I got a little bored with my street version of the F-40, and decided to start another project : the F-40 Beurlys.
This is not a well known car, but here's a brief history :
The car started life as one of the IMSA F-40 LM's (serial number 79890). In 1989 it was driven by the famous F1 racer Jean Alesi in the one-hour race at Laguna Seca. In 1993 the car was bought by a belgian driver named Jean "Beurlys" Blaton, and extensively modified. For example : it received an F1-type suspension (horizontal springs, sort of the the type you find in the F-50 and Enzo), finally it was modified into a spider. Also the entire exhaust system was altered, the exhaust pipes come out at both sides, just in front of the rear wheels.
Specifications : electronic injection Weber-Marelli IAW, 2 turbos IHI with 2 Behr intercoolers, pressure 2,5 Bar, 760 BHP at 7800 RPM, gearbox Enforced Hewland 5 speed + reverse (Crabots), weight 800 kg, rims BBS E-19 style 3-piece magnesium centerlock racing with Goodyear tyres, topspeed 360 km/hr.
The car has gone through some changes after it was converted into the spider, these will be discussed in future updates.
Since there' s only one lousy 1/43 scale model of this car, I wanted to build one in 1/8 scale. So this project is a unique one : the first Pocher F-40 ever to be converted into the F-40 Beurlys :D
A lot of work will be needed to make it look like the 1/1 car, and I hope that I will succeed in finishing it. (Sofar, it's been a real nightmare, with a lot of headaches :( )
OK, here we go :
First thing I did was cut the ducts out of the front bonnet, and put them on in the "side walls", just in front of the rear wheels :
Great idea, passion and work for this awesome project.
Good luck until the end...
klutz_100
10-10-2009, 03:25 AM
Super project! :thumbsup:
I'll be waiting for the next instalment of this as eagerly as I wait for the next episode of House ;)
Pascal D
10-10-2009, 04:42 AM
Thanks guys :)
This project was started in october 2008, there have been a number of pauzes, but I have continued the build since august 2009. So, I will post all the pics from the start till the progress sofar.
The Beurlys has different rims then the street F-40 :
I searched for these rims in scale 1/8, but I only found the 10 spoke version, so I asked a friend of mine (Frits), if he could make them with his CNC lathe. I gave him the dimensions and he made them from plastic. These are the original Pocher rims :
As you can see, the fit is not good. It will take a lot of work to get it right. It's important that all the parts in this area fit nicely together and that the angle of the headrests is correct, otherwise the "look" of the engine lid will be wrong.
Pascal D
10-10-2009, 04:43 AM
The centerconsole and gear shift are quite different from the standard F-40, so I started work on the centerconsole :
I did a dryfit with a piece of alu tube, but I couldn't get it right. After looking at the pictures, I discovered that the sidewalls of the interior are too narrow. So I started widening the sidewalls with plasticard :
With both doors and the left sidewall widened, and the centerconsole altered, this is the result. Notice the difference between the Pocher and the new sidewall :
The opening was made with a Dremel, but the holes were filed to size by
hand.
I made the louvers for the holes on the left side, but then I found out that the holes were to big. So with plastic strip, I made the holes on the left side smaller :
Well, I've been looking at the pictures of the 1/1 Beurlys for days, and still I'm not shure if the shape of the big hole in the hood is correct. So I did some filing and bending to make the area in front of the windscreen a little flatter :
Pascal,
What a totally insane build...:1:
My hats off to you my friend. This is going to look wicked when completed..
I'm not a real Ferrari guy, but I DO love seeing people attempt something out of the ordinary...;)
I can only imagine the fun (?) working with diecast.....
Knowing how difficult it can be at times, just to get mods looking right in plastic...what you have achieved so far is STUNNING !
Modelstate
10-10-2009, 08:48 AM
Fabulous work Pascal.
Seeming that I have allready seen most of the work it still is impressive to see this.
Keep it up.
Arno.
godfather23
10-10-2009, 09:43 AM
This surely takes some guts to cut one of the most expensive and hard to find kits apart to make this race version which parts you mostly have to make for yourself. I take my hat off, Sir.
Robert
klutz_100
10-10-2009, 10:08 AM
So, I guess I didn;t have to wait too long for the next instalment.... ;) LOL
Super work again :thumbsup:
Pascal D
10-10-2009, 08:56 PM
Thanks guys :smile:
godfather23 wrote :
This surely takes some guts to cut one of the most expensive and hard to find kits apart to make this race version which parts you mostly have to make for yourself. I take my hat off, Sir.
Robert
I've got 4 Pocher F-40's , three of them were bought on "Evilbay" and they were not so expensive. I've you look for a finished and damaged Pocher F-40, you will probably find one for about € 150-200. Of course that's a lot more expensive then a plastic 1/24 scale kit, but I think it's well worth it since it will take me about 1 tot 2,5 years to finish one conversion.
I'm planning to build 1 of the F-40's as a street version with almost all the parts from the Autograph transkit made from scratch (and adding a lot of extra details), 1 will be built as an LM version, 1 as an LM GTE, and this one will - hopefully - become the F-40 Beurlys.
And yes, apart from some switches and little parts for the interior, all the parts will be made from scratch :tongue:
Greetings
Pascal
Pascal D
10-11-2009, 11:44 AM
After four "sessions" of filler, sanding and primer, it starts to look smooth :
The bulges appeared to be OK, but after looking at the pictures of the real Beurlys, I noticed that the shape not correct. They're not long enough and to narrow :
But there was no way that I could make these bulges bigger without some more rebuilding of the hood. First I added a couple of plastic pieces to the rear of the bonnet, to make it longer, and change the angle of the base that will hold the windscreen :
After the removal of the center square piece, I'm left with four holes on each side. New center pieces will be made, to change them into eight holes.
Till next time
Pascal
star21
10-17-2009, 08:05 PM
interesting car and likewise interesting project. it takes a lot of guts (and money :lol2:) to chop up an F40LM. good job so far.
512BB
10-24-2009, 09:37 AM
Wow! Wow! Wow! This is one of the projects I have in mind in 1/24 scale and I also planned to use that lousy 1/43 from PM as a reference base. But thank you for your topic which will serve as an important reference for my future project (hopefully). Keep up your good work and I can't wait to see your completed model!
There is still a lot of work to build the front suspension, but finally I have an idea of the dimensions of the parts.
Till next time.
Pascal
360spider
11-01-2009, 08:16 PM
Wow, that's pretty insane! Awesome workmanship!
tuned.by.twenty
11-01-2009, 08:30 PM
This is such a big project, in more ways than one! I like the fact that you're taking the time to make everything perfect-not everyone could keep with this like you have. I want to see more!
Pascal D
11-08-2009, 08:02 PM
Well, I've decided to build the rear suspension from scratch, and to modify the standard Ferrari gearbox into a Hewland DGB one.
As you can see, there's a lot of difference between the Beurlys and a normal F-40 :
Building the gearbox and suspension will add a couple of extra months to this project, but I think (hope) that it will give this model a nice extra touch :smile:
Pascal
Midnight Racer
11-08-2009, 11:48 PM
incredible progress, can't wait to see how this turns out
Pascal D
11-17-2009, 06:50 PM
Did some work on the gearbox, for this I use knitting needles. They come in all diameters and are a lot cheaper then messing tubes :
Yay! I'm not the only one around here who uses knitting needles on my projects then! I agree with you Pascal - they're very useful to have around (I acquired my gran's stock several years ago - if she knew what I was using them for...) I found them particularly useful on the 908's roll-hoop - I threaded one inside a length of 4.8mm styrene tube so that it kept shape whilst I heated and bent it. Biggest problem seems to be cutting and drilling them - very tough (or my drills are blunt, I suppose).
Enjoying the spider project - I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the suspension come together on that gearbox. Keep going!
Cheers,
ScratchBuilt
Pascal D
12-12-2009, 05:53 AM
A little update. Did some work on the side "walls", these will be made flush with plastic strip :
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