GT40 "Replicas"

Inspired by the success of the SAFIR MkV a few companies started to built GT40s on their own. They didn't have the right however to name their productions as such. They were "Replicas" and not "continuation" GT40s. Some were making excellent cars, other took liberties and their cars sometimes only looked alike with modern mechanical parts usually sold in kit. Here is a non- exhaustive list of replicas companies:

Active Power                                                   All Pro Cars
Bailey Edwards                                               Backdraft Racing
CAV (California Advances Vehicles)              Dynamic Motorsport
DRB Replicas                                                  Fiberglas US
ERA Replicas                                                   Hawk Cars
Gelscoe                                                            Total Performance
GOX                                                                 V8 Archie
Hollman & Moody                                           VIP Classics
RCR (Racing Cars Replicas)                            Franco Sbarro
Southern GT                                                     MDA
Tornado


THE MODELS:

MDA GT40  From the 007 movie "Die another day" - (UNIVERSAL HOBBY)
Replica of the GT40 Mk1 by the MDA company

The MDA in the Movie

RCR40 - From the movie "Fast Five" (IXO)
Replica of the GT40 Mk1 by the RCR company

The RCR40 in the Fast Five movie

GT40 "Continuation"

                                 THE  GT40 Mk V

In the late '70s the historic race scene took off and the demand for GT40s was high. The offers were scarce and prices  soared. It was hard to find a good one with no rust at a good price.
An Englishman, Peter Thorp was looking for one without success. He met John Willment (the owner of JWA) who owned the right of manufacturing the GT40. They met and agreed to built a series of 25 cars.
It was the start of the SAFIR company. Len Bailey one of the original engineers of the GT40 program was asked to design the new car using more recent techniques but the car had to meet the original plans to be able to race in historic races. JWA authorized Safir to take over the chassis number where they left it at the end of the production starting with 1090. It was a success and the production of the Mk V (As it was called) went beyond the 25 chassis originally agreed. Safir became also the official provider of spare parts for all GT40s MkI MkII and MkV.
The MkV was manufactured up to 2000 then the company was sold and moved from England to Ohio but retained the right of manufacturing original parts.
In the mid 2000s the company Superperformance took over the making of the GT40 MkI and II and was allowed to continue the sequence of chassis number where Safir left it. Although a British company, the car are assembled in South Africa using Safir parts.


THE MODELS:

Safir GT40 MkV - Chassis 1142 - (Kit TENARIV modified)

The same

1142 in an historic race

Superperformance MkII (SOLIDO)

The same

A Superperformance MkII with a coupe Cobra

A Superperformance MkII

Diorama Le Mans 1966

To prepare for the 1966 24 hours of Le Mans, Ford rented part of the large Peugeot dealership near the city of Le Mans. The 3 teams entering MkIIs for the race shared  the same location. SAI (Shelby) prepared the # 1 (The blue car) #2 (the future winner) and #3 (the red car) H & M (Holman & Moody) had the # 4 - 5 and 6 and Alan Mann had the #7  (silver) and #8 (yellow).
I choose to present the Shelby cars in my diorama.
The winner (#2) is the kit I showed in my previous post: the highly detailed kit by PROVENCE MOULAGE. The #3 in a kit by TESTOR (based on the UNIVERSAL HOBBY kit, itself based on the JOUEF EVOLUTION one) that I chose for its opening parts. I modified it, the original kit being imperfect. The #1 is a kit by MARSH MODELS. This car raced with red "flames" on the front fenders added prior to the race. This diorama represents the Peugeot garage during practice therefore I chose to make this car without them.


The MkIIs in the Peugeot Garage:

The Diorama:

Ford MkII winner LM 66 "Provence Moulage"

The making of the 1/43 highly detailed kit by PROVENCE MOULAGE of the FORD MkII Le Mans 1966 winner

I bought this kit a few months ago on eBay. It was originally released around 2000 and is now out of production. It was one of a few kits highly detailed with opening parts made by Provence Moulage for some anniversary or maybe for the millennium. I have almost 40 years of experience making kits but I never have made one so detailed and I was a little bit anxious to start it.  Making it was surprisingly easy considering that there are almost 300 parts. It took me over 2 months to finish and I was really happy with the result. I will present that model in a diorama in my next post.


The kit as I received it:

The instruction sheets:

After painting:

Almost done:

The final result: