7 replies to this topic

[Russell Sheldon]

As many know, Ross Brawn developed his competitive nature and his technical skills designing, building and racing 1/32 slot cars.

As a member of the Reading slot car club, Ross pursued the hobby with passion into his early working career, contributing technical articles to Model Cars magazine and at the same time developing his business skills, when in 1970 he partnered with Tony Hough, a colleague at the Atomic Energy Authority in Harwell, Oxfordshire, to manufacture and sell slot car racing components. Their part-time cottage industry business was called HB Products - Hough and Brawn.

No doubt entirely due to a lack of spare time rather than loss of interest, Ross left slot racing behind him when he got into full-size motor sport in 1976, when he joined March Engineering. He left March in 1978 and went to Williams, followed by stints with FORCE/Beatrice and Arrows. TWR Jaguar hired him in 1989, where he designed the 1991 World Sports Car Championship winning Jaguar XJR14, which Ross considers the best car he has ever designed.



Whenever I meet Ross, we talk about slot cars so I thought that it was about time I gave him a modern one. It had to be a 1/32 Jaguar XJR14. SCX made a nice one and LMM make a gorgeous resin version, but Ross was a scratchbuilder and raced ‘real’ slot cars, with vac-formed bodies! Being an engineer at the very pinnacle of motor sport – Formula One – which employs all the latest technologies, I thought that a carbon fibre chassis would be a nice touch. Who better to engage for the job than Milan Tomasek of MTR32 in the Czech Republic.

Milan didn’t have a Jaguar XJR14 mould to make the body, but he did have a Mazda MXR 01. The MXR 01 was based on resurrected XJR14 chassis #691 and had competed in IMSA Camel GTP in 1992. By making a few changes to the body, Milan converted it back to a XJR14!

Milan decided to make the #3 Brundle/Warwick car with a carbon fibre chassis for Ross; and the #4 Fabi/Brabham car with a PCB chassis for himself, which he has asked me to get Ross to autograph.

Here is the result – the Purple Haze Big Cats:

















I have no doubt that Ross will be very pleased when he receives the car at the Abu Dhabi F1 GP next month.

With kind regards,

Russell

[Cheater]

Simply too cool, Russell. Having you as a friend is definitely a plus!

Suggest to Ross that he register for Slotblog. Even a guy as busy as he is has to have a diversion... LOL!

And we'd love to have him occasionally post about his time with the smaller cars.

[Cap Henry]

Those are awesome! May I ask what the price tag for a duplicate would be? LOL,

[justDave]

You can check everything out on Milan Tomasek's website.

Fully built-up chassis are around 50 euros, depending on the model - the carbon fibre version would I guess be a bit more.

Using hard-shell bodies, Milan's PCB chassis seem pretty competitive with HRS and TSRF chassis, from comparative tests by top builders and racers in the UK - obviously it would depend on what type of track and set-up you were driving.

Clear vac-formed shells with wings are 8 euros. I don't know what he charges for a complete paint job, but they are certainly not stratospheric prices.

He's good to deal with, and you can pay by PayPal.

David

[Howie Ursaner]

Russell,

You are so awesome, and so are your cars.

[Ron Hershman]

Simply beautiful.

[Matt Sheldon]

Russell,

Those are two very incredible cars! Very cool of you.

[Russell Sheldon]

I met Ross at Dubai International Airport this morning and presented him with the beautiful MTR32 Jaguar XJR-14.

As you can see, he was really pleased, exclaiming: "Gosh, this is the real thing!"



He also signed Milan's #4 car for him.

Looking forward to a great weekend in Abi Dhabi for the F1 Grand Prix!

With kind regards,

Russell