Ed Straker's car, Paul Foster's car - Gerry Anderson UFO

[choc-ice]

Gerry Anderson made some fantastic sci-fi programmes in the '60s with puppets but in 1969 there was a little known show made with actors.  If you think that what's wrong with society today is there aren't enough silver catsuits and purple wigs, you're in the right thread.

 

It was made in 1969 but set in 1980 and whilst they missed the fact that Petula Clark would be advertising Chrysler Sunbeams they did suggest that aliens would be invading earth and kidnapping humans for body parts, so at least they got that bit right.  The good guys were members of SHADO, Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organization, which is probably more difficult to join than it is to get off Virgin Media's mailing list.  Want to see the title sequence?

 

 

Woah, what's that brown beauty in there?

 

 

Phooarrr, it's fantastic!  And Ford thought the Sierra would be a bit too curvy in 1983?  What's it look like from the back?

 

 

I think I love it even more.  What's it like inside?

 

 

High tech communications too?

 

 

A brown and cream handset tells me everything I need to know.  And because this was a Gerry Anderson show, there were miniature versions to film too

 

 

ok, maybe not too convincing right now but in 1970 most of us didn't even have a colour TV set, it had a tiny screen and was positioned in the far corner of the room.  1080P or 4K?  Forget it.

 

They were designed by Derek Meddings who had done most of the production design for Gerry Anderson's shows, if you get the chance to buy his book 21st Century Visions then jump on it.  The special effects team was already well practised in making models for filming, but to produce a real car they gave it to Alan Mann Racing who the year before had built Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as well as their normal stuff of racing Fords.

 

The Ford connection was a bit handy as the UFO cars were based on Ford Zephyr running gear but with a 1600 Cortina engine.  UFO cars?  Yes, because as well as Straker's car above, Colonel Foster had this lilac stunner!

 

 

 

NCAP would knock off a star for pedestrian safety there, but it's still got gullwing doors so I could forgive it almost anything. 

Enough of my ramblings, have some magazine scans from a few years ago and actually learn stuff other than my opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

[choc-ice]

That's fascinating, choc, but stop waxing lyrical about some old fibreglass rubbish that's probably laying dilapidated in someone's garden now and tell us what this has to do with model cars.

 

What this has to do with slot cars is that I've made them.  As usual for my stuff it started with a huge amount of research and some 3D CAD models.  These were built on Mk IV Zephyr chassis but with a Ford Escort engine so the jet turbine performance was a bit of a fib.  However they are incredibly distinctive and I thought they would make interesting slot cars.

 

 

 

The master models had the surfaces stitched together and were 3D printed.  The usual few coats of primer and paint, then a silicone mould was made and the first ones came out looking good.

 

From these, the vacform windows, interior and light covers were made.

 

[choc-ice]

I do a lot of 1970s cars so I have a good choice of brown spray paints in my garage, the pinkish lilac was more difficult but eventually I got it mixed as a custom aerosol can.

 

 

What a shame it was the wrong colour, but let's crack on while I order a different colour...

 

The window surrounds were done with a paint pen and then windows were trimmed to fit

 

 

 

The rear of Paul Foster's car was seen as blue and red.  I went for red because it looked better

 

 

Ed Straker's car was put onto the chassis with steering and suspension, looks good on the track!

 

 

 

Foster's car got repainted into a closer shade of lilac

 

Here you can see the chassis.  The wheelbase is the same for both cars.

 

 

 

So that's a vision of the future, how 1980 would look from 1970 on a Scalextric set made in the early 2000s.

[Bonhoff]

When I saw the thread title I thought you were going to ask if anyone did a model of them* ...

 

Good work sir!

 

*Think Dinky did a diecast Ed Straker car. We can add your name to the list now.

[Kallisti]

You havn't got the crooked vertical slats right in Paul Fosters car  Thats always annoyed me in this photo

 

 

These cars were originally built for the Gerry Anderson movie "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun" also known as "Doppelganger" and there were 3 of them but one got damaged on location in Portugal and got scrapped. The other two were brought back to the UK and re-dressed for UFO. The awful bonnet ornamentation of Paul Foster's car was quite poorly done as you can see.

 

UFO made some amusing predictions for 1980, eg that we'd have swapped which side of the road we'd be driving on and got the whole music scene wrong - no Punk Rock or New Romantics

 

The colour of Straker's car is another controversy - its not totally brown, its more a sort of bronze-brown, but the lighting for the filming makes it look brown. Its definitely not gold as Dinky seemed to think.

 

Always nice to see Ayshea Brough and Gabrielle Drake

 

I like what you've done there with the cars, how about a Shado Mobile?

 

[choc-ice]

No plans for a Shado Mobile - 2 cars are fine on a Scalextric track.  You're right about the Dinky car being gold and I've always wondered why too, I believe for James Bond's Aston Martin they said that the correct silver just made it look as if the car was unpainted but Straker's car in brown would look good.  A few sci-fi fans have repainted their Dinky cars in the correct colour and they look much better although the actual shade is difficult to match.  When the real car was discovered they peeled back several layers of paint to find it was darker than it appeared on screen, perhaps because they needed suck strong lighting to film the miniatures at high speed?

 

The third Doppelganger car actually came up for sale recently, as you say it was damaged during filming and therefore escaped the extra bits tacked on for UFO.  There was also a plan in the early '70s to make a production version of Straker's car but it came to nothing after one prototype was built.  The TV car was rediscovered a few years ago in someone's back garden.  The owner didn't want to sell and in fact after dumping the car in the garden he had later built a wall so the car couldn't even be removed without a crane.  An intrepid chap made fibreglass moulds of the car while it was in the garden and tried to make a road going version with help from TV's Ed China.  Once again it all came to nought but there's an amazing amount of interest about the cars and for the whole show.

[Major_Error]

Really nice work!

 

8-D

[Pete in Lincs]

19 hours ago, Kallisti said:

Thats always annoyed me in this photo

I'll forgive the photo as it contains Wanda Ventham.

 

Could Strakers car be Ford Tawny, like my old Mk 1 Escort?

[Kallisti]

Ahh yes indeed Wanda Ventham...

[Dermo245]

Great work there - had to explain to herself why I was laughing out loud reading the start of this thread!

 

Dermot

 

 

 

 

[Selwyn]

2 hours ago, Kallisti said:

Ahh yes indeed Wanda Ventham...

Who's other claim to fame is that she is Benedict Cumberbach's  Mum!

 

Selwyn

[Kallisti]

10 hours ago, Selwyn said:

Who's other claim to fame is that she is Benedict Cumberbach's  Mum!

 

Selwyn

 

I think it is now a law of the internet that whenever a photo of Wanda Ventham is posted someone has to point that out  On the Fanderson FB page its usually about 10 or 12 people.

[Selwyn]

1 hour ago, Kallisti said:

 

I think it is now a law of the internet that whenever a photo of Wanda Ventham is posted someone has to point that out  On the Fanderson FB page its usually about 10 or 12 people.

GREAT! I love being No 13!

 

Selwyn

[The Cameraman]

Hi Guys n Gals,

 

from my puddled brain I'm sure I remember Ed's car being owned by DLT, the Hairy Monster?

 

The whole series has recently been repeated on the telly and brought back loads of memories.

 

 

[Kallisti]

Correct

 

[TallBlondJohn]

On 23/10/2017 at 10:20 PM, choc-ice said:

 

If anybody cares that is York House School, aka St Custards, where I was incarcerated some years later. The car is parked in front of the music room. When not being used to torture small boys it was a SHADO medical centre, as shown in episode 9, Ordeal. Which explains a lot.

[choc-ice]

Thanks for that information, John.  And I apologise for the horrendous memories it doubtless dragged up!

[CaptBatty]

Great models!  My team at work is just finishing up the UFO series at lunch at I would like to 3D print models of those.  Any chance I could get a copy of those car models to print for myself?  I'm not planning on posting or selling, just a fan of the show and 3D printing.  Thanks.

[miwi]

On 10/23/2017 at 11:26 PM, choc-ice said:

That's fascinating, choc, but stop waxing lyrical about some old fibreglass rubbish that's probably laying dilapidated in someone's garden now and tell us what this has to do with model cars.

 

What this has to do with slot cars is that I've made them.  As usual for my stuff it started with a huge amount of research and some 3D CAD models.  These were built on Mk IV Zephyr chassis but with a Ford Escort engine so the jet turbine performance was a bit of a fib.  However they are incredibly distinctive and I thought they would make interesting slot cars.

 

 

 

The master models had the surfaces stitched together and were 3D printed.  The usual few coats of primer and paint, then a silicone mould was made and the first ones came out looking good.

 

From these, the vacform windows, interior and light covers were made.

 

Awesome job. What scale are they? If it is 1/24 do you have some left over bodies or would you like to share the CAD files of the models?

[cmatthewbacon]

2 hours ago, miwi said:

These were built on Mk IV Zephyr chassis but with a Ford Escort engine so the jet turbine performance was a bit of a fib. 

My college buddy and longstanding friend's Dad's Merseyside garage looked after these in the early '80s. They were still in demand for "personal appearances" but they were trailered everywhere. Max speed was about 20mph, and getting them off the trailer and parked up for their close-up was enough to start the cooling system cooking...

best,

M.

[David Owens]

On 23/10/2017 at 22:37, choc-ice said:

I do a lot of 1970s cars so I have a good choice of brown spray paints in my garage, the pinkish lilac was more difficult but eventually I got it mixed as a custom aerosol can.

 

 

What a shame it was the wrong colour, but let's crack on while I order a different colour...

 

The window surrounds were done with a paint pen and then windows were trimmed to fit

 

 

 

The rear of Paul Foster's car was seen as blue and red.  I went for red because it looked better

 

 

Ed Straker's car was put onto the chassis with steering and suspension, looks good on the track!

 

 

 

Foster's car got repainted into a closer shade of lilac

 

Here you can see the chassis.  The wheelbase is the same for both cars.

 

 

 

So that's a vision of the future, how 1980 would look from 1970 on a Scalextric set made in the early 2000s.

 

Hi Does anyone make the Paul fosters car!!?? David.

[HOUSTON]

STUNNING  work so far.

 

Awesome article to read in that old newspaper  ...

 

MY siblings and I used to go to friends house (with permission  from the parents)  to watch the program...  We didn't have TV then!! loved the opening sequence.. Thank you for the youtu.be  video.

 

 

I love the background history to your build and the amazing facts.... Nostalgia  is always  good to remember!

Gerry Anderson was way ahead of his tine ...

They don't make TV programs like that anymore.

 

 

The cars design also reminds ME somewhat of De Loreans car way back...  De Lorean  had acquired a garage/service garage  near MY home town and as kids We would go watch the fancy car being displayed with its doors opening upwards..

 Just as DLT and Miss Wanda  Wrentham are showing in the photos  above.

Anyway Super thread.