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Just announced by Fly and Gaugemaster is a new collection of cars that raced at the Le Mans 24 hours. The first four cars are expected this summer, with another eight cars to be added to the collection. Only 200 will be made of each and the RRP is £62.95.

Gaugemaster have gone with liveries of the ‘also-rans’ - something I like. Starting the Le Mans 24 hours is worthy of being memorialised in a slot car release. Here are those first four - two Porsches from 1970 and two Ferraris from 1962.

FLYELM01 Porsche 911 No.63 Le Mans 1970 Rey Racing.
This car was driven by the Swiss pairing of owner Jacques Rey and Bernard Cheneviére in the GT2.5 class. The car crashed out after 13 hours. There are plenty of Porsche 911s that feature in the race footage in Steve McQueen’s film - might be a good excuse to watch it again.

FLYELM02 Porsche 911 No.59 Le Mans 1970 J.Egreteaud
Another privately entered Porsche in the GT2.5 class - this time French. Owner Jean Égreteaud shared the car with Jean Mésange, retiring in the eighth hour with engine problems. Another one to look out for when watching Le Mans.

FLYELM03 Ferrari 250 GTO No.23 Le Mans 1962 F.Tavano
A French privately-entered car, owner Fernand Tavano and co-driver André Simon lasted until the sixteenth hour, when the differential on their GTO failed and they retired from the race.

FLYELM04 Ferrari 250 GTO No.58 Le Mans 1962
This is probably the most prominent of this group of cars - a standard GTO that was entered by Count Volpi alongside a second ‘breadvan’ version. The #58 car had a strong pairing of Nino Vaccarella - at his second Le Mans - and Grand Prix driver Giorgio Scarlatti. All the GTOs fought hard for the GT class win and an overall podium, but both Volpi-entered Ferraris failed to finish, the Vaccarella-Scarlatti car retiring after 15 hours with engine failure. 

I’ll dig out some more over the next few days.

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There are plenty of 1962 entries available as slot cars - thanks to Fly, Le Mans Miniatures, Revell and various resin kits. These two GTOs certainly fill a gap - which is Gaugemaster's intention with the series. Both Ferraris have been produced as diecast models - the silver Tavano car more than the red one. Fly have these images of the #58 Vaccarella-Scarlatti car...

   

And I dug out this image of the Tavano car from the archives...

   

Hopefully Fly will show some prototype images of their models soon.

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I guess the Porsches are arriving first...

       

They look great! Perhaps there will be some on the Gaugemaster stand at Gaydon next weekend?


The RRP listed on the Gaugemaster site is the standard £62.95, so adjust accordingly to your usual Fly retailer's prices.