11 replies to this topic

[John Kit]

I am a great admirer of Jim Clark.

The Lotus 49 is one of my favourite F1 cars. The Scalextric Lotus 49 is very well detailed and one of the best this company has produced thus far.

There were however a few details that I wanted to add to my Lotus 49 to bring it even closer to the real car and enhance the great work Scalextric did with this slot car.

There were three areas that could be enhanced to bring the car to life even more:

1) The suspension front and rear had the uprights in silver when the real car’s uprights were black in colour.

2) The top rear radius rod connection point to the monocoque was silver and should be green.

3) The driver, while full bodied, had a head which was nice, but if replaced by a detailed one, which would look more like Jim Clark, would really make the car special.


Here is a step by step story of what I added to enhance the great detail already present in the car.

I will let the pictures tell the story.

Suspension. - Front

Before:



Difference:



Suspension. – Rear

Before:



Difference:



Top rear radius rod connection point

Before:



Jim Clark











The Lotus 49

Before:





After:









Any comments are more than welcome.

Thanks,
John Kit.

[Tex]

Good job, John! Taking care of those small details add a lot to the overall visual effect, don't they? The '67 Lotus 49 is such an icon of that era. Imagine being Clark, never having driven the thing, going to Zandvoort for the GP weekend, and winning the race in the 49!

[John Kit]

Thanks Tex! This was a lot of fun to do. I really enjoy sculpting and casting people.

Yes, Jimmy was extremely talented as a driver and from all accounts, quite a nice person as well.

The only issue Clark had with the 49, from what I have read, was that the power came on all at once and was quite a challenge to drive when it did!

John Kit.

[stoo23]

Yes, Nice,..it's always good to get some of the Little Details right!
It often makes the Whole More Pleasing and reduces the 'Toy' look.

Yes, the Early Cosworths were a Wee bit of a Beastie,..Some Very Nasty Vibrations etc, Took a while to get it 'Properly' sorted as such, But due to it's inherent design, it Always had Resonance and Vibration 'Issues'.

Many trying to use it for Longer distance events often discovered this Problem,..to their displeasure !!,..lol

There Is a Great Photo of Jimmy, standing next to the Car, before the start of that GP and it Really IS one of those photos where you DO have to Wonder just What was going through his Mind, he certainly has an Interesting Look on his Face whilst he is looking at the Car !!,..lol
Have to see if I can Find it.

EDIT; Well this Isn't The photo I was thinking of,..but IS Apt !!.

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[stoo23]

Gee,..and on a sadder Note,..whilst looking for the Photo I was thinking of,..I found THIS !

I Knew it Was a Nasty Accident,..But I had NEVER Seen this Photo Before.

I Remember hearing the News,..a Great Loss.
Sorry, just thought if Like myself you Had never seen the Car,..

One Does get the impression (from All that I have read), that Jimmy was a very gentle, reserved and somewhat shy person, who was it would seem, loved by all.
I was lucky enough to have been introduced to him and Graham Hill, (way back when I was a Young Kid), in the Pits at Warwick Farm,..a Looong time ago!!

Cheers, Stewart

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[John Kit]

Stewart, how fortunate you are for having met him.

I was five when Jim was killed and remember asking my older brother why he was crying. It was then that I was told by my brother that the best driver ever seen was gone forever.

Gone, but not forgotten.



John Kit.

[Russell Sheldon]

Absolutely superb job, John. The detailing makes all the difference.

As beautiful as it is, a fundamental flaw with this Scalextric model of the Lotus 49 is that it has the small windscreen with fibreglass or aluminium cockpit surround, which was only used at the Dutch and Belgian GP's, yet it has the markings from the Mexican GP.

This picture clearly shows the cockpit surround as used in the 1967 Dutch and Belgian GP's:-



At Zandvoort it was number five but had no other markings, at Spa it was number 21 and again had no other markings.

Here's a picture of Clark behind the wheel at the Mexican GP:-



Note the cockpit surround, as more clearly shown in these photos taken at the British GP:-





Scalextric has however done a great job of the Graham Hill Lotus 49T:-



Instead of a mere re-livery of the Lotus 49 from the “1967 Year of the Legends” set, Scalextric did their homework and remodelled the cockpit surround to accurately reflect that of the Gold Leaf Team Lotus 49T, driven by Graham Hill in the 1968 Tasman Series.



The race at Levin was the last ever appearance of the Lotus 49 in British Racing Green, when Colin Chapman announced that Team Lotus would henceforth be sponsored by the John Player tobacco company. The team was renamed Gold Leaf Team Lotus and the cars appeared at the Wigram Trophy race resplendent in the brand’s red, white and gold colours. For obvious reasons, the Scalextric version does not bear the GLTL branding but this can easily be applied, using decals from Patto’s.



Graham Hill drove chassis 49/R1 with the number 5 in the Australian rounds of the 1968 Tasman Series, at Surfers’ Paradise, Warwick Farm, Sandown Park and Longford. The Tasman cars featured a sleeved down version of the Cosworth DFV, christened the DFW, in order to conform with the 2.5 litre limit which the regulations called for. The designation ‘T’ stood for Tasman.



Graham Hill at Surfer’s Paradise. All that’s missing from the Scalextric model, besides the GLTL stickers, are the flared ‘nostrils’ on the side of the nose and the windscreen deflector.





With kind regards,

Russell

[John Kit]

Russell, thank you very much for your kind words!

Thanks also for your comments with respect to the cockpit surround details and number markings and for the attached photos!

I have not seen the Scalextric 49T, is this a future or current release from Scalextric? Are they also going to release a Clark version?

Here is a picture from Longford in the Tasmin Series I found of Jim Clark's 49T in Gold Leaf colours:



Here Jim is posing in the car:



It would be great if Scalextric would issue parts for the cars as well, to create even more accurate versions of the 49 but I guess that would be asking too much!

Thanks again for your great post.

John Kit.

[stoo23]

Hey Thanks for those Pics Russel.

Yes, in fact somewhat recently, I watched a Replay of the Surfers Paradise and Lakeside rounds of the Tasman series.

One of our ABC TV stations here often Plays them in a series Callled Late Night Legends.

The Old Surfers Track was Great, Very Fast, especially the Right Hander off the end of the main straight under the Bridge !!

I attended the Warwick Farm round in That Year as well and so Those pics Definitely brought back some childhood memories !!

I Still Have Vivid Images in My Head of Jochen Rindt in The High Wing Tasman cars at a Very Wet Warwick Farm, 'Negotiating' the Exit of Creek Corner, (the Tight Hairpin at the end of Hume Straight), Sideways, Powewrsliding out One Handed !!! For some Reason he just seemed to Have his left Hand waving about as he Man Handled the Car !!
A Very Different driver to Either Graham Hill or Clarke !!

Cheers

[TSR]

Stoo,
Welcome to Slotblog!
The fellow to the left of the picture with Chapman is Keith Duckworth, on half of the Cosworth name...

The true problems with the Scalex "49" for me besides the windshield issue is the ridiculous enormous and deformed "gearbox" over the crown gear and the fact that the driver is sitting on a tall pillow. The driver thing can easily be corrected, but for the gearbox, one needs to use smaller 72-pitch gears and fashion himself a little ZF gearbox. A toughie...

[stoo23]

Hi Phillipe,

Yes,..I figured the Pic was rather appropriate, as it has 'The Main Protagonists' present.

Kinda makes you wonder what they were all thinking at the time though,..

Graham seems Vaguely Disinterested, Jimmy seems perhaps amused by Whatever Colin is saying to Keith,..lol

Probably something like,.."So Keith, what Are our chances of this lasting the Distance" !!,..ROFL

And Yes, I DO Agree with you re the Gearbox Cover !! Awful !!, such a Shame, I have an M23 that I have 'slightly detailed, in much the same way, to Try and make it Look a bit More Realistic and The Driver is Currently 'Having Severe Surgery',..lol to combat That Exact Problem. but the gearbox/diff is another issue altogether.
Standard they look So Unrealistic, But 'Relatively' easily Fixed.

That Tasman Lotus Sure is Purdy though !

I was a Truly Mad Keen Motor Sport enthusiast as a Kid,..and had the walls of My bedroom Littered with F1's, GT's and CanAm cars !!,..lol
I was Lucky as well as a Family Friend, (Very well to Do), seemed to Just Know all those People, (He Knew Graham from the War era) and so I always went to Motor Races with Him and Enjoyed the Freedom and Access afforded 'Back Then' with Pit Entry etc and Got to Meet some Great Drivers,..But Hey, you are Just a Kid and They all Meet SO Many People, but a Few of them were Quite Cordial and Friendly, Piers Courage and Teddy Pilette come to Mind and Graham was appropriately Friendly,..But it was all Big Older 'Blokes' and Beers and Laughs after the Race and I was Just So excited to get so Close to The Cars,..let alone Any Drivers !!!,..LOL

They Were,..Truly Great Times,..sadly the World and especially Motor Racing has changed,..sigh,..it was all much simpler and friendlier then eh !!??

Cheers

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

Stoo...ya I was kinda the same kid. One of my oldest friends has held it over my head that HIS birthday is the same as Clark....but 12 years later, where I am a whole day off!

One of my stories is finally meeting Gurney through Philippe's good graces. I was up at odd hours because I was in the philippines in '61/2/3" and one of the Manila stations showed the 3 hour Daytona Continental. Walking in circles as Dan was parked at the top of the banking watching the second place car catching up. Decades later getting to chat with Gurney about it.

It was odd that the books and the reporting at the time were wrong about the story.

The point being an agreement. Dan described his career as getting paid to go have fun with cars. That all of us were guys who had fun with cars, he just had the chance (made the chance) to do what any of us would have.

Don't know about you, but in my circles we all have stories of being young, looking at the car, making a comment and having a voice from behind just start chatting with you about the car..and it being someone like McLaren.

Unimaginable stuff these days.

Fate