You can see the detailed progress thread here: https://forum.modelcarmakers.com/topic/206044-1935-indy-500-winner-gilmore-special/

History:
In 1935, the Indianapolis 500 race was held for the 23rd time. Riding mechanics were mandatory. Crash helmets were now required, plus yellow and green lights were installed at the track for improved safety. However, several fatalities happened during qualifying and the race itself including rookies. This led to the development of what we know today as the Rookie Orientation Program, which started in 1936.
Kelly Petillo with his riding mechanic, Jimmy Dunham, won the race in their Offenhauser powered Gilmore Special after having difficulties qualifying and starting back in 22nd spot.
The race broke the previous record, averaging 106.24 MPH (~171 kph)
This was the first win for an Offenhauser engine, which went on to win Indy an incredible 27 times!
Famous aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart was the honorary referee for the race.
The Pace car was a green Ford Model 48-740 convertible sedan (4 doors convertible)

The model:

This model started as an incomplete glue bomb of the very simple and crude Best Plastics kit from the 1950s.



Been an original Best, it was produced between 1954 and 1957.  So it is between 69 and 72 years old at the time of this writing.

Best was the original company that did this series of 6 Indy winners in around 1/30-ish scale. Best had begun producing plastic birthday favors but was convinced by an Aurora employee (Ray Haines) to produce a line of Indy racers. Ray even did much of the research for them through the then Speedway Manager and 3 time winner Wilbur Shaw. Best put the kits on the market in the spring of 1954. It then sold the molds to Aurora in late 1957. Aurora sold these from 1959 until 1963.

By far the biggest issue with these kits is the wheel/tire combo. Been an odd scale (~1/30ish) there is basically no aftermarket available.
Enter 3D printing: In my opinion, a biggest leap in our hobby since the internet and resin casting. The biggest advantage of 3D printing is scalability! A good friend of mine helped with the 3D wheels/tires foundation, which were the biggest challenge of this project.

While still a simple and humble piece, this model has tons of scratchbuilding, added details and corrections. Decals from Indycals. Paint is Scalefinishes with MCW clear.

On race day, the car used a convoluted multipart windshield that looks like a last minute contraption.  The car also raced with the intake side of the hood open.  The exhaust side was closed. The tires in the official pictures say Firestone Balloon.  But on the actual race, the tires only said Firestone.  But, the Indycals decals are too pretty NOT to be used.  However, I only used tire lettering on the outside, as reference indicate tires did not have prominent lettering on the inside.  

A rather unique build. Far from perfect or "100% accurate" but it embodies the true soul of this hobby: Enjoying putting something together and learning about history.

The end result:












I hope you like it!

Thanks,
Ismael

Here is a shot during final assembly to show all the working features. Hinge points were all re-located and careful fitting trimming  and filling were required. 

Never was really happy with the engine in this kit. Thought it was out of scale (too small) I added a lot of scoops, ducts and wiring and this helped fill the engine bay up. At least now it is a little more presentable.

Body work all buttoned up and ready for decals and final detail pieces. Took a lot of work to get to this point. 

Finally the finished piece. Decals are Indycals and despite having to be trimmed close they laid down very nice and responded to solvent quite well.  Kit came with Firestone tires but all my research showed they started the race on Goodyears. Decals from the extras. 

Rear view shows some of the nice detail.  Getting it to fit...another story. 

Side view. During the race they taped up those nasty gaps in the body. It actually fits better on the model. 

This is my original build circa 1970ish.  It certainly shows it age. 

Comparison of the two builds.  I think I have come a long way in the 50+ years since this was built. I have a Ford GT junkyard and am afraid the old model is headed there. The engine and wheels and tires may find a new home.

Finished car with some of its smaller companions. The diecast to the right is a 1/64 Hot Wheels that was unusually hard to find. To the left is a very early and highly modified aurora Thunderjet slot car. It has a hand painted clear body made by Lancer. It was done when I could see a lot better than now. It  still runs and was raced in a couple of enduros where it won one of them. 

With the recent passing of Allan Moffat it's about time I posted these 3 builds from last year.

They are DDA Ford Falcon kits, 1 XWGT HO and 2 XYGT HOs. All three are painted with SMS Vermillion Fire and Tamiya TS-13 clear coat. The chrome is SMS Hyperchrome. The decals were custom printed from my own artwork.

I designed and 3d printed my own wheels and tyres and bonnet scoops. I also modified the grilles of the XYGTs to look a bit closer to the real grille than the kit item. I also added roll cages and removed the over riders from the bumpers and added bolt heads.

All three were Ford factory team cars.

The first one is Allan Moffat's 1970 Bathurst winning XWGT HO. This was a Ford factory team car.

The second model is Allan Moffat's 1971 Bathurst winning XYGT HO

The third model is Allan Moffat's 1973 Australian Touring Car Championship winner.

This was a Ford factory team car.

The DDA Falcon kit is easy to build with a low parts count but is let down by chunky square edged tyres and the decals for the badges are oversized. Being of diecast origins also shows with how it is a bit clunky in some areas but it's still an OK kit.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers

ShawnS

It's a curbside model, but it does have a detailed interior. Some of the things I accomplished during its construction include a mess of louvers. Those took three tries, before I got them right. I tried to talk myself into accepting the second set, but my reluctance to do so, and a nudge from a friend got the third attempt going. That's what you see, here. I applied engine-turning to the gauge panel, and the windscreen. Originally, I made a windscreen to match the arc of the cowl flap. That didn't look like it belonged on the car. The photo of my inspirational car appears to show a boxy-looking one (maybe), so I bent up a more angular version. I like it, much better. I made a piano hinge for the cowl flap using .015"x.060" brass strip and 1/32" brass tube. Another first, for me, with this project is Felix! He's the first thing I've made with the Cricut I've owned for nine years. I think there will be more usage of it, making decals in my future!

That was a pretty quick completion, and I had a blast, working on it! I think it's really pretty, too! Thanks for looking!

You can check the progress thread here: https://forum.modelcarmakers.com/topic/201965-1920-indy-500-winner-monroe-special-frontenac/

Long story short: 
The story of the Chevrolet brothers and the Frontenac Motor Corp is convoluted and very long.  The three brothers: Louis, Arthur and Gaston were heavily involved in performance and race car development in the second half of the 1910's decade after selling the company that bears their name.  William Small, the owner of the Monroe Motor Car Company, partnered with them to provide four race cars for the 1920 race season that included the Indy 500.  Part of the agreement was that the Chevrolet brothers could build additional identical cars at their cost and race as Frontenacs. The four cars for William Small were to be called Monroe Specials. At the end, 7 cars were made. Four green Monroes and three burgundy red Frontenacs.  All 7 cars eventually qualified for the 1920 Indy 500. 
In a crazy twist of history, the Columbia Axle company, supplier of parts, under pressure to deliver, rushed the delivery of the steering arms and in the rush, they missed the very important heat treatment hardening.
All 7 cars started the race strong but then, one by one, all steering arms started to fail.  Gaston Chevrolet, the youngest of the brothers, was driving the #4 Monroe.  He had no time to practice and his car had the least amount of test miles. That proved crucial. He went on to win the 1920 Indianapolis 500 after dominant Ralph DePalma had mechanical issues in lap 187.  There is a story that after the race, the steering arm in the winning car collapsed after been kicked by Louis.

*EDIT* John Bresnahan was his riding mechanic for the race and it was the first time a winning car did not change tires. He rode on Oldfield Cord tires.

Gaston was a promising driver. Unfortunately, only 6 months after winning the Indy 500, he was killed in a racing accident on Thanksgiving in California.  From what I have researched, I believe he was killed in the same car he won Indy, although he was racing with #6 at the time of his death. He was only 28 years old. At the time of his death, he had accumulated enough points already to posthumously win the 1920 AAA championship.
No Frontenacs are known to have survived or exist today. 
This is my interpretation of how the car must have looked like from Black and White only reference pictures and footage of the day and my own research. 

The model
This model is the very simple and crude Best/Aurora kit from the late 1950's.
Best was the original company that did this series of 6 Indy winners in around 1/30-ish scale.  Best had begun producing plastic birthday favors but was convinced by an Aurora employee (Ray Haines) to produce this line of Indy racers. Ray even did much of the research for them through the then Speedway Manager and 3 time winner Wilbur Shaw. Best put the kits on the market in the spring of 1954. It then sold the molds to Aurora in late 1957.  Aurora sold these from 1959 until 1963.
The six cars in the series were:
1920 Monroe Special
1922 Murphy Special
1931 Miller Special
1935 Gilmore Special
1940 Maserati Special (can be converted to the 1939 winner with aftermarket decals)
1953-54 Fuel Injection Special (can be built as either 53 or 54)

This model was a complete rebuild with tons of added details and corrections. The most important been the 3D printed wheels/tires/center knock offs supplied by Grumpy's 3D Garage. We spent months researching and working on this. Decals from Indycals.  Paint is Scalefinishes and was buffed but NOT clearcoated intentionally to accurately represent the finish of a 1920's car.
A rather simple build, but one that embodies the true soul of this hobby: Enjoying putting something together and learning about history.

Presenting my tribute to Gaston Chevrolet

I hope you like it.  Your comments and questions are always appreciated.


Thanks,
Ismael

This model was built in a little less than 7 months, or even 5 if you exclude my two months of holidays in Canada, a record for me.

It includes nearly 600 parts in all materials, more than 480 having been added to the 115 initial ones, of which about 50 were modelled and 3D printed, and the rest scratchbuilt.
I didn't count the time spent, not being a professional modeler and not intending to sell it once it was finished, but I probably spent more than 300 hours on it, counting the time spent studying the documentation, the 3D design of the parts and the realization.

 I'm quite proud of the result, despite all its imperfections, and the few big mistakes I made that I only realized too late to correct.

They will be obvious to the connoisseurs. 

I also made a short video of this model, that I posted on my YouTube channel:

Those who are interested can follow the assembly of this difficult model in the WIP section here

Britmodeller.com

I wish you enjoyed my work 😉

What a well designed and memorable livery the Michelin Pilot Escort has. Plus of course the great looking car it's draped on, and that glorious rear wing. I was certainly going to buy this when I spied it in a secondhand shop window on holiday in Japan, at a very reasonable price too.

Pros:

More or less all fits together very very well. As usual for Tamiya, great mouldings and very little cleanup required aside from a fairly strong separation line along the main light pods. Good quality decals, clean clear parts, nice rubber-like tyres. Solid contact points between the seats and the chassis.

Cons:

The rollcage is incomplete compared to the real car, missing half the rear x-member and missing two smaller horizontal parts the seatbelts attach to. The interior door cards and the rear interior wall are a little vague and flimsy in their assembly. There is nothing really positive to attach the spare wheel to. The typeface used on the UK number plates isn't correct.

Verdict:

Very very good. It's faults are few, its plus points are many. The photos speak a lot for the quality of the kit.

Build notes:

Completed on January 25th 2026, taking a month to build and paint. I made a few changes to what came in the box: I masked and painted the livery stripes of the intermixed blue and yellow on and near the doors rather than using the decals. A few extra details are on the exterior - electrical shut off lever, aerial, small covers on the bumper and the loop parts of the bonnet pins. For the interior, the rollcage has been "completed" with 3 more pieces. PE buckles and card seatbelts are added, along with relays on the dashboard and fuel lines running down the interior to the tank. I've also added some of the paperwork attached to the roll cage. This build is painted with Tamiya's recommended colours, TS-15 Blue and TS-16 Yellow.

I decided to put it together in between bigger projects, and found it a basic but fun build. Interestingly, this toy/model was made to operate with either a CO2 cartridge, or better still, with an optional "Jetex" power unit. So cool!

As I looked at the body of the "Firebolt" more carefully, I realized this was quite possibly a model inspired by the GM Firebird I (and a bit of Firebird II and III). The timeframes certainly made sense, as well as the obvious play on the name.

I liked the look on the box art, thus simulated it as much as possible. I used a spent CO2 cartridge for the engine and filled in the openings around the body for a more finished look. The tired old decals from 1998 reissue were a bit of a bear, but all in all, I think the model came out very presentable.

Luckily I had a sheet and a half of Fred Cady decals in my stash.

Tks for looking.

Dave B

The Flathead did not disappoint. The twin engine Kenz & Leslie took top honours in E class with a 2 way run of 255.411 mph and the Hill & Davis Bob Estes Mercury (formerly known as the City of Burbank) conquered the B class with a 2 way average of 231.80. in the C class, the Hemi powered Hooper-Brown was comfortably in the lead sitting at 231.66 with it's main competitor the Tornado out with a crash. Suddenly, out of nowhere the supercharged Red Head Fireball surprised everybody with a record run of 234.16 mph, stealing the crown in the C class. Everybody was quite surprised as they barely ran over 200 in the practice runs. Driver Rocket Richard said that they wanted to slowly break in that new engine setup and that he also was adapting to the salt, being used to race on the snow and ice. A third class win for a Flathead.

The Americans were quite impressed and embraced this competition from the North, until next year that is. Hop Up magazine honoured the Canadians with a photo on the cover of their November magazine (see photo below)

DISCLAIMER: the writer of this article has collected information from a variety of source but could not fact check every one of them. Auto racing history experts are welcome to add clarifications if they notice that some of the information not to be 100% accurate. 😉

Here is my in-progress LSR car, c. 1938-41; a twin Cad V-16-engined semi-streamliner.  Inspired byAb Jenkin's  "Mormon Meteor" record holder with Duesenberg DOCH straight-eight, it has two V-16's, one driving the front, and the other the rear wheels, in theory.  I kid my wife by calling it the "Catholic Comet" -- still waiting for her to laugh!  It has a brass rod frame (never again: solder brass, not braze it!)  the rear body from a melted-down Monogram Kurtiss Indy roadster (with 'way too many hours in it!) and the forward body from a Bic or Scripto gas fire lighter.  I'm going to use those chrome tubular 'beads' from Michaels as tuned individual exhausts, and four updraft carbs per bank on the motors.  The tubes work really well for small diameter dumps, and can be run full length, or cut into two useable sections with the old Mototool abrasive blade.  I guess I'm going to have to use the wire rims from either R-R or Cad kits.  Pretty simple build, with most detail unseen from the streamlining needed.  In theory, the driver starts the car on battery, gets it moving on the rear-wheel engine, then cuts in the front direct-drive one via an in/out box.  Low tech, for the thrifty 'thirties, right?  Maybe cream pearl white, with royal purple stripes, and some gold, for the ecclesiatical theme?  

I'll post some WIP photos by springtime; lots of other irons in the fire, incl two apocryphal Harry A. Miller street roadsters based on R-R Mono roadster and Cad V-6 roadster bodies/frames.  I made a reasonably typical (if not accurate) V-16 resin copy for the latter from an old Hawk M-B GP prewar car motor.  The other will have a V-12 or V-16 scratch-built mill.  Miller made the first 'mag wheels' on his TNT racers about 1916, and Bugatti copied them later, so by dint of a generous Canuck donor, I'm just using the die-cast Bug rims when I can find a bit bigger tires for them.  

Just realized my files are pdf; don't know why.  Back when converted.  Wick

Check out the construction thread, here:

Your questions, critiques and comments are always welcome and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

Build log here: https://forum.modelcarmakers.com/topic/206576-mini-exotics-chaparral-2j/

I mixed blue food coloring and Future for the blue rear spoilers. Tested out yet another new chrome paint on the mirrors that show promise. I was going to get out circle templates and cut the radiuses more neatly but they are pretty rough on the real car so free-hand worked great.

I wish now I had wired those gages, maybe not too late. Update: It wasn't too late, see below.

I often weather my cars as "post race" with brake dust and such but this car had a poor finishing record however it would have helped to show all the plastic skirts that were the most fidgety part of the build. Yea, I gotta wire those gauges. Update, I did wire them, see below.

Thanks for getting this far.

An update, I did wire the gauges, looks better...

I don't know what is next, I want to build my olde classic resin kits that are doing no good sitting in a box.

Scratch built from styrene and aluminium printers plate. Rear fans are wheel centres, bra is made from biro caps and styrene. Exhausts are aluminium tube and all the clear is actually Lexan. Pin heads hold rear spoilers on, tail lights are clear red spru. Aftermarket dzuz fasteners and Cady decals.

Front wheels and tyres are resin copies I did off the Fujimi 2D. Better than nothing 😄😄.

Tks for looking.

Dave B