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Post by jager on Mar 2, 2023 18:46:35 GMT -5
I need to update myself but I believe Mr Button is linked to another LM project for this year. Not a particular attractive livery on this one but for LM and Button history an important candidate. It's a pity Mr Button's appearances at Le Mans have been very limited Paul. Had he driven more regularly, perhaps we would have seen him in one of the works Hyper cars rather than what is likely to be a mobile chicane at this year's race. I guess you had to have this one for Jenson Buttons' sake... not much else to recommend it. I remember their crash well, they kept showing it in the hourly reports over and over again. As usual, great model. Not quite a "Had to have" Tom, but in the relative absence of new models, I decided it was a gap that I should fill.
I need to update myself but I believe Mr Button is linked to another LM project for this year. Not a particular attractive livery on this one but for LM and Button history an important candidate. Is Mr Button not part of the (ridiculous) NASCAR effort at LM this year - no, I am not a fan when there are many worthy teams sitting on the Reserve List and this car brings nothing to the usual "Garage 56" remit. Back to the model, I actually quite like the livery, grubby cash notwithstanding. It's not the first time we've seen NASCAR's run at Le Mans, but I'm not quite sure what the point is, other than a visual reminder that the FIA and IMSA are once again on the same page for the first time in many years. Whatever the merits of the NASCAR entry, Button is an odd choice of driver. I added this myself for the Button connection and was quietly hopeful it would do better. It was not to be I had similar feelings at the time Andy. This was definitely on my watchlist of potential models pre-race, but as we know it went up in smoke in the first hour. Hence it never made my cut of pre-orders the first time around, but I'm happy to have added it belatedly.
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Post by jager on Mar 4, 2023 6:23:24 GMT -5
Between 2017 and 2021, the Dutch ‘Racing Team Nederland’ raced at Le Mans their attractively presented yellow and black cars with the Jumbo sponsorship standing out from a sea of white, red and black cars. The black and yellow livery is said to be attributed to the early liveries worn by Minardi in the F1 World Championship and was favoured by Racing Team Nederland due to Minardi’s perennial ‘underdog’ status. Racing Team Nederland was founded by businessman Frits van Eerd, the (former) CEO of the Jumbo Supermarket chain and racing driver Jan Lammers. The team started in the 2017 European Le Mans Series with a Dallara P217 from Day V TEC Engineering, unfortunately starting off on the back foot by choosing the less competitive Dallara chassis rather than the more successful Oreca chassis. In 2017 they finished Le Mans 13th overall and 11th in the LMP class with former F1 driver Rubens Barrichello joining Lammers and Van Eerd. The following year, Giedo van der Garde came into the team to replace Barrichello, and at Le Mans they improved to be 11th overall and 7th in the LMP class. After the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans, Jan Lammers stepped down as an active driver with Nyck de Vries taking over his seat. has taken over the seat from Lammers for the rest of the season. De Vries qualified the #29 Dallara in 16th position with a time of 3:27.107. The “Jumbo” Dallara proved to be a handful in the opening hours of the race and their race report car shows it was off the track five times in the first three hours. The impacted their performance and they fell to 23rd position at the end of the first hour, rose to 10th by the end of the 2nd hour, but were back to 22nd position by the end of the 3rd hour. Nine hours later at the mid-point of the race, they were still down in 23rd position. The second half of their race went better initially and by the 18th hour they had made up some places to be running in 15th position overall. However, on Sunday morning De Vries left the track at the Indianapolis corner destroying the front of the car. While he was able to get the car back to the pits, the time lost and subsequent repairs dropped them to 28th position. With the clock counting down to the end of the 24 hours they were able to make up two positions, eventually finishing 26th overall and 15th in class. The following year, Racing Team Nederland did what they should have done in 2017 and bought an Oreca 07. Unfortunately, it didn’t bring them any better results and in the 2020 and 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans they still finished 19th and 16th respectively. Nevertheless, they still finished. Unfortunately, that was the end of their Le Mans participation with the team announcing a switch to the IMSA Sportscar Championship for 2022…a strange choice for a Dutch team with a Dutch title sponsor. However, in September 2022, Frits Van Eerd was arrested as a suspect in a money laundering case and a search of his property revealed hundreds of thousands of Euros in cash. We may not be seeing Frits van Eerd behind the wheel of a sportscar for quite a while. Car : 2019 #29 Dallara P217Team : Racing Team Nederland Drivers : Frits van Eerd (NL)/ Giedo van der Garde (NL)/ Nyck de Vries (NL) Qualifying : 16th Result : 26th Model : Spark (S7914)
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Post by Tom on Mar 4, 2023 6:39:16 GMT -5
I cheered for the team in all their races... unfortunately it did them no good. Agreed, it's a good livery.
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LM24HRS
Member
Paul - "Collecting Motorsport in Miniature; for the passion and its history".
Posts: 457
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Post by LM24HRS on Mar 5, 2023 3:21:22 GMT -5
Frits is a big Minardi fan apparently, hence nods towards the F1 livery in his sportscars.
I do like the yellow and black, very stricking. The team kicked above their weight on a few occasions during their WEC period.
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Post by Alfaholic on Mar 5, 2023 21:43:17 GMT -5
Very striking livery and nice to see a non-Oreca LMP2.
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Post by jager on Mar 5, 2023 22:10:33 GMT -5
I cheered for the team in all their races... unfortunately it did them no good. Agreed, it's a good livery. It must have been great to have a local Dutch team to cheer for Tom. I doubt we'll ever see a full Australian team at Le Mans again. Frits is a big Minardi fan apparently, hence nods towards the F1 livery in his sportscars. I do like the yellow and black, very stricking. The team kicked above their weight on a few occasions during their WEC period. The livery definitely stands out well in the cabinet Paul. It's just a pity they couldn't translate some of their WEC form into better results at Le Mans. Very striking livery and nice to see a non-Oreca LMP2. Very true Martin. It seems those days are now behind us with every single LMP2 this year being an Oreca. Sadly the Dallara's lack of pace means I don't have very many in my collection, so it was definitely a contributing factor in adding this one.
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Post by jager on Mar 6, 2023 8:23:43 GMT -5
Toyota’s GR010 Hybrid 2021 Le Mans winner is the car that everyone seems to love to hate. While Toyota didn’t have to worry about works competition from the likes of Porsche or Audi, there is no doubt the GR010 was the class of the field at Le Mans in 2021 a tour-de-force. The GR010 Hybrid was a new car developed specifically for the FIA’s new 2021 Le Mans Hypercar rules which replaced the Toyota TS050 Hybrid that competed in the WEC and Le Mans from 2016 to 2020. The striking look of the new prototype reflects the appearance of its inspiration, the GR Super Sport hypercar which made its public debut at the 2018 Tokyo Auto Salon. However, the road car programme developed in parallel with the racing programme was cancelled early in 2021. As part of a cost-cutting initiative incorporated in the Le Mans hypercar regulations, the GR010’s 3.5 litre twin-turbocharged V6 with a hybrid system had ~30% less power than its TS050 Hybrid predecessor. Weighing 160kg heavier, the GR010 lapped Le Mans around 10seconds slower that the TS050. For the GR010 Hybrid's debut season, Toyota maintained their driver lineup unchanged from the 2019–20 FIA World Endurance Championship, with Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and José María López in car #7 and Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, and Brendon Hartley in car #8. The #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid shared by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López began from pole position after Kobayashi set the overall fastest lap time in the Hyperpole session. The trio led for most of the race to achieve their first Le Mans victories. Their teammates Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima finished two laps behind in second. It was only the 12th time that the pole sitter at Le Mans had gone on to win the race. Car : 2021 #7 Toyota GR010Team : Toyota Gazoo Racing Drivers : Mike Conway (GB)/ Kamui Kobayashi (J)/ José María López (ARG) Qualifying : 1st Result : 1st Model : Spark (43LM21)
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Post by jager on Mar 7, 2023 17:24:52 GMT -5
I guess the fact this car has had no comments after two days says it all about what people think of Toyota’s Le Mans winner. Pity, because it’s actually a very nice model.
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Post by oldirish33 on Mar 7, 2023 20:23:52 GMT -5
I didn't see it and your post shows (to me anyway) as being posted yesterday? Some delay from M143 maybe? I thought enough of it to buy one and post last month. As a Le Mans winner, an obvious addition for you. 😀 Let's hope we see a different make on the top step of the podium this year.
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Post by Alfaholic on Mar 7, 2023 23:07:33 GMT -5
I was pleased to the #7 take the win in 2021 after some bad luck in the past. The model is a must for a serious LM collector (of which I'm pretty sure you are ).
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Post by Tom on Mar 8, 2023 0:11:40 GMT -5
Toyota had some deserved wins given all that effort and investment. I find it tough to distinguish between the different versions for every year though, compared to Toyota most competitors were pretty adventurous with their liveries.
A fine model though, as we've come to expect from Spark.
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Post by reeft1 on Mar 8, 2023 2:37:00 GMT -5
Delay in appearing as per Jerry, but i’d still struggle to say more than its an important car for Le Mans collections and the usual high quality Spark model - not a fan of the functional design and as i said on Jerry’s thread, it must be an easy life being in charge of Toyotas livery department- same design each year (same in Rallying as well)
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Post by Scalainjridesagain on Mar 8, 2023 3:37:10 GMT -5
You (and Jerry) beat me to it. I bought it because it won Le Mans. Not wrong about being a lovely model
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Post by jager on Mar 10, 2023 20:55:00 GMT -5
I didn't see it and your post shows (to me anyway) as being posted yesterday? Some delay from M143 maybe? I thought enough of it to buy one and post last month. As a Le Mans winner, an obvious addition for you. 😀 Let's hope we see a different make on the top step of the podium this year. I think sometimes the time difference can throw up some discrepancies. Anyway, I saw your Toyota's last month, but that was the 2022 winner. However I did spot this 2021 winner in your group shot. As nice as the Toyotas are, like you I'm hoping for some variety this year. I was pleased to the #7 take the win in 2021 after some bad luck in the past. The model is a must for a serious LM collector (of which I'm pretty sure you are ). Agreed Martin, for the driver squad of the #7 car it was just rewards after a few difficult years. Toyota had some deserved wins given all that effort and investment. I find it tough to distinguish between the different versions for every year though, compared to Toyota most competitors were pretty adventurous with their liveries. A fine model though, as we've come to expect from Spark. As Paul said below, the easiest graphic design job in the world would be working for Toyotas motorsport team. Maybe now that Porsche are releasing the 963 to customer teams, we might see Toyota doe the same which might introduce some new liveries. Delay in appearing as per Jerry, but i’d still struggle to say more than its an important car for Le Mans collections and the usual high quality Spark model - not a fan of the functional design and as i said on Jerry’s thread, it must be an easy life being in charge of Toyotas livery department- same design each year (same in Rallying as well) Agreed Paul. It's a bit like the Audi situation in the 2000's when collectors had to start questioning how many silver Audi's they wanted in their collection, but they inevitably kept adding them because they kept securing Le Mans wins (not to mention Spa, Sebring and a bunch of other races as well). You (and Jerry) beat me to it. I bought it because it won Le Mans. Not wrong about being a lovely model The interesting test will be how many collectors buy their 2023 car if its not on the podium Andy. Only 3 months to go.
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Post by jager on Mar 11, 2023 23:19:13 GMT -5
Having already added two of the three Alfa Romeo Sprint Zagato’s (or ‘SZ’) that appeared at Le Mans in 1963, as a multiple Alfa Romeo owner I guess it was inevitable that I would add the third and final car. This one has actually appeared as a part-works version in recent years, but that has some errors like white numbers on a black roundel, so I’m glad I waited for the Spark. With only 200 examples ever built, the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Zagato (or ‘SZ’) was a very rare car, even by Alfa Romeo standards. Rarer still is this particular model, known as the “SZ Coda Tronca”, of which only 30 examples were built. Built as a true racing car, the SZ Coda Tronca was equipped with a highly-tuned 1300cc engine mated to a five-speed transmission in a beautiful streamlined, lightweight aluminium bodywork, which in itself reportedly took Zagato 300 hours to build. The Scuderia St. Ambroeus team had appeared at Le Mans with the Alfa Romeo SZ’s in 1962, taking a surprising 10th overall in 2nd in the GT 1300 class. They returned in 1963, with two examples of the Alfa Romeo Sprint Zagato Coda Tronca. At least one of these cars was the same chassis as raced in 1962, but it is unclear if this car also raced in 1962. For 1963, the cars had their 1,300cc engines upgraded to 1,600cc. Car #34 was driven by Italian’s Giancarlo Sala and Romolo Rossi. Sala had first driven at Le Mans in 1961 in a Fiat Abarth but had failed to finish, before driving the #39 Scuderia St. Ambroeus Alfa Romeo to 10th place in 1962, while Rossi was making his one and only Le Mans appearance. After starting from 37th position, in the first six hours they moved up to 21st position. Over the next six hours they moved up to 14th position, and the following hour they moved into 12th position. However, that was as far as they got, and the #34 Alfa Romeo retired in the 16th hour with gearbox failure. It is unclear to me if the car raced after Le Mans, or what happened to it after that. Car : 1963 #34 Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ Long Tail Team : Scuderia St. Ambroeus Drivers : Giancarlo Sala (I)/ Romolo Rossi (I) Qualifying : 37th Result : 20th (DNF - Gearbox) Model : Spark (S9052)
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