Some considerable time ago I acquired a very beaten up old Auto Hobbies fibreglass bodyshell of the 1953 V16 BRM.  Now the real car was quite something as the engine was only 1500cc capacity and supercharged.  The noise it made was like no other; I know this not because I date back to 1953(!) but because I have seen the car run at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.  The engine produced 600 BHP at 12,000rpm but not surprisingly, in those days blew apart on a very regular basis!  Often competing before elements had been correctly tested.  As was typical of that era the car was driven by many famous drivers; not the least of which being Fangio himself.  So I chose to model the car raced by Fangio.

The old fibreglass bodyshell was full of cracks and very brittle so superglue and a bit of modeller’s filler was used to strengthen things up.  The car has side panniers behind the front wheels, which were modelled in plasticard.  The exhaust pipes on both sides were fashioned out of aluminium.  There is little cockpit space as this is where the motor is located so the driver’s upper torso was glued (using a hot glue gun) to the back of the seat area.

The body width is fairly generous for an open wheeler racing car and beneficial for a slot car conversion. I was able to install a Cheetah motor on a ground-down SCD U-bracket, fairly easily.  The chassis arrangement is brass with piano wire linking the motor bracket with the front axle but allowing some movement.  Guide is a Slot.it trailing type and the body is attached to the chassis using pins below the side panniers.

The wheels were originally going to be the superb Slot Classic made wire wheels.  These are available as a separate kit.  However, the hubs are made of plastic which weren’t really concentric so I had Chas Keeling of SCD make me up some aluminium versions that I could use with the Slot Classics photo-etched elements and spinners.  I used these aluminium wheels on the rear only and they look just like the Slot Classics fronts.  I used old Scalextric classic tyres for the front but at the rear wanted to use silicones.  After a  bit of experimenting (thanks to Trevor May for all his help) I ended up using George Lowe’s Indy Grips glued to the hubs.  I hope they work.

Whilst not intended for the Marconi race I’ve decided to enter it as it complies with the regulations and I’m curious to see how it fairs given the high quality of competition.