SCX 60910 Sigma F1 Vintage - Another Oddball

Sigma F1

Another one from the "why on earth did they make that" department. I rather enjoy studying failed F1 cars, both 1:1 and the 1/32 variety and there are certainly plenty of examples to be found in the output of the major slot car manufacturers. In this mini series I have already looked at the BRM P83 and the McLaren M9A which had minimal success so now let us turn our attention to another SCX vintage release, the #60910 Sigma F1.

The M9A had a racing history lasting approximately 7 minutes but the Sigma went one better, it never turned a wheel! In fact it wasn't even a legal F1 car. It was actually a research prototype constructed in 1969 to test various safety improvements and was a response to concern about the increasing number of deaths in F1 at that time.

Pininfarina

It was built by Pininfarina, the design house, in collaboration with the Revue Automobile and with some help from Ferrari which supplied the chassis and engine from an F1 312 V12. It was way ahead of its time in many respects with deformable side pods, integrated wheels to minimise risk of interlocking and a spoiler which doubled as a roll bar. It also had onboard fire extinguishers, a driver survival cell, plastic fuel-tanks, a six point harness and a very early form of the Hans neck safety device.

It was shown at the Geneva motor show in March 1969 and then returned to the Pininfarina museum where it has resided ever since. It is doubtful whether its engine was ever fired up let alone taken out for a spin. Needless to add F1 took absolutely no notice of its safety innovations and it was many years before most of them would appear in an actual F1 car.

The Model

Four years later in 1973, for reasons best known to themselves, Exin Scalextric released a model of the car to a bemused customer base who probably weren't even aware of the existence of the 1:1 version! It was actually a pretty accurate representation of the real thing, apart from the weird orange and green colours, and stayed in the catalogue till the early 80s.

In 2002 it was added to the growing ranks of the vintage series when even fewer people would know about the project. It was also presented in a posh biscuit tin rather than the fancy boxes of previous vintage releases.

Sigma F1

This time it was finished in silver aluminium with correct tampo printing and was really a super model with excellent performance but it is debatable whether the real thing is actually that colour as most photos show it to be white. Whether that is a trick of the light or it has been repainted at some point I don't know as some photos do make it appear silver. Without travelling to Italy I am unable to confirm either way. Anybody visited the museum?

Sigma F1

So there you have it, another oddball car from SCX.