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klubman01

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    1/43 BRM P154, Can-Am '70

    in Ready For Inspection - Vehicles

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Kitkent said:

    A really smart looking car you have there Trevor,that BRM certainly looks like a real racecar. I have made one Kaiser kit,the orangey  brown Chevron 2 litre car. It’s very nice! Chris.

    Thanks Chris.  I also have a couple more Kaiser kits to build - the Chevron B16S, and a McLaren M1B Can-Am car.

    Trevor

    • Like 1

    1/43 BRM P154, Can-Am '70

    in Ready For Inspection - Vehicles

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Bengalensis said:

    Very nice work as usual! The car is really striking in that Castrol livery. Always good to see CanAm cars modelled from these years beside the usual McLarens.

    Thanks very much indeed.  There were some really good looking cars in addition to the factory McLarens (which I have in the stash, waiting to be built).  Other non-McLaren cars are in the pipeline.

    Trevor

    • Like 2

    1/43 BRM P154, Can-Am '70

    in Ready For Inspection - Vehicles

    Posted

    Another recently completed model is this 1/43 BRM P154, as driven by Pedro Rodriguez in the later Can-Am races of 1970.

     

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    The kit is by Kaiser of Hungary.  Beautifully cast, with very little to do in the way of rectification.  The only changes I made to the body was the addition of the small tabs on either side of the nose, and the extended, taller, mirror mounts.

     

    The cockpit looked a bit spartan, so I added the coolant pipes, and some chassis structural elements.  I also substituted the tyres with some Automodelli Studio items, and widened the kit wheels to accommodate them.

     

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    The biggest challenge was the kit's decals for the red and green Castrol stripes.  Great opacity over the white body, but a right pain in the fundament to get them to conform and settle over the various contours.  A LOT of Micro-Sol was needed!

    The sponsor decals came from the ever useful MicroSport decal sheet, with the race numbers and the BRM nose badge coming from my stock of spare decals.

     

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    A fabulous looking Can-Am car, but it didn't achieve the success it should have.  Two third places, one for George Eaton at Mont-Tremblant, and one for Pedro Rodriguez at Riverside, the subject of this model, was all that could be achieved in the championship.

     

    Thanks for looking.

    Trevor

    • Like 23

    Bond Bug

    in Work In Progress - Vehicles

    Posted

    11 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

    They weren't all orange, BTW. Green and Purple were limited editions. IIRC they were commercial promotions.

    Here, Henry and Sam find a green one...

     

    Well, I never knew that.  I've only seen orange Bugs.

    Trevor

    • Like 1

    Howmet TX, Le Mans 24h 1968

    in Work In Progress - Vehicles

    Posted

    5 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

     

    To add further to Trevor's excellent explanation, here's a diagram that explains the waste-gate system on the Howmet TX that regulates the amount of hot gas passing the power turbine by bleeding some of it off with variable vanes to reduce power. That's the smaller exhaust pipe to the left on the car. This was important in making the car much more driveable, and when failing led to the car going off in corners, think stuck throttle. The car shown in the article linked below is restored and has a more modern turbine with a different exhaust layout compared to 1968.

     

    Gas%20turbine%20diagram%20with%20variabl

     

    www.autoconcept-reviews.com

     

     

     

     

    Thanks very much for the additional information.  The waste gate is not dissimilar then to that on a turbo-charged piston engine.

    Trevor

    • Like 1

    Howmet TX, Le Mans 24h 1968

    in Work In Progress - Vehicles

    Posted

    3 hours ago, Brandy said:

    I just found this thread and I've never heard of this car before. Very impressive detective work and corrections so far!

     

    I'm intrigued. I assume the turbine drove the rear wheels through what would have been the accessory gearbox underneath the engine. An increase in N1 (turbine speed) would result in an increase in the rotation speed of the accessory gearbox driveshaft, which is basically what the mounting pin you added under the front end is. I can't see how else it would work, other than pure thrust to drive it and freely rotating wheels, but then it wouldn't need a gearbox!

     

    Any engineers here who could elaborate?

     

    Ian 

    The car is driven via a "free turbine", i.e. a turbine in the main unit's exhaust duct which is linked to the drive mechanism by an output shaft, and thence to the wheels.  The big advantage is that the main unit can be run at its most efficient RPM (typically very high) all the time.  As there is no physical connection between the main unit and the output shaft, it is possible to bring the car to a halt on the brakes without stalling the gas turbine engine. 

     

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    In the above diagram, the free turbine is on the right connected to the red output shaft.  The main unit, sometimes referred to as the "gas generator" is on the left, with all the components rotating on the blue shaft.

    The whole thing is called a turbo-shaft engine.  Typically used in helicopters, etc.

    Trevor

    • Like 3

    Howmet TX, Le Mans 24h 1968

    in Work In Progress - Vehicles

    Posted

    Great to see you starting the Howmex.  Like several others, I didn't realise the differences between the two Le Mans cars.  Great job on shortening the chassis, BTW.

    There are some very good photos of the cars at Le Mans in the Joe Honda Sports Prototype book number 14, (1968 part 2).

    Trevor

    • Thanks 1
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