Lancia Stratos Pirelli rally car--full engine!

[924_CarreraGTS]

I bought Hasegawa's Lancia Stratos rally car, a popular subject here, about six months ago. Having never seen a Hasegawa kit, I didn't know what to expect. When I opened it, I was pleasantly surprised by the kit's high quality and attention to detail. I was disappointed, however, by the lack of an engine. In the course of my modeling "career", I will probably build many curbside kits. However, I have no other such kits at the present moment, and I decided that the Lancia shouldn't be one either. But instead of buying a resin engine, like at least one other forum member did, or getting Fujimi's Stratos with its full engine, I just decided to print some reference photos and scratchbuild the engine. I don't know how crazy that sounds to you seasoned modelers, but I thought it was pretty crazy myself. But before I could think too hard, I dove in. The block is a highly modified 5.8L Ford engine from AMT's 1990 Ford F-150. The oil pan, drive housing, crank pulley, and header collectors came from the Hasegawa kit's "engine box" (the cube of plastic with some molded-on detail that replaces the engine.) The carburetors and intake manifold are highly modified Revell '57 Chevy Bel-Air custom parts. The rest is styrene. (And wire, and solder for the exhaust)


This isn't done yet--this is a WIP, right?!




In this picture, you can see the strength ribbing I added to the heads.




Here is a close-up of one of my favorite features, the differential. This was scratched from various-sized disks of .010" (and one .040") styrene sheet.


Here is a close-up of the carb linkage and return spring. The spring is made of .07mm wire. (Basically hair sized).


Already there are problems. Some new reference shots reveal that my bell housing is much too bulbous and rounded. Also, the oil pan is missing a small "shelf" on the front side. These will have to be fixed. Additionally, the valleys in the cam covers aren't deep enough, there are no bolt-heads, the exhaust collectors have large slots in them (which I stupidly didn't fill), all the carburetors and linkage came off after these pictures, the fuel lines to the carbs were already broken up, the drive belt came off, and I failed to build a water pump. Also, the oil filter, cooler, hoses, and oil collector hoses are not made yet (well, the filter is, but it still needs its custom Fram decal). In other words, there's plenty of work ahead, but this is a good start, I think.

Now, here is my airbox. Again, all styrene. The white mark is chipped paint from removing a decal that I decided looked wrong.




Now, I put a lot of work into this part. But I have a suspicion that it is not correct for the rally car, but only for the street vehicle. Would someone knowledgeable please set me straight?!!! My goal is accuracy, and if it means tossing this part, then so be it. So what is the correct air box?! I have seen many types on the Stratos. Give me feedback as to any other problems you see that I didn't mention! I'll need all the help I can get.
Thanks.
Alex

[freakray]

That's a brave undertaking to build the Ferrari Dino engine from scratch when it's available in so many kits.

You're correct, that specific air cleaner design was only on the road car, the rally car airbox looked like at least one of these two dependant on the rally (I am certaint there were more styles of airbox):

[924_CarreraGTS]

Thank you for that information. If it helps, this car was the 1978 San Remo rally winner. If no new info turns up, I'll probably build the box-type one because it just looks better with this paint scheme; it'll be pretty accurate one way or the other.

[puffyrs]

Good on you to build you own engine.
While you are doing things like this it helps you learn new skills which you may be able to use on other builds.

Well done.

[gionc]

Pay attention on rear fenders: Pirelli kind have some strange narrowed stuff.

[924_CarreraGTS]

Originally Posted by gionc

Pay attention on rear fenders: Pirelli kind have some strange narrowed stuff.

What do you mean by that? I know that the kits are really tight-fitting, and that rear fenders often break when you are installing the body over the chassis. However I read that when you open the rear lid, this problem goes away.

Any help that you builders of this kit can offer would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Alex

[bigfrit]

Really interesting stuff! I hope to see more of this soon. As ray said, really brave job! And you seem to be putting it to a good end too. Although I m not quite sure you will get to the level of detail the resin one has. I hope you can prove me wrong, in doing so providing many pictures.

You seem well on the good way, but the allready painted parts got me tricked, usually , when I do some modifying parts, I tend to let them be primered till everything is right, and then paint them.

I don't know if that's a good advice for you, but my two cents!

Let's see more and don't give up! It can get frustrating!

[924_CarreraGTS]

Originally Posted by bigfrit

You seem well on the good way, but the allready painted parts got me tricked, usually , when I do some modifying parts, I tend to let them be primered till everything is right, and then paint them.

Well, yeah, normally I do too, but this time I thought it was right--until I got some new reference material. Oh well, though, live and learn. I'm going to try to get some more detail by adding a bunch of bolt heads and stuff. I really like how my strength ribs turned out, though. Thanks for the comments!

Alex

[freakray]

Originally Posted by 924_CarreraGTS

What do you mean by that? I know that the kits are really tight-fitting, and that rear fenders often break when you are installing the body over the chassis. However I read that when you open the rear lid, this problem goes away.

Any help that you builders of this kit can offer would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Alex

I think Gio is referring to the fact that there were 3 distinctly different rear covers on the Stratos rally car, the main characteristic being different fender flares over the wheels.

I believe the Pirelli car had the narrower fender flares so in the Hasegawa kit you shouldn't put the additional flares on the body.

Compare these on the Pirelli car:

Link to an awesome photo of one of the original Pirelli liveried cars here: http://www.italiaspeed.com/2006/cars...ratos/105.html

To these on the Alitalia car:


And just for reference, here's the third type:

[924_CarreraGTS]

Oh, OK...well, that's good, because it will be easier to get the decals to conform to the smaller fenders. Oh, and is the black paint on the Pirelli cars really semi-gloss like the directions say? It kind of looks like it is.
Thanks

Alex

[gionc]

Yep, Ray is rayght I mean just those: I haven't the pirelli hasegawa kit but I guess they done the street machine rear fenders or "alitalia like" one: like Ray said there's 3 kind of fenders (despite I do a big mess finding some alitalia Safari stratos with narrowed fenders, some chardonnet with wider and some pirelli with street fenders) BTW the right situation should be that:

stock fenders:



pirelli (intermediate):



alitalia:




and sorry if I was unclear before

[freakray]

Originally Posted by 924_CarreraGTS

Oh, OK...well, that's good, because it will be easier to get the decals to conform to the smaller fenders. Oh, and is the black paint on the Pirelli cars really semi-gloss like the directions say? It kind of looks like it is.
Thanks

Alex

Yes, the black is semi-gloss.

[924_CarreraGTS]

OK, being that the Pirelli fenders are in between street and Alitalia, should I just reduce the size of the Alitalia-style fenders that came with the Pirelli kit? Because the existing fenders are not wide enough--the wheels will stick out.

[freakray]

You could narrow the wheels down?

[gionc]

Originally Posted by freakray

You could narrow the wheels down?

Sure, this and also: at this point if you want a super-accurate replica the best job I'll see to do is a bodikit starting from street stuff: not easy, and need a lot of effort: well depend from your motivations. Alitalia fenders seem the most different from the pirelli kind: alitalia are completely smooth: you can't see any panel line until belt line. I'll scan and post some original alitalia picts (I guess those I posted before is a remaked car with fenders similar to Pirelli's stratos LOL) but the problem is around the pirelli now