IMMORTAL: Lotus Type 49

IMMORTAL SLOT CARS

Scalextric Lotus Type 49

From time to time, ManicSlots is going to take a look at some of the 'immortal' slot cars that have been produced since the 'Fly' revolution of 1996.

In 1996 Fly released the Viper, a slot car that would change the direction of the 1/32 slot car industry forever. Fly let us know that slot cars could actually resemble a racing car and introduced the slot car industry to the 'D' word, detail!

It may seems a little premature perhaps to categorise the Scalextric Lotus 49 as an immortal slot so soon but the 49 is a slot that has made a huge impact from the instant it was released.

The Scalextric Lotus 49 was initially released in the 'Year of Legend 1967' box set C2923A with the Eagle Gurney-Weslake V12. While the Eagle received positive reviews, it was the beautiful lines of the Lotus 49 that captured the imagination of slotters around the world.

It wasn't long after the release of the 'Year of Legends' box set that Scalextric released a very limited (by Scalextric standards, 1500) release of the 'Gold Leaf Team' Graham Hill Lotus 49 (C2964). For some reason this limited release set the slot world on fire and the slot was all but sold out before it had even been put on the shelves.

Since its release we have seen the Gold Leaf 49 resell for up to 4 times its initial purchase price. The Gold Leaf Lotus 49 was arguably the collectors ‘must have’ slot car for 2009.

The Gold Leaf Team Lotus 49 No.5 was driven by Graham Hill in the Tasman Series, Australia in 1968. Some history on the 49 from Wikipedia:

“From its introduction in 1967 the Lotus 49 was painted in Lotus's traditional British racing green with yellow centre-stripe. Over the following 16 months the design gained increasing numbers of sponsor patches and large driver name strips, while retaining the traditional base scheme. However, from the 1968 Monaco race, the 49 was painted red, cream and gold, the colours of Gold Leaf cigarettes after Chapman signed a lucrative sponsorship deal. It was the first sign of big money entering the sport."

"In testing, Graham Hill found the Lotus 49 easy to drive and responsive, but the power of the Ford engine difficult to handle at first. The V8 would give sudden bursts of power that Hill had reservations about. However, Jim Clark won its debut race at Zandvoort with ease and took another 3 wins during the season, but early unreliability with the DFV ended his championship hopes."

"It had teething problems in its first race for Graham Hill, and it had spark plug trouble at the Belgian Grand Prix, held on the 8.76 mile (14.73 kilometre) Spa-Francorchamps. Jim Clark and Graham Hill fell victim to the reliability issues at the French Grand Prix, held at the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit (a smaller circuit using only part of the track used for the Le Mans 24 Hours), and lost to Jack Brabham. Jim Clark then ran out of fuel at Monza during the Italian Grand Prix. Mechanical failures cost Lotus the championship that year, but it was felt that 1968 would be a better year after Cosworth and Lotus perfected their designs, which were clearly the way forward."

Closely follow the release of the Gold Leaf 49 was the number 7 Type 49 (C3031) driven by Graham Hill at Le Mans-Bugatti circuit in 1967. Graham Hill took Pole Position but his Lotus retired after only 14 laps due to Crown wheel and Pinion failure.

Although released less than a month ago, the Graham Hill Lotus Type 49 has proven almost as popular as the Gold Leaf Lotus and is all but sold out world wide despite being released in much greater numbers.

Specifications:

• Gear ratio: 9/27
• Magnatraction: 2.5mm button magnet
• Downforce: 235 grams
• Motor orientation: Inline rear wheel drive.
• Motor: Mabuchi FF 18,000 rpm
• Overall length: 130 mm
• Wheelbase: 75 mm
• Guide: Self centering blade
• Weight: 51 grams

ManicSlot's Collectability Score: #5 Gold Leaf Mustang - Extremely High.

ManicSlot's Collectability Score: #7 Graham Hill - Very High.

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NEWS: BRUT Mustang

Scalextric BRUT Mustang

C3002 Allan Moffat

Scalextric will soon release the Allan Moffat Brut Mustang and for those of us in Australia that's great news! I have seen few Brut Mustang reliveries over the years and have always wanted one for my collection.

Scalextric have done a great job on the livery, the silver and green paint scheme looks great. Given the popularity of the Allan Moffat Coke Mustang here in Australia, I would expect this one to be very popular.

You can read more about the Brut Mustang on the Scalextric Website Here

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IMMORTAL: Porsche 917K

IMMORTAL SLOT CARS
Fly Porsche 917K - Part II

From time to time, ManicSlots is going to take a look at some of the 'immortal' slot cars that have been produced since the 'Fly' revolution of 1996. In 1996 Fly released the Viper, a slot car that would change the direction of the 1/32 slot car industry forever! Fly let us know that slot cars could actually resemble a racing car and introduced the slot car industry to the 'D' word, detail!

Of all of Fly's releases, the Fly Classic range has to be the most successful and sort after by collectors. Classic slots such as the Porsche 917K, Ferrari 512 and the Lola T70. More recently Fly has released other classics such as the Porsche 917LH and Ferrari 250 GTO but these models have not enjoyed the same success.

Without a doubt, the 'King' of the Fly classic range has to be the Porsche 917K. I have split this edition of Immortal Slots into two parts because there are just too many stunning versions of the Porsche 917K to fit in one post. The slots I've photographed are not the rarest 917Ks available but they are some nice examples. If anyone has some of the rarer 917Ks they'd like photographed and featured on ManicSlots, by all means send them my way. ;)

The number 18 Porsche was driven by David Piper and Gus Van Lennip in the 1970 Le Mans 24h. The car did not finish and retired after 112 laps. The race was won by another Porsche 917K driven by Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood.

The below 917K is the special re-issue of SM3 24hr LeMans 1970 and was released by Fly in 2007 to celebrate their 10th anniversary, (1996 - 2006). The car was driven by Jo Siffert and Brian Redman, the car did not finish the race and retired after 156 laps.

This from Wikipedia 'For the first time the traditional "Le Mans start" was replaced by an "Indianapolis start". For Porsche's 20th participation, Ferry Porsche himself dropped the tricolor flag at 16:00.'

So where did the 'K' model come from, this from Wikipedia: 'Disappointed by the poor results of the 917 in 1969 and facing a new competition, Porsche contracted John Wyer and the Gulf Team to become the official Porsche team, and also the official development partner. During tests in Zeltweg, Wyer's engineer John Horsmann had the idea to increase downforce to the expense of drag, a new tail was molded with aluminum sheets taped together. This worked well as the new short tail gave the 917 better stability. The new version was called 917 K (Kurzheck).' Kurzheck means 'short back'.

The below 917K raced at Can-Am Watkins Glen in 1970 and was driven by Brian Redman. Brian finished the race in 7th position, his only race points for the Can-Am 1970 season. The race was won by Danny Hulme driving a McLaren M8D #1.

This from Wikipedia: 'Watkins Glen International (nicknamed "The Glen") is an auto race track located near Watkins Glen, New York, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. The facility is owned by International Speedway Corporation. It was long known around the world as the home of the United States Grand Prix, which it hosted for 20 consecutive years (1961–1980), but it has been home to road racing of nearly every class for over 50 years.'

The number 6 Porsche 917K is part of the recently released Fly Team Gulf set, Ref 99046. This set was released in 2007 and is already getting hard to come by. If you have the means to collect one I strongly recommend you do so as the set is stunning and very collectible. You can read a review on the Team Gulf set here: http://manicslots.blogspot.com/2007/11/fly-gulf-team-set.html

Find out more about the 1970 running of Le Mans here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans

You can find out more about the Porsche 917K here: http://www.research-racing.de/917-a.htm

You can find Part I of Immortal Slot's Porsche 917K here:http://manicslots.blogspot.com/2008/02/immortal-porsche-917k.html

ManicSlots Collectibility Score, (non LE 917K): Extremely High!
ManicSlots Collectibility Score, (LE 917K): Off the Scale!

If you like these photos, head over to ManicSlot's Wallpapers: http://manicslots.blogspot.com/2007/11/manicslots-wallpapers.html

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IMMORTAL: Porsche 917K

IMMORTAL SLOT CARS

Fly Porsche 917K - Part I

From time to time, ManicSlots is going to take a look at some of the 'immortal' slot cars that have been produced since the 'Fly' revolution of 1996. In 1996 Fly released the Viper, a slot car that would change the direction of the 1/32 slot car industry forever! Fly let us know that slot cars could actually resemble a racing car and introduced the slot car industry to the 'D' word, detail!

Of all of Fly's releases, the Fly Classic range has to be the most successful and sort after by collectors. Classic slots such as the Porsche 917K, Ferrari 512 and the Lola T70. More recently Fly has released other classics such as the Porsche 917LH and Ferrari 250 GTO but these models have not enjoyed the same success.

Without a doubt, the 'King' of the Fly classic range has to be the Porsche 917K. I have split this edition of Immortal Slots into two parts because there are just too many stunning versions of the Porsche 917K to fit in one post. The slots I've photographed are not the rarest 917Ks available but they are some nice examples. If anyone has some of the rarer 917Ks they'd like photographed and featured on ManicSlots, by all means send them my way. ;)

This silver limited edition is the S81 Porsche 917K Roadcar 'Conde Rossi'. This from Wikipedia; 'Astonishingly, despite the car's impracticality, at least two 917s were road-registered. One, for Count Rossi of the Martini concern, was painted silver and given the Alabama plate 61-27737 to circumvent red tape in Europe, and the second, for Joachim Grossbad, was painted white and given the German registration CW-K 917.'

The Conde Rossi is truly a beautiful example of Fly's 917K and can still be found occasionally on ebay and is still stocked by a few slot shops. Whether you race them or shelf them, I advises collecting any Fly 917K and therefore strongly advise the limited edition versions. Apart from being very collectible, they will soon become the flagship of your collection. No serious collection is complete without at least a few.


The below 917K is from the Fly Team 12, Porsche Martini Racing 2 car set. It is also known as the ‘Psychedelic’ Team Set because of the outrageous paint finishes the cars have. The first car in the set is the #3 917LH which raced at 24 hours of LeMans in 1970 and was driven by Willy Kauhsen. The second car, (photographed here) is the #31 917K which raced at the Monza classic endurance race in 2004 and was driven by Juan Barazi.

The Fly Porsche Martini Racing set is still occasionally available, but commands high prices as it is a team set. Prices are around the $US250 mark.

This from Wikipedia: 'The Porsche 917 is a racecar that gave Porsche its first overall wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970 and 1971. Powered by the Type 912 flat-12 engine of 4.5, 4.9, or 5 litres, the long-tailed version was capable of a 0-62 mph (100 km/h) time of less than 2.5 seconds and a top speed of over 248 mph (394 km/h).'

'The 917 is one of the most iconic sports racing cars of all time, largely for its high speeds and high horsepower outputs, and was made into a movie star by Steve McQueen in his film Le Mans.' If you haven't already seen the Steve McQueen movie LeMans and you love these cars, then you owe it to yourself to get a copy quickly.

The below 917K is part of Fly's Racing Films Collection and was raced in the 1,000 km Buenos Aires event in 1971 by Vic Elford and G. Larrousse. The recently released LE car comes with a DVD documenting the event and a 20 page book outlining some of the history of the event. Of particular interest is Vic Elford's account of the race which makes for fantastic reading. This race was the first time a Porsche 917K had been raced in the now famous Martini Racing Team livery. Vic set the fastest lap time during the race but was later disqualified for receiving outside assistance, (outside of pit lane).

The DVD details the history of Las Temporadas Argentinas from 1947 to 1972 and has extensive coverage of the 1971 1,000 km Buenos Aires race including the fatal crash that claimed Ignazio Giunti in his Ferrari 312PB. The crash is quite disturbing as Ignazio's car and Jean-Pierre Beltoise's car burst into a massive fire ball on impact. The tragedy is the entire incident would have been avoided if yellow flags had been deployed more effectively.

Enough of the history, I'm sure you'll all agree the Martini Racing Team 917K is spectacular. This car is still available so if you have the means, get one while you can.

You can read the history of the Porsche 917K on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche_917

For a more comprehensive history of the 917K and dozens of excellent photos, head over to IMCA here:

1969 http://porsche917.com.ar/index_i.htm

1970 http://www.imca-slotracing.com/Porsche917-1970.htm

ManicSlots Collectibility Score, (non LE 917K): Extremely High!

ManicSlots Collectibility Score, (LE 917K): Off the Scale!

You can view Part II of Immortal Slot's Porsche 917K here: http://manicslots.blogspot.com/2008/02/immortal-porsche-917k_24.html

If you like these photos, head over to ManicSlot's Wallpapers: http://manicslots.blogspot.com/2007/11/manicslots-wallpapers.html

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