The Roaring Season

At the start of the year I started sharing my model collection on my Facebook page so I thought I would repost them here as there may well be an entirely different audience here. I will start with the very first post so you will get the gist of the project.

I'm not one for New Year resolutions, in fact I don't think I have ever bothered with one until now. I have a passion and I think it's time to bring that passion out of it's boxes and share it with anyone that who care's to take notice.

Those that know me will know that for the last 35 of my 40 year existence I have had a passion for Motorsport of all kinds. Those that really know me will know that for about the same amount of time I have had a passion for models. The plastic kitset variety that is. For me the two go hand in hand and I have to thank my Dad for my introduction to both of my life long addiction's. When I was about 5yo he introduced me to speedway and a short time later was my first taste of circuit racing at the Manfeild round of the 1982 International Series. About the same time he started working for Haseldens Cycles & Toys here in Palmerston North so I spent the next 6 years of my childhood growing up in a toy store. I use the term growing up loosely as I'm still waiting for adulthood!


So I will bring some of those models out of their boxes once a week and show them off/share them with you and share some info on the real things. I started building and collecting models around age 10 so the collection is now quite large (it is closing in on the 400 mark rapidly), so I may be some time. Some have been completed, some projects are in progress and some are awaiting their turn or space to store them once built. My collection covers Sports Cars, Touring Cars, NASCAR, WRC, F1, Indy Car, NHRA & Moto GP, as well as American Muscle, Euro and Japanese cars plus American and Euro trucks & trailers and other commercial vehicle's. The time period covered is the mid 1960's to about 2000'ish. To save time, I wont bother too much with the truck's etc and where there are multiple's of a certain model, I will cover them all at the one time. Some of the cars/bike's featured are famous and successful as well as some of the drivers/riders, and some are not.

I hope you will enjoy what is to come

"Vive La France"

Renault 5 Turbo (Gp.4)

For some reason this car has always tickled my fancy. Renault took the little R5 shopping trolley, took out the 1,100cc front wheel drive motor and the back seat, and put in a 1,400cc Turbo motor where the back seat was and went rallying. Only 400 "homologation special" road cars were produced to meet the Group 4 rules with later versions using many more standard production parts. A total of 3576 "standard production" cars were produced over a four year period.


I have 3 rally car models, one built and the other two on the "to do" list, all based on the Tamiya kitset. Also one road car kit, also from Tamiya, that will end up looking something like the one in the photo. The rally kit is just a rehash of the road car kit and as such use's the same interior but with a roll cage added so is not very accurate. As it is an early Tamiya kit it is designed as a motorized model/toy so detail is limited.

#18 Bruno Saby (FRA) / "Tilber" (FRA)
1980 XXIV Tour De Corse
Result: 4th

I haven't been able find much info on this car other than it was prepared by the Bozian Team (a satellite team to the factory Renault Sport team) and according to my book, Rothmans World Rallying 3 by Martin Holmes, it was prepared to the much more obscure Gp.3 spec and was some 100bhp less than the factory car. It was also the debut for the R5 Turbo in the World Rally Championship.

#9 Jean Ragnotti (FRA) / Jean-Marc Andrie (FRA)
1981 49th Rallye Monte Carlo
Result: 1st

This was the first win for the R5 Turbo and the factory Renault Sport team in the WRC, and it was on French soil.

#15 Bruno Saby (FRA) / Chris Williams (GBR)
1983 XXVII Tour De Corse
Result: 5th

Again the car was run by the Bozian team but by this time with a lot more support from the factory. This was a good result considering the little 2wd car was well and truly being out classed by the newer, more powerful and faster Group B machines. The Lancia 037 filled the first four places.

"Rudi's Scud"

1986 Ford Sierra XR4Ti Group.A

After winning a couple of European Touring Car Championship's with BMW and Volvo, Swiss tuning wizard Rudi Eggenberger turned his hand to running the factory Ford Sierra XR4Ti for the 1986 season. As I don't know what the team's objectives were or what lessons were learnt it would be remiss of me to call the car an abject failure, but the number 3 car driven by Englishman Steve Soper & German Klaus Neidzwiedz, seam's to have been just that. Of the 14 race's held in the 1986 ETCC the car was entered in 13 of them and only finished 4 of them. Results were 3rd at Hockenheim Germany, 6th at the Spa 24hrs Belgium, 4th at Nogaro France & 1st at the final round at Estoril Portugal. Although it didn't win a race the number 4 car fared a little better in it's finishing rate. Electronics, gearbox, diff and turbo failure's were the main reasons for all the DNF's. In 1985 Dick Johnson chose to run a Mustang in the ATCC instead of the XR4Ti citing that very little was to be learnt from this car as little was to be carried over to the Cosworth Sierra due in 1987, and couldn't justify the cost. 1987 was a good year for Rudi Eggenberger, DJR not so much, so I guess Rudi did learn something after all.


The kit that I am building is actually a combination of two kits. As there is no kitset available of the Group.A XR4Ti, I looked at the two kits made by Tamiya (the XR4i and the Cosworth RS 500 Gp.A) and thought hmmm. Knowing that the Cosworth RS 500 was essentially an evolution of the XR4Ti and knowing that kit manufacture's like to cut corner's and cost's, I gambled on the RS 500 race car kitset being an evolution of the XR4i road car kitset with a lot of common parts and fixing points. I guessed right. I have used the chassis pan, the body and rear spoiler from the road car kit and used the wheels, suspension, mirrors, windows and all the interior bits from the race car. I have actually used two sets of front wheels as the off-sets on the rear set of rims is different on the Cossie. It is still very much a work in progress but so far so good. I have had to remove the Ford badge from the front, fill in the fuel filler cap, custom fabricate a rear bulkhead inside and also fill in the hole for the sun roof. I also need to fabricate the front half of the roll cage as for some reason the kit only comes with the rear half. As this is a one off (I have trawled the net & have never come across another project like it) there are no off the shelf decals for it, but I have managed to scrape together nearly everything I need, some of which will be slightly too big, too small or a little different but I no complain. About the only thing that will be missing will be the drivers names. It will be finished in its Spa 24hr livery.

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I have heaps of Tamiya kits that are either half completed, or han't even been opened yet. I was doing all of the Group A cars that came out, including the Eggenburger Sierras. etc.
One day when I'm old and retired I might find time to complete them all...

"Rudi's Rocket's"

1987/88 Texaco Eggenberger Ford Sierra Gp.A

After a less than successful ETCC season in 1986 running the XR4Ti Sierra the World Touring Car Championship in 1987 was a different story. The Sierra Cosworth was an immediate improvement over the previous model and was further improved with the RS 500 update package. Drivers for the start of the 87 season were: #6 Steve Soper (GBR) & Klaus Niedzwiedz (D) - #7 Klaus Ludwig (D) & Pierre Dieudonne (B). After the first 3 rounds Niedzwiedz and Dieudonne switched cars and for the last round at Mt Fuji in Japan the driver pairings stayed the same but they switched car numbers. Philippe Streiff (F) Thierry Boutsen (B) joined the line-up for the Spa 24hrs. Overall the season was a good one with hard fought battles (both on track and in the protest rooms!) against the horde of BMW's from Schnitzer, Linder, Bigazzi and CiBi Emme teams. Schnitzer's Roberto Ravaglia won the driver's title while Ludwig and Niedzwiedz finished 2nd and 3rd respectively and Dieudonne 5th and Soper 6th with Ford winning the Manufacture's Championship.

1987 WTCC Results
Monza, Jarama, Dijon, Nurburgring, Spa, Brno, Silverstone, Bathurst, Calder, Wellington, Fuji.
#6: DNS, 5th, 3rd, DNF, DNF, 2nd, 13th, DQ, 1st, 3rd, 1st
#7: DNS, 4th, 4th, 1st, DNF, 1st, 6th, DQ, 12th, 1st, 5th

Two rounds of the 87 ETCC were contested with a 2nd for car #6 & 3rd for car #7 at Estoril and a 1st for car #6 and 2nd for car #7 at Zolder.

After the demise of the WTCC, after just one season, the focus was returned to the ETCC for 1988. With Klaus Ludwig concentrating on the DTM, Steve Soper was the man who was to spearhead the team for the Drivers Championship. As a result all drivers were cross entered in all cars and a lot of seat hopping went on as Steve Soper was given a choice as to which car he would jump into when it came time for a driver change. Also with Ludwig missing a few rounds and a third car entered for three rounds, other driver's were brought in. These included Armine Hahne (D), Gianfranco Bracatelli (I), Thierry Boutsen (B), Bernd Schneider (D), Frank Biela (D), Didier Theys (B) and Bertrand Gachot (B). The 88 ETCC gave better results for the individual cars over the previous year but the team still lost out on the Drivers Championship with Roberto Ravaglia winning again (his 2nd ETCC title + WTCC title) and with Ford winning the Manufacture's title again.

1988 ETCC Results
Monza: 1st #2 Soper / Dieudonne
2nd #1 Niedzwiedz / Hahne

Donnigton: DNF #1 Niedzwiedz / Ludwig
DNF #2 Soper / Dieudonne

Estoril: 1st #1 Niedzwiedz / Soper
3rd #2 Dieudonne / Ludwig

Jarama: 1st #1 Ludwig / Soper
2nd #2 Dieudonne / Niedzwiedz

Dijon: 1st #2 Soper / Niedzwiedz
2nd #1 Brancatelli / Dieudonne

Vallelunga: 1st #1 Niedzwiedz / Dieudonne
DNF #2 Soper / Brancatelli

Nurburgring: 1st #1 Ludwig / Soper
2nd #2 Dieudonne / Brancatelli

Spa 24hrs: 2nd #1 Ludwig / Dieudonne / Boutsen
4th #3 Schneider / Biela / Soper
DNF #2 Theys / Brancatelli / Gachot

Zolder: 2nd #3 Dieudonne / Biela
DNF #1 Brancatelli / Soper
DNF #2 Ludwig / Soper

Silverstone: 2nd #2 Dieudonne / Soper
3rd #1 Ludwig / Niedzwiedz
4th #3 Brancatelli / Schneider

Nogaro: 1st #1 Ludwig / Soper
DNF #2 Dieudonne / Niedzwiedz

The model made by Tamiya comes with the decals for the 1988 ETCC car but I suspect that they have used one of the 87 Bathurst cars to measure from as the wheel arch's are unusually large! This is one of the many in the queue to be made and I am undecided at this point as to weather I will do it as one of the 88 car's or not as I have a hankering to do it as the #12 car from Bathurst 87. This was a spare car used for testing and actually qualified and ran in the Hardies Hero's shootout and then withdrawn from the race. Klaus Niedzwiedz actually put it 4th on the grid behind #7 1st & #6 3rd. There are some subtle livery differance's which shouldn't be too hard to work around. The original decals are looking old and tired so I got a hold of some new one's by Shunko Models. One day I might find out how hard it will be.

Yes...I built up both versions at the same time. One is finished, the other is about 90% finished.

1976/77 Lancia Stratos HF Turbo Gp.5

If there was ever a Top 10 of race cars that were failure's surely this car would be in the top 3. Only two of these cars were built in a project devised and run by former F1 driver Mike Parkes on behalf of Lancia Corse, and the cars were built and prepared by Carlo Facetti in his own workshop. Even as a rally car the Stratos was almost too small and lacked any space for both the occupants and motor/transaxle or anything much else. After fitting a turbo to the Ferrari 2.5L V6 there was not a lot of room for the intercooler which ended up sitting on top of the motor. The cramped spaces meant that the small and ineffectual intercooler and water radiator could not cope with the extra heat generated by the turbo, an issue the team would not get on top of. It was to be the cars achilles heel or more specifically fire was.
The cars were entered in 5 events only (four in 1976 and one in 1977) with only one finish to show for it. In it's first event, the Mugello 6hrs, the car #21 was driven by Carlo Facetti and Vittori Brambilla but they failed to qualify after sustaining too much fire damage. The next race for car #21 was the Vallelunga 6hrs and Facetti & Brambilla put the car 3rd on the grid but only managed 185 laps in the race before the gearbox failed. For the 1976 Giro d'Italia Automobilistico two cars were entered (the first & only time), #598 Carlo Facetti / Piero Sodano & #599 Raffaele Pinto / Aranaldo Bernacchini. Facetti & Sodano picked up the cars one and only finish and it just happened to come in 1st, while the second car failed to finish. At the Zeltweg 6hr the car, this time #25, again caught fire in qualifying and it burnt to the ground. By this time I guess they were getting sick of the thing because they dug a hole, over the other side of the armco barrier adjacent to were it burnt, and buried the remains. A rather ignominious end.
Come 1977 Carlo Facetti had washed his hands of the program and the remaining car was dragged out for it's last event at the Giro d'Itaia (the only time it ran in Alitalia colours) where its engine broke. After Mike Parkes death in August 77 the Lancia Stratos HF Turbo Gp.5 project died with him. The lessons learnt from this car were put to good use though in the successor to the Stratos, the Beta Montecarlo HF Turbo Gp.5, but more on that car later.
The Stratos was then shipped off to Japan where it was to race in the Super Sihlouette series run at the Mt Fuji circuit but it never turned a wheel. It was then sold to the Matsuda Collection and it sat in a glass case in a Tokyo restaurant for nearly 30yrs. It is now owned by Christian Hrabalek (who owns the original Stratos prototype & nine others) who has brought it back to life.

Tamiya produced a model of the Alitalia car very early on in the peace, in fact it was the third model they released in their 1/24th scale series. As a result it was one of the motorised toy/scale model creations they started out with so detail is minimal. I have two of these to build because, thanks to Tabu Design, I have a set of decals to do the Marlboro car as well. Shunko Models recently released a replacement set of decals for the Alitalia which are mucho bettero than the originals!

We have one of these Eggenberger cars here in NZ and have seen it peddled around Hampton Downs on several occasions. A great looking car.

I have one of those remote Stratos things, still in the box if anyone is interested.