The F1M Forums

Well the original 1907 car seems to have the same diameter on front and rear rims. I wonder why the crimson car has it different.

The quest for the colour goes on. I've seen it stated that it was red and that Italy took the red for the national race colour because of the win of the Peking-Paris race. It is also mention that the car was dropped in the sea when it was going to be loaded on a ship after an American visit and that it then was painted battleship grey as corrosive protection as it was the colour available. Right or wrong, I prefer the dark red. I found the book about the race printed in Swedish 1908 and noticed that the text "Pechino Parigi" that was painted on the car look white on the pictures

I have started with the fuel tanks as the ones in the kit are to long since they were battery boxes for the electric engine that these kits had initially. The shape isn't round enough so I couldn't just shorten them.
My first thought was to build a box and file the corners round but I gave up on that.
Next try was to use 3,2 mm quarter round rods for the corners
But it still was to box like so I cut 9,5 mm tubes in half and added plastic card to make them wider and put two of these ovals above each other. It looked promising.
But when I had built the sides I didn't like the result so I studied pictures where the fuel were partly visible. It look like the top should be rounded and that they should also be narrower. I have been to been focused on the kit parts but finally came to the conclusion that to fit a battery they were also to wide.
My next try was a 16 mm tube that I split in half and glued plastic card between the parts.
Here is the evolution of the shape of my fuel tanks.
I glued 0,25 mm plastic card on the outside to get a smooth finish to the side. It was then "dressed up" with plastic strips and rods. Here it is together with the kits fuel tank.
The new one is about 12 mm shorter.
The box at the rear was to low and with wrong shape so now I could use the quarter round rod that was wrong for the fuel tank. I have to check the length of it when I have a car to compare with.
Next to do is to build the second fuel tank and the round tank that will be placed on this box. The tank provided in the kit is also wrong.

Great work on the fuel tanks, Björn!

I still haven't started on the kit. Lot of corrections are needed. The louvers have to be removed on the bonnet. I am glad that I bought the small chisels. I managed to remove the louvers and keep the rivets for the hinges.
The left side got new details from plastic strips.

I am reading the book about the race printed 1908 hoping to find a comment about the colour but no luck so far. I learned that the French car was grey and the Spyker red, white and black.
The tyres in the kit has some letters on them saying: PIRELL 860-120. (No i at the end). The book states that the Itala was very much standard but that Borghese decided to use the same tyres at both front and back. The size used was 935x135 mm, it also say that the standard Itala used 120 mm at the rear and 90 mm in the front. The kits tyres are close in size to the race cars even though the text 860-120 say something else. But sadly the track pattern are completely wrong but that is something I can't fix.

Not much to show. The second fuel tank is almost done but I just found some information about the colour.
I am reading the book about the race printed 1908 and finally found a reference to the colour. Barzini at one point refers to it as the gray monster so I guess the red is wrong. So I'm back to the Humbrol 128.

I love your dedication, Björn!

Orso wrote:...Italy took the red for the national race colour because of the win of the Peking-Paris race. ...

That seems like an interesting bit of history -- the reason why Ferrari F1s are red today. Has your research told you how red was chosen? Was it because Borghese could only find red paint, when he got to Peking? Or because red is a festive colour in China..?

Cheers, Chris

I doubt that it was red. The pictures from the race show a rather light coloured car and as I said Barzini who was a journalist that rode in the car refers to it as a grey monster when they try to pass a mountain. So there must be another reason for the Italian red race colour.

Finally I got around to this one again. I have started to build new seats. My first plan was to modify the back seat and make a mould to make new seats for the front so I cut it in the middle and made it wider. But I gave up on that as the shape was wrong and decided to scratch build them instead.

i finished reading the book and nowhere is red colour mentioned, but at least four times Barzini says it was grey.