[woodcote]

   

This rather tasty picture of the first two liveries for the McLaren Elva appeared recently on the Thunderslot website. That certainly got me drooling in anticipation of the cars' imminent release.

On the left is the black and silver painted McLaren M1A-Oldsmobile that made its debut in September 1964 at the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport. Bruce McLaren drove the car in the same colour scheme (but with the #2 on the front and sides) at Riverside in the L.A. Times Grand Prix. He reverted to the #47 at Laguna Seca for the Monterey Grand Prix in October.

It was after Monterey that the car was repainted red and silver for the December 1964 Nassau Speed Week. I have only ever seen pictures and movie footage of the red M1A sporting the #5 at Nassau. In Eoin Young's biography of Bruce McLaren, it is mentioned the colour was chosen simply because they had a surplus supply of red paint at the workshop...

The start of 1965 saw the announcement that Elva Cars Ltd would build customer versions on the M1A at the Trojan factory in Rye, East Sussex. Twenty four Elva-McLaren Mk1s would be built, allowing McLaren to concentrate on racing and building prototypes - an arrangement that worked rather well. The factory paint scheme stayed red for 1965 and 1966, but from the start of 1965 the red was highlighted with white, rather than silver. Because of that, I am scratching my head a little about the the red #2 car in the picture. It certainly looks like the 1964 Riverside car, but is the wrong colour. And none of those 1964 cars raced with uncovered headlights - although that would become a common look for Elva Mk1s racing in Europe. I don't remember seeing a red #2 customer car that looked so much like the 1964 Riverside car, even down to the STP decals. And that does look like Bruce driving, doesn't it?

I know Giovanni has a love of the 1960s sports prototypes, so I'll be interested to hear more about the story of the red #2 car. It does look fabulous, even if it is not historically accurate. I'm also looking forward to seeing what customer Elva-McLaren Mk1 liveries follow. I have been tempted to buy the kit and build John Coombs' white Elva-McLaren Mk1 that Graham Hill raced at Silverstone and Brands Hatch in 1965... but I suspect that might be on the future release list at Thunderslot HQ in Erbusco.

The body is certainly wider than scale, but no more than the very nice George Turner model. To me, the Thunderslots are a near-perfect marriage of eye candy and racing pedigree.

   

The Thunderslot McLaren Elva has a familiar layout under the beautiful body. There's the Thunderslot MACH21 motor, giving 21,500 rpm at 12volts and 175 g/cm of torque. The motor is mounted in a slightly angled sidewinder orientation in a triangular pod. Both the pinion and spur gear are nylon, giving a very smooth mesh. The standard ratio is 11:32, with alternatives available as tuning parts. Rear wheels are aluminium air hubs, fronts are lightweight plastic. Plus there is the unique swooping Thunderslot guide.

The two cars will retail in the UK at £87.95 each - MRE and Pendles have them on pre-order for around £79. Having missed their scheduled December 2019 release date, they are expected very soon.