1/24 BMW 3.5CSL Schnitzer Team Le mans 1976

[Pierre Rivard]

A holly grail for me as I have wanted to build this car for 5 years. I love the BMW E9 and especially it's ultimate expression seen in the group 5 3.5CSL of 1976. These rules allowed the touring cars to race with more extreme bodywork providing the hood, roof, deck lid and doors would remain in their original shape and location. The silhouette racers were born and the extreme looking BMW received it's BATMOBILE nickname.

I started with the 1/24 Otaki kit (also commercialized under Scale Craft, Grip, ARII and others). The kit was tooled almost 50 years ago as a motorized model, not so unusual at the time with Japanese products. The body has pretty good proportions and a good foundation but much was needed to transform it from toy to a better replica of the race car. A proper chassis was needed and I used a very similar BMW M635 (E24 chassis) from Tamiya and modified it to better reflect the race car configuration. The kit's wheel/tires are poorly made and grossly undersized so I replaced them with Scale Lab resin/PE wheels and tires from a Tamiya Porsche 956.

I also found an old Eduard PE sheet providing numerous detailing components for this build. Interior was mostly scratch built and decals are courtesy of Le mans decals. I also replaced the headlamps which were 30% undersized on this kit.

The Batmobile fought valiantly in 1976 but was faced with an armada of Porsches 935 or 934/5 which were lighter and had 160HP more than the BMW. BMW tried to counter with a turbo variant with more than 750HP but it never ran reliably. Still the non turbo Batmobile managed to get a couple of wins with the Schnitzer team.

So here are the photos. I could not resist showing it with it's nemesis on the first one.

[1959scudetto]

Excellent, Pierre - if this model was available as a kit, I would immediately buy at least 2 - I followed your WIP and watched this marvellous racer come together.

Edited November 26, 2024 by 1959scudetto

[Jim B]

Beautiful looking BMW & Porsche.  Very well done.

[bbowser]

Another outstanding build from your bench Pierre, I always look forward to your work.  And thanks for taking us along with the WIP.

[Rich Chernosky]

Pierre...a beautiful rendition of an iconic racer. Followed your WIP and can well appreciate the work and diligence it took to bring this masterpiece to life. Congratulations on a job very well done. 

[MarkJ]

Wow, Pierre. I just can't get over the transformation you achieved using multiple kits and of course the scratch-built items to end up with such an Awesome build. You can tell this had to be a holy grail build for you because of your attention to detail and wanting to get it just right not allowing any short cuts through the journey. I also love the underdog aspect of the real car with its battle with its nemesis Porsche that you also modeled to give us a 3d look at it as well. 160 horsepower difference seems like a way unfair advantage for the Porshe. Waiting with bated breath for your next endeavor.

[Dave Van]

I love road racers of this era!!! You did a GREAT job on this one.  Very well done!!! 

[SpikeSchumacher]

What a beast! Very nicely done Pierre. 

[PappyD340]

Super nice build, well done!

[Peter Lombardo]

It's just beautiful, with a spectacular quality build. I wish NuNu or Profil 24 would take the challenge of offering one as a new tooling.   Well done.

[TonyK]

Wow, a lot of work to create a great looking model!

[Pierre Rivard]

16 hours ago, 1959scudetto said:

Excellent, Pierre - if this model was available as a kit, I would immediately buy at least 2 - I followed your WIP and watched this marvellous racer come together.

Thanks my friend. At least I had a pretty accurate body to start with. This car deserves a modern Tamiya style kit but I don't think it's on their radar.

16 hours ago, Jim B said:

Beautiful looking BMW & Porsche.  Very well done.

Thank you Jim

15 hours ago, bbowser said:

Another outstanding build from your bench Pierre, I always look forward to your work.  And thanks for taking us along with the WIP.

It was a pleasure to share the WIP. I can never get enough of WIPs, so much to discover on the kit as well as the builder's methods.

15 hours ago, Rich Chernosky said:

Pierre...a beautiful rendition of an iconic racer. Followed your WIP and can well appreciate the work and diligence it took to bring this masterpiece to life. Congratulations on a job very well done. 

Thank you Rich, much appreciated. You and I appear to like a lot of the same cars so I always look forward to your unveilings.

14 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Wow, Pierre. I just can't get over the transformation you achieved using multiple kits and of course the scratch-built items to end up with such an Awesome build. You can tell this had to be a holy grail build for you because of your attention to detail and wanting to get it just right not allowing any short cuts through the journey. I also love the underdog aspect of the real car with its battle with its nemesis Porsche that you also modeled to give us a 3d look at it as well. 160 horsepower difference seems like a way unfair advantage for the Porshe. Waiting with bated breath for your next endeavor.

This one was such an important build for me, knowing it would be a one shot deal so I took the time and very much enjoyed it.

14 hours ago, Dave Van said:

I love road racers of this era!!! You did a GREAT job on this one.  Very well done!!! 

Thanks Dave. I love these as well. Now if I could just find a reasonably priced Lancia Beta Montecarlo...

13 hours ago, SpikeSchumacher said:

What a beast! Very nicely done Pierre. 

It is a beast. Something about these group 5 racers, strange but beautiful monsters.

4 hours ago, PappyD340 said:

Super nice build, well done!

Thank you Larry

3 hours ago, Peter Lombardo said:

It's just beautiful, with a spectacular quality build. I wish NuNu or Profil 24 would take the challenge of offering one as a new tooling.   Well done.

Unfortunately unlikely to happen. Not many among us interested in building these.

1 hour ago, TonyK said:

Wow, a lot of work to create a great looking model!

Yes it was, but a fun journey. I had wanted to cobble together one of these for such a long time.

 

[Dave B]

Pierre, that build is incredible, it's just so good.  I have a basic Capri RS 2600 that I have thought of trying to improve but you've scared me off, just wouldn't be as good an improvement.

Dave B

[DanL]

Nicely done...

[Pierre Rivard]

5 hours ago, DanL said:

Nicely done...

Thank you Dan...

13 hours ago, Dave B said:

Pierre, that build is incredible, it's just so good.  I have a basic Capri RS 2600 that I have thought of trying to improve but you've scared me off, just wouldn't be as good an improvement.

Dave B

Thank you so much Dave. I don't believe for a minute you would not do something really cool with the Capri. I for one would really want to see that as it is one of the special cars I got to drive back then. Ford kept marketing the Pinto back then (in Quebec) but the better informed buyers skipped right by and got the Cortina or better yet the Capri with the sweet Cologne V6 and 4 speed manual. Superb little car.

[Mattilacken]

Came out great! super work on that brush paint! 

[titino]

Beautiful BMW. Congratulations Pierre.

[Bainford]

Great work on this one, Pierre. The extensive effort you put into getting the look and details just right has really paid off. This thing really looks the business. Beautiful work.

[Pierre Rivard]

On 11/29/2024 at 3:48 AM, Mattilacken said:

Came out great! super work on that brush paint! 

Thank you Anton, paint has come out pretty good  but the really scary part was the decals. I was happy to survive that part of the build.

On 11/29/2024 at 7:13 AM, titino said:

Beautiful BMW. Congratulations Pierre.

Thank you German. I love this car and happy with the results

8 hours ago, Bainford said:

Great work on this one, Pierre. The extensive effort you put into getting the look and details just right has really paid off. This thing really looks the business. Beautiful work.

Thanks, I took my time with this one knowing it would be a one shot deal with all the various parts coming in. Too bad there are no modern kits of these wonderful silhouette race cars.

[kensar]

An outstanding model, Pierre, and a cool looking subject.  Your modifications definitely upgraded the appearance.  👍

[Pierre Rivard]

22 hours ago, kensar said:

An outstanding model, Pierre, and a cool looking subject.  Your modifications definitely upgraded the appearance.  👍

It is a cool subject. The build needed many upgrades to give it a more realistic look but I was lucky to start with a well proportioned body. I really enjoy these types of challenges.

[ChrisR]

Awesome!

[Pierre Rivard]

On 12/1/2024 at 10:42 AM, ChrisR said:

Awesome!

Thank you Chris. I enjoyed it very much and now looking for older group 5 racing car kits.

[Straightliner59]

Fabulous work, as always, my friend! Happy you've accomplished an important goal. It's a real beauty!

[Pierre Rivard]

5 hours ago, Straightliner59 said:

Fabulous work, as always, my friend! Happy you've accomplished an important goal. It's a real beauty!

Thank you for stopping by Daniel. Not my cleanest build but happy considering the extent of work needed here. Only the body was used from the kit and everything else was either substituted or scratch built. Time to move on to the next project, another oldie kit in need of TLC...