Post by pje on Sept 18, 2017 23:54:17 GMT -5
"Bookends"
Time it was
And what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence
A time of confidences
Long ago it must be
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They're all that's left you.
I just found this remembrance of Jim Clark not too long ago.
It reminded me of how long it’s been since we lost him, how old I am, and how long I’ve been holding on to a project very important to me that I really need to get done. I’ve started a number of builds on this site that are not yet finished. With this build I’m very determined to change that course. I hope no one minds how personal I will be making this thread at times. And, I begin this thread on a very important anniversary in my life. 50 years ago today, September 19, 1967, I started my adult life and joined the Air Force, and that day was the beginning of my own involvement with gas turbine engines. But first let me digress for a moment and start my story from the beginning.
My first introduction to a gas turbine powered Indy car was in 1962. When I first heard about Dan Gurney driving one at Indy I was quite excited. Of course that excitement didn’t last long but I was equally excited with what he ended up driving for the 1962 500. With that year, I was hooked on the 500 and the innovation in car design that always appeared there every spring, and along with Dan Gurney I became a big fan of Jim Clark.
By 1967, while listening to the 500, I was also moving out of my family home that I had spent most of my life. Since there was no place to store my model kits, they were all given away. I was one year out of high school and after a year of college I was more lost than ever. It was a time of the draft and since I didn’t want to be drafted, given a pot for my head, a rifle and sent to Viet Nam, I decided to join the Air Force. Since I was leaving, my parents elected to downsize into a smaller place. I stayed with them for a couple more months, but on September 19, 1967 I was off to San Antonio Texas and Lackland AFB for basic training. After 9 weeks of basic, I was sent to Rantoul, Illinois and Chanute AFB for tech school. I was going to become an Aerospace Ground Equipment repairman, and that’s where I was introduced to gas turbines. One of the units that I studied was the MA1A, a start cart for suppling high volume air for starting jet engines. That source of high volume air was a gas turbine.
While I was finishing up tech school that spring, unknown to me at the time, less than 150 miles to the east, Jim Clark was testing the Lotus 56, maybe my personal favorite Indy car of all time.
And then he was gone.
After finishing tech school and a couple weeks of leave, I arrived in Danang, South Vietnam on Saturday, May 11, 1968, the first scheduled day for qualifying for the 500. While following the news from Indy via the Stars and Stripes-Pacific newspaper that first month in country, I was introduced to another type of turbine powered machine, the M32A-60 power unit. I spent the next year learning and working on that piece of equipment, and maybe because of that time my interest in the 1967 and 1968 turbine Indy cars has always stayed with me. Oh, and after I got to Danang I was given a pot my head and a rifle, but that’s another story.
After getting back from Vietnam in 1969, I found myself stationed at Pete Field in Colorado Springs, Colorado. One of my room mates back then was Robert Fogg. He was from Massachusetts, drove a red 1969 Chevy Impala convertible and built models. He was into balsa flying models at the time, and had a few books on WWI planes. We had a nice hobby shop downtown and there I found my first kit, a Revell 1/28th scale Sopwith Camel. I also bought my first Badger airbrush. My next model was very popular at the time. The Revell 1/96th scale Saturn V. I remember purchasing it at Target for $12.95. Our room inspections were no big deal in the active AF back then but we did have them occasionally. However, when the inspectors walked into the room, saw Bob’s planes hanging from the wall and my Saturn V reaching for the ceiling, their attention turned to the models and they never looked at anything else in the room.
Around that time I found a couple more models. A rather oddly scaled 1/20th MPC Paxton turbine car and the MPC Lotus 56. In September 1971 I was discharged from the Air Force. I had limited room in my 1967 Simca 1000 and the models went into the dumpster.
I got back into building models when I quit smoking in the spring of 1978. One of the kits that I desperately wanted to get back into my collection was that Lotus 56 kit. It always seemed to be out of reach until they finally re-released it a number of years ago. During that time I’ve also owned a 1/43rd scale SMTS kit, a beautiful Tameo kit, a Spark model, a couple of Carousel 1 models, and the subject of this thread. The Model Factory Hiro 1/20th scale Lotus 56 Indy kit.
Paul Erlendson
Time it was
And what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence
A time of confidences
Long ago it must be
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They're all that's left you.
I just found this remembrance of Jim Clark not too long ago.
It reminded me of how long it’s been since we lost him, how old I am, and how long I’ve been holding on to a project very important to me that I really need to get done. I’ve started a number of builds on this site that are not yet finished. With this build I’m very determined to change that course. I hope no one minds how personal I will be making this thread at times. And, I begin this thread on a very important anniversary in my life. 50 years ago today, September 19, 1967, I started my adult life and joined the Air Force, and that day was the beginning of my own involvement with gas turbine engines. But first let me digress for a moment and start my story from the beginning.
My first introduction to a gas turbine powered Indy car was in 1962. When I first heard about Dan Gurney driving one at Indy I was quite excited. Of course that excitement didn’t last long but I was equally excited with what he ended up driving for the 1962 500. With that year, I was hooked on the 500 and the innovation in car design that always appeared there every spring, and along with Dan Gurney I became a big fan of Jim Clark.
By 1967, while listening to the 500, I was also moving out of my family home that I had spent most of my life. Since there was no place to store my model kits, they were all given away. I was one year out of high school and after a year of college I was more lost than ever. It was a time of the draft and since I didn’t want to be drafted, given a pot for my head, a rifle and sent to Viet Nam, I decided to join the Air Force. Since I was leaving, my parents elected to downsize into a smaller place. I stayed with them for a couple more months, but on September 19, 1967 I was off to San Antonio Texas and Lackland AFB for basic training. After 9 weeks of basic, I was sent to Rantoul, Illinois and Chanute AFB for tech school. I was going to become an Aerospace Ground Equipment repairman, and that’s where I was introduced to gas turbines. One of the units that I studied was the MA1A, a start cart for suppling high volume air for starting jet engines. That source of high volume air was a gas turbine.
While I was finishing up tech school that spring, unknown to me at the time, less than 150 miles to the east, Jim Clark was testing the Lotus 56, maybe my personal favorite Indy car of all time.
And then he was gone.
After finishing tech school and a couple weeks of leave, I arrived in Danang, South Vietnam on Saturday, May 11, 1968, the first scheduled day for qualifying for the 500. While following the news from Indy via the Stars and Stripes-Pacific newspaper that first month in country, I was introduced to another type of turbine powered machine, the M32A-60 power unit. I spent the next year learning and working on that piece of equipment, and maybe because of that time my interest in the 1967 and 1968 turbine Indy cars has always stayed with me. Oh, and after I got to Danang I was given a pot my head and a rifle, but that’s another story.
After getting back from Vietnam in 1969, I found myself stationed at Pete Field in Colorado Springs, Colorado. One of my room mates back then was Robert Fogg. He was from Massachusetts, drove a red 1969 Chevy Impala convertible and built models. He was into balsa flying models at the time, and had a few books on WWI planes. We had a nice hobby shop downtown and there I found my first kit, a Revell 1/28th scale Sopwith Camel. I also bought my first Badger airbrush. My next model was very popular at the time. The Revell 1/96th scale Saturn V. I remember purchasing it at Target for $12.95. Our room inspections were no big deal in the active AF back then but we did have them occasionally. However, when the inspectors walked into the room, saw Bob’s planes hanging from the wall and my Saturn V reaching for the ceiling, their attention turned to the models and they never looked at anything else in the room.
Around that time I found a couple more models. A rather oddly scaled 1/20th MPC Paxton turbine car and the MPC Lotus 56. In September 1971 I was discharged from the Air Force. I had limited room in my 1967 Simca 1000 and the models went into the dumpster.
I got back into building models when I quit smoking in the spring of 1978. One of the kits that I desperately wanted to get back into my collection was that Lotus 56 kit. It always seemed to be out of reach until they finally re-released it a number of years ago. During that time I’ve also owned a 1/43rd scale SMTS kit, a beautiful Tameo kit, a Spark model, a couple of Carousel 1 models, and the subject of this thread. The Model Factory Hiro 1/20th scale Lotus 56 Indy kit.
Paul Erlendson
Pro Tech | MAD | Scale Motorsport
