"Gentlemen, start your engines!". "You already have?", "Well let's show you how my Proxy Race II Prototype entry was done". - The Lola T98
So I messed about with lumps of brass and lots of
plastic and put together the Corvette and Mustang for the Proxy 2 Production
class. Now it was time to really have a go and try and put a car together
for the 
Prototype
class. Well I had a vacuum Lola T98 bodyshell made by Graham Windle and
sold by Pendle slot racing to go on the Ninco Mclaren chassis. Graham
has done a lovely job on this car which needed a little sorting out but
not much.
Howard Frank also provided massive help in producing some quite fabulous decals for me of the American Le Mans series 1999 Petit Le Mans and Laguna Seca car. Now if you are into sportscars like I am, this racing car series has got it all and is increasing in popularity all of the time. Check out their great web site.
With 
Graham's
bodyshell and Howard's decals the results, hopefully, would look good
even if the car didn't perform very well.
The plasticard body was lightly sanded down, on
the outside with very fine wet and dry paper. Mounting for the rear aerofoil
(Scalextric Mercedes) was a simple slot in the back with suitable reinforcing
inside. Headlamp covers were also cut out. The body was then painted
gloss black and painstakingly masked to paint the grey markings. I used
Tamiya masking tape that is really quite superb. To get the tape to bend
to contours cut it up into narrow strips lengthways, apply these to the
exact line you want and mask in behind. 
Masking
takes hours to do; you then paint which takes a few seconds and then
strip off the masking immediately it is touch dry. Once all of this was
done and dried fully the decals were applied. After the decals were dry
I applied a clear coat.
It really was looking great; then I tried it on the Parma chassis that was going to be its base. Disaster, it didn't fit! Whilst the wheelbase was fine the body was too low over the motor, even if the motor mount was cut down and the motor soldered to the chassis. So this required a complete project rethink.
I had avoided even the thought of constructing my own flexi-chassis as I had never done anything like that before. But needs must. Graham had dug out a flexible chassis he had, that had been used in Group 12 racing.
It looked great and was so simple, I thought. Extend it to fit the Lola body length and it is sorted. No chance! There were three main problems, the motor mount could not be made to fit, the wheelbase was too short and the front wheel openings were too small. So in the end I decided to copy the chassis completely, lengthening it in the process. This time I tried to do things correctly. To start with I drew up the plans on graph paper which helped at all stages especially when checking alignment. I also had an anglewinder motor and rear end set up, with rear axle carrier, done by Rocky Russo, from a recent swap; this also helped. But believe me soldering was a nightmare as my Weller soldering iron was just not powerful enough to heat large lumps of brass.
I ended up using a plumbers blow lamp(!) which was too crude. So I cut up all the bits, soldered them together, they fell apart, I re-soldered them, they stuck, I burnt myself, praised the Lord(!), soldered something else, the rest fell apart, and so it went on. Rocky's work was completely dismembered at one stage. But eventually it did all come together. Don't ask me what type of chassis it is, I don't know and I have no idea if it works but under the Lola it looks OK.
I understand that there are some serious players in the Protoype race but whatever happens, it looks good and was fun to do. Chas Keeling supplied wheels, gears and other little bits and lots of advice. So if it all works it will be a miracle but there again with all that praising of the Lord I am not surprised!
