Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Maranello Concessionaries
I´m not a Ferrari fan, although I like many of the cars from this manufacturer, most of them predate 1990. One of Ferrari cars I like is the 365 GTB/4, an incredibly elegant two-seater GT.
Its production began in 1968, the Pininfarina design was a very important change of style compared to previous Ferrari models, not mechanics, which maintained a traditional scheme of front engine and rear-wheel drive, an engine that was also a classic in brand, as was the 12-cylinder and 4,400 cc. engine used in other models of the manufacturer.
The photo above is extracted from mad4wheels.com, where you can see other photos of the same model.
Its mechanical layout was not ideal for the competition, but despite this, several units were prepared for endurance and sport competitions from early to mid-70s The prepared model was called the 365 GTB/4 Competizione and Ferrari manufactured 15 cars in three series of 5 units with diferent features:
- Early 1971, the five cars that made the first series had a complete aluminum body with slightly flared wheel steps.
- The second series of five cars were also made in early 1972, but its body was made of steel, while the doors, hood and boot lid were made with aluminum. The wheel arches were also widened relative to the first series and added the body a small front spoiler.
- For the 1973 5 cars were built belonging to the third series, which only had the hood and boot lid in aluminum.
In total 24 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Competizione were made, including both cars made by Ferrari as official conversions approved by Ferrari although made by the manufacturer near preparers.
Obviously, the body changes were accompanied by various mechanical upgrades to increase its power and improve the chassis, achieving 430 hp from its 4,400 cc. engine. The car was not only very nice and had very good performance, but it was very reliable, which allowed them to be a winner in its category at the Le Mans 24 hours the years 1972, 1973 and 1973 being the year 1972 the more successful when he managed to get 5 cars in the top 5 in its category.
You can see more photos of the car in different versions in this link
The spanish slot car manufacturer Fly Car Model made a 1/32 scale model for slot tracks. Like most of its reproductions, exudes quality on all four sides, it may be a bit wide in proportion to the original model, but it is a very nice slot model. In the slot club where I will run, Ministry of Hobby, held a one-make competition with Ferrari GTB 365/4. The regulations were very simple, keep the engine layout (front) and the original chassis, the rest could be modified to taste. To participate I bought a 365, a unit with the magazine Miniauto Slot commemorative decoration, which is this:
Car decoration was not bad, and as I hadn´t time to decorate ran with the car as it was, but the intention was to paint with other colors. Cars Fly are not easy to strip paint, the paint is well applied, and instead remove all the paint, after disassemble the body completely, sand the surface with 220 grain waterproof sandpaper to prepare it for painting above the original paint.
To match the color of the surface, apply a coat of gray primer spray. As I had sanded it carefully, I did not have to caulk anywhere.
The chosen livery were inspired by the Maranello Concessionaries team cars. Maranello Concessionaries was the official Ferrari importer for the UK, and began his career in the early 60s. At that time, the victories of racing cars were a claim for car buyers, so that created a competition team to promote the cars, mainly in the UK, but also participated in international events like the Le Mans 24 hours. In fact, the last race of the team was the 1972 Le Mans 24 hours with a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona, race they could not finish.
The decor of the cars was very simple, in red with a longitudinal blue Cambridge stripe and the front bumper and rear painted the same shade of blue, some white dorsal, Ferrari badges and some United Kingdom flags completed a simple but colorful and attractive decor, which is what I wanted.
The painting process only took the difficulty of mask the body properly. Firts painted blue the front bumper and center and rear of the body. The Blue Cambridge tone is a very light blue I got after mixing acrylic blue paint Tamiya X-14 reference and white X-2 reference. Let the paint dry a couple of days and masked the parts of the car that should be blue with Tamiya tape. Then I painted the body with Tamiya acrylic paint (red ref. X-7) and let it dry completely before placing the decals.
As you can see, the decor is not exactly the same of the team Maranello Concessionaries cars, but is inspired by it.
With such a simple decoration, decal sheet would not be very big, as you can see:
So placing them had no difficulty.
After leaving dry the decals several days, I applyed a generous coat of automotive varnish to protect well the body, since in competitions the shocks and crashes are the order of the day. At some points the varnish was not all smooth I would have liked but do not give much importance, although I would have liked to get a better finish.
Inside I did any change, I really like the complete interiors. I know that for competition is better less detailed interior weighing much less, but I do not mind that my car is not top because I´m not a top driver.
The tires were painted the same blue color as the body. Being a racing car, the front tires were the same as in the original model, but the rear wheels are aluminum ones. To maintain the same tire model, I hit inside the aluminum wheels a polyurethane resin insert, as shown at the right of the image. The insert is a polyurethane resin copy of a Spirit Ferrari 512 rim.
I have the exhaust pipes removed when I race with the car, but to leave it completely finished, I painted with matt white Humbrol enamel. They are only embedded in the chassis without paste them, to remove them when I want (for slot racing).
And once the car completely ensambled looks like this:
I am very happy with this decoration, has been very simple to do, but the result is what I´m looking for, a simple and colorful decor that feels great in the car. The only drawback I put it is that the varnish has not been better applied, it is a shame the defects that have been on the roof because it could had been perfect, but as this is a car to compete sure that one defect soon will going to be much more... So I will have a slot car with the "end of race" finish.
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