The Chinook Mk12 F5000, in 1/12th scale

[arcticwolf]

What seems like years ago my friend Patrick (pnance) sent a box of parts my way. If you put them together you'd have most of 2 Lotus 72s. I've been using up the parts but I always had this idea of what to actually build from them.

Chinooks were built in Toronto by George and Rudi Fejer. Mostly they looked at what was winning and built a copy of it. They built a sports racer that looks like a Chaparral 2, single seaters that looked like Colt Indycars, etc. I was a curious kid who liked to hang around and annoy them (and the Comstock guys). One day I saw this car they were working on, and assumed it was a Lotus 70, but Rudi said no, it was a Chinook, built to USAC, not SCCA, specs, to run in the new USAC road racing series. Some folks say it was for George Eaton, I don't know for sure, but the USAC series was cancelled, Eaton went CanAm racing and the car up and disappeared. I have reason to believe this is correct because when I saw the car, it had a Ford 4 cam in the back of it.

Later on, somebody was entering a "Chinook MK12" in some local F5000 events in upstate New York, then the car disappeared again. Years later, Mike Knittel found a car in a garage in Buffalo, restored it and it's a beauty, but it has shoulder rads and a chisel nose. It's the same car, just substantially modified by various people over the years.

I decided to build the car as I saw it in it's original form, close as I can remember from 1970 (funny, I can remember 1970 but not what I had for breakfast this morning). The Castrol paint scheme is my own imagination just because I like it and it's period correct. Yes, I took a large amount of creative license, I guarantee it's not close to 100% accurate, the model has flaws, but at least I know that nobody else in the world has one.

Something like 2 1/2 years to build it, on and off. I have progress pics and I'll be glad to answer any questions on how I built it if anybody is interested.

cheers

Paul

[tatocorvette]

Hello,
Very unique. When I saw the title I thought "The Chinook is a helicopter" 
That looks great and very convincing! Especially the period correct paint scheme.
Very well done.

Thanks,
Ismael

[Joel_W]

Paul,
Just an amazing build from scraps, and bits & pcs. Always loved the Castrol paint scheme as I have some indy Cal decal sheets for various builds that still take up space in the stash.

As I looked at the pics of the cockpit, it just dawned on me for some reason that the driver has absolutely no head cushion/restraints back in those days. Sore necks at best, or worse after a hour or so of driving those cars.

Joel

[arcticwolf]

Thanks guys. Yes a Chinook is a helicopter. It's also a fish, a species of Salmon.

The name origin is what they call a weird weather event where a warm wind blows down off the Rockies into Alberta in the winter. It can raise the air temperature 20C in a couple of hours and melts all the snow. It's called a Chinook.

[Chris K. Hale]

67 Can Am Chinook too!!

[arcticwolf]

Nov 25, 2023 12:51:18 GMT -8 Chris K. Hale said:

View AttachmentView Attachment67 Can Am Chinook too!!

Yep. They basically did what everybody else does. Take whatever is winning and copy it. 

[tomglowacki]

The Nostalgia Forum has a short but informative thread on the Chinook Mk. 12:

forums.autosport.com/topic/217047-chinook-mk-12-f5000-ford-v8/?hl=%2Bchinook#entry9349255

It also has pictures and a bit more info on these links:


www.britishracecar.com/MikeKnittel-Chinook-Mk12.htm



www.my105.com/search/details/chinook-mk12-f5000/c6a8b573-b316-4beb-8b48-8686c655b363

Beautiful job on the car.  Good to see an obscure car.  You obviously did your homework.  The Castrol markings were always easy on the eye, very Bill Brack.

[arcticwolf]

Nov 26, 2023 6:14:59 GMT -8 tomglowacki said:

The Nostalgia Forum has a short but informative thread on the Chinook Mk. 12:

forums.autosport.com/topic/217047-chinook-mk-12-f5000-ford-v8/?hl=%2Bchinook#entry9349255

It also has pictures and a bit more info on these links:


www.britishracecar.com/MikeKnittel-Chinook-Mk12.htm



www.my105.com/search/details/chinook-mk12-f5000/c6a8b573-b316-4beb-8b48-8686c655b363

Beautiful job on the car.  Good to see an obscure car.  You obviously did your homework.  The Castrol markings were always easy on the eye, very Bill Brack.

Thank you.

Yes Bill Brack ran Castrol on a couple of his Loti, until he lost the sponsorship to David Hobbs I believe.

For those unfamiliar, Brack was the local Lotus distributor for Eastern Canada. He also had parts for Sunbeams that you couldn't find anywhere else, and he knew it so he stuck it to you price wise. I never liked the guy very much.

Brack's car for the 69 season was actually a Lotus 42 indycar converted to F5000 (it was a biplane), later he ran a Lotus 70, both with Castrol colours.