Four Small Wheels 7/2003

news

Saloon car classics

With many of the European manufacturers on their summer holidays, the good folks at SMTS are showing no signs of taking a break with plenty of new items of interest, especially to fans of historic saloon cars.
In the arrivals list you will find multi-option kits of the Lotus Cortina and we expect no fewer than eight hand built versions any day now. These include Jim Clark’s 1964 British Saloon Car Championship winner and RAC rally car, Sir John Whitmore’s Alan Mann entered European Championship winner from 1965 and the Willment team car used to great effect by Frank Gardner. As if this isn’t enough for collectors of 1960s saloon racers several versions of one of the Cortina’s main rivals, the brutal Ford Galaxy, are also on the way.
If State-side activity is more your thing, there are three versions of the Penske/Sunoco Chevy Camaro and several 1968 Trans-Am Mustangs coming in SMTS’ Boss range, as both kits and hand builts.
Remember the Hurst Floor Shifter Special, Smokey Yunick’s bizarre Indycar with the driver in a side car? SMTS tell us that this will also be available very soon as a kit (RL061) or hand built (RL061M)

FSW Subscriptions

Calling all FSW subscribers. If you have an email address we can now notify you of when your favourite mag is due for renewal electronically. If we don’t already have your email address please let us know at mail@grandprixmodels.com
By giving us your email address, don’t forget you can also be notified of new arrivals on a weekly basis.

Annuals

If you haven’t already ordered your copy of the Official ACO Le Mans annual do so soon if you wish to receive one from first deliveries. We are now told that it will be available mid to late September so we should be posting them out soon after you receive this issue. And don’t forget it’s even better value this year at the amazing price of only £30, that’s £5 less than last year!
If Le Mans isn’t your thing, as soon as the various other championships are completed we will be receiving Autocourse, Rallycourse, Automobile Year and many other titles, see page 5 for more details. Order early to avoid disappointment, especially for Pirelli World Rallying which sold out incredibly quickly last year. Mind you, when we look at the quality of photographs and information included and the number of times we refer to our set of this great publication, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised!

Big news from S27

A constant feature in modellers wish lists seems to be the Lotus 77. Good news! On Studio 27’s future release schedule are high detail 1:20th scale metal kits of the car as it ran at Monaco and Japan. Other full kits in their kerbside range will include the Lotus 80, Brabham BT53 and McLaren MP4/18.
We keep being asked for decals for the swarm of Honda V5 bikes racing in Moto GP this year. They are coming! No numbers yet but within the next couple of months Studio 27 will be releasing decals for the Camel, Pramac and Telefonica machines, as well as a full transkit for the Yamaha M1. All we need now is for someone to make the Ducatis!

Wish lists

To all those who continue to send your wish lists to us, we thank you. It seems that Lotus collectors are the most vociferous and we have already included a number of these selections. We can’t promise that we’ll get things made but looking back through the last few issues and at the new releases in this one, some manufacturers are obviously taking note! Here are a few more....
Skoda Fabia WRC 2003
Williams FW06
Surtees TS9 (this appears a lot!)
McLaren M10
Tiga GC285 Le Mans 1985
Toyota Tacoma Pike Peak 2001
206WRC ‘Yacco’ FRC 2003

Model Plus 1:12th P4 As we were closing for press two of MG Model’s imposing 1:12th scale super-kits arrived, the 1972 Sebring 312PB and this monumental Le Mans 330 P4. Here’s a little of the detail and we’ll bring you more in the next issue.

...line by line...
First of all our apologies to Patrice de Conto who will be making the 1:12th 330P3 with Mini Delta, not Michel and a 312 as stated last issue!...... after an absence of a couple of years Scale Motorsports excellent carbon fibre decals and p/e parts can again be ordered from GPM...... Feeling 43 tell us that the long awaited Roi de Belge Ferrari 375 kit should be available in October. Also close to release is a short nose version of the 250LM in Ecurie Belge colours, the Mercedes 300SLR should be in the first half of next year and in the pipe-line is a Ferrari 250TR 57, all to their usual fantastic level of detail of course. Apparently they also have a boat project but won’t tell us what it is except that it will be 1:43rd scale and is a very famous vessel. Hope it isn’t Titanic, can you imagine the postage costs!?...... Land Speed Record fans. If you aren’t already aware of the North American Eagle project take a look at www.landspeed.com where you’ll find photos and info on this incredible project. It’s basically a Lockhead Starfighter with the wings removed and champion of crazy LSR projects, Ian Jones of Mach One Models is already hard at work on 1:43rd pattern....... Provence Moulage are cracking on with the 2003 LM grid. In the arrivals section you’ll see a total of 14 more cars and we expect at least half a dozen more next month....... Finally, don’t forget we will be closed for stocktaking 1-3 September so will take a few days to process any web or email orders, We won’t be answering the phones during this period either. The showroom is open on Saturday 5th September. .