SPA Modeler

Vegas, Baby.





My buddy Matthew tied the knot with his gal last weekend and that event reminded me of researching the ‘66 Las Vegas Can Am where this beauty was part of race history. I have always had a thang for the Lola, which is just one of the beautiful car designs of the time, and the fellas at JSR (John Surtees Racing) did such a beautiful job of painting and marking this particularly one. Plus the Lola shares its chassis with the the same Lotus as the Ford GT40 so there is shared pedigree in its DNA.

Lola Designer Broadley had already established Lola Cars in 1958 and would become rather successful designing and building single-seaters for Formula Junior, Formula 3 and Formula 2. This would lead to the contract to work with Ford on its ambitious GT40 project. However, the staunch, established ways of doing things discouraged Broadley who was willing to push the edges of the envelope in search of an advantage. Therefore, by the mid-1960s, Broadley was free from his efforts with Ford and was on his own again. He again was free to build the cars he desired to build, and his way. Not all from the GT40 project would be lost, however. In fact, it would lead to Broadley developing what would become the fastest sportscar in the world at the time.

Broadley came to see the advantages of the raw American V-8 powerplant offered by Ford and Chevrolet. He then realized that combining that power with a light, mid-engined design could prove to be incredibly successful. Broadley would turn to an expert to help develop his idea. The World Champion, John Surtees, would come on board and would work hand-in-hand with Broadley to develop the idea into one of the most successful sportscars in Lola's history. The result of the work between Broadley and Surtees would be a wonderfully aggressive-looking car weighing just over 1700 pounds and boasting of 500hp. The design and layout of the car would lend itself to being stable and predictable for the driver.



The basis for the project is Tamiya’s slot car kit which was reissued in 2011 as a collector’s series. Scuttlebutt was that Tamiya made way more than sales warranted so now these same body shell kits are being offered from Tamiya for five bucks each. I bought a few body shells a few years ago thinking I wanted to practice painting, which I guess is my modeling thang in a nutshell, this would be the ticket. Finishes or finish fetish work is my metier. Conveniently this allows me to call a “project within a project” a “finished project.”



As an FYI, I am building the shell, which was not sold with any chassis. At a later date when I am flush, I will look for an aftermarket Tamiya chassis.

Engine mods to create the Mk II engine beginning with the exhaust headers which are angled up from the sides at 45 degrees. That was fun modifying the kit 90 degree headers using sprue and CA to make a platform.

This sounds like a killer project Bruce! The machine is beautiful

Thanks so much, Carlos. I was thinking of you when I used sprue to fill the openings for the engine area—baby steps into the realm of using plastic as fill instead of putty, lol.

I decided to apply ILM kitbashing techniques (really fun) to detail the engine. Part of the challenge of the project for me is to develop the feeling that the details are present, which of course means to base everything off of research into engine building. What is cool and true comes from ILM’s use of armor kits for kit bashing. I have tank treads and tie rods and hardware pieces here, but glued into recognizable enough patterns to provide a layer of realism. I am thinking I will do a small amount of fill with Milliput to cover the seams then see what I need to add next.

Cool project. Watching!

Thanks so much. This means a lot to me and if you have any thoughts, please do not hesitate to post. Please. I have been watching your builds and learning a lot, and I thank you. So. Tonight I built a small temporary handling platform for the headers, because that is becoming a model unto itself, heh, well why not. Part of the heart of things. After I built that handling platform I felt better about starting to add Milliput. For that job I mixed up a pea-sized amount and sat down to work with a batch of toothpicks on my kitchen table. Ya know what is great? Being able to zone out for 47 minutes just adding and smoothing putty is great. No music. No noise. A few texts and alerts. But really? Silence. And it was wonderful. I am gonna let everything cure then do a light sanding and prep for black primer. I think it’s time for us to see if this approach is working. Oh and I bored out the exhaust interiors to make them a smidge closer to scale.

Wow that looks awesome! Alclad coming?

Thanks, John—I have to squirt s’more primer on quarter panels and the rear deck. I slightly gouged a section when I cut the rectangular opening for the manifold. That was the only way I could get the part to set as though it was part of something underneath; I could not get rid of that weightless look that the part had unless it was sunken slightly—and the only way to do that was to make a hole.