19 replies to this topic

[John Kit]

I'm a bit late in starting it but here is the beginning of a new build. I am going to build two, Gurney's and Brabham's BT11 from the British GP in 1964 at Brands Hatch.

Here are some photos from the very beginning, the body of the car is my own casting from a re-sized and re-shaped Atlas slot car body. The body was cast with a flat interior but this will be removed and both will be built with a full driver and interior.







Thanks for looking,

John Kit

[Bill from NH]

John,

Are those BWA chassis parts or something else?

[TSR]

Duncan Dayton in his BT11 at Monaco last year:

[Russell Sheldon]

John, the BT11 looks magnificent! Despite their success, very few slot car manufacturers produced Brabham F1 cars, particularly in 1/32nd scale.

With kind regards,

Russell

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

Ya, odd. I mean all sorts of loosers like the Cheetah were done by everyone and their dog!

In 1/32, I can only think of Super Shells and Atlas for Brabham F1s. I guess you could "squint" and include the Lotus 24.

Still.

No one was licensing then, I wonder why.

Fate

[TSR]

Russell and John, it is true! Only Atlas, Super Shells and Strombecker produced a Brabham F1 car, and only Shark produced a Brabham sports car, and only a clear plastic body at that.

Besides a BT15 F3 model, the French plastic kit maker Heller did produced (with my help) a 1969 Brabham-Cosworth BT32 F1 car in the 1/24 scale, a really beautiful kit actually that would make a splendid slot car.
Here is the box top for the F3 model:



But the Atlas (well, Marusan anyway!) BT7 is the only model so far in the 1/32 scale, except for the mediocre Super Shells body kit, but this was nowhere near as nice as the Atlas/Marusan model.
Regards,

[John Kit]

Bill, Phillipe, Russell and Fate, thank you very much for your comments. Yes the brackets are BWA, but I may be using my own for the front suspension as it will be easier to fabricate the components as shown in the great photo that Phillipe posted.

Here are some of the photos that got me started on this project:









Not all of the photos are from the 1964 British GP at Brands, but are wonderful non the less.

The one aspect of the car that I am still wondering about is the steering wheel. It really appears to be quite large relative to the size of the car. I know that the car is not very large, but it looks as if the wheel takes up a lot of space in the cockpit.

Any help with this aspect of the car would be greatly appreciated as I am just working on the interior parts as well and have the seat, dashboard, driver, driver's head (Dan and Jack) and helmets sculpted and cast but I'm in need of some help with the size of the steering wheel. It certainly looks larger than the steering wheel used in the Lotus 33!

Thanks for your help in advance!

John Kit.

[TSR]

John,
the "large steering wheel" is not so large, but was considerably raised in the Gurney car because of the gentleman's natural bulk, as he could not even get in the car! There were no quickly removable steering wheel devices as we have now in 1965/1965.
The wheel is actually only 13" in diameter if I recall, the same as in my own car. If you portray Jack in your model, the wheel is of course set considerably lower and should barely show when the car is seen from its side.
The car also changed quite a bit between 1964 and 1965, so you may want to check details depending on which race you want to portray the car.
Regards,

[John Kit]

Phillipe, thank you for your help. Dan's size would certainly explain why the steering wheel would be given the appearance of being so large, because you can see so much of it!

I will certainly make adjustments beteen Dan and Jack's cars. I now have to find photos to see if and by how much the steering wheel placement of Gurney's car differed from Brabham's and try to model them appropriately.

Thanks again for your help,
John Kit.

[Prof. Fate]

Hi

If I had seen that F3 kit in the day, I would have built it !

Also, never marketed, knight did a few Jrs. in the day as vacs. He and Schliecher had them, and Bob STILL teases me that they had these tiny cars and I didn't!

Fate

[John Kit]

I had some time tonight to work on the front suspension of the Brabham.

Here are some, well, lots of photos of the progress so far:
























As always, any and all comments are more than welcome.

Thanks for looking,
John Kit.

[Tex]

Dood, NUTHIN looks as good as suspension detail on an F1. VERY cool, John.

[gascarnut]

Very nice, John!

One suggestion, though: For the springs, you need to use a larger diameter wire and less turns more spaced out. What you have on there now look like extension springs, not compression springs.

I took this photo before I painted the springs, but you can see what I'm getting at:

[JD]

looking good so far.
i have a couple of those bodys if anyone is interested?
i think they are the same,but there are some parts included.
i think it is all 24 scale stuff.
if anyone wants i can include a picture.
if you need them john kit,just let me know?
jd
p.s.i just looked and the ones i have are
cox ferrari,and cox brm in 24 scale.
there is no windshield,or any of those acc.,but there bodys only.

[TSR]

If they are 1/24 scale, they are probably Strombecker bodies, because that is the only other injected Brabham single-seat body out there.
No windshields?

[JD]

pdl,if you look at my last post i corrected myself.
they are cox bodys.
one is a ferrari,the other is a brm.
i had them mixed up with the brabham for some reason.
they are both 24 cox,and neither has a windshield.
sorry bout that.
jd

If they are 1/24 scale, they are probably Strombecker bodies, because that is the only other injected Brabham single-seat body out there.
No windshields?

[TSR]

OK for your corrections. The Cox BRM bodies are fortunately easier to find than the Strombecker Brabham-Climax BT7, and the windshields are "single curve" so easy to make from clear plastic sheet. They will make someone happy...
The Atlas 1/32 scale is supposed to be a BT3 but is a bit too thin for that, so was probably modeled after the "7".

[newso]

Hey John,

any updates on the BT11?


Terry

[Frank-Peter van de Goor]

Dan Gurney's race winning Brabham BT7 from 1964.

 

I'm using Studio 65's Brabham body kit (a scale corrected Atlas body shell), and Scalextric's Lotus 25 chassis. The car is powered by a Carrera "GO" motor. This motor is even smaller than an 030 'mini' motor. Just a few little things to do:

 

-Driver figure + steering wheel

-Windscreen + mirrors

-Racing numbers on the sides

 

Here (after scrolling a bit) you can follow the building process https://slotrace-pro...aFBl962J43Tj7p8

 

 

 

[John Kit]

Frank-Peter, your Brabham looks fantastic!

 

Thanks so much for posting!

John