29 replies to this topic

[Jairus]

A while back a slot car guy sent me a few projects.  The most interesting was this Honker II with a Pactra Hemi motor.



To that end I started collecting wheels, tires inserts and other bits.
About a month ago I had enough to start soldering and constructed a chassis.
Not a replica of anything but based on the non-moveable pans and solid tongue, it fits in about the late 1967 era.
Floppy pans were out due to the very low cut of the body.  Just NO room for anything to flex, and even the interior I choose required modification.

The Chassis:

 

Sorry, I don't do long build threads anymore.  
Usually I end up making lots of changes during the process so to that end, I will finish the car and then post a build thread.

[Jairus]

Two things I learned working on this project was the Hemi motor had screw holes that were crap requiring me to solder machine nuts inside the can.
The second thing I learned was the brushes were locked up in the tubes with corrosion.
Motor no go!   

 

So, motor torn apart, cleaned up and new brushes ordered from E.J.'s  (Thank you Ed!)
Runs beautifully and strong now!

Second part of the progress that took a while was modification of the interior.
While the Honker II windshield is massive.... the cockpit is actually a fairly small opening.
Sheet styrene was used to fill the gaps and would be primed and painted body color eventually.

 

Eventually the post delivered the new brushes and decals from Patto's.

[Jairus]

Paint is Pactra custom mix I used a while back for another Honker II.  But this time I added some "Pearl Purple".  The reason is because I believe that is why the real Honker's color is so hard to pin down due to pearl added to the mix.
Works for me anyway.



Patto's decals went down smooth with a touch of Walthers "Solvaset" where required.

 

Shortly after this I put a bit of lead on the tongue bringing the total weight to 134kg.

I went back and forth on the wheel inserts.
Seems the team used both 6 spoke and 12 spoke during racing so... I picked the 6 because I like the look.

 

Interior closeup.
Base mold is/was for a Ferrari 330 and modified with sheet styrene.
Then primed with Tamiya white prior to spraying the newly mixed Honker II color.
A few days drying later I shot the interior with three gloss coats of Tamiya TS-13 clear.
Left to dry for 3 days before painting the driver and other details.

 

[NY Nick]

Thanks for posting, true master nice car

[olescratch]

Another fine build!  How do you make the velocity stacks?  

[Jairus]

Final pics.
(Velocity stacks and exhaust dump pipes were provided by Dubro John)



 

 

 

Fin 

[MG Brown]

FYI

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos from 2001.

[Maximo]

Why was it called "Honker II"?

 

Because the original was a Le Mans prototype called P68 or F3L that was not raced and was converted to a Can Am racer later by Holman & Moody without success!

 

I wish THAT clear body would be made!

 

Omixam

Attached Images

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[Jairus]

I wish I could figure out a good way to make head light buckets.  Everything I make tends to pop out taking chunks of paint with them.

[Bill from NH]

Another great build Jairus! The chassis appears to be built strong. I particularly like how you handled the interior gaps with sheet styrene. Once painted, they appear to just be part of the body. I'll have to remember how you did that.

[miko]

Beautiful car Jairus!

[Pablo]

Love it Jairus

[don.siegel]

That's a beautifully painted and detailed body Jairus - congrats! 

 

Don 

[Phil Smith]

That's awesome, Jairus!   

[MattD]

Another outstanding job.    I am envious of your talent!

[stoo23]

Hmmm,.. Very Nice !!,..

 

As I too have owned one of those 'Original' Honker II bodies for many years,.. something along similar lines might make for a fun build project, to finally give the Body/car some life and track time !!,..

 

Thanks for Another beautiful 'Build' and perhaps 'inspiration' !!,..

 

 

Also (and Without wishing to create any 'Thread Drift') as such,.. but Mainly due to the P68 / F3L being one of My All time Favourite and arguably 'Gorgeous' racing cars !!

 

With regard to:-

 

Because the original was a Le Mans prototype called P68 or F3L that was not raced and was converted to a Can Am racer later by Holman & Moody without success!

 

May it be 'suggested', that if Anything,.. it would have been the Other way around, due to the Different Years of 'Appearance', the 'Honker II' (Designed in the latter half of 1966), pre Dating the P68 by at least a Year !!

 

As to the cars actually being the Same, or 'Derivatives' as such,.. I would perhaps suggest, the 'Inherent Similarity', is realistically More of merely a 'Family' Resemblance of Design 'Style' over that 'Period' by the Aero-Dynamicist, Len Bailey, as can also be seen even in his slightly later designs of the Mirage and the Open Sports Ford.

They Were Separate and individual Design Projects and Budgets (arguably Inadequately Small even at the time !!) I guess it could perhaps be argued that the Honker Served as a 'Base' or basis leading to the P68 ?? There Do seem to be some inherent differences

 

All the cars were 'Built' by Alan Mann Racing in England, with Holman & Moody providing (in the case of the Honker, the Powerplant and US Race team Crew & support etc).

 

It IS worth Noting that the P68 / F3L DID race on quite a number of occasions, (although perhaps sadly without any great success).

See here:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_P68

 

Cheers

[Martin]

Another beautifully built car Jairus. A lot of nice details

[dc-65x]

Beautiful Jairus!

[Regis4446]

Very nice car, nice job Jairus.

[Jairus]

Yeah.... not done yet.
I want to center the rear wheel in the opening.
An opening I did NOT cut, but was cut by Dubro and in NO way matches the original car.

This means moving the body backward 1/16".
That adds 4 new pin holes and means beveling the guide weight.  Arrg....

It's been bugging me for two days, but I know what I need to do.

[Dave Crevie]

Well, I'll throw my hat in the ring here. After talking to Lee Holman at the Historics at R/A the year the car was there, the car

was designed by Len Bailey and constructed by Alan Mann Racing for the Holman-Moody team. Since it still exists in it's

original form, and the ill-fated Ford 3 Litre is also still running around, I would say they are not the same car. That is not to

say that Len Bailey didn't design both cars. I'll have to do some research on that.

 

The "Honker" was appearantly atrocious to drive, since Mario told Paul Newman when he declined to drive it in the series

 that Paul could drive the car if he thought it was so fast.

 

Incedently, I had a Holman-Moody sticker on the back of my Mustang, signed by Lee.    

[MattD]

It's been a long time since I watched it, but I think one of the  "Glory Days" shows about CANAM at Road America(maybe) has Mario on camera saying "put my name on the front of it and let Paul drive it".

[A. J. Hoyt]

Nice build, Mr. Jairus, faithful to the way the car was raced.

 

Someone DID make the Ford P68 body, wide enough to be raced as a Retro GTC car (I did paint and race it) - made by a Brit, I believe, can't remember the name.

 

The Red Fox Honker II is not a terrible body to race in Can Am. I brought one to the Sano IV, my first IRRA Premier race and to some IRRL races. I took some guff from the other racers that I wasn't being serious enough about my racing and they "forced" a TI-22 on me (ugh!). Pablo posted a picture of the body in the Sano IV Race:

 

http://slotblog.net/...rs/#entry289943

 

The Honker II has such a nice, smooth "canvas" to paint caricatures on. I also did a salute to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers on the rear deck running onto the spoiler:

 

 

Yup, that's a Honker II ... too. (Freewheelin' Franklin was edited with a controller in his hand - the original image was not "family friendly" and we let visitors to the raceway judge "Concours" winners).

 

Not wanting to "hijack" the thread - mostly just wanted to show that it is a viable racing body.

 

Jairus, I really love the "original treatment.

 

Now, back to Jairus' genius!

[MSwiss]

It was probably Dilworth who did/does a P68.

 

I tried to run the Honker, early in the Retro game.

 

On my flat track, it seemed great one day, and bad the next.

 

I'm not sure, but the back might of been collapsing.

[A. J. Hoyt]

I does collapse - it required a .016 wire brace in the back to support it or it would fold down onto the tires!

 

Same deal with the Dilworth P68 GTC (you remembered the name, thanks Mike), also, not a terrible racing body.

 

 

A humbling moment - in its second race, I noticed the Honker II started to peel, like a snake shedding its skin. I didn't realize that the Red Fox bodies had an extra "skin" on the outside and raced it that way. Duh!

 

But when I peeled the rest of it off, it lost the "fuzziness" and a beautiful, sharp and shiny image replaced the old one! I bet it went a little faster after that, too ...