March 84c side pods 101 *information thread*

[Calvin]

In 1984 Most of the field was March chassis, a lot of people assume that all the Marches are all the same, WRONG! Even though the Marches dominated the field the teams still tried different things with their March chassis to get that unfair advantage. The two teams that did the most modification to their side pods were Penske and Mayer Motor racing.

The Mayer Motor Racing team was basically the the factory March team for 1984. With that their cars had a totally different side pod configuration than the Penske Marches and even from the rest of Marches in the field.

Take a look at the side pods of the Mayer cars and compare them with the 'normal' March and Penske design.

Mayer

'normal'

Penske


as you can see there are huge differences with the side pods between the those 3 designs. That is why my kit is designed the way it is, with diversity in mind. The only difference between the 'normal' March and the Penske March side pods is the the Penske has the narrower radiator exit and more of a radius on the edge of the side pods than the 'normal' March pods. My kit has the 'normal' March side pods because its better to start that way in a manufacturing point of view. That is what the "Penske plug" is for in my kit. Its made to fit on both sides of the exits and glued in.


The its easy enough to sand the edges of the pods to get that slick Penske pod look.

[Calvin]

More info about the Mayer Motor racing cars shows that the left side pod is different than the right. (take note of the large radiator inlet and the small.


baggyparagraphs.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/howdy-holmes-qa/

and also the radiator exit it smaller on the right side pod.



I will be developing a Mayer Motor Racing side pod conversion kit for my March kit that will be sold separately from the my standard March kit.

[Calvin]

So thats why I'm currently working on a conversion kit that will be offered soon. ;D

This will be kind of a WIP, not necessarily directions but I'm just showing the development of the Mayer pod conversion.

With the under tray/trans axle glued in.....
I first marked some lines of were my "Mayer exit plug" will go.


more later....

[jamesharvey]

Isn't this fun? I can't believe your research and attention to detail. Thanks so much for keeping the history of Indy alive. Now, if we could just move the calendar to the present day and see the same innovation with the aero kits on the "new" Indycar. I love looking at the original Chapparal and the Batmobile plus Gurney's cars. Does it get any better than this? I don't think so thanks to you guys.
Jim

[Calvin]

The next step I did.......go crazy and grind out a big square hole within the lines!!!

[Calvin]

Currently I'm mocking up the pods up with my test parts (currently still styrene attached with scotch tape)

BTW I also cut off some of the tail of the engine cover. (the Mayer cars had short ones)

[Michael Chriss]

This is just great! I received my kit today. Each one gets better than the last. Really nice casting.

[indy]

Good eye for detail Calvin!

Jordan

[Deleted]

I would love to do a Jiffy Mixer!
The last time I saw Howdy Holmes he and his beautiful wife/girlfriend walked up and stood next to me along the fence between turns 4 & 5 at Mid-Ohio. He said he retired from driving to work the family business so he was just spectating at the race.

I just found your link to the Baggy Paragraphs article. A great read! It was good to fill in some details. It was in '89 that we talked at Mid-Ohio. He was with his wife Carole. Good memories!

[stonecold44]

More genius from Calvin. I've stopped being amazed by the attention to detail but this has me awestruck.

[Calvin]

The next step I did was, grind out the area that is shaded with the pencil mark on the right side pod exit.



Grind it out as straight as possible. Then finish it off with the file.

[Calvin]

I basically have the conversion parts figured out, they just need to be cleaned up and primed, then finalized for molding.



The thing about the Mayer side pods is with this model the left side is being raised up with my 'wedge' shape. But the right side pods will need to be sanded down at least 0.010"


Also take note of the large and small inlet.


Unlike the left side pod exit, the right side needs to be smaller.

[Calvin]

I got the resin parts made for the Mayer conversion kit!

So I did some test fitting and they fit, they just need to be sanded and filled with some bondo.

I hope to have this kit available sometime next week.









Spraying primer helps to pin point were all the bumps and holes are.

[ampersand]

I have been following this forum for quite some time, but haven't really gotten around to posting anything. Until now, because I must say that this project really is impressive! I know, because although I am not a plastic kit guy, I have dabbled a bit with March 84C's myself, albeit in 1/43rd scale white metal. Back in the mid-80s I ran a small company out of my native Denmark called Ampersand, which produced models of Indycars in the - in Europe - more popular scale of 1/43rd. The 84C was my first production model, and I made quite a few variations, and the funny thing is that almost all cars were slightly different, as Calvin is pointing out. For instance, as the season progressed, quite a few teams adopted the Mayer Racing-style sidepods, but even at Indy the different teams had different detail solutions, chopping off the tail, putting in NACA-ducts and so on. Actually, the pink Fittipaldi machine as well as the Foyt cars had a fairing covering the gearbox. I have some shots of it which I can post here, if you guys are interested. But, as I said, I just wanted to congratulate Calvin on what is obviously a great job!

[racerbrown]

hey ampersand,
please post away!
all pictures are good!
duane ;D

["500 LEGENDS"]

Calvin...not sure you have ever seen this shot of Sneva's 1984 March, but a great shot of the side pod entries.

John

Attachments: