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Post by dustymojave on Dec 20, 2018 19:14:11 GMT -8
Back in the early to mid 1960, Jim Clark was one of my favorite drivers. I met him in person at races at Riverside. He was a famous driver, and I was a kid who was a minor Official for the Support races. But he was pleasant, and I had huge respect for him as a driver. I viewed him much as I viewed his friend and sometimes team mate Dan Gurney. Great driver, quite technically sharp (as opposed to some of the upper class drivers who were what I term "helmet baggers"-as in those drivers who have no involvement with the design, construction or prep of the race car and who only show up with their helmet, sit in the car and drive). So in 1963, I got one of the AMT Lotus 29-Ford kits. I was always a little unhappy with the windscreen of that kit. Far too narrow and straight sided. The engine and gearbox always seemed a little undersized too. Not bad, but a bit small. Then a couple of years later, IMC introduced a kit of Jim Clark's '65 winner. A similar car to the Lotus 29, though not the same. I found it strange that the AMT Lotus 29 was obviously mastered by the same person who mastered the IMC Ford GT series of models, and the MPC Lotus 56 Indy Turbine, yet the IMC Lotus 38 was obviously mastered by a different person. Very different Ford DOHC and gearbox. I never found one of the IMC kits back in the 60s, nor the Testors or Union issues of the same tool. I had tried to order the IMC kit through Auto World a few times, and each time they were out of stock. By the time I DID encounter one of these kits in person in the late 1980s, the seller was far too proud of it for me. I've been involved in bidding on them on evilBay a few times over the years, but never won an auction for one until this past week. I was surprised to win it at a quite decent price. One part is missing, that being the inner windscreen 'wind deflector'. If anyone reading this has one of these available for a reasonable price, or could trace the shape on paper for me, I would appreciate either quite a bit. Although since most people would never notice the inner screen or its lack. Now...Do any of you have any comments on building this kit? Tips, advice, negatives, suggestions, etc? I know there are some old builds on here of this car and other Lotus 38s. But most of the photos once included in those threads are no longer available. So are there better wheels? Better tires? Better bodywork? ...?
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Post by eagle36 on Dec 21, 2018 5:06:46 GMT -8
I'll take a look at mine later this morning and will do a tracing for you. I am pretty sure I have both windscreens.
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Post by eagle36 on Dec 21, 2018 16:58:27 GMT -8
View AttachmentView AttachmentView AttachmentBack in the early to mid 1960, Jim Clark was one of my favorite drivers. I met him in person at races at Riverside. He was a famous driver, and I was a kid who was a minor Official for the Support races. But he was pleasant, and I had huge respect for him as a driver. I viewed him much as I viewed his friend and sometimes team mate Dan Gurney. Great driver, quite technically sharp (as opposed to some of the upper class drivers who were what I term "helmet baggers"-as in those drivers who have no involvement with the design, construction or prep of the race car and who only show up with their helmet, sit in the car and drive). So in 1963, I got one of the AMT Lotus 29-Ford kits. I was always a little unhappy with the windscreen of that kit. Far too narrow and straight sided. The engine and gearbox always seemed a little undersized too. Not bad, but a bit small. Then a couple of years later, IMC introduced a kit of Jim Clark's '65 winner. A similar car to the Lotus 29, though not the same. I found it strange that the AMT Lotus 29 was obviously mastered by the same person who mastered the IMC Ford GT series of models, and the MPC Lotus 56 Indy Turbine, yet the IMC Lotus 38 was obviously mastered by a different person. Very different Ford DOHC and gearbox. I never found one of the IMC kits back in the 60s, nor the Testors or Union issues of the same tool. I had tried to order the IMC kit through Auto World a few times, and each time they were out of stock. By the time I DID encounter one of these kits in person in the late 1980s, the seller was far too proud of it for me. I've been involved in bidding on them on evilBay a few times over the years, but never won an auction for one until this past week. I was surprised to win it at a quite decent price. One part is missing, that being the inner windscreen 'wind deflector'. If anyone reading this has one of these available for a reasonable price, or could trace the shape on paper for me, I would appreciate either quite a bit. Although since most people would never notice the inner screen or its lack. Now...Do any of you have any comments on building this kit? Tips, advice, negatives, suggestions, etc? I know there are some old builds on here of this car and other Lotus 38s. But most of the photos once included in those threads are no longer available. So are there better wheels? Better tires? Better bodywork? ...? I have the windscreen pattern done; it will need a little smoothening out, but it should work. Shoot me a PM so I can e-mail the pattern. As to the kit; the wheels and tires are very well done. Nice job on the exhaust, but the entire engine is under-scale compared to the Olsonite Eagle Ford DOHC. The transaxle and axle shafts are poor. The body and chassis are a re-hash of the Lotus 29. The nose cone and the windscreen are nice, but you'll need to fill in the seam between the chassis and the upper body. The decals are hopeless; get with Indycals to fix that. Building the kit is a nice nostalgia trip for guys of our age, but it is not a great kit.
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Post by Joel_W on Dec 22, 2018 7:44:25 GMT -8
Richard, I'm really looking forward to following your build blog. Joel
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Post by dustymojave on Dec 22, 2018 16:04:16 GMT -8
Eagle36...Thank you VERY much for that. I'll send you a PM. But then, you sent the .pdf. Do I still need to send you my email? Ah what the heck, I'll send it anyway.
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Post by dustymojave on Dec 22, 2018 16:29:51 GMT -8
OK, so now I have a question for you Lotus Indy car fans. What color is the interior of the tub? Is it the so common for English race cars machinery gray as used on so many tube frames and some monocoques? Or is it bare aluminum? This should be pretty much the 1st parts painted on this kit. I KNOW that Lotus used gray paint inside the cockpit of most of their early monocoques, such as the Lotus 25, 33, 35, 43 and 49 F1 cars and the Lotus 30 and 40 sports cars that I saw in person. So I VERY strongly suspect that the Indy cars were treated the same. The only color views I've found of the Lotus 38 or even of the 29 of the era are in black & white and one really can't tell from those. And for "restored" race cars...Well I've talked several times before of my opinions from personal experience making a living for many years restoring old race cars of what I call "creative memory" in the world of vintage race cars.
Since I have recently acquired this Lotus 38, along with a Heller Lotus 49, a Brabham BT33 and a Heller Matra MS5 a, this same question will be arising in each of those threads. Such race cars built in the US, especially those from the dry climate of SoCal, have bare aluminum inside the tub. Oddly, while it seems so common for formula cars to have paint on their tubs, most Can Am type cars also built in merry olde soggy bottom England have bare aluminum tubs.
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Post by eagle36 on Dec 22, 2018 20:12:33 GMT -8
OK, so now I have a question for you Lotus Indy car fans. What color is the interior of the tub? Is it the so common for English race cars machinery gray as used on so many tube frames and some monocoques? Or is it bare aluminum? This should be pretty much the 1st parts painted on this kit. I KNOW that Lotus used gray paint inside the cockpit of most of their early monocoques, such as the Lotus 25, 33, 35, 43 and 49 F1 cars and the Lotus 30 and 40 sports cars that I saw in person. So I VERY strongly suspect that the Indy cars were treated the same. The only color views I've found of the Lotus 38 or even of the 29 of the era are in black & white and one really can't tell from those. And for "restored" race cars...Well I've talked several times before of my opinions from personal experience making a living for many years restoring old race cars of what I call "creative memory" in the world of vintage race cars. Since I have recently acquired this Lotus 38, along with a Heller Lotus 49, a Brabham BT33 and a Heller Matra MS5 a, this same question will be arising in each of those threads. Such race cars built in the US, especially those from the dry climate of SoCal, have bare aluminum inside the tub. Oddly, while it seems so common for formula cars to have paint on their tubs, most Can Am type cars also built in merry olde soggy bottom England have bare aluminum tubs. Check this out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWRs9ShHDeA This seems to show a polished aluminum tub. Make sure your sound is turned up. We can skip the PM; I didn't think the attachment would work. I made the pattern with masking tape trimmed back to the plastic, which is why it is a bit ragged. I know that the Lotus 56 tubs were painted gray, as were the 29s, so I always figured that everything in between was gray as well. However, the Motor Sport article I have on the car, post-restoration, clearly shows a polished aluminum tub, with the dash board, steering wheel, and seat in red,
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Post by afx on Dec 23, 2018 3:48:48 GMT -8
Thanks for the video. I love seeing these historic cars back on the track.
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Post by garydavis on Dec 23, 2018 9:50:34 GMT -8
Now...if that don't get the JUICES going...nothing will. Hearing that baby fire up and running on track was just GREAT! I want to see the REST OF THE STORY. Can't get enough of that for sure....
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Post by 4wheels on Dec 23, 2018 11:33:01 GMT -8
I built a couple IMC/Testors Loti back in the day when they were the only game in town. In fact, the IMC STP version was my first ever Indy car kit, bought with my allowance money for $1.49! When I began to get serious about modeling again, I collected several IMC and Testors kits to get things rolling again, but never did build any of them. When Lance did his Lotus 38 in several versions all of those went to swap meets and e-Bay. The old kits can make OK shelf models, but I highly recommend picking up one of Lance's versions if you ever have the chance. That said, please keep us posted on your progress!
Brian
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Post by Joel_W on Dec 23, 2018 12:34:02 GMT -8
What a great movie. I just wish it was a lot longer. There's always hope that Ebbro just might decide to expand their extensive Lotus 1/20 line, and do the Lotus 38. I figure that if they thought that there was enough of a market to do a Brabham BT18 F2 car, then anything is possible. And yes, I bought one.
Joel
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Post by flashman on Dec 23, 2018 21:13:00 GMT -8
Check this out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWRs9ShHDeA This seems to show a polished aluminum tub. Make sure your sound is turned up. We can skip the PM; I didn't think the attachment would work. I made the pattern with masking tape trimmed back to the plastic, which is why it is a bit ragged. I know that the Lotus 56 tubs were painted gray, as were the 29s, so I always figured that everything in between was gray as well. However, the Motor Sport article I have on the car, post-restoration, clearly shows a polished aluminum tub, with the dash board, steering wheel, and seat in red, Just chipping in to confirm this. Knowing the 49's, 56's, and other Lotus cars from that period had gray painted chassis panels, I have that same Motor Sport issue with the Lotus 38 article (the July 2010 issue), and I confirm it does clearly show the restored Clark's 38 with the visible cockpit chassis panels are polished bare aluminum. Since the car's restoration was done by Classic Team Lotus, and the Motor Sport article says "originality was paramount", so we should be able to trust that is correct. But just to confuse things, the 2:29 point of this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9PRCMSd-LM looks to show the restored Clark Lotus 34 with gloss painted gray cockpit panels! Cameron
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Post by dustymojave on Dec 23, 2018 23:26:21 GMT -8
I got your email eagle36. Thank you for all that. The photos of the car at the Indy drive by Dario Franchitti DO seem to show the tub bare aluminum. Strange that all the other modern photos from the Indy Museum and the Henry Ford Museum show the interior of the tub in machinery gray. Those photo from the magazine article kinda seems like there is some sort of liner, like the heat reflective material used in the cockpits of many modern race cars, in sort of a long pad for the driver's arm. There is also a red pad for his shoulder above that silver 'pad'. Yet the adjacent photo of the tub dismantled clearly shows gray paint. Gray Paint: Silver Pads?
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Post by dustymojave on Dec 23, 2018 23:35:46 GMT -8
More... Gray paint at Henry Ford Museum: Silver pads at Indy after rebuild:
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Post by Joel_W on Dec 24, 2018 6:50:40 GMT -8
So which restoration do you believe and go with? Joel
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