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Ocar Jaguar XJ12C - Slverstone '76

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wixwacing
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Ocar Jaguar XJ12C - Slverstone '76

Post by wixwacing »

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The names Broadspeed and Jaguar came together in the seventies and were potentially going to be an invincible combination in motor sport. Ralph Broad had started in the sixties tuning and racing mini variants and building custom body extensions for those who wanted fastback and dropnose minis. He ventured on to become a motor tuner to various makes and some of his other successes were the Ford Escorts, Triumph Dolomites and Ford Capris. Along with driver Andy Rouse there were several titles in the BTCC to be had.



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The pivotal point in combined careers came when Broadspeed won British Leyland backing to turn their Jaguar XJC into a potential world beater. SO with Andy on the drivers list, Jaguar supplying the car and Broadspeed race tuning , the XJ12C eventually was released to the waiting public and to be fair, it impressed and amazed much of the racing fraternity. It’s V12 5.3 litre engine was fast in the road cars and it didn’t take much to get it uncatchable on the track./ But being uncatchable wasn’t going to be enough.



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In spite of the vast amount of resources thrown at it, the Jaguar was unreliable, and as we know, in motorsport, that is everything. By 1977 British Leyland had become disillusioned and eventually withdrew funding. Broadspeed was sold on and in new hands very quickly became bankrupt. Andy Rouse was to be the only success story to rise from the Broadspeed ashes, going on to be a builder/tuner/driver and to capture more coveted BTCC titles driving such makes as the Ford Sierra Turbos.


Broadspeed Jaguar XJ12C


Well, fortunately for some of us, the name can live on in the form of one of Broadspeeds last gasp events. That was to be at Silverstone in 1976 where Derek Bell put the car on pole position, seconds in front of BMW. But it wasn’t to last. The sheer brute force of engine and brakes which Broadspeed had asked the rolling chassis to take once again proved too much and the suspension collapsed leaving the Broadspeed team only to pack their things once again.



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The Ocar model looks pretty ominous from the box and the huge decal sheet left me a bit apprehensive. But no worries, this wouldn’t be the first time for me. The body is well moulded and is a good representation of the real thing. The decal sheet contains all you need to finish the model in the Silverstone 1976 livery and there is an insert which shows you how the model should look when complete. There is also a vacuum formed drivers tray which is a good moulding and should save some weight. I chose to make a more lifelike tray and dash assembly and used a Fly open faced driver to finish it off.



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First up was to reduce the body weight as much as possible. The body comes at 41 grams and it took a fair bit of dremmelling to get it down to 29 grams. I needed it this low because once the body mounts and windows and a few coats of paint were applied then it would surely creep up once again. As it happens, once the drivers tray was fitted the body weighed in at 44.0 grams. At this point the body also needed to be trimmed to get the rough edges smooth and to make sure the wheels and tyres will fit directly in the arches without rubbing etc. The body mounting post were also made. When the chassis had been shaped and cut, I screwed the mounting posts to the chassis and offered it into the body. The posts were then trimmed until the chassis was resting in the desired position. Once happy, the posts and chassis were fixed in place with extra strength epoxy, which takes a day to set hard.



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As with all my resin models, I primed the body in light grey which shows up any pin holes and blemishes. These are sorted and then, as white is to be the predominant body colour, I gave the body a coat of flat white. Finally, the top coat of white gloss was applied and after a drying period of a couple of days the silver parts were painted. As this is to be a track model I decided not to bother with bare metal foil grilles and other true silver parts. This is a lengthy process and is quite readily undone during track incidents. The lights had silver backing applied and the side markers and indicators, which had had a coat of silver, were then painted with a coat of clear red and clear orange respectively.



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The decals were applied one side at a time and left to dry. This avoids handling problems that can be encountered if you apply decals to too many places at once before they are dry. Once all the decals had been dry for a couple of days I applied a thinned coat of acrylic clear. I have resorted back to acrylic as I have been experiencing crazing reactions with several makes of decals after they have been applied. Finally, the last coat of clear was applied. A little thicker this time, to try and get a deeper shine to the paintwork.. This has turned out well although the photos don’t do it justice, probably my poor camera skills!!



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While all this was going on, the drivers tray was built to match the body interior. I had built a dash assembly and a steering wheel for the driver’s comfort and had even applied some gauges in decal form to the dash. The driver was painted and the tray was left white. All the pieces were assembled after a good drying period and the tray was applied to the inside and the edges trimmed to match the body until it was a snug level fit. The drivers tray was later glued in place and a couple of thin strips of plasticard were trimmed to fit against the body both sides, inside.



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For the body, the last item to be prepared and fixed before the drivers tray was the windows. When I was lightening the body I reduced the edges of the window openings so the vacuum formed clear bits will fit as flush as possible. I also fit the glasses as four separate parts. It is often the case that the clear bits don’t fit well all over when assembled as one piece. By separating them, they can be applied as individual windows and be made to fit well. The clear parts are put in place individually and a small spot of superglue is applied to the corners one at a time. This has the effect of ‘tacking’ the window in place. Lastly, when all clear bits are in place, I paint a bead of extra strength epoxy around the edges and overlapping on to the body. To date I have found this the best method of fixing screens.



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The chassis was built in much the same way that many previous chassis have been built. Brass tubes act as axle posts and the motor is soldered into place. The cross tubes are drilled with a 1/16 drill to allow me to lube the axles easily from underneath. The guide tub is set once the vehicle ride height is known and that too is soldered into its location. Axles had been determined a little while before and the rear was assembled with alloy wheels from BWA.



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Rear tyres are MJK. The front axle is the now familiar wixle set up which give the model independently rotating wheels, and the front tyres are also MJK. This time they have been radiused and grooved to minimise their grip during side slip. I like my model’s front wheels to contact the track as I feel it imparts an extra level of stability in the model.



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Axle oil holes



With more than 100 grams of model to haul around the track I settled for a Ninco NC5 motor and standard 3 : 1 gearing which should be fine. The guide is one of the Ninco accessory guides. A little deeper and a little longer than their standard offering.



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So what does it go like? With a short amount of time to test it at the Red Team’s home track, I was able to determine some fixes and carry out others on site. As expected, its large footprint imparts a lot of stability and once the slight concave aspect of the tyres was sanded of, it handled very well. The track had been used for an hour or so and was working well and the Jag was working well too. The NC5 motor was the remains of an NC1 upgrade and was brand new. Straightline speed was as expected and cornering was very predictable, but that wasn’t a racing situation. I do expect the model to go well and don’t expect to do much more to it. After a few laps it started to loosen up a bit and by the time I had finished it was running on par with most of the models we race. A bit more track time and some more tyre sanding, plus a few drops of oil in the right place may well be all that it needs from now on!!



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If you are getting the hang of this scratchbuilding caper, do yourself a favour and get this model. If you are not into chassis making there are several equally good plastic chassis available. This model has a huge footprint and should be the match of many RTR models.

Check out Ocar Models at
World Classics.com
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When I'm not racing slotcars,
I'm out in the back yard, burning food!!

When I win, it's because of my talent, not my car or my controller!
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