This blueish greyish entity is a McDonnel Douglas F-15C Eagle, constructed rather neatly by Dornbi. Detailed landing gear, an array of exploding thingies under the wings, and custom decals are all included, and there’s more to see on Flickr via the link.
This TLCB writer is not familiar with the 1990s IMSA Championship. He was watching the brilliant BTCC at the time, being a) 7, and b) the wrong side of an ocean. However by all accounts it looked like an awesome race series. Prototypes were run by privateer and manufacturer teams with variety of engines, including BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, Jaguar, Mazda, Nissan, Porsche, and Toyota, and they were exceedingly fast machines.
This is one such car, the 1991-’93 Toyota Eagle MKIII, powered by a tiny yet mighty 2.1litre 4-cylinder turbocharged engine, it won 21 of the 27 races it entered, utterly dominating the series.
Such dominance and a financial crisis led to the the end of the IMSA GT Championship in the mid-’90s, but not before Dan Gurney’s Toyota team racked up two Championships.
This incredible replica of the Toyota Eagle MKIII is the work of previous bloggee PROTOTYP. and he’s recreated the championship-winning racing car brilliantly. Built from around 1,000 pieces the engine, suspension, and chassis have all been accurately constructed, whilst the bodywork includes some superbly authentic decals to create the famous livery.
There’s a whole lot more to see, including some stunning photographs of the chassis, suspension and engine detailing, at PROTOTYP.’s Flickr photostream and via the Eurobricks discussion.
The UK and US have a long and successful racing history. The AC Cobra, the Ford GT40, Lola, Chevrolet-McLaren and many more all prove that Anglo-American collaboration can produce an incredible racing car. The Anglo-American Racing Eagle Weslake Mk1 however, did not.
Built by American Formula 1 driver Dan Gurney the Eagle Weslake Mk1 wowed crowds when it debuted at the start of the 1966 season. The car initially raced with Dan at the wheel powered by a Coventry-Climax four-cylinder engine, until it’s purpose-built Gurney-Westlake V12 was ready for the ’67 season.
Often cited as the most beautiful Formula 1 car ever built, if the newly-engined V12-powered Mk1 went as well as it looked it would be a championship winner.
It didn’t.
Despite obvious speed allowing the Mk1 to qualify at or near the front of the grid almost all season, chronic fragility of the Gurney-Weslake V12 engine meant the car retired from every race bar two. The two races in which it did finish were both podiums though, proving the speed was there and making Dan Gurney one of only three drivers ever to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix in a car of their own making.
However the Eagle-Weslake’s statistics don’t make for great reading. Of the 26 races the Mk1 started the car finished just six, and in three of those it was powered by the old Coventry-Climax engine. By the end of 1968 Anglo-American Racing closed its doors and Gurney returned to the ‘states under the All American Racing banner to continue competing in domestic championships.
Nevertheless the Gurney-Weslake Mk1 was a race-winner and thus deserves its place in the Formula 1 Hall of Fame. TLCB Master MOCer Luca Rusconi (aka RoscoPC) has recreated the Mk1 in spectacular detail, as he continues to upload his huge back-catalogue of historic racing cars to Flickr.
First built in 2013 (when it appeared here) Luca’s model has been beautifully re-photgraphed, and it features working suspension, functioning steering, and an accurate replica of the unreliable Gurney-Weslake V12 engine. A whole host of stunning images are available to view at Luca’s Eagle-Weslake Flickr album – click here to take a look.
Ah the Eagle Talon. A car we know nothing about, seeing as it wasn’t available in our home nation. Or continent. Still, a re-badged Mitsubishi Eclipse sold by a company created by Chrysler that no-one had ever heard of would surely do well? Eagle folded (get it!) in 1999, eleven years after it launched, and the world kept turning, but this Model Team recreation of their (actually not bad) Talon sports coupe is rather nice. Serial bloggee Senator Chinchilla is the builder, and you can see more here.
