Daytona '89 Porsche 962 - Miller High Life

[Spad]

Hello all - I've been a lurker around this site for some time now so I guessed it was probably about time I introduced myself and got a bit more involved. By way of intro I thought you might like to see my latest build.
I'm pretty partial to the racing Porkers and this one represents the Busby Racing IMSA GTP 962, chassis #108 which won the 1989 daytona 24HR in the hands of John Andretti, Bob Wollek and Derek Bell. It also gained the distinction of being the fastest 962 ever and I believe was the mount for Bell's last race win.
I saw it at Goodwood FOS in 2005 and thought it was beautful:

At that stage I didn't know of any kits to produce it until I saw a couple of builds recently on another forum of the M&S transkit. I managed to get hold of an example at a bargain basement price on evil-bay so well chuffed.
Comparison with period pics from '89 race shows the car today is in a slightly different configuration today -the high down-force set-up with the dive-planes added to the front fenders (tested at Daytona but not run in the race) , blanked off headlights, stalk mounted mirrors and a re-located towing eye. But it's still pretty and inspired me.
Using a Tamiya 962 as a donor, the kit is essentially resin and pretty comprehensive with a one piece resin body and separate resin parts for the IMSA spec BBS wheels, the rear wing flap, rear wing support, two turbo waste-gates and a large bore rear exit exhaust. There are also resin mouldings for the side radiators, the massive intercooler and for the rear brake duct snorkel intakes. Rubber (vinyl?) moulded tyres are supplied and the cabin glazing is in the form of vac-form mouldings - only one set in my example which was pre-owned (no pressure there then!) but I believe a fresh kit has 2 sets so all good. Headlights and the fairings are produced in clear resin along with a pair of tail lights. Finally, a gorgeous decal sheet rounds it all off.
This was my first attempt at a transkit and also at using large resin components so it was with extreme caution that i felt my way into this one.
A fair amount of chopping about of the floor pan and cockpit interior is required to suit the new body - the instructions include templates to assist here.
Tamya rattle can provided the white and gold and Zero's pre-mixed lacquer topped it off. The decals worked well but benefitted from a bit of hair-drier to help the green on the nose wrap around the compound curves.
assorted Alclads sorted the aluminium areas. Little-lenses for the headlights.
Anyway, enough waffle, here she is - hope you enjoy her as much as I do.

Comments and criticism welcomed in equal measure.

A quick view of the floor/cockpit areas - belts courtesy of ST27 plus a bit of wiring for the ECU.

the lovely little rear wing support structure (a one piece moulding!) You can also see the extent of the rear floor shortening - it normally goes past the rear jack- here it stops at the rear edge of the lower wishbone.







The shorter tail with the huge wing is evident here

The two turbo wastegates and the big single tail-pipe (IMSA rules -one turbo)

And here you can see the massive intercooler intake on top of the engine cover plus the huge side rads near the cockpit


Thanks for looking!
Cheers all
Rick

[DerXL]

Very very nice.
I've never seen this kit or livery before. Looks very mean with the big intercooler on top.
Down the drain go the sleek curves... LOL.

Your build looks great. The engine area (at least what's there...) and interior looks very good.

I never tire of these group C cars, especially with all those (for me at least) new liveries.

The rear tires look a bit funny though. They seem a bit to "thick" to me (high sidewalls).

[modlman17]

It looks great! You did a great job with the masking and it looks like that was no easy task. I love the 962 and the IMSA High Downfoce was one of my favorite configurations.

Rob

[nugundam93]

Awesome build! It's a pity the tamiya 962 didn't have engine detail but still

[DTM Fan]

Great build!
The model looks very good!
regards Ralf

[lemansnut]

Looks great! Been tempted to buy this transkit and I think you've convinced me. This car used to frequent Road America for some of the vintage events, really is pretty cool!

Mike

[Martini Man]

looks really good.

[123yokomo]

beautiful build