[woodcote]

       

SAL-171 Vauxhall Firenza 1973 Droopsnoot. Slot car body & chassis kit. £39 from George Turner Models.

As always, George Turner is having a busy start to the year, bring a number of new slot car kits into production. The first is this wonderful Vauxhall Firenza HP (High Performance) - as raced by the legendary Gerry Marshall and the works Dealer Team Vauxhall (DTV) with the 'droopsnoot' bodywork during 1974-5. The Firenza HP roadcar - of which only 204 were ever built - was based on the Magnum Coupé. Along with the distinctive aerodynamic nose, the HP was fitted with Vauxhall's first 5-speed gearbox and a bid 2.3-litre slant-four motor, tuned to produce an extra 21 bhp over the production engine. That gave the road car a 0-60 time of 7.6 seconds and a top speed of 120 mph.

       

The performance road car was inspired by the success of Marshall in a standard race-tuned Firenza - the 'dropsnoot' bodywork added to the DTV racer for the 1974 season. Marshall's car - named "The Old Nail" - took 66 race and class wins (3 for Bill Dryden) and four championship titles - the 1972 BARC Forward Trust Championship, class championships in the 1973 Forward Trust and 1974 Simoniz Saloon Car Championships and - for Bill Dryden - the 1975 Scottish Saloon Car Championship. Marshall's Firenza was exhibited for many years in the Donington Collection.

   

The George Turner Models kits contains:

• Unpainted, resin body shell
  
• Resin chassis with inline motor pod
  
• Resin dashboard, bumpers, driver, headlights
  
• Vac formed interior, windows, headlight covers
  
• Decals
  
• Screws
  

Wheel inserts are available seperately as PCS-1401 (£3.50 per set of 4)

George recommends the following running gear (not included in the kit)

• Wheels and tyres: PCS Classic 15'' wheel set (Ref: PCS-WTP14)
  
• Axles: 45mm 3/32
  
• Motor: Standard S-Can (pinion on bell end)
  
• Other parts: Guide, crown wheel, pinion, cable, braid, bearings
  

The initial kits include a generic decal sheet, but George is hoping for period decals to become available - I'm pretty certain these will include the Gerry Marshall DTV car.

The model should be pretty handy on the track with a wheelbase of 78mm and potential rear track of 56mm (the scale width would be 51.3mm).

Although featuring mostly the V8 "Baby Bertha" and production Magnums, this Vauxhall documentary gives a wonderful flavour of the era and of Gerry Marshall in his prime...




Fans of 1970s saloon car racing are just going to have to get one (or two) of these classic cars

[KensRedZed]

Andy. Thank you very kindly for posting.

My very first car was a 1972 SL. The street version did 0-60mph by... tomorrow? 

I look forward to building one of George's models. He makes cool stuff.