Jim Clark's Lotus 33

[arcticwolf]

I promised Brian I'd build it if he sold it to me, so here goes . It's an old UPC motorized kit, some of it had been glued together at some point, but a bit of cleanup and this is the chassis

these parts fit well

the firewall was missing so I made one, and I cut out the floor from the engine bay

A test fit, and the body panels fit very well - better than most!

Using my Lotus 25 as a guide and for inspiration.

The rest it seems will be mostly a scratch build.

[indy]

This is going to be good. Thank you for sharing the build with us. There will be a lot here that could not be appreciated without seeing the progress.

Jordan

[arcticwolf]

Jordan, you may have more faith in me than I do!

Chassis, tub painted industrial grey, BRG outside and some clear - put away to cure for a while:

This is all you get for an engine (plus some intake trumpets)

It was a motorized kit so they didn't bother with the rest of it. How to scratch build a Climax?

I took a Cosworth and started chopping until I got the bottom end to mate with the Climax "block", plus some filler bits:

Added the kit cam covers, some accents, more trimming and here's where I'm at:

It's dimensionally accurate, not so sure it will look a lot like a Climax when I'm done, but we shall try.

[kyledehart5]

Awesome!! this is just too cool.

[Gary Davis]

Man Paul...you're doing a great fab job on this engine. Way too cool!

[hurtubise56]

Well, I regretted letting this go for a little while, but now I am REALLY glad you got it! Great start, if you need any 1/12 bits to help you along, don't hesitate to ask! I have several parts kits here.

[arcticwolf]

Thanks Gary, Kyle.

Brian, you wouldn't happen to have one of those mythical Climax V8's in 1/12th...........

(I don't know if even MFH ever made one? Not that I could afford it!)

[hurtubise56]

Sorry, nothing like that!

[arcticwolf]

I've beefed up the rear crossmember and added some mounting points to accept one of my spare tranny's, hopefully it'll look OK and now I have a starting point

just a test fit for location and clearances

it might just work 

[Gary Davis]

That is looking REEEEAAAL good Paul.

[kyledehart5]

Absolutely. Looking great!

[hurtubise56]

Well, you asked about a Climax, but not a transaxle! I have a couple of Lotus 49 parts built-ups that have an older style transaxle. I should have offered, but now I guess it's too late, sorry. Here are a couple of pics that might help with other details, first one is from the 1965 Dutch GP:

[arcticwolf]

Yes, the car originally ran a ZF transaxle. I have one (only one) from a 49 kit, but it's a different model from the ones they used on the 1.5 litre cars so it would be "not quite right", but closer. I used a Hewland because I have lots of them!

I have a few pics of one of Clark's actual cars, it's restored and does the show circuit - I've seen it in person, beautiful car, and funny enough it has a Hewland in it. I don't know if it ever raced that way or somebody just swapped it out when they did the restoration, you never really know with a restored car. I might change just the rear pod over to a ZF style just to look a little closer, but it might not line up too well.

Or leave it like it is, you really need to know your Loti to say hey, wait a minute!

I find it ironic, the Tamiya 49 kit has a ZF, authentic. Their 49B kit has the same ZF, not authentic. The 49B switched to a Hewland because the ZF case flexed with the suspension loads bolted to it and caused transmission failures. So to build the 49B accurately you really should swap it to a Hewland if you have one. I've seen the MFH 49B kit - Siffert's car - and it has the correct Hewland. But for that money, it should.

Anyway, this build is a "best I could come up with", so no worries.

cheers

Paul

[arcticwolf]

Here's the 33 with a Hewland. Note it also has the older style wheels on it:

Like I said, never completely trust a restoration!

[hurtubise56]

Good plan, Paul, most people won't know the difference anyway! Tamiya's ZF isn't really all that good, either.

[arcticwolf]

Thanks guys. Those pics were from last week, I forgot to post them earlier.

I've made some engine progress, it's not for display (for sure!), just meant to look the part when installed in the car

A few years ago I used a Cosworth water pump as a turbocharger. This time I used a turbocharger as a Climax water pump. Go figure.

Nested in the car:

and a mighty fight to install the kit exhaust - 3 days worth

Pipes 1, 2, 3, 4 fit fine and gave a good locate for the tailpipes and brace, so they all got glued in first. Pipes 7 & 8 needed a re-bend, 60yr old plastic being very brittle so I heated them up - I usually only heat after bending to stress relieve - lucky it worked to be honest.

Pipes 5 & 6 might as well have been for a different car, I cut them in half, added new styrene and bent them to shape. Glad I went for the dirty used look, it helps disguise the flaws, lol.

That's how it looks, now you're all caught up. Thanks for looking and the kind words

cheers  Paul

[hurtubise56]

Wow, looks like you've reached "climax" with your Climax! Nice recovery on the exhaust, they are hard enough to do in a large scale, some of the smaller ones (IMC!) are just about impossible. I lean towards solder sometimes. This is shaping up to be a very impressive model, especially for those of us that saw it in the raw! I should just sell you ALL my kits, sometimes I feel like I'm failing them.

[harveythedog2]

I built this car many moons ago in my 1/12th building days. The tires in the kit were way oversized and will ruin a good build. I ended up buying more accurate replacement tires from ABC of Italy. Will try to find an old photo if I can.

Your build is looking great!

[kyledehart5]

Mar 30, 2022 7:26:29 GMT -5 hurtubise56 said:

Wow, looks like you've reached "climax" with your Climax! Nice recovery on the exhaust, they are hard enough to do in a large scale, some of the smaller ones (IMC!) are just about impossible. I lean towards solder sometimes. This is shaping up to be a very impressive model, especially for those of us that saw it in the raw! I should just sell you ALL my kits, sometimes I feel like I'm failing them.

I feel like I fail all of my kits. LOL.

[kyledehart5]

Great work here. That engine and exhaust turned out really nice!

[arcticwolf]

Thanks guys.
Brian, have you seen the price of Solder lately?
Who is ABC of Italy? I'm leaning towards trying to make my own tires but if I can buy them I'm all for it!

[arcticwolf]

OK, rear suspension. Very nice doughnuts and metal springs and shocks from the kit. The rest, not so much, but mostly usable. Drilled out the trans, doughnuts and inner half of the hubs to accept a tube for the axle. It rotates and is captured by the outer hub halves. I'll cut the left side flush after the hub is located:

Used the kit trailing arms and just can't live with this, they really look crude. Too big besides they're bent. Left side as built:

Making new ones from rod, much better proportioned, this is the right side after the fix:

This whole project is taking a bit of work, to say the least.

cheers  

[Gary Davis]

For real....but you are doing good...don't stop.

[hurtubise56]

Apr 4, 2022 22:34:57 GMT -5 arcticwolf said:

Thanks guys.
Brian, have you seen the price of Solder lately?

Luckily I am fully stocked from many years ago!  My wife says this just means I'm a hoarder!

Awesome progress so far, keep it up!

[kyledehart5]

Continuing to shape up nicely! Always look forward to these updates.

[jj66]

That's a great example of how to improve an old kit. Love it.

[arcticwolf]

This has probably been more work than any kit I've ever built. The results, not that great. It's OK, but not really all that well built - too many things kept needing changed just a little (or a lot). But I learned a few things, lol.

Beyond the body pieces and a few suspension and engine bits, and the rad, it's all basically scratched. Even the steering wheel had to come from another Lotus.

This is what I've ended up with:

It sits on sawhorses for the for the moment (maybe forever), the kit tires are so bad they're offensive and waay out of scale. I have a few experiments I'm trying but as of now I have no viable options, so we wait.

[arcticwolf]

One of the challenges is always trying to get it all to fit under the engine cover. It fits:

I have no decals for this car. I e-mailed Michael about maybe re-sizing his Lotus 25 decals but I didn't hear back, so I'm modifying the Indycals Lotus 49 set I have, should work out close enough.

My idea of a Lucas fuel bomb

The whole car ended up with a slightly scruffy, used race car feel to it, but I kinda like it that way.

If I ever get tires, I'll post some more  (wishful thinking)

cheers

[kyledehart5]

Still turned out awesome despite any shortcomings you may feel it have. It looks like what it’s supposed to, at least to my very amateur eye. Really well done, as always and a fun build to follow along with.

[justmike]

The way you overcame some of the build difficulties is way beyond my abilities. I can sure appreciate the amount of sweat and work that goes into these kinds of builds. It looks great.