Post by ShawnS on Jun 9, 2023 3:32:12 GMT -8
Hi everyone.
These are my final finished builds for this year. These first 3 are ones that raced in 1983-84 under our Group C touring car rules. Between 1960 and 1992 Australian touring car racing had always been based on production style cars, Group C started in 1973 and finished at the end of 1984. There were many different rules for Croup C but the main overview was that the cars still had to retain most production car visual and mechanical similarities. Non production wings and flares were introduced in 1980 and made the cars look meaner and allowed bigger wheels and tyres. Another aspect was that the cars had to retain a full interior with two front seats, a rear seat, factory door cards and full carpeting, although by 1984 rear seats and carpeting seemed to disappear on most RX-7s.
Hasegawa's '79 IMSA GTU kit was a good place to start but it's the early version of the SA-22 RX-7 and as most Group C were the later version I had to combine the IMSA kit with the late version of the road car. The differences are the tail lights and the bumpers. Another big difference is the front air dam. The IMSA air dam is too big compared to the Group C so I made my own.
This first one is the 1983 Australian Touring Car Championship Winner of Allan Moffat. The wheels are my own 3D designs and prints and the decals are from LB Productions. The decals are great to work with and respond beautifully to setting solutions.
I rebuilt the kit roll cage, detailed the dash and added some minor detail under the hatch. I also designed and printed out a new muffler.
This one is the ghostbusters car from Bathurst 1984 driven by Graham Moore and Peter McKay. They started 30th and recorded a DNF after 116 laps. The wheels are my own 3D designs and prints and the decals are from LB Productions. I rebuilt the kit roll cage, detailed the dash and added some minor detail under the hatch. I also designed and printed out the exterior mirror and a new muffler. The decal sheet has some minor inaccuracies but I was still happy to use it.
This one is the Yellow Pages car of Tony Kavich and Phil Alexander also from Bathurst 1984 they started 43rd and also DNF'd. The wheels are my own 3D designs and prints, I rebuilt the kit roll cage, detailed the dash and added some minor detail under the hatch. I also designed and printed out the mirror and a new muffler. The decals were printed by Custom Hobby Decals from my artwork. This is one of my favourite liveries of Aus touring car racing so I just had to do it.
and finally this one isn't a Group C but a Group A from our first full Group A Bathurst race in 1985. Driven by John Bundy and Norm Carr. They qualified 50th after battling a stubborn car that just didn't want to go and DNF'd after blowing the diff.
This build was done using left over parts from the other 3 builds. It has a scratch built roll cage, 3D printed wheels, tyres, exterior mirrors and muffler. The decals are also from Custom Hobby Decals from my artwork.
The build time for these 4 was around 12 months on/off, I absolutely enjoyed the Hasegawa kits and I can recommend them to anybody.
Cheers
ShawnS
