Monogram Lola GT

[vtecfour]

Back to 1/32 scale.

Picked up bits of the Monogram Lola GT slot car and model kit years ago, so time to make it roll.



Chassis will be my usual adjust-o-wheelbase one powered by a FF050 slimline motor that's worked well on my small car builds.

Will try to keep as much of the interior tray and convert the wheels to inserts.

Dan

[SuperSlab]

Good on you: one of my favourite race cars of all time. I got the PSK body from Electric Dreams a few years ago and created a chassis from a Slot.it inline pod and the front end of a redundant Slot.it chassis. It really looks gorgeous and I love how it runs: trust yours would be at least as good and likely better. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Alwyn

EDIT: I just saw that ED is selling the RTR PSK car for $299! WOW! I will have to take care of mine!

[Mitch58]

This old monogram came on a twisted brass chassis so I've stuck onto a Sebring chassis for now. At some point I'll have to see what I can do with the brass.

[Kelsea]

Dope stuff here

Can we trade on this vintage?


Kelsea, West Palm Beach Towing

[vtecfour]

Rolling stock's installed, Slot It 15 x 8 rims, plastic at the front and aluminum out back. Not sure of front tire origins but the rears are urethane copies of Ninco F1 fronts.



With body mocked on, played with axle spacers to get these approximate track widths, front and rear, to tuck tires slightly in. Radiused the rear wheel arches to help this along.









After working on 1/24 builds lately, this car sure is small.

Dan

[chrisguyw]

Hi Dan, Not sure what colour you are planning to paint this puppy, (hopefully not yellow), but Tamiya has a relatively new colour (TS-58 Light blue pearl) that is about as close to the colour of the US based Lola GT's of the period. My car (below) was done in Testors Nassau blue, but, this is unfortunately a discontinued colour.

Lots of Green ones ran in England.

[chrisguyw]

Looking good Dan ..........I am sure it will end up looking and running great !!

Even for a 1/32 car, the Monogram Lola GT is a tiny bugger, but, actually very close to scale,...which says a lot about the other 1/32 (ish) scale cars currently produced.

The old Monogram 1/32 cars hold a special place for me, as when I was very young, my uncle had the Lola, GT, the Cooper Ford, and the Lola T70,....all of which crushed my VIP cars of the time.....it was not long after that I seriously began bugging my Dad for some faster machinery.

While they were quite quick on the relatively low grip Monogram plastic track, once placed on acommercial (higher grip/fast wide radius corners) type tracks, their flimsy brass chassis' left a lot to be desired, and the quick club/commercial track racers of the time, soon began beefing up the chassis' with piano wire/brass tube, and hung heavy brass pans beneath the chassis. This transformed the cars to the point where they could take more potent motors, and even today a well built/modified Monogram will hold its own against current "plastic" stuff.

Over the years I have managed to collect and build the Vintage Monogram series of cars, and the following is a Lola GT with some chassis and motor modifications.......it is very quick, and handles extremely well.

Cheers
Chris Walker



The Monogram Lola GT is tiny,.....but, ...not as tiny as the Strombecker Lotus 19



The chassis has been braced front and back, top to bottom with piano wire, and the motor has been fully reworked....arm rewound/balanced, new (trued) comm, stronger magnets, new motor bushings, soldered/aligned brush barrels, new brushes, and hand wound springs. This one is geared 7T x 30T




A .063 pan was cut and mounted to the chassis with nuts/bolts, and silicone washers isolate the pan from the main chassis.

The piano wire that can be seen on either side of the Crown, runs front to back, and is soldered to the main chassis plate that is under the pan.

[Dundee Denny]

One of my favorite cars 1:1 or 1/32!!

Thanks for sharing,

Dundee Denny

[chappyman66]

This car has always been a favorite of mine.
As much as the Mecom version allows wider tires with the huge flares, I think they spoil the pretty, clean original lines of the car.

The Monogram (and incidentally Strombecker) cars are pretty accurate 1/32 models (which is their origin for the most part). It's pretty amazing to think of this Lola sliding around on skinny rear tires....but that's exactly how it was back then.

[SpeedyNH]

right on, Chis. thanks for sharing.

[vtecfour]

Chris, that vintage Lola GT is just beautiful. Great build as usual, modelling and chassis-wise.

In the meantime, my salvage job is progessing well.

Chassis's running with a Scalextric Sport FF050 green 25K motor geared 2.8:1 with a 10t Slot It pinion and 28t crown gear. Guide flag's my go-to Sloting Plus Universal 7mm deep. Added .032" x 1/4" flexi side pans.



Body's mounted tri-post, front and both sides.



Stance is good.









On to the modelling detail.

Dan

[vtecfour]

Went for Slot It Ford GT40 Halibrand wheel inserts instead of adapting the original kit rims.



Gave them a Tamiya bottle lin gray dark finish and paint detailed the knock offs. Will look good against the dark green body finish.

Lowered the body at the front too to more closely match the body/tire spacing at the rear. No tire rub so we're good.

Dan

[SuperSlab]

Quick question Dan: did you enlarge the rear wheel openings? The openings and the wheels/tyres seem very big.

[vtecfour]

Oh yeah, the rears were radiused for a wider stance. As the body is far from being pristine with it's mis-aligned roof line with a bent A-pillar, I don't mind taking liberties.

It's missing the original glass, headlight lenses and one tail light, so vac formed glass, paint and a resin piece will do.

Runs well, so all's good so far.

Dan

[vtecfour]

Done.

Body painted with Tamiya TS-9 British Green with sills in TS-30 Silver Leaf, paint detailed and decaled.

Windscreens are vac formed purchased from a sloter in Sweden. Driver tray's a flat .015" styrene piece painted matte black with one of my half torso resin figures and swiveling head. Taillight were missing too but was able to borrow some to make a mold from and cast. No headlight lenses but can live without.













Worked out.

On to the next build.

Dan

[chappyman66]

Looks great to me!