[superhornets]

Hi Joel
i am sure we have been all through this before somewhere but nevertheless it is a fantastic discussion subject
While those early vac form bodies (MRRC, Super shells) had and still have a certain period charm the reason they were christened blob bodies ,in their day was bacause the hobby then was very much Scale racing
A lot of the racers had defected from model railways where appearance is everything
As a result of that the perception of these crude ,relatively undetailed bodies with incorrect undercuts was an affront to their sensibilities While it was possible to make a half decent model out of these it required a darn sight more work than painting an injection moulded or GRP shell and lots of folk coming into the sport in those days had neither the skill ,time or inclination to spend time on these shells .A quick lick of paint and then onto the track and some of them were right dogs
later when GT Models ,Betta and Taylor made, upped the ante with much crisper and more detailed mouldings were the painters rather than the modellers able to race a half decent looking model
But it is all evolution ,look how much better the commercial cars are now than they were in the 60s and yet many members of this forum seem to just love the ugly offerings that were about in those days ,and that is the great thing about out hobby all tastes aere catered for

cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

Hi Phil
I suspect that the ERA would be a Gt models one ,wasn,t your meeting at donnington in 2010 legal for vac formed bodoes ,I certainly used them
The MRRC porsche 904 as you say was an injection moulding in clear plastic ,a company called Niblett or some such, did one of these ,Did MRRC buy their mould from them ?

Cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

Hi Joel
i,ll tell you a little story of the daimler double 6
it is quite evidently a handling body and as such I think it was moulded by charlie fitzpatrick
some time in the ealry 1970s when it seemed that long wheelbase cars were the way to go to be competitive ,national champion "crazy dick birtles "and that ace rule bender mike dockery decided that if you wanted a long wheelbase car then it was best to trawl though the history books and build some of those 1920s leviathans
but they didnt want them high or narrow ,just long ,and as low and wide as possible
By the early 1970s the ECRA width limit was 2.1/2 inches so dick and mick made a number of these outrageous long W/B
blivots
They certainly made a bugatti royale and certainly the daimler would have been on their radar although I cant actually remember seeing one
Charlie moulded them as a favour for some mates but I guess he may have been embarassed by their crudeness and he never ever marketed them
I think they were so outrageous that they were immediately banned by ecra as not being a "reasonable representation"
thats how leary they were
If you measuure the width of the body and it is 2.5 inches then I would put money on it being one of those series of cars

here endeth the lesson

cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

Hi Chris
There is a picture of johns nordic replica ssk on page 169 of my book ,which I believe you own a copy of

cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

Gosh Phillippe
Why were they neve rissued ,they are stunning ,especially the alfa romeo 33 ,just beautiful

Cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

hi don
I guess the black widow chassis would fit the felday nicely

cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

Hi Guys
There is only one watford ,and I should know ,look at my avatar
It is usually thought to be the axis of the so called north south divide in the country and it is fair to say that folk like phill do usually get a nose bleed as they approach junction 5 on the M1
There are indeed locks at watford on the grand union canal in cassiobury park (not a flight though )
Re darnell he was an odd gentleman who I think did other modelling stuff , but got caught up in the slot car stuff 64/65 at the height of its popularity
He has probably encouraged by the fact that modles cars magazine was produced in watford and there was a track /club there at which the first national finals were run
He was a fairly regular visitor to the club and I suspect he did a bit of business there
I have still got one of his driver figures in one of my slot cars built when I was at the club
The shells I remember him doing were the F1 honda and A 1964 cooper ,he also did a lola t 70 and a brabham bt8
All the shells were like the one pete showed .two piece mouldings not over endowed with detail ,much the same as the Mardave shells which came out at the time
However with a bit of work they could be made to look half decent
I believe he also made moulded guides
BWA is right you could glue them together and cut the bottom out but they were thick enough that you could use the shell as a structural monocoque much like an early airfix and fix it together with blocks and screws
I seem to remember that we have been down this thread before

Cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

Hi
Thought darnell models rang a bell and here to prove it are the piccys I posted last time
looks like he did some pretty tidy 1/24 kit too
anyone ever seen them ?

Cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

Hi Bernard
that very nice 1923 sunbeam .I doubt very mucgh if is darnell I dont think he made any Retro cars ,his product range being exclusively limited to current(at the time ) prototypes
additionally all his bodies were moulded in white plasticard .Is the inside of yours White ,that might be a clue?

Cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

Hi Rob
I am with john on this one .made by mutley makers of those famous gears and developers of smaLL motors

cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

hi guys
here is a very rare body that only one other person on the forum will know about
as you can see it is an all state special ,but who made it?

Enjoy
Cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

Hi Guys
Jeez I am amazed ,4 people on the forum know of the notorious Dominy brothers all state,and the the one i knew that would recognise it hasn,t even replied
There was a reason for this shell being made (No it wasnt the apoliandis race at oaklands ) although I do seem to remember finishing second with one at an oaklands can am/indy race some time in the early 70s.
The reason they were made ,and I think ian fisher carved the buck, was that at the time ECRA demanded in line chassis for single seater class racing
however it was a different story in the north london league races, they allowed any motor configuration for their F1/Indy races
It just so happens that the wheelbase of the allsate(there were two versions, Dons body is the second one more slab sided ) is 8foot which was the same as a ferrari 312b anglewinder sports car which we raced at the time .So guess what chassis went under those for the N london league matches .A series of 1-2s in the F1 races meant we could always acrue enough points to win the match outright.
It also won the vauxhall indy race driven by dick smith I think
Re the other body that rob mentioned ,well the only two people i know that might have one are dick smith or chris frost
As They were the folks that raced them at tottenham
The body was an open dodge daytona Which was huge compared with the can am cars that were the staple diet of raceway aces
I think dicks' was painted up as a pint of guinness (it was about the same size too} certainly you were not advised to go round the outside of them on the banking !!!

Cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

Hi Low
No it wasn,t that one
it was the full superbird bodied charger with the long flat streamlined nose
additionally it was !/24 scale .it was huge
the one that trevor does , i think was called the dodge charger IV EL for some reason .i think it was ashow car ,GT models also did one

cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

Hi Guys
Here it is ,ITs bad, its BRash and its BIG
The dominy brothers 1/24 dodge daytona

I met Dick smith at earlybirds over the weekend and queried whether he still had the shell and when the answer was negative he remembered that there was a piccy in model cars mag
So i sorted it out ,Interestingly it is shown next to a standard Can am car so you can see how big it was
The car was painted like a pint of guinness ie black with a whitehead (a bit like trevor mc donald) and if you look carefully you will see in the passengers seat there is a keg of guinness which looks as if it is being pumped in to the driver .
dick told me the cars race finished when it woooshed round the banking in a huge opposite lock slide and managed to hit a car which had broken down on the exit to the banking on an adjacent lane
You didn,t survive that sort of punishment

Cheerstony

 

[superhornets]

Hi John
I am glad you described that last picture in text as i was flicking thro' your pictures admiring your craftsmanship when lo and behold i thought you,d pulled of a magic trick and converted a p4 ferrari to a capri "jus like that"

cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

Hi Joel
,the one you,ve got down as the maclaren m6a I am pretty sure is a lola t160 those two intakes at the back are a giveaway
the the m8a to me looks like a betta one. I ,ve got one some where and I ,ll measure it

cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

Hi John
You must be suffering from senile amnesia ,for if you go back to our old NLSME retro days you would have remembered that I already do a resin body based on that betta vac form. yours for a mere £7

cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

the T bird itaien , a body I thnk made by GT models was ve popular in ECRA saloon racing in the mid 1960s as it was a long low body , I hadn,t realised till now it was a show car , although I am not surprised as GT models did make a habit of show cars ,( Mach1 and Mach2 fords ,open Plymouth superbird and there was another one which was an open version of the Pontiac firebird)

cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

joel

reckon you are right about the super shells bodies , which were among the worst of ther genre , I stated my slot racing career super shell lotus 16 and like the ones you show it was completely slab sided . bearing in mind how good most of the injection moulded ones were it is surprising how poor the vac forms were

cheers tony

 

[superhornets]

the early super shells bodies which included the previously discussed lotus 16 were made by super shells of harpendon. after SRM bought them out in around 1965 the sales of SRms stuff was slowing down and SRM made somevac forms in butyrate which were quite good . they included camaro mustang ford galaxy and a 1/24th side tank maclaren M7a. not sure whether SRM made them or subcontracted them they are ofrten on e bay ,and there are a couple on at the momemt

cheers tony