Post by David Mitcham on Mar 4, 2018 1:33:40 GMT
The Tipo 65 has been on the back burner for quite a while. I had blocked it out and intended to complete it whilst in NZ but the Wolverine took over. Having completed the latter more quickly than expected there was time to get stuck into the Maserati.
A brief history of the Tipo 65 – l sightly edited version from Ultimate Car.
“Between 1962 and 1964 Maserati's customers competed at Le Mans with the front-engined 151 prototypes. Among them was the French team run by Colonel Simone, who represented Maserati France. A fatal accident in Simone's 151/3 during the 1965 Le Mans test-weekend left the team without a car for the race two months later, so he commissioned Maserati to build him a new car.
Giulio Alfieri, the Maserati chief engineer, retrieved an old Tipo 63 frame from the Maserati 'scrapyard' and used to construct a new racing car in record time.
Alfieri stretched the Birdcage chassis to the maximum by installing the latest version of the Tipo 151 V8 engine, which packed a 430 bhp punch. To cope with the additional horses, the chassis was revised considerably and featured wider track front and rear to accommodate fatter tyres. The design of the new body reflected many of the lessons learned with the 151 series and most notably featured a vertically chopped off rear-end and the inclusion of outlets for the radiator behind the front wings. Six weeks later the Tipo 65 was completed and on its way to Le Mans where it arrived five days before the race to be driven by Jo Siffert and Jochen Neespasch.
With only very limited time to test, the Maserati France team made the most of the practice session to gather data. The 21st starting position was not promising, but Siffert had a stellar start and was up to eighth as the cars screamed by the start-finish line. It all went terribly wrong in the next lap when Siffert spun and punctured the radiator in the Esses. He did manage to get back to the pits, but ACO regulations stated that fluids could only be refilled after 25 laps were completed and the team was forced to retire the car after just two laps.
Back at the factory, the Tipo 65 was repaired and modified for future track use, but it would not see track action again. It was subsequently sold to a Swiss collector, who had it modified with a new nose as the most notable change. He sold it on to Jo Siffert and after his fatal crash in 1971, it was bought by an English historic racer.”
Another rather unsuccessful car then. Its not exactly beautiful either but it has a certain presence and I like it. The carving has followed a similar path to that of the Wolverine and I used a modified version of the Model Cars plan as the original has a number of inaccuracies (particularly the length of the nose) obvious when studying period photographs. Its been a bit quicker to do as the Maserati doesn’t have so many curves and indentations to replicate, in fact the rear deck of the car is more or less flat. That said the door and radiator outlet behind the front wheel arches were a little tricky and the front arches, bonnet , headlight indentations and nose took time to get right – and I’m still not sure they are. The photographs show the carving before adding the louvres in the nose, and final sanding prior to priming.
Best Regards
David
image.ibb.co/ckkzHc/IMG_2337.jpg
A brief history of the Tipo 65 – l sightly edited version from Ultimate Car.
“Between 1962 and 1964 Maserati's customers competed at Le Mans with the front-engined 151 prototypes. Among them was the French team run by Colonel Simone, who represented Maserati France. A fatal accident in Simone's 151/3 during the 1965 Le Mans test-weekend left the team without a car for the race two months later, so he commissioned Maserati to build him a new car.
Giulio Alfieri, the Maserati chief engineer, retrieved an old Tipo 63 frame from the Maserati 'scrapyard' and used to construct a new racing car in record time.
Alfieri stretched the Birdcage chassis to the maximum by installing the latest version of the Tipo 151 V8 engine, which packed a 430 bhp punch. To cope with the additional horses, the chassis was revised considerably and featured wider track front and rear to accommodate fatter tyres. The design of the new body reflected many of the lessons learned with the 151 series and most notably featured a vertically chopped off rear-end and the inclusion of outlets for the radiator behind the front wings. Six weeks later the Tipo 65 was completed and on its way to Le Mans where it arrived five days before the race to be driven by Jo Siffert and Jochen Neespasch.
With only very limited time to test, the Maserati France team made the most of the practice session to gather data. The 21st starting position was not promising, but Siffert had a stellar start and was up to eighth as the cars screamed by the start-finish line. It all went terribly wrong in the next lap when Siffert spun and punctured the radiator in the Esses. He did manage to get back to the pits, but ACO regulations stated that fluids could only be refilled after 25 laps were completed and the team was forced to retire the car after just two laps.
Back at the factory, the Tipo 65 was repaired and modified for future track use, but it would not see track action again. It was subsequently sold to a Swiss collector, who had it modified with a new nose as the most notable change. He sold it on to Jo Siffert and after his fatal crash in 1971, it was bought by an English historic racer.”
Another rather unsuccessful car then. Its not exactly beautiful either but it has a certain presence and I like it. The carving has followed a similar path to that of the Wolverine and I used a modified version of the Model Cars plan as the original has a number of inaccuracies (particularly the length of the nose) obvious when studying period photographs. Its been a bit quicker to do as the Maserati doesn’t have so many curves and indentations to replicate, in fact the rear deck of the car is more or less flat. That said the door and radiator outlet behind the front wheel arches were a little tricky and the front arches, bonnet , headlight indentations and nose took time to get right – and I’m still not sure they are. The photographs show the carving before adding the louvres in the nose, and final sanding prior to priming.
Best Regards
David
image.ibb.co/ckkzHc/IMG_2337.jpg
