i am tom from hamburg, germany - building f1-kits since the first tamiya´s were available. that was somewhere in the mid seventies of course and i am not sure what was finished first these days: drivers licence or first kit. so you can imagine - i completed meanwhile a half of a century
i was infected with f1 in 1970...and i mean totally infected...i was crazy about racing. and when you are crazy about racing, why not build the things of which you get crazy. thats how it all began.
first break in going crazy came in 88 - when it was such boring seeing nearly all races won by mp 4/4´s......thanks to mr. schlesser again :mrgreen. at this time i could not knew that from now on it would always be like this......i hated the schumi years. i saw my first race in 1980 at hockenheim (see below some pics from races and models - and please don´t bother me for posting this all not in the right area) and i made it every year to zandvoort, belgium or france.....you met people the from all over the world....and that was exciting. not like soccer.....not beeing there to watch "him" (whoever it was) race - just there to meet people from somewhere and smelling the taste of race. wow, this was great.
okay, as a german guy one always wanted to have a german winner. but, tragically, mass´ victory was not that big deal as the true winner of that spanish thing was rolf stommelen - who did a great job in this car. he was a real underdog. and i always loved seeing the underdogs win. so the best race in the past few years is of course monza 09. a really underdog combination.
schumi in spa 92 was also a very emotional moment for a german f1-nut. and: the underdog won........but then......everything was boring. the 94-season was not boring, was only sad.
today´s f1 is a comic to me. comparing it to my early days, when 4 to 8 drivers could win a race......wow THAT is f1. so i became tired of f1 and tired of f1-modelling. seems to me, that this goes hand in hand. my last completed f1-kit is from five years ago - and its the 1999 modelers-jordan of heinz-harald frentzen. a real underdog
but a real good one back in 99.the biggest underdog - the man i always think about that he never got what he deserved is nigel......my all time favourite. big red five. wow! i have race tapes in stock way back to 1976 (a full race coverage with extraordinary pre-race introductions of cars and drivers) up to 2005 or so.......but i always watch these magnificant battles against prost or senna.....sometimes piquet. when i watch adelaide 86 it´s exciting......sometimes i think: okay, maybe this time we will have no puncture.....
so i spent some years with nascar modelling - but revell-fitting-probs and the growing availabliilty of cars from my era took me back. since nobember i am struggeling with the 126 c2 of fujimi (not struggeling with the kit - but with the time) and having the 312t2 in my hands made me feel again....like going nuts. reminds me of the good old tamiya days
so this seems to be a very long introduction. but racing has always been an emotional thing......an reading all those postings here one can see - this is the right place to express (strange) feelings about racing.
thomas
here are some pics of kits and whatsoever (i have to increase my level of photographing)
BT44B - one of the beautiest things ever hit the tracks - thanks to AMD and mtr
FD01 - a beautie without success is still - a beauty - luiz is bringing me back to my early days - wow!
Prost - friday morning at Zolder 82
Gilles - saturday morning at Zolder 82
T4 - somewhere in the paddock at hockenheim 80
Elio - starting grid Zolder 82
Nascar intermezzo
Nascar intermezzo #2
#3
BT44B again
