|
Post by jager on Dec 10, 2022 22:52:33 GMT -5
Very classy Paul. While £227,000 is well above the cost of an average new car, I thought that was surprisingly reasonable given the price of many classics today. The model looks great and you did well to find it in a bricks & mortar store.
|
|
|
Post by reeft1 on Dec 11, 2022 8:01:52 GMT -5
Super addition.
|
|
LM24HRS
Member
Paul - "Collecting Motorsport in Miniature; for the passion and its history".
Posts: 457
|
Post by LM24HRS on Dec 11, 2022 11:18:39 GMT -5
Fantastic model of a beautiful car. Deserves to be in your collection. Thanks Tom, I'm very pleased it come home with me. The painted wheels really put this one over the top. Agree with you Jeff. Makes the car and model. What a beautiful model! I also enjoyed the story of how you found it. I wish we had stores like that this side of the Atlantic! Cheers Julio. Glad you approve. I quite like the idea of your “cars you would love to drive……” (it is a long title ) however with the state and cost of travel today, for me it would need to be “cars for a blast across the Nullarbor” (maybe to see Ian ). I would probably have to choose something like a 1970s Ford Falcon though - the Aston is a bit too highfalutin” for me (if I turned up in something like that it would be assumed I had stolen it! Great story and classy addition - I can’t wait to see what numbered vehicles were also added. Funny Martin, now you mention it, I can't see you in an Aston either You are a man who needs something more "earthy" I think. Beautiful car/model, love the color combination! Great add! I think at anything over 30 mph top upon down, you couldn't hear the radio anyway. 😁 You are right Jerry. A radio in a drophead makes you wonder what is the point? Very classy Paul. While £227,000 is well above the cost of an average new car, I thought that was surprisingly reasonable given the price of many classics today. The model looks great and you did well to find it in a bricks & mortar store. That did cross my mind when I read the Bonham report. That was 2011 prices but even so. Suspect more like c£400k now. Super addition. Cheers Paul.
|
|
LM24HRS
Member
Paul - "Collecting Motorsport in Miniature; for the passion and its history".
Posts: 457
|
Post by LM24HRS on Dec 11, 2022 11:28:13 GMT -5
Like buses, you can wait ages for one. When it does arrive it's generally not on it's own! I had this next article prepared last month having taken delivery of two Technomodels. It has been sitting in the depths of my laptop waiting to be aired. ASTON MARTIN DBS V8 - “The Muncher”These two recent additions to my Derek Bell collection are perhaps, best not bellowed about from the roof tops, especially in terms of performance and reliability, certainly in Derek’s eyes. However, there is an interesting background to the person responsible for their creation. In Derek’s book “My Racing Life”, he speaks very little about these cars and their associated races. For good reason, as it was a low time in his career. With little or no narrative to go on from DB’s point of view I had a large void to fill in my efforts to produce a write-up. I therefore turned my attention to Robin Hamilton who was the creator and entrant for these cars.
Searching for more background I came across within the volumes of Motorsport magazine, an article on Robin in the July 2011 issue written by Richard Heseltine, entitled “We didn’t just talk about doing Le Mans, we actually did it” Reading the title, it could be said the content was typical of an eccentric British garagist. Eccentric is used not as a derogatory observation but more of a loving, thick skinned, left-field and determined character who had the balls to stand up to the establishment.
Robin Hamilton privately took Aston Martin back to Le Mans in the 70’s and 80’s against all the high odds. He had the credentials as an official service dealer, but any factory involvement was mostly encouragement-based. Le Mans 1976 was his first attempt, which unfortunately never materialised due to lack of funds and consequently a budget short fall. By the next year he had backing from a manufacturer of riot gear called SAS this securing a place at La Sarthe for 77’. Using the Aston Martin DBS, a car not necessarily suited to competition, but had an engine he knew intimately, the team set about developing it and the rest of the car. By May 77 at the Silverstone Six hours endurance event the car made its international debut. Renowned for having a large appetite for brake discs the car became known as ‘The Muncher’. This car has been modelled in the past by Spark. Initially it showed promise being listed in the top 10 within the first 2 hours. Mechanical issues curtailed efforts from then on when the diff overheated breaking the oil seals with no chance of repair.
As expected in a cash strapped team arriving at Le Mans in 1977, there was a whole host of work still to do. The team arrived earlier then everyone else so they could complete building the car in the paddock. The French loved the crazy Britishness of their efforts. The rest of the story is best told by Richard Heseltine.
“In the paddock the ACO race organisers tuned a blind eye to a few indiscretions as the name Aston Martin still struck a chord with the many fans. We had all sorts of dramas in qualifying and just squeezed onto the grid, although the team was shattered from all the night sessions before the race began. The event itself went well. We ran out of discs, but Dave Preece, Mike Salman and Robin adapted, and the old car kept on going. The engine never missed a beat”.
“Afterwards there was genuine enthusiasm for what we had done. The press had written us off before we got to France so the sense of achievement was amazing. We were third in the GTP class but had we run in Group 5 we would have been second. We felt a sense of achievement but it didn’t make us complacent – it was just a step forward in our plan. So-called experts said the car was too heavy, which was obvious, but as Aston specialists we couldn’t very well race a Porsche. There were certain features we couldn’t trim down while staying within the rules. The only option was more power, so turbocharging was the way ahead. We set about it ourselves, and at times we were getting 800bhp or more, but the heat build-up was immense. We couldn’t afford a proper intercooler system so I knew we were on thin ice”.
Le Mans 1978 was again a miss due to lack of funds but by 1979 the strategy was back on track and this time with Derek Bell onboard. The six-hour event at Silverstone was again used as a shakedown for Le Mans. The only positive words I can find is that apparently Derek said it was the only car he could reel in the Porsche 935 with….on the straight bits!
“We were getting more experienced, and I still think that when we chopped down the roofline we made quite a mean-looking car. It was done for aerodynamic reasons although we found we then had too much downforce at the front. It was hard work to drive and not as fast as it could have been. It overheated and melted a piston early on in the 24 Hours, and that was that. We did one more race [Bell joining Hamilton for the 1980 Silverstone Six Hours] but by then we were concentrating on what became the Nimrod.”
The above are all four versions of the AM V8, The other two I believe Andy has posted within his pages.
|
|
|
Post by oldirish33 on Dec 11, 2022 11:47:59 GMT -5
Great write-up Paul and worthy additions to your collection. It was one of those cars that looked like it should have been successful and much like the Jaguar XJC, a lack of funding and development kept it from being legend. It certainly wasn't a lack of talent. Your Mr. Bell was involved with both. Nice adds!
|
|
|
Post by DeadCanDanceR on Dec 11, 2022 11:50:02 GMT -5
Very nice, indeed!
|
|
|
Post by Tom on Dec 11, 2022 12:00:32 GMT -5
Successful or not, they're amazing machines. Glad they had the balls to just go for it.
|
|
|
Post by reeft1 on Dec 11, 2022 15:06:48 GMT -5
That’s a brilliant line up
|
|
|
Post by JSB33 on Dec 12, 2022 5:48:32 GMT -5
Excellent.
|
|
|
Post by Alfaholic on Dec 12, 2022 20:01:11 GMT -5
Brutally beautiful. It must be time for Mr Bell to visit the Museum and sit down with you for an in depth discussion of his racers!
|
|
LM24HRS
Member
Paul - "Collecting Motorsport in Miniature; for the passion and its history".
Posts: 457
|
Post by LM24HRS on Dec 16, 2022 13:59:52 GMT -5
Great write-up Paul and worthy additions to your collection. It was one of those cars that looked like it should have been successful and much like the Jaguar XJC, a lack of funding and development kept it from being legend. It certainly wasn't a lack of talent. Your Mr. Bell was involved with both. Nice adds! Thanks Jerry. Lacking in funding and development unfortunately appears on many UK LM attempts. It led to the Nimrod though. Mind you that wasn't a roaring success either! Very nice, indeed! Cheers Julio. Successful or not, they're amazing machines. Glad they had the balls to just go for it. At the end of the day Tom a collection has to be warts and all to tell the story I think. Some good and some not so good. That’s a brilliant line up Thanks Paul. Had been waiting for these since the 1:18th scale models were first released on the hope they would come out in 1:43rd Brutally beautiful. It must be time for Mr Bell to visit the Museum and sit down with you for an in depth discussion of his racers! Not sure about that Martin. We have met though at Beaulieu Motor Museum some years ago. We were discussing the finer points of a 1:18th Gulf Porsche 917 he raced at LM71. My trouble is I don't do social media. Perhaps I should.
|
|
LM24HRS
Member
Paul - "Collecting Motorsport in Miniature; for the passion and its history".
Posts: 457
|
Post by LM24HRS on Dec 16, 2022 14:11:59 GMT -5
Time for another............... This should catch the interest of a certain few. A PORSCHE 956 – In AustraliaThe last round of the World Endurance Championship for Drivers in 1984 was held at Sandown Park on 2nd December. It was the first FIA World Championship endurance motor race event to be held in Australia, the race was known as the Sandown 1000. A rather misleading title as the winner of the race only covered 803 Kms, 51 laps short of 1,000kms. The reason for the short fall was due to the 6-hour rule. Under WEC rules, races with exception to Le Mans 24 hours, where limited to 6 hours in total or 1,000 kms which ever came first.
There is debate as to why an endurance race came to a racetrack in Australia. A possible answer lies from the previous year when Vern Schuppan in a works Porsche 956 won Le Mans and quite possibly sparked a bit of “down under” interest in endurance racing. Suitably enticed, the Group C1 line-up of Aussie drivers for the Sandown event consisted of Vern Schuppan/Alan Jones driving a third works Porsche 956. Rusty French/Manfred Winkelhock in #11 Kremer Porsche 956B. Colin Bond/Andrew Miedecke in #34 John Fitzpatick Racing 962 and lastly Johnny Dumfries and non-other than Sir Jack Brabham in a factory entered 956-83. The number of Australian drivers did not stop there. As a side note, the organisers incorporated a class of “Australian Cars” all piloted by, you guessed it, Australians. I’m sure this little piece of information will create a spin-off story of some description. Anyway, getting back to the model in question. This is number two of four I purchased at the beginning of December. It was not the first time I had seen this model but, on this occasion, I had no excuses as not to purchase. This is a CMR model and part of the Stefan Bellof collection. My particular interest is of course with the other driver, Derek Bell who partnered Stefan at numerous sportscar events. My reason for hesitating to purchase this model in the first place was simply due to “how many Rothmans Porsche 956’s do you need in a collection?” The deciding factors in the end were, 1) it was the last event of 1984, effectively the last year of the 956, and 2) a win for Mr Bell and lastly on a racetrack not necessarily associated with a Rothamns Porsche 956. The race was very straight forward for the “My Boy” and “Father” pairing, the result of 18 years between the pair of them. Stefan started the race on pole, but second placed Alan Jones beat him off the start line, initially. It was not long though before he was overtaken by the very quick young German who was on a mission to win the Championship outright. Throughout the race many cars suffered multi tyre punctures due to the incredible down force and grip generated by the Group C cars breaking up the new tarmac surface. Once in the lead the #2 works 956 stayed at the front with Derek bringing the car across the line at the 6-hour mark. Certainly, another worthy model to my ever-increasing DB collection which is now reaching some 60 models at the last count. I do have others waiting on pre-order in the wings plus one or two other donors models needing conversions. More to come when time permits. For those who wish to see and hear more about the race at Sandown please see links below www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC7wrKjFXNEwww.youtube.com/watch?v=4NgKIE1sc-8Interesting facts about Porsche 956 chassis number 009
• Derek Bell/Stefan Bellof 1984 World Championship Winner • Dominated the 1984 season with 5 wins from 7 starts • 1st at Fuji and Kyalami- 1983 • 1st at Monza, Nurburgring, Spa, Fuji and Sandown Park – 1984 • 2nd at Monza and Silverstone – 1985 • Qualified 2nd row - Le Mans – 1985 • The most successful of all the Works Rothmans 956/962 • Never crashed or damaged
|
|
|
Post by Tom on Dec 16, 2022 14:21:06 GMT -5
I could see that here too. Looks great, love the livery and I don't have a 956 yet.
|
|
|
Post by oldirish33 on Dec 16, 2022 21:06:24 GMT -5
The wheels on that car make the model for me. It changes the usual 956 look, makes it seem new. Great add!
|
|
|
Post by Alfaholic on Dec 17, 2022 1:49:24 GMT -5
And here I was thinking you were about to show a model of the Dick Johnson / Allan Grice Chev Monza . Oh weell, I guess a D. Bell 956 is pretty good as well. If only I knew how much sportscars would come to mean to me, as a 20yo I may have made an effort to get to Melbourne for the race!
|
|