one takes a bit of patience.

 

[iBorg]

I might have one of these in my stash....I'm enjoying seeing this one put together.

[TonyK]

I built this kit way back when a Tamiya model was still better than anyone else. I can see the comparison today would be different. I'm sure you'll still enjoy building it. I look forward to seeing the finished model.

[Keavdog]

Ya, the fit is pretty good but there's a lot of mold separation seams to get rid off which you don't see much in today's Tamiya kits.  I'm hoping the decals work okay.

[PatW]

Great kit. I saw Kenny in the day with his mate and ours, Barry Sheene, who was with us on the airfield marshal duty at Silverstone. Racing then with the fast two-stroke machines was fantastic!

Edited February 2, 2022 by PatW

[HJK]

John, Patrick, oh man the name Kenny Roberts triggers lots of nice memories. Back in the '70s my wife and I traveled with our Honda 750 and a tent and all the gear to several race tracks, e.g. Dutch TT, Francorchamps, Hockenheim, Nivelles and others, to watch Kenny Roberts, Barry Sheene, Phil Read and Giacomo Agostini circle the tracks. The sometimes fighted each other until the last round and the spectators asked themselves who will be in the lead the next round. To make the long story short, yeah, lots of nice memories. Thanks  a lot for this thread.  Ah, before I forget, the build looks really great so far.

Take care, Juergen

[warra48]

Nice work. From memory, this was a good kit in its day. I built this one about at least 35 years ago, as well as the next year's Suzuki.

[afx]

Nice start.  The 2022 MotoGP season is off to a great start.  The races are on CNBC.