Alfa Tipo 33/3 Targa Florio 1970 - MFH 1:24

[jochen kieslich]

Hello everyone,
due to the cold and uncomfortable winter months it’s the best time to start another scale-madness………;-)
I’ve been interested in the mystic and legendary TARGA FLORIO-races for a long time now, especially the era between the late 60’s and the early 70’s when cars like the Porsche 906, 908, 910, Ferrari 312PB, 512S, Lancias, several types of Fiats and Alfas and a lot of other legendary sports cars took part.
It was also the era of some unforgotten and heroic gentleman drivers, so as Jo Siffert, Pedro Rodriguez, Brian Redman, Björn Waldegard, Jo Bonnier, Herbert Müller, Gijs van Lennep, Leo Kinnunen, Richard Attwood, Rolf Stommelen and among them some “local” heroes also so as Nino Vaccarella, Andrea de Adamich or Ignazio Giunti.
The hard ride through the beautiful landscape of Sicily tortured both, men and machines…. often enough the drivers had to take care of sheep, geeze, donkeys or other animals walking along the country roads or just standing and blocking the street. Some other interesting facts are that the race was held on a 71 km track, entirely of public roads, and was driven anti-clockwise.
Copied from Wikipedia some more very interesting facts and features:

The Targa Florio was in 1970 the oldest motor race in the world, even older than the Isle of Man TT and the Indianapolis 500. First run in 1906, it was run on narrow public mountain roads that went up and down, and twisted and turned around the Sicilian countryside. The race was run on a number of variants over the years- from 1932 to 1936 and 1951 to 1977 it was run on the 45 mile Piccolo (Italian for small) course- by far the longest circuit on the 1970 World Sportscar Championship calendar. It was one of, if not the last genuine street races still run in the world. The previous courses were 67 and 92 miles long; and there were 680 mile Island tour versions run in the early 1910s and the late 1940s. The Piccolo course went through 4 to 5 towns in the island of Sicily; it was one of the last genuine street races still being run in the world. The circuit was extremely demanding and very difficult to learn- over the 45 mile course, there were between 800 and 900 corners- 16 to 20 corners for every mile, and the circuit had about 2,000 feet of elevation change- twice that of the Nurburgring. There was also a number of straights joined together by a number of fast corners at the top of the circuit that measured out to about 6 miles- but the circuit was so twisty and had so many corners, average speeds never went past even 80 mph (128 km/h)- which in racing terms is very slow. The circuit was also very dangerous- although the streets were closed off to the public for the race (but not for the practice and test sessions- this caused all sorts of problems) the circuit was identical to every day civilian use, so it had no safety features of any kind and a crash often meant tumbling down a mountain slope or when in a town, crashing into a stone building, trees, and even groups of spectators.

The Targa Florio, was unusual in that it was a time trial race against the clock as opposed to a race for physical position. Like most races that take place on extremely long courses such as the Isle of Man TT, the Mille Miglia and some other Italian public road races, each car was started one at a time on the road at timed intervals, much like how a rally-type race is started instead of the cars starting alongside each other, which is almost always the case in general circuit racing and on every other race on the sportscar championship calendar in 1970. So, for example, Car A would be started at 10 minutes after Car B. Once Car B starts and as more race distance would be covered, if Car B was then 9 minutes behind Car A on the road, then Car B would actually be 1 minute in front of Car A. So it was really a driving challenge to see what car could cover the 11-lap distance the quickest- this is almost identical to how a rally works; the Madonie Piccolo course used roads that would be suited for a rally. Most drivers only knew what their position was every 35–50 minutes, and that was when they reached the start-finish line in the town of Cerda; or in more organized team's cases, in another town or on some part of the isolated section of the track, where members of teams would wait for their team's car to come by and they would show pitboards showing their position and how much time their opponents are in front or behind them, which was sometimes out of date; communication in those days was very limited (compared to now).

Due to the fact that the race was started in mid / late may and being located on a Mediterranean island, it was warm, sometimes even hot, and very dusty. GOOD FOR ME……;-))


I’ve chosen the HIRO-1970 Alfa Tipo 33/3 short tail for my interpretation and as subject. I had to decide between this one and the Porsche 908/03. The Alfa appears even MORE flat and wider than the Spyder does, and after my GULF-917LH I wanted to do another livery than the powder-blue-and orange one……AND, of course, the Alfa is a brute looking beast with a tremendous and overwhelming 3.0 ltr-V8-engine sound.

Entered by Autodelta Spa / Italy there were two Alfa Tipo 33/3 short tails. The #14 car of Hezemans and Gregory crashed in lap 5, the #28 car, driven by Courage and de Adamich finished in 41st position with a total of 7 laps (distance 497km).
OK, SORRY, enough words, here are some impressions of what I’m talking about.

#14 Toine Hezemans / Masten Gregory

#28 Piers Courage / Andrea de Adamich

The MFH-kit in it’s whole finery (took me 2 hours for the set-up…..insane, isn’t it…?)

OK, that's it for now, sorry again for all the words and thanks for your time.

Good fight - Good night

Jochen

[lovegt40]

the only missing part my friend...is the "real" smell of that places.
Targa Florio for us (mafiosi, baffi neri, spaghetti eaters..) call it "Giro di Sicilia" and for too many aspects was imho, the nicest race on open roads of the world.
Try figure out those roads...little villages, people lazy on the road looking thos strange fellas..talking strange languages racing in the sun and in the dust.
People there is amazing....I hope you can get real friends from such part of Italy. I have many, and they are magical.

It was the atmosfhere that was amazing. too many cool pictures from the period available around.

With alfa museum I made many alfa racers...but from the 20's or before.already tomorrow will have another meeting to see whats to scratchbuild next, for a very jealous private collector

...and now open windows...is warm,too sunny.....pffff..gimme some ice, lemmons...is hot...damn..is hot...madonna mia..

Keep on Jochen,make us dream with this model (and promise me, you will eat very often spaghetti during the build )

[jochen kieslich]

Hi Paolo,
thanks a lot for your "emotional" encouragement!
Me too, i love that mediterranean atmosphere, the era itself, was my year of birth also...;-)

By the way, i'm still looking for useful pics / impressions / sources depending the race and if course the two cars. If someone has to share something, THANKS A LOT, very much appreciated!!!

[lovegt40]

http://www.targapedia.com/

..of course in italian, but I am sure you can manage it as well

... sciuri ,sciuri, sciuriddu i tutttu l'annu ,parapappara ... (italiani pizza mandolino und sempre voglia di cantare !)

[gtziaf]

Jochen, with your description I almost smell the Italian countryside and the legendary race cars. Also, heard the sound from the engines and fans. Also, saw thousands of people in the road edges, where racing cars turn with more than 200km/h. And... also touch a painted message in a wall of an old house or in the middle of a highway, which still writes 'Forza Alfa'...
Amazing fillings, from the Italian way of racing and of course for the start of your build. Looking forward for every single update.

Forza Targa, forza Alfa, forza Jochen!