Maserati 8 CLT. My entry for The Marconi Proxy Race (F1/Indy) by Mark Gussin
I saw this car at the 2000 Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Motor Circuit Revival. It's big, really big and a fabulous looking machine. The car was very, very successful at Indianapolis winning in 1939 and 1940 (as the Boyle specials) but the version I chose placed 10th in the 1940 race. It was driven by Rene LeBegue and entered by Lucy O'Reilly Schell.
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So what did I have to do to do it justice? I had a set of 1:24th scale wire wheel etches that I'd bought ages ago. I had also seen Chas Keeling's (of SCD fame) SlotStox chassis and felt it had conversion potential. I also wanted to include steering as I'd never done this before in a home spun chassis. So to put it all together. |
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Chas' chassis goes with his U-bracket so that was soldered
on. The front assembly was made up of a brass crossmember soldered onto
the chassis and then theguide hole drilled through. The track rod was made
from brass leaving the wheel hubs themselves which were the MRRC units.
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| I know little about motors suitability to controllers and power so my car has a Cheetah motor. |
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The wheels were two part aluminium, made by Chas and best
described by referring to the drawing below. The rim (circled in red below)
fits into the wheel (blue below) and sandwitches the photo-etched wires;
making a very attractive wheel. Tyres were the Scalextric Vintage type on
the front and Scalextric Auto Union rears on the back. George Lowe kindly
made silicone versions of the rears which are fabulous. With that diameter
though and the power of the motor the tyres have to be glued to the wheels
or without load they balloon |
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The balsa bodyshell's interior had to be trimmed inside to get the chassis to fit. A chassis mount in the form of a piece of plastic tube was superglued in then the whole lot was painted. Meanwhile the decal production progressed so these decals were added and so were the manifolds, exhaust pipes (aluminium) and driver. The 1:1 car is quite high off the road, far more than the 1:1 equivalent of 1/8inch so I thought I'd build it to the correct height and then add a floating brass plate to get the centre of gravity lower down. It looks OK whether it works though is another thing. This plate can be removed if greater ground clearance is required!?
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The driver being made using Airfix's poseable army figures (again) though very much modified. All put together is really looked great. I'd bought a complete Revell track for the princley sum of 15 pounds at a recent Scalextric collectors club meeting and this was very useful in setting the car up regarding guide depths. However it doesn't really show how well it will go!! |
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Back
in August this year I met Mac Pinches for the first time. Mac is a delightful
chap and remembers slot racing in it's embrionic days. He also possesses
a fabulous skill in that he can convert a bit of a tree to resemble a
model car bodyshell! I pleaded with him to carve me the Maserati and he
did. He supplied it to me in primer and I was over-the-moon when I opened
up the package. I've said it many times already but thanks Mac.
