1977 McLaren M24 - Tom Sneva

[ModelcarJR]

This kit is from Silver City Models and is a complete resin and white metal kit. I've wanted to build this car for many years as it it the car that Tom Sneva drove in 1977 and broke the 200 MPH barrier for 2 laps in qualifications on the first Saturday, Pole Day. I know because I was there. I positioned myself about halfway up the 1st turn stands toward the short shute side so that I could see the inside of the wall in the apex of the turn. In those days, you could tell how fast a car was by how close to the wall the front tire was in the high part of the turn. And when Tom drove that day you couldn't have put a sheet of paper between the front tire and the wall! I wouldn't be surprised it there wasn't a tiny black mark on the wall. In those days, the first day of qualifications was a big deal and the place was at least half-full of race fans. Everyone was standing and gasping on every lap that Tom turned that day! He is forever in the record books as the driver that broke the 200 MPH barrier. Although A. J. Foyt won his fourth race that year, Tom finished a strong second as he would two more time before finally winning the race in 1983. 

I found this one with a mention by a fellow  modeler.  That's when I finally got smart. Since it cost about 3 time what a normal model would cost, I mentioned to my son that I would really like to build this kit. Low and behold, it showed up for Christmas!  Thanks, son!  Now to get started. I looked at the wheels and they are not exactly the same as a photo of the car. The wheels are a straight 4 spoke cross and the ones in the kit look more like a 4 spoke star. So since I have a few Indy kits I found a set of wheels in a Penske PC-6. But one of the front wheels had bad sink marks in it. So since I have two PC-6s I took the good wheel from each kit and now I have one good set of wheels. I also won't have to clean up the resin wheels and tires. I have already built one PC-6 so I may use these other kits for parts. But I could still build one with bad wheels. 

I've primered the body after cleaning it up ( I am going to minimize the vent holes from the inside) and have started building the engine. I thought I would do any wiring since its hard to drill holes in solid resin. that might end up with broken bits and scarred cam covers. Now I am thinking that maybe I could take an extra Cosworth plastic engine and substitute it. That way I could add more detail because it easier to drill out the spark plug holes in plastic. So that is where I am. I have ordered decals from IndyCals and I am still waiting on a part from Silver City that didn't make it into the box. I want to wait on decals before I try to pick the blue paint that I will need. So that is progress so far!  Thanks for looking! ?

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by ModelcarJR
move to WIP

[ModelcarJR]

Oops! This is in the wrong category! I moved it to the WIP section. Please ignore!