Four Small Wheels 8/2005

news

World Champions

September was a busy month in the world of motorsport and we saw most of the major international titles settled.

Fernando Alonso became the youngest ever F1 World Champion and his Renault R25 is available in kit form from Silverline (TMS021) and Studio 27 (STU20184).

Sebastien Loeb has won his 2nd successive World Rally Championship in crushing form and his Citroen Xsara can be built from Racing 43 (RGRK376) or Provence Miniatures (PMA0038) kits.

The majority of Valentino Rossi’s opponents in Moto GP probably wish that they had just spent the year on the beach as he wiped the floor with them! His Yamaha M1 isn’t available yet but we have no doubt that either Studio 27 or Renaissance will release a transkit for the Tamiya kit to produce his French-sponsored machine.

Congratulations to Britain’s Dan Wheldon on winning the IRL and the Indy 500! Hopefully Formula Models will be adding the Indy winner to their future production schedule.

The FIA GT series is still in full flow but it looks increasing likely that the Maserati of Vitaphone Racing will take that one (see right).

Well done to all the teams, winning drivers and model makers.

More Maseratis!

Just as we were putting this issue to bed we also received a phone call from Midlantic Models to say that they are adding to their Maserati Birdcage theme. Coming soon will be kits (MID082) and hand builts (MID082M) of the T60 driven to victory on its race debut at Rouen in 1959 by Stirling Moss.

GT News

Good news for GT collectors. PMA have confirmed that they will definitely be making the beautiful Cirtek/Russian Age Aston DBR9, as raced at Silverstone as both a kit (PMA0083) and hand built (PMA0083M). The kit will also include decals for the works cars as they appeared in the Spa 24 Hours.

As if this isn’t good news enough for Aston fans, there will also be a high-detail version of the Le Mans car as kit and built and, due to popular demand, the kerbside hand builts are now available for both cars. We’ve been seeing an increase in Maserati related releases over the last few months and soon we can look forward to the stunning Vitaphone-backed MC12s from this year’s FIA GT Championship as a kit from BBR (BBP367).

Your ‘real’ toys
Visitors on GPM’s open Saturdays are advised to keep an eye on the car park when they pop in, as fine days are often a good excuse for collectors to bring out their full-sized toys.

One recent visitor was Paul Lacey with a machine that is a rare sight on British roads. The 2005 Viper RT10 is one of just 200 ‘White Mamba’ limited editions and believed to be the only one in Europe! We could make this a regular feature so please bring your exotica down. Otherwise we’ll start showing you the staff cars and they are far less interesting (our apologies to any members of the Nissan Micra Owners Club that we may have offended with that last comment)!

At time of going to press they were due to contest the Nurburgring 1000kms and we wish Matthew and the team better fortune this time. Matthew will also be contesting the Maserati Tropheo race at the ‘Ring, sharing a car with Chinese driver Ho Pin, who is currently doing very well in German F3. If all goes according to plan, the three drivers will be lining up at Le Mans next year in the first Hong Kong based team to contest the great race.

At last!

Great new for all F1 kit builders, Tameo have just announced the next release in their brilliant, high detail WCT range of kits. TMKWCT70 will be the Lotus 72 of Jochen Rindt from the 1970 German Grand Prix. Tameo promise more than 300 parts in the kit which will of course feature removable body panels and full engine and chassis detail.
Hopefully Tameo will follow this great car with JPS versions - perhaps Fittipaldi’s 1972 Championship-winning car? - and what about the Lotus 49? Or are we just being greedy!?
For those who fancy something a little simpler to build, SRC’s Lotus 72 kits are now back on the market thanks to SMTS.

...line by line...

One omission that we have noticed on Provence Miniatures’ Flying Lizard Porsche GT3 is the fact that the car ran with mirror tinted windows. If anyone can suggest an effective method of replicating this effect we would love to hear from you. Our suggestion is to spray the printed windows with a fine silver acrylic on the inside before cutting out...... Heco Miniatures will be offering their new releases with the option of period diorama bases depicting French street scenes, or you can still have them on the regular smaller bases...... MR Collection are making the special Lamborghini Countach owned by the King of Haiti...... Racing 43 are the latest to offer the Ferrari F430 as hand built models....... another new name has appeared on mid-price hand built market, Bee Bop Models first releases will all be Abarths...... exciting news for rally fans, Scala 43 now have the first castings for their long awaited Skoda 130RS models. They are now working on the photo-etch and decals so we will hopefully see these before too long....... Le Mans Miniatures are making the 2005 race winning Audi R8 in 1:24th scale..... a rare new release from Omicron will be here soon, the record attempt version of Giulio Foresti’s 1927 Djelmo...... K&R Replicas are making several versions of the modern MG TF...... and finally some sad news. Following the passing last year of André-Marie Ruf, the family have decided to close the doors on one of the best known and respected names in the business. Final deliveries are on their way and that’s it.......