Get your Group C/IMSA on.

ET2SN · 07-19-24, 04:42 PM

Way back, when I was homeported in Japan, I got spoiled with Tamiya and Hasegawa 1/24th scale car kits and 1/20th scale F1 kits. Tamiya started the ball rolling with their Porsche 956 (Le Mans spec) which Hasegawa responded to with a deluge of Porsche 962's.

Tamiya would later issue a couple of Toyota Group C's (1987 and 1989 spec) and a Sauber. These kits had "limited run" stamped all over them BUT, as it turned out, Japan really liked these Group C Prototypes and these kits still get re-popped every couple of years with updated or totally new decals.

What was the big deal with the Porsche 956 and 962?
Porsche developed the 956 as a follow-on to their 936 Spyder (aka the Super Slipper). The 956 also incorporated the then-new idea of Ground Effects which was powered by their Flat Six air-cooled engine which fed two turbos. The results were outstanding, Porsche went on to another wave of dominating Le Mans while the cars were also run at various European tracks. There was only one hitch, the 956 was always run as a Factory Team effort and only 27 of them were built.
The 962 was a basic evolution of the 956 with tweaked aero dynamics and a re-designed chassis that moved the driver's feet behind the plane of the front wheels for safety. The twist was that Porsche built the 962's as Customer cars and sold over 100 of them to racing teams in Europe, Japan, and the US. Getting your hands on a 962 was actually fairly simple. Either fly to Germany and plop down a check for *about* $350,000 (1980 dollars) or do the same thing at one of the Porsche Flagship dealerships in the US or Japan.
What you got was a complete 962 plus some engine and bodywork spares that was already tuned to hit 200 MPH in a straight line.

Just hire a couple of drivers and a pit crew, and you were ready to race.. and win. One neat part of the 962 was that you needed an actual key to start the engine.

OK, so what the heck is an "IMSA"? IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) was an out-growth of the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) in the US. Where the SCCA preached lower costs and a more "grass roots" approach to racing sports cars, IMSA was kind of the answer to the bozos who would show up to time trials populated by MG's and Austin Mini's with something a LOT more exotic.

To cut this part short, IMSA was a great idea if you were the scion of a wealthy family but you were allergic to horses and just looking at yachts made you sea sick.

Or, maybe you worked yourself up to being a titan of business and now you needed a way to write off some of those corporate gains while having some fun.

To be fair, IMSA was important to Porsche. That part about moving the driver's feet behind the main plain of the front wheels came from IMSA's rule book although the ACO (Le Mans) was also leaning in that direction for driver safety.

Where the Prototypes ran on long, sweeping race courses in Europe and Japan, it was a different story in the US. IMSA would run races just about anywhere.

IMSA was the reason why Daytona built an infield road course (which was also done at smaller NASCAR tracks like Charlotte).
Imagine these exotic Prototypes on (GASP!) temporary street circuits and you get a better feeling for what IMSA was. The cars had to be at least as flexible as Champ Cars in terms of running on different types of tracks.
For the most part, the main difference between a Euro or Japanese spec 962 and a US spec example had to do with the turbos. IMSA mandated a heavy weight (lead ballast) penalty on Prototypes that ran two turbos instead of one. Most US spec 962's ran an "Andial Conversion" of a single (larger) turbo that was barrowed from Indy Car/Champ Cars until IMSA finally relented in the late 1980's. Building one of these Andial Conversions was fairly easy thanks to a resin conversion kit that has since gone extinct.

There were some neat lumps and bumps that you could add to the engine cover under the rear wing.

Anyway, enough history (unless you want some more) and on to the kits.

I'm mostly concentrating on the Hasegawa 962's. While Tamiya offered several flavors (Rothman's, New Man yellow black and white, and Cannon red and white) of the 956, they also had a line 962's that you should pass on if you see one for sale. The Tamiya 962 was a "port over" of their Tam Tech carpet R/C cars. This is one of the few times when Tamiya dropped the ball and you really need to avoid them.

The key to building the Hasegawa 962 is to treat them like potato chips or crisps. You REALLY need more than one.

Hasegawa re-popped this kit in several different flavors, including different parts for wheels and rear wings.
For wheels, you'll either get the traditional BBS "mesh" type or the Volk "five spoke" type. Every kit comes with the traditional Le Mans "bat wings" lower downforce rear wing and at least one "bob tail" rear wing option. Removing the "bat wings" is fairly easy. Use a scribing tool to dig a trench between the rear cowl and the wing sides on the inside of the of the wing sides. Get the trench about halfway into the plastic and then just snap off the wing sides.

A little sanding over where the wing sides used to be completes the job.

The different liveries are all great, just try to buy at least one kit that features a mostly white paint scheme, you'll get a white body instead of the older dyed plastic colored bodies. Also, pay attention to the box art. You'll get a good idea of which wheels (and tire brands) are included and any rear wing options (most of the time).
What you get is mostly considered a "quick build" kit. You get a fairly plain lower body pan, minor cockpit detail, and a nice one-piece body. The wheels don't turn but will roll on poly caps.

All of these kits were designed to get knocked out over a weekend and are "curb sides" unless you want to take a shot at super detailing one. All of these kits also come with an option for higher downforce cheek spoilers that mount below the head light buckets. If you want to use these spoilers, you can cut off most of the part that runs along the front wheel wells. Speaking of head lights, different kits come with different head light options. There are two styles of two headlight buckets and one or two single light options. It all depends on which kit(s) you buy.

Where to find them- For the most part, run a search for "Hasegawa 1/24th" on either EBay or Amazon. Folks in the US can also check out

https://www.hobbylinc.com/hasegawa-b...24-scale-20585

and keep in mind, these kits pop in and out over time. If you see one that's not available, give it time. Hasegawa will re-issue these kits every couple of years.

ET2SN · 07-19-24, 05:55 PM

Almost forgot, Hasegawa is also producing some NEW kits of the Toyota 92C-V variant. These are odd, but really cool kits.

So far, there's the 1991 and 1992 versions plus a four headlight version from 1993 that's on the way. You get a TON of detail for the suspension bits (lots of small parts) plus turning front wheels.

For all that detail, what you DON'T get is an engine.

I'm hoping they produce the V-10 "bone breaker" car.

ET2SN · 08-05-24, 01:54 PM

OK, I promised a review of some resin conversion parts for the Porsche 962 in the Resources thread, but it fits better in this topic.

A couple of posts up, I wrote that these conversion parts used to be available. Thankfully, that is not true and my Andial turbo conversion bits just showed up in my mail box.

You CAN order these parts from
https://classicracingresins.com/products/
and what you get is pretty neat. The parts are pressure cast two-part resin (think pre-3D modelled parts) with very crisp detail. The price for a single conversion kit runs around $25 USD, about the same price as the source Hasegawa model kit, but these are VERY limited conversion parts and the shipping is free in the US. Included in the conversion kit is the "Andial hump" that mounts to the engine cover just in front/below of the rear wing, two options to close off the original turbo exhaust ducts, a NICE set of "BBS" style wheels for the front and rear tires which are basically clones of Hasegawa's BBS style wheels (which are available in most (but not all) of the Hasegawa 962's), plus the "Andial" under tray and exhaust, an alternate NACA duct (larger than the duct in the kit) and four pages of color instructions.
I like the way CRR packaged these parts and shipping was very quick from Washington state to Iowa (less than 1 week).

CRR also has a link on their site where you can see all of these Hasegawa kits that are available on EBay (they go in and out of production every couple of years).

Naturally, I ordered two conversion kits. This is "old school" resin which can be tricky/brittle to work with and prep plus I have plans to build a couple of late-1980's "what if?" IMSA 962's plus maybe a third "factory wing" 962 from Porsche's hay days in IMSA (still figuring out which car to build and paint).

Two of the kits are already in the final stages of mock-up and pre-building. One is a "straight off the boat" 962 for the 24 hours of Daytona and the 12 hours of Sebring. This car will feature F.A.T. Turbo Express graphics with front cowl "cheek wings" and the remote "low drag" rear wing with the traditional four head light set up.

Its brother (actually, its supposed to be the same car with different graphics) uses the "cheek wings", remote "high downforce" rear wing and end plates and the single headlight buckets with a smaller driving light with the later Kremer/Kenwood Hi-fi graphics and its going to look like its purpose built to run the more traditional, shorter distance IMSA road and street courses.

With IMSA in the late 1980's, these "what if?" cars look legit. They also look bad

.

Getting back to the Hasegawa kits one last time, these are great kits if you just want to get your swerve back or practice your skills for a more adventurous project or try out some new techniques. Parts fit is excellent and glue is almost optional. The low parts count makes it easier to concentrate on fitting and cleaning up parts.

If anyone's interested in trying one of these kits out, I can post some "build" notes on how to wind up with a really clean built kit.

Just say so and I'll write it up.

ET2SN · 01-08-25, 03:39 PM

Earlier, I wrote about the NEW Hasegawa Toyota 92C-V in 1/24th scale. This basic kit is turning into a REALLY nice series/family of kits.

The two-headlight versions (think Jaguar Group C clone) are available with a single end-plane set up for the nose or a dual-plane "catfish" set up for higher downforce.
Now, there's a four-headlight "Le Mans" version. It closely resembles the Mazda Group C cars. Better yet, I just did an image search for this kit and there's more on the way.

Two headlight, single plane.

Two headlight, dual plane.

Four headlight.

07-19-24, 04:42 PM	#1
ET2SN Ocean Warrior Join Date: Oct 2017 Posts: 2,652 Downloads: 60 Uploads: 0	Get your Group C/IMSA on. Way back, when I was homeported in Japan, I got spoiled with Tamiya and Hasegawa 1/24th scale car kits and 1/20th scale F1 kits. Tamiya started the ball rolling with their Porsche 956 (Le Mans spec) which Hasegawa responded to with a deluge of Porsche 962's. Tamiya would later issue a couple of Toyota Group C's (1987 and 1989 spec) and a Sauber. These kits had "limited run" stamped all over them BUT, as it turned out, Japan really liked these Group C Prototypes and these kits still get re-popped every couple of years with updated or totally new decals. What was the big deal with the Porsche 956 and 962? Porsche developed the 956 as a follow-on to their 936 Spyder (aka the Super Slipper). The 956 also incorporated the then-new idea of Ground Effects which was powered by their Flat Six air-cooled engine which fed two turbos. The results were outstanding, Porsche went on to another wave of dominating Le Mans while the cars were also run at various European tracks. There was only one hitch, the 956 was always run as a Factory Team effort and only 27 of them were built. The 962 was a basic evolution of the 956 with tweaked aero dynamics and a re-designed chassis that moved the driver's feet behind the plane of the front wheels for safety. The twist was that Porsche built the 962's as Customer cars and sold over 100 of them to racing teams in Europe, Japan, and the US. Getting your hands on a 962 was actually fairly simple. Either fly to Germany and plop down a check for about $350,000 (1980 dollars) or do the same thing at one of the Porsche Flagship dealerships in the US or Japan. What you got was a complete 962 plus some engine and bodywork spares that was already tuned to hit 200 MPH in a straight line. Just hire a couple of drivers and a pit crew, and you were ready to race.. and win. One neat part of the 962 was that you needed an actual key to start the engine. OK, so what the heck is an "IMSA"? IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) was an out-growth of the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) in the US. Where the SCCA preached lower costs and a more "grass roots" approach to racing sports cars, IMSA was kind of the answer to the bozos who would show up to time trials populated by MG's and Austin Mini's with something a LOT more exotic. To cut this part short, IMSA was a great idea if you were the scion of a wealthy family but you were allergic to horses and just looking at yachts made you sea sick. Or, maybe you worked yourself up to being a titan of business and now you needed a way to write off some of those corporate gains while having some fun. To be fair, IMSA was important to Porsche. That part about moving the driver's feet behind the main plain of the front wheels came from IMSA's rule book although the ACO (Le Mans) was also leaning in that direction for driver safety. Where the Prototypes ran on long, sweeping race courses in Europe and Japan, it was a different story in the US. IMSA would run races just about anywhere. IMSA was the reason why Daytona built an infield road course (which was also done at smaller NASCAR tracks like Charlotte). Imagine these exotic Prototypes on (GASP!) temporary street circuits and you get a better feeling for what IMSA was. The cars had to be at least as flexible as Champ Cars in terms of running on different types of tracks. For the most part, the main difference between a Euro or Japanese spec 962 and a US spec example had to do with the turbos. IMSA mandated a heavy weight (lead ballast) penalty on Prototypes that ran two turbos instead of one. Most US spec 962's ran an "Andial Conversion" of a single (larger) turbo that was barrowed from Indy Car/Champ Cars until IMSA finally relented in the late 1980's. Building one of these Andial Conversions was fairly easy thanks to a resin conversion kit that has since gone extinct. There were some neat lumps and bumps that you could add to the engine cover under the rear wing. Anyway, enough history (unless you want some more) and on to the kits. I'm mostly concentrating on the Hasegawa 962's. While Tamiya offered several flavors (Rothman's, New Man yellow black and white, and Cannon red and white) of the 956, they also had a line 962's that you should pass on if you see one for sale. The Tamiya 962 was a "port over" of their Tam Tech carpet R/C cars. This is one of the few times when Tamiya dropped the ball and you really need to avoid them. The key to building the Hasegawa 962 is to treat them like potato chips or crisps. You REALLY need more than one. Hasegawa re-popped this kit in several different flavors, including different parts for wheels and rear wings. For wheels, you'll either get the traditional BBS "mesh" type or the Volk "five spoke" type. Every kit comes with the traditional Le Mans "bat wings" lower downforce rear wing and at least one "bob tail" rear wing option. Removing the "bat wings" is fairly easy. Use a scribing tool to dig a trench between the rear cowl and the wing sides on the inside of the of the wing sides. Get the trench about halfway into the plastic and then just snap off the wing sides. A little sanding over where the wing sides used to be completes the job. The different liveries are all great, just try to buy at least one kit that features a mostly white paint scheme, you'll get a white body instead of the older dyed plastic colored bodies. Also, pay attention to the box art. You'll get a good idea of which wheels (and tire brands) are included and any rear wing options (most of the time). What you get is mostly considered a "quick build" kit. You get a fairly plain lower body pan, minor cockpit detail, and a nice one-piece body. The wheels don't turn but will roll on poly caps. All of these kits were designed to get knocked out over a weekend and are "curb sides" unless you want to take a shot at super detailing one. All of these kits also come with an option for higher downforce cheek spoilers that mount below the head light buckets. If you want to use these spoilers, you can cut off most of the part that runs along the front wheel wells. Speaking of head lights, different kits come with different head light options. There are two styles of two headlight buckets and one or two single light options. It all depends on which kit(s) you buy. Where to find them- For the most part, run a search for "Hasegawa 1/24th" on either EBay or Amazon. Folks in the US can also check out https://www.hobbylinc.com/hasegawa-b...24-scale-20585 and keep in mind, these kits pop in and out over time. If you see one that's not available, give it time. Hasegawa will re-issue these kits every couple of years.

08-05-24, 01:54 PM	#3
ET2SN Ocean Warrior Join Date: Oct 2017 Posts: 2,652 Downloads: 60 Uploads: 0	OK, I promised a review of some resin conversion parts for the Porsche 962 in the Resources thread, but it fits better in this topic. A couple of posts up, I wrote that these conversion parts used to be available. Thankfully, that is not true and my Andial turbo conversion bits just showed up in my mail box. You CAN order these parts from https://classicracingresins.com/products/ and what you get is pretty neat. The parts are pressure cast two-part resin (think pre-3D modelled parts) with very crisp detail. The price for a single conversion kit runs around $25 USD, about the same price as the source Hasegawa model kit, but these are VERY limited conversion parts and the shipping is free in the US. Included in the conversion kit is the "Andial hump" that mounts to the engine cover just in front/below of the rear wing, two options to close off the original turbo exhaust ducts, a NICE set of "BBS" style wheels for the front and rear tires which are basically clones of Hasegawa's BBS style wheels (which are available in most (but not all) of the Hasegawa 962's), plus the "Andial" under tray and exhaust, an alternate NACA duct (larger than the duct in the kit) and four pages of color instructions. I like the way CRR packaged these parts and shipping was very quick from Washington state to Iowa (less than 1 week). CRR also has a link on their site where you can see all of these Hasegawa kits that are available on EBay (they go in and out of production every couple of years). Naturally, I ordered two conversion kits. This is "old school" resin which can be tricky/brittle to work with and prep plus I have plans to build a couple of late-1980's "what if?" IMSA 962's plus maybe a third "factory wing" 962 from Porsche's hay days in IMSA (still figuring out which car to build and paint). Two of the kits are already in the final stages of mock-up and pre-building. One is a "straight off the boat" 962 for the 24 hours of Daytona and the 12 hours of Sebring. This car will feature F.A.T. Turbo Express graphics with front cowl "cheek wings" and the remote "low drag" rear wing with the traditional four head light set up. Its brother (actually, its supposed to be the same car with different graphics) uses the "cheek wings", remote "high downforce" rear wing and end plates and the single headlight buckets with a smaller driving light with the later Kremer/Kenwood Hi-fi graphics and its going to look like its purpose built to run the more traditional, shorter distance IMSA road and street courses. With IMSA in the late 1980's, these "what if?" cars look legit. They also look bad. Getting back to the Hasegawa kits one last time, these are great kits if you just want to get your swerve back or practice your skills for a more adventurous project or try out some new techniques. Parts fit is excellent and glue is almost optional. The low parts count makes it easier to concentrate on fitting and cleaning up parts. If anyone's interested in trying one of these kits out, I can post some "build" notes on how to wind up with a really clean built kit. Just say so and I'll write it up.

01-08-25, 03:39 PM	#4
ET2SN Ocean Warrior Join Date: Oct 2017 Posts: 2,652 Downloads: 60 Uploads: 0	Earlier, I wrote about the NEW Hasegawa Toyota 92C-V in 1/24th scale. This basic kit is turning into a REALLY nice series/family of kits. The two-headlight versions (think Jaguar Group C clone) are available with a single end-plane set up for the nose or a dual-plane "catfish" set up for higher downforce. Now, there's a four-headlight "Le Mans" version. It closely resembles the Mazda Group C cars. Better yet, I just did an image search for this kit and there's more on the way. Two headlight, single plane. Two headlight, dual plane. Four headlight. More on the way? Check the photos before you order, there are several versions of end planes in these kits. Building them are very straight-forward, but they get a bit fiddly for new builders. Parts fit is excellent, but spend the time on parts clean-up and test fitting. These are close-tolerance parts. There's tons of detail inside the cockpit and transmission assembly, but still no engine. Front suspension is also great and features steerable wheels, but is also a bit fiddly so take your time. Wheels are limited to Volk "white five spokes" (IMO, mehhh) with really nice chrome rims. The "rubber" tires (slicks) are super-nice but you're limited to Bridgestone Potenza tire decals. Painting, especially the bodies, will get tricky and you defiantly want some experience masking two-color schemes. Stencils are provided for painting the wind screen and headlight covers. For all the detail you get, these are still "curb-side" kits which means all that suspension stuff will mostly be not seen. Just remember that the parts are really well molded, which means planning your build and test fitting. Because of the close tolerances, you may want to go "off the field" in terms of pre-building some assemblies prior to paint. These kits could be made into some great "what if?" conversions for racing in North America in IMSA, early 1990's. I'm still not seeing them in the on-line hobby stores, but check Amazon and EBay for availability.

07-19-24, 05:55 PM	#2
ET2SN Ocean Warrior Join Date: Oct 2017 Posts: 2,652 Downloads: 60 Uploads: 0	Almost forgot, Hasegawa is also producing some NEW kits of the Toyota 92C-V variant. These are odd, but really cool kits. So far, there's the 1991 and 1992 versions plus a four headlight version from 1993 that's on the way. You get a TON of detail for the suspension bits (lots of small parts) plus turning front wheels. For all that detail, what you DON'T get is an engine. I'm hoping they produce the V-10 "bone breaker" car.