The 5l Rennen in Neumünster, Germany is well-known by 1/24 Scale Racing fans in Europe and this is the third time Jan and I will be participating.
In 2009 we drove the 1971 LeMans-winning Martini Porsche 917 917K martini and last year the famous 1970 Hippie Porsche 917 Langheck 917LH Hippie.
In order to try something different we chose the 1971 Penske Ferrari 512M Daytona entry driven by Donohue/Hobbs. This is a great race car which both looked stunningly good in its heyday, but also was one of the fastest Ferrari 512Ms around.
In the 5l Rennen, your concours points (max 20) are added to your race result, meaning that a nice, detailed car could bring you 1-2 places up the latter. "Unfortunately" the Germans are masters in discipline and there are many 20 point cars in the race. The concours rules are biased around certain details and high-gloss finishes, which means that you can get max points for a car that is not 100% correct, but has the features that are favoured in the rules. As an example, the real Porsche racing cars of the '60s did not have a high-gloss paint finish, but were known for their rough (but low weight) appearance. But under the German rules you can't get max points if you enter a 100% scale model of these Porsches - you have to apply a thick layer of gloss layer of varnish to get max points. :-(
But enough of this - such are the rules and you have to live with them.
This body is based on the same as my previous build - a lightweight GRP body with lightweight interior and light kit (half of the race is driven in darkness). I have done some of the details myself; others are from various kits.
Body ready for clear coat - Decals are from Fisher. Aluminum tape is used for detailing.
Engine copy/light boom made from cast resin part, plastic tubes, and piano wire. A lightweight light kit is built in - giving rear lights with strong braking lights as well as flashing exhaust pipes. :-) The light kit is from Belgian Z-machine.
Most of these parts are home made in vacform: driver with resin arms, vacform battery, etc. Seat belts are painted painters tape with PE parts. Decals are homemade.
Low weight is an issue - weight above the chassis doesn't help you much. :-)
Clear resin copies of the original Fisher lights - ready for drilling and installing the micro SMD LED diodes.
Looks great :-) - worth the time spent, I think. :-)
Lights in the instruments as well. The panel is vacformed from the Heller Ferrari 512S kit's instrument panel and after drilling the holes, instrument decals were added and small SMD diodes were added to provide light.
Side windows and engine intakes were added. Windows were vacformed from Fisher originals and cut out and scribed to simulate the opening windows of the original.
Intake cover in place - next step is mounting the light kit and connecting it to the diodes of the number light and instrument panel.
F 512M build on Picasa with more pics: F 512M build
Northland Club in Neumünster
Take at look at the Gallery (Bilder) and look at this completely unique track. :-)
Starter list 5l rennen
Nearly 40 teams from seven countries.
Nore detail will follow. :-)
Niels, DK
