Ferrari F-40 "Beurlys" spider, scale 1/8

[Pascal D]

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.

These picture show the F1-type suspension :







And this is before and after the modification into a spider :











And this is the result :


Bron : carigan.49.free.fr


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
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 in the "side walls", just in front of the rear wheels :















Pascal

[Pascal D]

This is how the ducts look after a lot of sanding, it will take a lot more filling and sanding :







Started altering the dash, there's a lot of difference with the standard F-40 dash :







And I cut and filled the rear spoiler :







Then it took my dremel and cut the roof off :








Greetings

Pascal

[gtziaf]

Great idea, passion and work for this awesome project.
Good luck until the end...

[klutz_100]

Super project!

I'll be waiting for the next instalment of this as eagerly as I wait for the next episode of House

[Pascal D]

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 :



These are BBS E-19 style 3-piece cast magnesium centerlock racing wheels :



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 :



The pieces made by Frits :



Dryfit with the Pocher rim, the plastic that you see behind the spokes will be removed :





Then it was time to change the rear wall of the cabin. Pocher made this as a "curved" part, but the Beurlys has a flat one :





The doors are wider then the normal F-40, I added a plastic strip of 8 mm, and did a dryfit of the parts I made :





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]

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 :

[Pascal D]

Did some more work on the rear cockpit wall :



And started filling and cutting the holes for the seatbelts :









This was all the work that I did before I put a aside for a couple of months. The next updates show the progress I made since august 2009.

[Pascal D]

The right hole for the headlight has been lengthened and widened :





Quite different from the unaltered left one :



I started to make the holes for the cooling "slits", I let the pictures speak for themselves :











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 :





And I did the same with the holes on the right side :

[Pascal D]

After looking at the pictures of the 1/1 scale Beurlys, I discovered that the big hole had the wrong shape.



It's not easily visible on the pictures, but the hole has been widened on both sides by 4 mm.

I made the central "plate" in front of the windscreen from a aluminium bracket that came from an old computer, and cut it wit the Dremel :





It's not finished, the curve side that rests against the windshield needs some work :

[Pascal D]

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 :



And I started making the lip/edge around the big hole. Glued a plastic strip with "2 component glue", the strip needs to be sanded in shape :




Greetings

Pascal

And that's all for now, till next time.

Greetings

Pascal

[stump]

Pascal,
What a totally insane build...
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]

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]

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]

So, I guess I didn;t have to wait too long for the next instalment.... LOL

Super work again

[Pascal D]

Thanks guys

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

Greetings

Pascal