Lotus 18 "Long nose"
I have been invited to take part in an invitational Proxy race for 1.5 litre GP cars from 1961-65 , so as I have very few cars of this class I had to build one. The guys that will be running in this series are some of the best around so the cars will be pretty impressive, and as an added bonus I will be hosting a round of the Competition at my track.
The car I'm building is a 1962 Lotus 18, the lesser known so called "Long Nose" version that only ran in a few races. Very few, if any photographs of this car exist, so most of the detail work is I'm afraid guesswork on my part and informed opinion from master scratchbuilders like Dave Jones, John Prince and David Lawson.
I got a fibreglass shell from Tony Kondon some time ago, and although it was a little "rough" around the edges, it was dimensionaly accurate.
This is the shell in all it's glory:-
As you can see it will require a little work to bring it up to the very high standard set by others!.
However, more of that later. First it was necessary to construct a chassis and sort out the running gear required.
These cars are challenging to build, as they are small and very narrow, so it is difficult to accommodate any other sort of motor apart from the FF Can, as used by Scalextric in their F1's and MOTOGP bikes.
The saviour for us all really is Al Penrose (BWA), as he has just introduced some mini brackets for this motor, which means that constructing a decent chassis now becomes a fairly straighforward process.
This are some photographs of the chassis I built:-
A very simple two rail chassis soldered to the BWA front and rear brackets.
A simple brass plate on the bottom completes the chassis. The guide I have chosen to use is from TSRF.
This photograph shows a close up view ofthe rear axle. The standard diameter of the Scalex FF Motor armature shaft is 1.5mm, so that use of standard 2mm pinions is difficult. AB Slotsport have recently developed some high quality inserts which fit inside a standard pinion making it possible to use Slot.it running gear. The pinion, complete with insert, is soldered to the armature shaft. There is not a lot of room to spare when using this setup!.
The body required a significant amount of work to bring it up to a good standard. The front grille was drilled out and the shell reshaped. The rear of the shell was also opened, and this will allow a dummy gearbox end and rear light to be fitted. The original driver figure and support platform was removed. The shell was sanded and found to be very thin in places. In fact you could see through it!. So some finishing putty was used in these areas and the body shaped and primed, (to show up bodywork deficiencies). It was necessary to repeat this several times in order to obtain a decent finish for painting.
The colour chosen was Peugeot Conifer Green asi have found this to be a good match for the mythical British Racing Green.
The driver figure started out driving a Carrera Trans Am car, and it was necessary to "slim him down" a little in order that he could fit into the cockpit of this tiny car.....A dremel with cutting disc made short work of his excess weight...
The wheels used are BWA 32002's with standard Ninco 7mm Classic front tyres and Ortman 28M rear rubber.
Final touches to the car included creating a rollbar and driving mirrors from scrap bits and pieces from the spares box and a dummy gearbox housing and safety light to fill the hole at the back of the car.
Decals from Patto's and wheel inserts from BWA complete the build.
I'm very pleased with the car, it performs very well on my track and is very foregiving to drive which is what you are aiming for in a Proxy car.
The car I'm building is a 1962 Lotus 18, the lesser known so called "Long Nose" version that only ran in a few races. Very few, if any photographs of this car exist, so most of the detail work is I'm afraid guesswork on my part and informed opinion from master scratchbuilders like Dave Jones, John Prince and David Lawson.
I got a fibreglass shell from Tony Kondon some time ago, and although it was a little "rough" around the edges, it was dimensionaly accurate.
This is the shell in all it's glory:-
As you can see it will require a little work to bring it up to the very high standard set by others!.
However, more of that later. First it was necessary to construct a chassis and sort out the running gear required.
These cars are challenging to build, as they are small and very narrow, so it is difficult to accommodate any other sort of motor apart from the FF Can, as used by Scalextric in their F1's and MOTOGP bikes.
The saviour for us all really is Al Penrose (BWA), as he has just introduced some mini brackets for this motor, which means that constructing a decent chassis now becomes a fairly straighforward process.
This are some photographs of the chassis I built:-
A very simple two rail chassis soldered to the BWA front and rear brackets.
A simple brass plate on the bottom completes the chassis. The guide I have chosen to use is from TSRF.
This photograph shows a close up view ofthe rear axle. The standard diameter of the Scalex FF Motor armature shaft is 1.5mm, so that use of standard 2mm pinions is difficult. AB Slotsport have recently developed some high quality inserts which fit inside a standard pinion making it possible to use Slot.it running gear. The pinion, complete with insert, is soldered to the armature shaft. There is not a lot of room to spare when using this setup!.
The body required a significant amount of work to bring it up to a good standard. The front grille was drilled out and the shell reshaped. The rear of the shell was also opened, and this will allow a dummy gearbox end and rear light to be fitted. The original driver figure and support platform was removed. The shell was sanded and found to be very thin in places. In fact you could see through it!. So some finishing putty was used in these areas and the body shaped and primed, (to show up bodywork deficiencies). It was necessary to repeat this several times in order to obtain a decent finish for painting.
The colour chosen was Peugeot Conifer Green asi have found this to be a good match for the mythical British Racing Green.
The driver figure started out driving a Carrera Trans Am car, and it was necessary to "slim him down" a little in order that he could fit into the cockpit of this tiny car.....A dremel with cutting disc made short work of his excess weight...
The wheels used are BWA 32002's with standard Ninco 7mm Classic front tyres and Ortman 28M rear rubber.
Final touches to the car included creating a rollbar and driving mirrors from scrap bits and pieces from the spares box and a dummy gearbox housing and safety light to fill the hole at the back of the car.
Decals from Patto's and wheel inserts from BWA complete the build.
I'm very pleased with the car, it performs very well on my track and is very foregiving to drive which is what you are aiming for in a Proxy car.
