The Maserati 4CLT as driven by Fangio in the 1950 Pau Grand Prix by Mark Gussin
For the inaugral Earlybirds slot car race at Wolverhampton in January 2005 I was keen to use one of Mac Pinches superb PreAdd bodyshells. The second series had just been released and it contained this superb little car. Now it is very easy to paint Italian cars the usual Alfa / Ferrari / Maserati red; so when I saw the wonderfully evocative painting by Michael Turner of Fangio in the 1950 Pau Grand Prix, I knew that was the colour scheme I wanted to do. Colour pictures of the actual race car were impossible to find but there are a few black and white ones available and the Turner picture provided all of the colour reference I needed.
The inspiration for the colour scheme came from a wonderfully evocative painting by of Michael Turner Fangio in the 1950 Pau Grand Prix (below).
I decided to use Ralf Parkers superb chassis as it is simple and easy to construct and performs very well (I believe it is available from AB Slotsport). Mated to this is a Slot.it motor, axles and gears. The guide is a Sakatsu trailing type. For wheels I used Slot Classics because I love the photo etched wires. The rear wheels were aluminium hubs made to the exact dimensions of the Slot Classic units.
Starting with the bodyshell I fitted the mounting posts and then painted the hood area yellow, followed by the remainder of the car pale blue. The driver was made from Airfix's multipose army figures. I made up the decals on my OKI5000 printer and these included the Automobile Club of Argentina Badges which adorned the car.
The chassis fitted together very easily indeed. You'll notice there are pictures of a red Maserati as well as the blue car. This was because I built both at the same time. In the picture below you can see where a thin piece of stick on lead has been stuck on the bottom of the chassis to improve handling. Tyres were Ortmans and they were glued to the hubs and trued.
How did it perform? Well, in the right hands (Mac's), extremely well. In fact he won a heat driving the identical red car. My driving wasn't nearly as good. The car did win Concours though, against stiff opposition!
