[Coides]

Chevron racing cars competed with success in pretty much every single seat and sports car formula from the mid 1960s and after several reinventions they still race today. For me their heyday was the late 1960s when the B8 and B16 2 litre GT cars raced in all the sports car classics including Le Mans. In 1970 three B16s entered Le Mans, one of them fitted with a Mazda rotary engine. This was Mazda's first entry at the Great Race and it was also the first for a rotary engine. The car retired with a blown engine in the fourth hour but for Mazda it was the beginning of a romance that would be consummated 21 years later with Japan's first Le Mans victory.

The B16 was modeled by Bitume Slot Racing (a tiny outfit affiliated with Proto Slot) about 15 years ago but it was always rare and very expensive. I'd been looking for one for a very long time when an unbuilt kit surfaced in the Bay last year for a reasonable price. BSR have a very good reputation and I thought that this build would be a breeze. It didn't quite turn out like that because of the interior. BSR made an unadorned shell from scratch and provided it with a resin interior copied from the Fly Chevron B19, whose body is a shameless copy of the Porsche 908/3. This interior made no attempt at all to fit inside the B16 shell! I then discovered that the dashboard provided by BSR was similarly imaginative. The real car has a strange double decker arrangement:

but the model just had the standard flat platform so I had to make my own

This, plus a lot of trimming of the interior and the driver just to get them to fit took a fair bit of the gloss of this 'easy' build but once it was over the rest was pretty easy. The shell fits perfectly onto the Fly B19 chassis, it's just a case of painting the wheels. Here's the model, first without its decals.

This car has beautiful lines, I think it's reminiscent of a Jaguar XJR9. Here it is with the excellent decals that make it look less pretty in my opinion.

Now I have three different Chevrons from 1968, '70 and '72 - not bad at all!

Finally, I pulled out all my models of cars from the 1970 Le Mans race. There are now 13, that was a big surprise to me!

Andy

 

[Grumpy Gaz]

Those models look fantastic, are they all scratch builds?

 

[GRUNZ]

Nice job with the dashboard. I like when people go through all these troubles to replicate details from the prototype.

Also, very nice collection!

 

[Transmission]

Very nice model and great build!

I agree the car does look better without the decals but still, very nice.

Cheers,
René

 

[Autoavia]

Thart's a nice looking build and like the colour scheme. The B8 and B16 are great cars. AA slot car bodies do make resin bodies of both.

 

[42redcat]

What a fantastic collection! It's good to see the more-unusual Chevron joining them and very well-executed it is, too.

I get a bit of an impression you like Ferrari 512s...... I've been agonising over my Regazzoni no8 car ever since it was pointed out on this forum that it shouldn't have nose fins. I'm reassured to see yours is the same

Mike

 

[chappyman66]

Very nice work. I have always liked the Chevrons, punching above their weight in my opinion.

Nice collection too!

 

[SuperSlab]

Lovely build of one of my favourite, pretty cars of that era. As Chappyman says, Chevrons will always stand out in my mind as David against the endurance racing Goliaths. Love them all!

 

[Bigblock]

splendid job .

A very difficult model to find today .

 

[matthew77]

A fantastic car and build Andy, with an interesting story.

 

[EMPO_Z102]

Bonito coche y muy buena colección.

Queda bien el coche en blanco y también decorado, pues no es muy cargada.

Es curioso que hay mucha gente que les gustan las carrocerías blancas.

¿Qué técnica utilizas para remarcar las líneas del capó motor, las de las puertas, etc.?

Nice car and very good collection.
The car looks good in white and also decorated, as it is not very loaded.
It is curious that there are many people who like white bodies.

What technique do you use to highlight the lines of the engine hood, those of the doors, etc.?

Salut
Frederic

 

[Coides]

Thanks for the compliments guys! Lots of replies needed.

Those models look fantastic, are they all scratch builds?

No, most of them are straight Fly models (Ferrari 512, Porsche 917K, Porsche 908L), complete with mistakes like #8 (thanks for the reminder, 42!). Others are built-up kits from ProtoSlot (Matra #32, Alfas #35, 36, though #35 was recast from a mould made from #36 - see here). The only one that I'd honestly call a scratchbuild rather than a kit build is the Porsche 917LH #3 Hippie car right at the top. My build of that one is here

Thart's a nice looking build and like the colour scheme. The B8 and B16 are great cars. AA slot car bodies do make resin bodies of both.

I've never tried to make an AA car, they seem from the pics to be rather low quality and it adds a lot of time to sort that out. That hasn't stopped me when a really important car needs building but I've not come across one yet from AA. This Chevron only took 10 days.

What technique do you use to highlight the lines of the engine hood, those of the doors, etc.?

Salut
Frederic

Hi Frederic, actually, this car already had those black lines - the previous owner had done this then stopped! I personally don't like such lines, because they over-emphasise these lines, Actually, there have been whole posts on Slot Forum that talk about this subject. The usual way is to take some diluted paint and wash it along the lines then wipe off the excess using a cloth with some thinner on it. Of course, you need to make sure that none of this is going to damage your paint surface! Another way is to take a very fine pen with black ink and run it along. I have a Rotring pen with a 0.3mm tip which I got 50 years ago, it does stuff like this very well.

Hola Frederic, en realidad, este auto ya tenía esas líneas negras, ¡el dueño anterior había hecho esto y luego se detuvo! Personalmente, no me gustan esas líneas, porque las enfatizan demasiado. En realidad, ha habido publicaciones completas en Slot Forum que hablan sobre este tema. La forma habitual es tomar un poco de pintura diluida y lavarla siguiendo las líneas y luego limpiar el exceso con un paño con un poco de disolvente. ¡Por supuesto, debe asegurarse de que nada de esto dañe la superficie de su pintura! Otra forma es tomar un bolígrafo muy fino con tinta negra y pasarlo. Tengo un bolígrafo Rotring con una punta de 0,3 mm que obtuve hace 50 años, hace cosas como esta muy bien.

 

[Trisha]

Another marvellous build, Andy, and a most worthwhile addition to your Le Mans paddock. Can't think of one Chevron I dislike. Have often thought of the B16 as bearing passing resemblance to a 'baby' 917KH. Congrats.

Back to the 1950s for your next project?

Oh, and you've also taken me back a few years with your mention of Rotring drawing pens. Marvellous things. Got a stack of 'em in a set somewhere.

 

[Autoavia]

I've never tried to make an AA car, they seem from the pics to be rather low quality and it adds a lot of time to sort that out. That hasn't stopped me when a really important car needs building but I've not come across one yet from AA. This Chevron only took 10 days.

I haven't tried an AA Bodies build yet but I think you are right in saying that they are fairly basic but they do make some unusual cars that no one else is likely to model.

 

[EMPO_Z102]

Gracias Andy por tu respuesta.

Esa forma de hacerlas es la que conocía, aunque yo nunca he puesto esas líneas.

Thanks Andy for your answer.
That way of doing them is the one I knew, although I have never put those lines.

Frederic

 

[Trisha]

Andy's marvellous and refreshing B16 build is a timely reminder that the slotting world needs more Chevrons. Wonderful cars and still most active in historic racing today (notwithstanding the current plight).

One of my fave cars below, which is not a scratchbuild (MMK), but I've posted it here in the hope of inspiring fellow slotters to build more cars from this diverse, and important, era of sports-car racing.

 

[EMPO_Z102]

Es un bonito coche, no cabe duda, pero, y reconociendo mi ignorancia de la historia de este tipo de coches...

... me ha llamado la atención, la luz del techo.

It is a nice car, no doubt, but, and recognizing my ignorance of the history of this type of car ...
... I was struck by the ceiling light.

Frederic

 

[Trisha]

Frederic

Cars competing at Le Mans during this era sometimes had coloured roof lights to enable (tired) team members to distinguish their car from those of others.

The pits can be a busy, frantic and confusing place, especially for fatigued mechanics during the hours of darkness.

 

[Kevan]

That Chevron B8 is a beauty

 

[Coides]

Yes, I'm gonna have to get just one more Chevron . . .

Andy