1967 Ferrari 300 of Rick Durkee
by Jairus/Havlicek Sept 2008

At any rate...
I had a plan back in April. The plan was to build a neat Pro type racer from the inline brass wire era. I love the lightweight early Russkit motors but hate working with brass tube so the era narrowed down to a few short months between October of 1966 to March to June of 1967. Of course there were tracks and builders who were still trying to compete with brass wire cars after pans came onto the scene... but based on the reports from Car Model, this was the plan. Since April, I have been working on it in total secrecy, telling only John Havlicek the updates.

The article.
I choose to build the car at the bottom of this article and think I got pretty close.

The 1967 Ferrari 330 of Rick Durkee:

One note... the bare frame is not blinding and shiny for a reason... The plan was to build a car that looks like it came from that era. In other words... with a slight patina on it. As if the car were put away in a box after the race and forgotten. Not beat to death, sold at a garage sale, or tossed in a box of other crap with no care. But stored carefully. So, to that end... I airbrushed acid flux on it!
Annnndddd I also buried the frame under wet dirt for a week! (The above photo was prior to the burial and yes, I said some nice words...)

The patina was not quite what I wanted but at least the finished piece looks pretty old... but, it will get better with time.
The wheels however... I sprayed Easy-Off oven cleaner on them and the effect was so fast and so rapid I had to do a little cleaning with steel wool or they would have ended up totally black! Wow.

Motor: Russkit
Gear: MDC
Arm: John Havlicek 27/28 rewind, epoxy and balanced
Wheels: Russkit reproductions.
Tires: How should I know? Ranalli rears and Okeefe fronts, I think
Frame: Watson
Guide: Russkit
Body: TrueScale
Paint: Red

This body is mounted really low. Molded really low, too...
The clearances are very tight and some rubbing of the tires during hard driving is to be expected. Right now all clearances are about 1/16 of an inch all around. This includes the body to the wheels, the body to the guide, and the interior to the drop arm weight.

I cannot believe how much work went into these early cars... and they were built by kids too young to drink, living at home and attending high school during the day. (Just when did they do homework? Brian Warmack, you got an answer to that one?)