Well, here is the story.
First of all, I'll make an admission, I feel a bit of a fraud about this car. I have in the past done conversions that took a lot more sweat and tears, and yet looked disappointing when finished.
This whole project was made possible thanks to a brilliant picture of the car kindly scanned by Mike Sells. This showed all the interior and engine detail I needed.
I know it will sound conceited, but the build was relatively easy, the key was finding how to make the exhaust.
The Beta bodyshell did not require much work, the vents were opened up and the body primed. I added the 2 small bumps on the engine cover and the 2 intakes on the lower body sides. Once the detailing was done, the painting went fine, including the silver stripe. That's it for the body.
The exhaust is made from hypodermic stainless steel tubing (no less). This little marvel can be obtained from a company called Small Parts via the net . The carb intakes are the usual "bootlace ferrules" from RS Components. The real car used Webbers, which are fitted with a small tube inside the intake trumpet, for this I used the fine tube fitted to Revell liquid plastic cement.
Once those were done, I could worry about the wheels.
I found some nice Supershell rims which were just right, the inserts were produced from a turned down Scalex Lotus 7 Minilite wheel. This was then recast , and I still have the mould if anyone needs inserts. To me, the wheels are the best thing on the car.
The interior was build from a modified Ninco Ferrari 166 item, and it took quite a while to get the seats right. On this car, the dashboard was just a simple sheet of metal, and you could actually see the front and back of the instruments. So, in a moment of madness, I built up the rear of the panel as well, including a scale wiring loom, made up of individual wire strands painted different colours (try it, it's very therapeutic). Although not visible in the pictures, a gear lever is fitted.
With a week to go, I still did not have a driver, I tried a Maxi Model one (kindly sent by Phil Smith) but it was just the wrong shape. Eventually, I used a Ninco body, cut the hands off, replaced them with those from an Airfix figure I had, and used a head from the spares box. I even sanded his chin down, as, according to my pictures, Bruce was obviously quite a chubby chap.
Now time for my second admission. Most of my scratchbuild cars do not ever see the track, so even though they all work, they do not go well at all.
This time there was not running away, the car had to work properly.
On the advice of Phil Smith, I used a Pittman motor fitted with Atlas front and rear brackets. However, I decided to run as an iso fulcrum.
So the front bracket was ground down to remove the wheel mounts.
The wheels were fitted to the body itself.
The rear bracket (which normally hinges around the rear axle) was more or less used as is. It is a simple mod, and makes for a really easy car to drive.
I took it to the club track , and it all worked, a nice car to drive. And it sits just right on the track (See David's pictures at the top of the thread)
Joel
