April 17, 2019
#303
Gentle reader,
My wife was telling me about a unique antique store way out in the country near where she works. So, we set out to see it one Saturday.
We looked all over the place which has corrugated steel walls and no heating.
While many thinks interested me, we have been getting rid of things so I decided whatever I found would have to be special.
Yes, the one on the right IS leaning.
Much has been written about the 1960's battle at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France between Henry Ford II's Ford GTs and Ferrari's 330P4 racers. I will not get into all that except that after the third year trying, Ford won, and the next three years as well.
Mass market diecast cars are never going to accurately reflect the real cars. Especially in the case of this 1964 or 1965 Ford GT40.
The five-year difference in design and execution between the two is greatly evident.
Before the corporate sponsorship of EVERYTHING, each major country had racing colors assigned to them. Italy was red, Germany was silver, France was blue, Great Britain was green, and the United States was white and blue.
The first iteration of the Ford GT (called GT40 because they were only 40 inches high) was a clean design based upon Eric Broadly's Lola Coupe which used a small displacement Ford V8 to power it.
Ford decided to use a version of their Formula 1 V8 engine. Sadly, they were not made to last 24 hours of racing.
Nor were the transaxle (transmission and rear axle in one unit) durable enough either. The choice of wire wheels were another not-to-bright of an idea.
This Solido model, interestingly made in France must have been played with a lot for the tread to be worn off of the tires. Yet, it survived to this day.
I am adding a photo from another article I did on Le Mans racing cars, this from a replica of the car that came in 3rd in 1966, it is 1:18th scale verses the wee 1:43rd scale of this car.
These cars and later ones, used a single four-barrel carburetor rather than the more complex four two-barrel carbs the earlier cars ran. I included this because it shows the nick-named "bundle of snakes" exhaust system. Image is from my article:
Ford GT-40s, Mark II, Mark IV and Porsche 917s at Le Mans 1965-1970
Now, let's look at the 1970 Ferrari 512S. By then, Ford as a company competitor was gone from Le Mans, the 1968 and 1969 wins were from JW Engineering, by then the original GT40 cars were simply sports cars and not prototypes. The SAME car (only time in history up to then) won both years. They were sponsored by GULF Oil and painted light blue with orange stripes.
For 1969, 1970 and 1971, five liters were the limit for engine size in the top prototype classes. The 1966 and 1967 Ford GTs used seven liter V8 engines.
Porsche and Ferrari made both long-tail and short-tail bodies for their prototype racers depending upon which circuits they were racing upon. This is a 512S for short-tail.
The only decals on the car are what you see here. On the real car the wheels were made of magnesium and were gold colored.
I would have preferred to have the engine cover open, but they chose to have the doors open.
Note how MUCH wider the tires are. I know the rears on the Porsche 917s (main competitor for these Ferrari 512 racers) were 18 inches wide. You read that right, 1/2 a YARD wide rear tires!
This car, although I suspect both came from the same source, has led a more sedentary life than the Ford.
Just for giggles, here is the rear of a 1:18th scale Porsche 917K. K is for "Kurtz", German for short.
W-I-D-E tires, to be sure, they were. This was before "slick" or tread-less tires were used for racing.
Now, to the smallest and most humble of the new cars in the collection.
These are commonly called "tin toys", whether they were made from tin at the time this one was made, I do not know.
We have a few other old ones like this. I love the way they detail them with paint, even showing the driver and a painted ladder on the roof.
I have made no attempt to clean these cars, but I HAD to do something about the leaning to the left, just how fat IS that driver?
Fairly easy to unbend the tab at each end and remove the body. I tightened the two tabs that hold the friction motor to the chassis pan.
Careful bending of the pan and test fitting a couple times greatly improved the stance.
I also carefully oiled the motor. It runs smoothly now and will propel the little thing pretty far now.
I have gone through my list of articles and pulled links to other ones I've done about diecast model cars. Please take a look.
Porsche 924 verses 924 Carerra GT and 944.
Volvo 1800 ES verses C30. A 1/43rd scale comparison
Audi TT diecast car collection. I used to have a real one!
NASCAR die-cast cars. Not my thing, but I tried.......
HO slot cars & small diecast cars
And this one from three years ago:
Quick look at the diecast cars in my collection for Facebook groups I've joined.
While my once large camera collection is mostly in other's hands now, the toy and trainer rifles are all gone and other collections we've amassed are no more, the diecast cars have remained. It frustrates our six grandkids that they can't play with them. Well, they have almost 100 diecast cars down in the family room to play with.
Gianna, our one-and-only granddaughter, who is five in age only, saw my X-Files Ken and Barbie boxed set and asked to play with them. "If you take them out of the box they aren't worth as much money. They were made for grownups to collect." "Well, that's silly."
She may be right, but someday, if adults still collect childish things, and she starts to collect, she might tell her kids and grandkids the same thing.
Thanks once again for taking the time to read my humble words and view my images. It is our kind words and comments that keeps me creating these articles.
Scott
April 17, 2019
#303
Ford GT-40s, Mark II, Mark IV and Porsche 917s at Le Mans 1965-1970
Now, let's look at the 1970 Ferrari 512S. By then, Ford as a company competitor was gone from Le Mans, the 1968 and 1969 wins were from JW Engineering, by then the original GT40 cars were simply sports cars and not prototypes. The SAME car (only time in history up to then) won both years. They were sponsored by GULF Oil and painted light blue with orange stripes.
For 1969, 1970 and 1971, five liters were the limit for engine size in the top prototype classes. The 1966 and 1967 Ford GTs used seven liter V8 engines.
Porsche and Ferrari made both long-tail and short-tail bodies for their prototype racers depending upon which circuits they were racing upon. This is a 512S for short-tail.
Just for giggles, here is the rear of a 1:18th scale Porsche 917K. K is for "Kurtz", German for short.
Now, to the smallest and most humble of the new cars in the collection.
I have gone through my list of articles and pulled links to other ones I've done about diecast model cars. Please take a look.
Porsche 924 verses 924 Carerra GT and 944.
Volvo 1800 ES verses C30. A 1/43rd scale comparison
Audi TT diecast car collection. I used to have a real one!
NASCAR die-cast cars. Not my thing, but I tried.......
HO slot cars & small diecast cars
And this one from three years ago:
Quick look at the diecast cars in my collection for Facebook groups I've joined.
While my once large camera collection is mostly in other's hands now, the toy and trainer rifles are all gone and other collections we've amassed are no more, the diecast cars have remained. It frustrates our six grandkids that they can't play with them. Well, they have almost 100 diecast cars down in the family room to play with.
Gianna, our one-and-only granddaughter, who is five in age only, saw my X-Files Ken and Barbie boxed set and asked to play with them. "If you take them out of the box they aren't worth as much money. They were made for grownups to collect." "Well, that's silly."
She may be right, but someday, if adults still collect childish things, and she starts to collect, she might tell her kids and grandkids the same thing.
Thanks once again for taking the time to read my humble words and view my images. It is our kind words and comments that keeps me creating these articles.
Scott
April 17, 2019
#303
