16 replies to this topic

[n.elmholt]

My lovely Gold Leaf Lotus 49 was damaged beyond repair at the last round of the Danish Retro F1 Champs, so I had to make a new one.

After pestering Mike of Indycals for some time he at last gave up and made some decals for the early Lotus 49 driven by Jim Clark (and others) so I had no choice than to make a model of a Jim Clark Lotus 49. :-)





Howmet TX body, my own driver and wheel inserts.



The chassis is the same as used on the Gold Leaf Lotus 49 and is my own Neckcheese MkII plumber chassis, this version built in brass. I handles very smoothly and won the last race on a modified King track and at the same time securing me the Danish Champs with one race to go. :-)

Niels, DK

[spudboy]

Always a pleasure to see your work, Niels! Thanks for sharing.

[munter]

The 49 is mighty fine.

[tossedman]

Another great-looking car, Niels! Well done once more.

Toddglobal

[W. J. Dougherty]

Is there anyone in the US that sells these Howmet bodies? I like this 49 as well as his McL M7. He does a super job on the Cosworth engine...

[Tex]

I agree; the detail of the DFV adds so much to the car overall.

[Mark Johnson]

Exquisite.

[n.elmholt]

Thanks for the kind words. :-)

I forgot to paint the steering wheel red, so this error is corrected now.



More pics on my Picasa.

And more Retro F1 cars (text in Danish).

Saturday I will participate in the first Danish Retro F1 Grand Prix - that will be GREAT!!!



Niels, DK

[Duffy]

Is there anyone in the US that sells these Howmet bodies?

... Yah, there is.

[Cheater]

Saturday I will participate in the first Danish Retro F1 Grand Prix...

And we eagerly await your event pictures and report, Niels!

You can tell us how you did, too. LOL!

[don.siegel]

We especially want to see who wins the "Fart & Spaending" race...

Great looking car Niels and sounds like an excellent class.

Don

[n.elmholt]

Thanks Don, yes we are having great fun with these car, so if you ever come to Denmark, let me know :-)

After a lot of talk with my best friend Jan, the Class was started in may 2008, inspired by the D3 F1's, but I want to use the scale Lancer etc body, not the later handling bodies used in D3.

So the theme of the class was to copy the late 60's F1 slotcars with the bodies used then, but with emphasis on availability, the wheels was the same German White Point parts used in the Danish Championship WP CanAm Class. The motor was the Fox 10 used in Classic Scale racing. My naive hope was that people would build their own chassis, but very few did, so I have built a large number of the chassis raced today.

I 2009 the class was adopted by DMRU - the danish slotracing federation and now we are in our 3rd year of 1:24 Retro F1 National Championships

For 2011 we changed the rules to secure availability of parts and allowed other wheels and tyres, thereby introducing foam tyres in the class. At first many was sceptic as the car now had much more grip, but now we have GREAT races and GREAT fun

The Lancer etc bodies are great, but I lacked the icons like Mclaren M7 and Lotus 49, so I contacted John Dillworth AKA HowmetTX who created some extremely nice bodies based on my old Heller McLaren and Lotus plastic kits (designed by the Doc himself)
So now we can race copies of the Team Lotus or Gold Leaf Lotus cars along with Bruce McLarens iconic M7A car and the old Lancer bodies - NICE

The GP in Ikast is the first non-championship race and were are 24 drivers entered som far, so it will be great fun - i'll post report and pics next week

Niels, DK

[n.elmholt]

What a race !!!!

Nice track (4-lane Carrera) - somewhat different than the fast wood track I usually race, but a grand challenge :-)

Combined with 18 nice drivers from most parts of our small country, lots of slot gossip, nice catering, Racing movie in the cinema department AND great racing - made this a day to remember :-)

OK - I have not the specific race results yet - but they will follow :-) but seen from my perspective - here is my uncensored story:

Thursday night - club race at my home track in Kolding, DK - 6 lane, 34 mtrs flat wood track - pretty fast, but with some challenging kinks - I erased 9 lap records - 3 in White point CanAm and 6! in Retro F1 - doing 6,4 secs in lane 6 - which is an IMPOSSIBLE lap time :-)

I knew that my gear ratio was not OK for the twisty Carrera track in Ikast, but gambled and had to change gears. At the same time I had to help a lot of guys with their cars (being a father of the class) so suddenly practice time was over and I had to race my blue Jo Siffert car and not the Team Lotus car i used in my latest race. I went from 12/34 to 11/36 and was still in doubt of the ratio as the voltage on the track was too low to my taste. But I kept the 11/36 in all 3 rounds of the race.

We started with qualification and you could win 5 points for 1st place, 4 points for 2nd etc
I placed 2nd which was OK and this placed me in the 5th and fastest heat :-)

1.Round:
I drove like an old lady in first stint and fell off a couple of times and was unlucky in traffic - not used to the tight Carrera track :-(
But drove nearly flawless in the other 3 stints and finished 30cm in front of my oldest and best friend Jan Juul, who is the local Retro F1 hero :-)

2. round
One of the other drivers would not let me pass him and the following turmoil and stress with him in my track etc :-( cost me one lap, so Jan was diappearing in the distant :-( Later I nearly caught him, but was unlucky in traffic, so he won with ½ a lap. So now it was 1 first place = 40 points and 1 2nd place = 38 points to each of us - so we were equal in round, but I had two point extra from qualification. But the last round would decide who would win or place 2nd - !!!! Great fun and excitement

3.round
It was loose or win, so I started agressively and went out in front to avoid traffic. This strategy succeeded as Jan made some errors and I nearly caught him with one lap, when the two other guys collided under pressure just in front of me, so Jan went out in the distance again, but ½ a lap behind. I continued the pressure but was nearly caught in traffic with the two other guys again, but went by cleanly and controlled the rest of the race, winning by ½ a lap or so.

So in spite of my problems and worries I won the race, which otherwise was dominated by local drivers - making the victory extra sweet :-)

Thanks for keeping up with my ramblings :-)

Niels, DK

[n.elmholt]

The 18 cars for the first 1/24 retro F1 Grand Prix in Ikast, DK.


The four-lane 40 meter Carrera track.


People chilling in the Cinema Corner - old racing films like "Grand Prix" ran none-stop during the day.


The Proud winners, from left my old friend and teammate Jan Juul (2), myself (1), and Christian Visgaard (3).


The results - we drove three rounds of 4 x 4 min and got points for each round. Only two rounds counted, so you could subtract your worst result. The points for the qualification (max 5) were added to the total.

Niels, DK

[n.elmholt]

Next task is 6Th and last round of the Danish Championship for 1:24 retro F1 cars and White Point CanAm cars. I am defending champion in both classes and have already secured the championship in both with 4 wins out of 4 starts (was sick with food poisoning when 4Th round was held on my home track :-( bad luck)

6Th round in held in Odense, Denmark on their small king type track. The have moved premises and were forced to shorten the track a bit, so I look forward to try it out - it was always one of my favorite tracks before. The track was build in the early 70's and I raced there a few times then - many years ago :-)


Niels, DK

[Tex]

That is a NICE lookin' field of F1's, most with realistic liveries!

[n.elmholt]

and now I have the correct coffee mug to go with my Lotus :-)