7 replies to this topic

[Jairus]

This project was built for a friend who told me he had always wanted one of these since seeing the car in November '66 Car Model magazine.
I knew nothing about the car but began collecting parts for the build and it wasn't until a thread popped up on Slot Forum that I began to learn the real story. Albeit from several points of view...

Seems Cox wanted to update the earlier GT40 cars to replicate more closely the MkII bodystyle which took 1st, 2nd and 3rd at LaMans a few years previous.

 

 

 

As we know now... the car pictured in the magazine was never actually produced other than a handfull of prototypes.

The official word was that the all had been destroyed, yet two and maybe three have come to light during the last decade leading one to the conclusion that there may be more out there.

 

The Box above resides in the Los Angeles Slot Car Museum and it also a prototype.

 

The official story is that Cox had up to 8 prototypes produced for various trade shows. The prototypes were constructed from the standard GT40 kits by grafting on IMC Ford GT40 MKII body parts.
I have seen photos of at least 3 of these "kitbashed" bodies and no two look alike.  Two were certified as authentic, the third was deemed fake... but it contained so many period correct construction aspects that I believe it to be one of the 8 "lost" bodies enough to use it and the other two to build my own version.
 

A full thread exists buried on Slot Forum with the whole sordid story laid out bare if anyone wants to spend a night reading it.

 

But it's not my intention to re-open the controversy or re-write history. I only want to post my build. And that's it!
So Philippe if you want to post useful information, please feel free. 
 

 

 

[Jairus]

I started this project by cutting up a pretty nice GT40 MKII and grafting on the nose from an old IMC GT40 MkII model kit just like the story says the craftsmen did.

 

One of the prototypes looked like the builder grafted the entire rear end of the IMC kit to the center core of the GT40 body.

The other two seemed to have retained the rear spoiler (totally inaccurate for a correct MkII, but I liked the look).  Plus the car in the magazine retained it, and it meant less body work.

 

I actually built two of these cars I had so much parts saved up. The second one received a Fujimi MkII body.
Here I have set up the two together in order to see the similarities in design of what are suppose to be the same car!

 

Indeed, the Fujimi body makes for a beautiful GT40 MkII slot car!  I finished up the car with a running Cox chassis and interior which I sent to Chris Clark. 
But... back to the prototype...

Between the times the putty was setting up I managed to build two complete Cox chassis.
One with a short tongue and one with the Long tongue.  

 

 

I wanted the chassis to reflect the magazine car as closely as possible. Maybe even include the fact that it's 43 years later! Thus is the reason the wheels were not polished, but cleaned and coated to seal them.

 

[Jairus]

Couple of problems cropped up building this.
The GT40 car I bought off eBay contained nice window glass and that was good.

But the bad was that it was missing the injector stacks, exhaust pipes and taillights.
So... some of that had to be scratchbuilt as closely to the original as possible.

 

 

This is the raw materials for the exhaust pipes.

 

What really wrinkled my vinyl later was while digging through some old model car parts I ran into this very piece in injection molded plastic I already owned and had access to! The chrome was still presentable too!!!!

Long after the car was gone tho... or I would have swapped it out for the real thing. 

Oh well...

 

But the final turned out pretty nicely once painted with Alclad.

 

Time for paint!

[Matt Sheldon]

Slot porn at its finest

[Jairus]

Paint!

 

Nothing fancy. Rustoleum gloss white from a rattle can.
No wet sanding or polishing and the decals were put on after the paint.
The idea was to build this car as if I were one of the builders constructing a prototype for Cox. Therefore, I held back on a lot of work in order to make the car look as close to the vision as possible.
 

 

The magazine car used #73 so I did too. 

But it was the taillights that stymied me for a time.
You see, I didn't have any.
Here are the correct kit taillights:

They had a flange at the base and a chamfered edge all around.
So I started off with some old "Royal" paint brush handles and chucked them up in my dremel. With sand paper and files I managed to make a set of taillights for both sides.

 

They were tinted red with Tamiya clear red prior to being glued in.
 

[Jairus]

I constructed the body work underneath to look as closely to the three source cars as I could.  Therefore, I didn't smooth out the body work as much as could have been possible.
The markings on the underside match fairly close the markings found on one of the unrestored originals which said: "MkII #4".

 

 

 

 

I apologize for the crappy pictures above. Tried shooting on a dark background same as some of the prototypes I had seen. Didn't work as as well as I had hoped.
Next, final pics and some last words.

[Jairus]

The only change from any of the prototypes I made was painting the dash top surface flat black.
None of them were painted this way, but I think it makes the car look so much better!

 

 

 

 

 

I had given some thought to building a box like the one in the Museum.
But the task seemed daunting and teadious. So I settled on a rosewood display box with an airbrushed image of the GT40 MkII box art.
Inside the car is carefully held in foam and crushed velvet along with a cox nut wrench and Cox period controller.

 

 

 

[Jairus]

The car is now gone, safely on display in the new owners display case. Would I make another one? Maybe if the $ were right.

One problem I am finding is that vintage Cox parts have doubled in cost during the last 3 years. And I collected parts for over 5 years before doing any actual assembly.

 

The "Team Modified" Cox chassis was a last minute decision based on finding a nice Cox junk yard bargain on eBay which yielded a beautiful chassis with no corrosion, just a nice gray patina.  It was missing a drop arm, but I had one left over from the building of the two Dino cars for Ralph Klose so... things just fell together back then.

 

No urethane tires were used in the making of this machine. Front and Rear are both shod with correct Cox GoodYear rubber tires. Rears are still soft enough to run a careful lap... but I wouldn't!

 

 

The second complete chassis with the short tongue went into the Fujimi bodied clone.

 

 

Tires were a problem for a while,  finding a set that wasn't split.... that is.

 

Oh yeah... I remember now. Both chassis received a freewheeling front axle I think. Or... maybe only the Prototype got the freewheeling and the Fujimi got the ....  never mind.