Marc Abbott's Lotus 49 – Jo Siffert

[abbo]

Ok, I'm a new boy to this and have decided that in future, I'll stick to building kits from the likes of George Turner etc.
I reaffirmed to myself that my build qualities are poor and my soldering is at best adequate (although strangely when I was younger, I learned to weld pretty damn good – maybe I just enjoyed the flames and sparks).

To make things easy, Mark Huber advised me to buy a Scalextric Lotus 49 from Scalextric, strip it back to bare bones and assemble it around a Beardog chassis.
This seems to have turned out into quite a good handling machine, although I was a bit perplexed to find the axle width for the front is something on the narrow side forcing me to create stub axles to fit the wheels I had.

I'm sure that my car will be battling for last position and probably lapped frequently in each race, but I got there in the end.

Oh and another point... Doesn't it make you wince when you see what you thought was a good paint job, photographed and enlarged on your computer screen, only to find copious amount of dust and misaligned stripes


Pic 1: Don't employ me to solder anything!





Pic 2: Motor and wiring installed... yep, I've tried grinding the top of the motor away to get the body to sit lower (didn't work).





Body alignment, everything seems to be OK:





Pic 4: Driver painted (It used to be Jim Clark).





Pic 5: Some engine detail added. (Not correct wheels yet)





Pics 6-9: Finished car.










ABBO

[Mark Huber]

Thanks for posting the pictures Marc. I think you are being far too critical of your results. I'm not that neat with a solder iron (although I'm a bit better than a few years ago). I've found that a file, some steel wool and a scrub with a toothbrush and detergent cleaner goes a long way to making a sparkling chassis. And if that fails, I paint the chassis afterwards! Jo's helmet looks first rate!

[f143]

Good effort Abbo, shame we can't do more with photoshop
Regards
Nigel

[Dave Wisdom]

Marcs Lotus 49 has arrived at Forest Hall Circuit safe and sound, and is the first entry to do so. The car looks great Marc and I shall be posting photos of all the entries over the coming days and weeks.

Dave

[abbo]

Thanks Dave... however the underneath leaves a LOT to be desired

Marc

[Taffy]

Hello, Marc,

for a new boy in this hobby, you have made a remarkable job!

To get better results in soldering, its important to use a strong soldering iron and a good soldering flux. Electronics soldering irons are often too weak...

My best regards,