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Post by David Lawson on Jan 3, 2014 5:27:23 GMT -5
Oh No, not yet another Matra I hear you all saying....
I have had several Matra bodyshells for years in my boxes of stuff and have started a few builds which never got finished for one reason or other but usually because I was diverted by building another car for an open meeting.
Having helped to run the recent 1966-68 F1 Proxy and had the privilege of driving the cars I thought I would take some inspiration from Chris Walker's car by shamelessly building a near copy of it!
Over Christmas I started cutting, bending and filing the various pieces of the chassis.
The parts laid out with the original Airfix bodyshell.
All the parts now soldered.
I hope to finish the chassis and fit the unpainted shell in the next week so I can test it on the Southend Club track, I can then compare the lap times achieved by Chris' Matra during the proxy.
I haven't decided yet which car I will base the slot car on but it will probably be Johnny Servoz-Gavin's Monaco entry.
I will update this thread after the initial track test.
David
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Post by chrisguyw on Jan 3, 2014 9:53:53 GMT -5
Hi David, The chassis looks good!!.....if you are running primarily at Southend, and are using anything more than a stock Scaley motor, you may end up making your chassis' torsional flex a little stiffer than mine...either via thicker torsion bars, or by making the torsion bars shorter.
During testing, if the car chatters, stiffen it up.........if no chatter, introduce more flex. Try and do this before your final lead weight tuning.
cheers chris
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Post by Dave Wisdom on Jan 4, 2014 6:32:55 GMT -5
Modelling Johnny Servoz-Gavin's Monaco car is a really nice choice David. Looking forward to seeing it progress. Dave
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Post by David Lawson on Jan 6, 2014 12:14:51 GMT -5
Dave - Thanks for posting that lovely shot, Servoz-Gavin did a stunning start in that race but what a shame he couldn't keep it on the straight and narrow.
Chris - Thanks for your thoughts about the chassis (and not being upset that I an more or less copying yours!) I have built a couple of flexis before but I will definitely bear in mind your suggestions for setting it up. I am a bit pre-occupied by personal things at the moment so progress will be slow for the next week or two but I will let you know how the first test session goes. By the way, Al's lovely Eagle Weslake is very softly set up and also performed very well at all the tracks.
David
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Post by chrisguyw on Jan 6, 2014 14:01:55 GMT -5
Chris - Thanks for your thoughts about the chassis (and not being upset that I an more or less copying yours!) I have built a couple of flexis before but I will definitely bear in mind your suggestions for setting it up. I am a bit pre-occupied by personal things at the moment so progress will be slow for the next week or two but I will let you know how the first test session goes. By the way, Al's lovely Eagle Weslake is very softly set up and also performed very well at all the tracks. David David, Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery....or something to that effect.......so, I am pleased that you thought enough of the cars performance to adopt some of its design elements, and I will only be pissed if yours turns out better than mine. As you are aware, the ideal torsional flex of the chassis is largely dictated by the grip of the tires (tyres), grippier rubber will require a torsionally stiffer chassis, while less grippy boots will benefit from a softer chassis. I am not sure what tyres Al was running, but it is worth keeping this in mind. Looking forward to the test results, Cheers Chris
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Post by David Lawson on Feb 10, 2014 6:20:29 GMT -5
I haven't had much time for model-making since Christmas but I have more or less finished the Matra chassis and hope to give it its first test run on Friday at the Southend Slot Racing Club's track
It is in rather a test hack specification at the moment and will eventually get new running gear components once I've sorted it.
David
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Post by Mark Huber on Feb 17, 2014 10:43:51 GMT -5
David, That chassis looks like a winner! (Hello from Africa)
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Post by David Lawson on Feb 19, 2014 4:06:10 GMT -5
Hello in Tanzania Mark...
I gave the Matra its "shake down" last night at the Southend Club track.
As it was a race night I only had time for a few minutes running during the programme but within about 6 laps I recorded a best of 10.345sec. The chassis performed well with no vices, had good grip and a nice confidence inspiring front end into corners. As Chris' Matra did a best of 10.265sec at this track during our round of the GPd2013 I was very encouraged with the car. I will add a small amount of lead in a couple of places and test it again in a week or so and see if I can squeeze a little more time out of it.
David
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Post by David Lawson on Mar 10, 2014 9:44:37 GMT -5
A change of direction with this slot car build, I've decided that there are too many Matra MS10s around at the moment so I will convert the bodyshell to the V12 engined MS11 that made its debut at the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix.
The car ran in a striking one off colour scheme before adopting the standard colours of its V8 engined MS10 cousin for the remainder of the season.
This handsome car never looked better just prior to the introduction of trim tabs, wings and aerofoils. For the race the team chopped the nose cone back for increased cooling but my slot car will be in practice trim with the full nose.
Now that the proxy series dates have been announced I will make a start on the bodyshell and that impressive engine and exhaust system.
David
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Post by Mark Huber on Mar 10, 2014 12:52:55 GMT -5
Wow.
That's a lot of wiring!
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Post by EM on Mar 10, 2014 13:44:18 GMT -5
Tip it up on its nose, add a keyboard and enjoy some Bach!
EM
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Post by Chris Wright on Mar 10, 2014 14:09:40 GMT -5
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Post by Andrew Rowland on Mar 11, 2014 3:06:28 GMT -5
Looking forward to see it David, awesome looking car!
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Post by Dave Wisdom on Mar 11, 2014 15:44:05 GMT -5
That's the spirit David! I do like the livery; shame it was not kept for the reminder of the season.
This is an F1 car which is most definitely 'all engine'. Would loved to have heard it at full throttle.
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Post by David Lawson on Mar 12, 2014 3:34:38 GMT -5
You are right Dave this car is all engine and this pictures really emphasises that. As you say it looked impressive and also the wonderful sound of that engine is still talked about to this day.
I am still at the fiddling and sketching out stage of this build and haven't decided which way to go. I might modify the Airfix V8 shell or I may use the excellent Charlie Fitzpatrick "Classic" fibreglass shell of the car. I quickly added some plastic rod tailpipes to his shell to get a feel of how it would look and I also drew out in pencil the graphics on the bodywork just to gauge how I would spray this colour scheme.
I shall carry on fiddling to see which shell I will eventually use. David
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