I am planning on running the Jacky Ickx Ferrari 312B2 from the 1971 Zandvoort grand prix.  Jacky Ickx won the race from Pedro Rodriguez in his Yardley BRM by only 0.04 seconds!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCIcTz5DpM4

And I have the Ronnie Peterson JPS Lotus.

Lotus 72 Germany 1970 Jochen Rindt

Series managers – I have this car and though I’m planning on running the Ferrari I thought I would do some work to prepare this car to run.  I have to say this car is a pain in the butt.  All of the intricate parts at the rear of the car are not only too fragile but also rub on the rear axle.   I have had pieces fall off, rear disc brake on one side, one side of the roll bar, and another part that I don’t know what it was.  These parts look amazing and make the car look very realistic but the parts are also way too fragile.  I bring this up as I am curious how many of these parts will have to be on the car for it to pass inspection to run.

I plan on running the March 701 with a custom livery think

dreams at the moment

oops

From John B.

For those of you who have not taken a Policar Vintage F1 car apart,  I want to give you fair warning, be careful!  Take out the 2 nose screws, the back two screws by the motor and the small brass screw behind the axle.  That is all!  5 screws total.  All have washers. When you lift the body with the engine together, the rear portion of the exhaust below the axle will slide or pop out of the headers.  That portion is held by the rear brass screw.   Shown below is a top view of the chassis,  a bottom view and the body with engine.  Take your time or you will break something.    Here is a good You Tube video on how to do it and tune the car.  It saved me some grief for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXUDRYf1hiA

I am planning on running the Andretti Ferarri 312 #7

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fslotcarcorner.com%2Fproducts%2Fpolicar-car05c-ferrari-312b2-mario-andretti-no-7&psig=AOvVaw3BmbiYQlFrnd3iX61AOxhb&ust=1675390675842000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA4QjRxqFwoTCOjRm-Li9fwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

I am running the March of Sir Jackie Stewart blue number 1.  Runs great since I have not taken it apart or crashed into the wall.  Have not looked at youtube yet.

I will try this Farrari 126 will see how long it takes to break the wing 

David – Unfortunately that car is not allowed as it raced in the 80’s and not the 70’s

The selection of cars you can pick from is here with the exception of the Monoposto cars.

FORMULA 1

I plan on running the Graham Hill Lotus.

For all – Myself and Mark are narrowing down the expectations for the rules and I hope to have a draft by the end of this week. The main plan will be to limit the overall rear track of the cars to a specific caliper measurement (tire bump to tire bump) and the width of the tire will also be specified (but there will not be a spec tire). This should allow the use of any of the cars linked in Marty’s post above and allow for creative tire options.

I lament the new Ferrari 126 is not legal because it is just too cool. Not to mention it is SOOO darn wide that it would be impossible to get it to fit within the rules. That thing is about as wide as a 1/24 scale car!

All the detailed, fragile bits on these cars are going to be an issue. There is a huge array of detail to these cars which makes it very difficult to give a blanket statement about what must be fitted that will work for every car as some are very detailed and others less-so. Stuff is going to break and the fiddly rear sway bars and such are a pain to maintain. I’m open to suggestions, but I’m leaning toward only requiring the in-tact one-piece monocoque, wings, driver head, and glass to be in place and everything else is up to you whether you wish to maintain it. Thoughts?

I agree with the maintenance of the cars.  Wear and tear should be tolerated.  I have not checked to see if parts are even available if broken, not just falling off.  We should take special care to check cars and track for parts after heats.  Some of our cars, maybe even group C, have soft plastic wings and other parts in a replacement kit.  My car has clipped the walls and collided. but is intact as far as I can tell.

First pass at the rules. They won’t change a ton from here, but wanted to show the group what we’ve come up with and let you hash-out what you see fit to hash out. Marc and I will be reasonably receptive…to a point. 🙂

Eligible Cars.

• Any of the current range of Policar GP cars listed on this page, with the exception of the monposto cars: https://www.policar.it/formula-1/
  1972 Ferrari 312 B2
  1970 Lotus 72, 72E, 72D
  1970, 1971 March 701
  1971 BRM P160
• 80’s Ferrari models coming available currently are not eligible for inclusion. In the event other 70’s models appear between now and the series, they will be considered on a case by case basis.

Liveries.

• Cars may race in the original Policar liveries or may be repainted if desired. While real 70’s liveries are desired, all one has to do is look at F1 in the 70’s to come across Lord Hesketh’s cars…so paint ’em as you like ’em.

Body shell

• Must be original Policar and be as complete as possible.
  Front and Rear wings, glass and driver head must be securely attached to the car at the start of every race.
• All parts shipped with the car will be required at the beginning of the race season. Minor modifications of the parts can be performed to deal with poor fit. If parts break during the season, the general expectation is that the parts will be repaired – within reason. Requests to exclude a part from a car during the season due to terminal breakage must be brought to the series managers and a decision will be made.
• Parts may be glued in place as desired.
• Body screws are open.

Chassis & Motor pod.

• All cars must use a genuine Policar F1 motor mount and gear box assembly. Part numbers PC-H01, PC-H01as, PC-H03, PC-H03as.
• MINOR modifications are permitted to these mounts to make them fit. What constitutes “minor” is up to the judgment of the series managers so ask before you begin modifying.
• Chassis and body screws may be loose or removed as desired.
• Grub screws may be fitted in the holes provided at the front of the chassis to set the front axle height.

Motor

• All cars must be powered by Policar PMX01 25000 RPM motor.

Gears & Rear Axle

•  All cars must use genuine Policar gears & rear axle. The optional Policar rear axle ratios are permitted.

Wheels & Tyres

• Front wheels must be original that came with the car.
• Front track width must remain standard.
• Front tires must be part PPT1220C1.
• Front tyres may be glued and trued.
• Rear wheels must be the plastic originals or the Policar aluminium replacement parts no PWH1234-AL or PW16011724A. Note that Lotus 72E and 72D will be required to change their rear wheel and tire type.
• All wheels must have inserts that match on all 4 corners.
• Overall width of rear, measured over the rear wheels and tyres (bulge to bulge on mounted tire) must not exceed 62mm.
• Rear tyres may be one of these Policar options  (PPT1310C1, PPT1219C1 PPT1219F22) OR any other tire that matches the maximum width measurement for the tires above (measurement method and size being verified). Measurement will be taken from mounted tire, bulge to bulge.
• Rear tyres may be glued, trued and chamfered if desired.
• PROHIBITED: Traction compounds. Glazing of front tires with Nail Polish or Super-Glue/CA

Guide

• Must be a genuine Policar guide to the same specification as supplied with the car.
• Braids & Lead Wire are free choice.

Additional Weight

• Weight may be added inside the car only.
• No weight will be allowed underneath the chassis and any added weight must not be visible outside the car.

Track Power

• Currently under consideration. Suggest 11 volts.

What a great set of rules for a new and challenging series.  Well done Erik and Marc.

I am building a March 701 from a white kit.  I don’t know how true it will look to the period with the paint job, but all the parts should be right.  And this one is mostly orange… not green.  🙂

Gorgeous Brian

Has this class been approved?  If so any idea on the dates?

Thanks.

Tanner

Tanner – The series has been approved and will run in Q4 of this year.  That means we will have two races every month in October, November, and December.  It should be an interesting series as there is not much you can do to these cars other than truing the tires.  It will be fun to watch and race.

I’ll race this fella:

All, I just took a first look at the car. Out of the box, I could tell something was rubbing inside as I manually turned the rear wheels. The stock stop collar is too wide for the corresponding cavity in the body. As I would rather not grind the body, can we allow aftermarket stop collars? It looks like one could also sand the stock stop collar but I am not sure how much material can be removed/if it would work given the thickness of the grub screw.

Think Ill give this one a go.

Policar has teased a couple new models, available for pre-order from Pendle:

Lotus 72E No.6 Monza GP 1971

BRM P160 No.17 1st Monaco 1972

As of this writing, IF these show up by the 4th quarter, they will be allowed following the current rules.

Just a heads up to everyone, there is a width jig for the Policar F! series at HQ by Erik’s pit station. If your car drops in without rubbing, it’s legal width-wise. Easier than fussing with calipers. If you would like to print your own, let me know if you would like the file. The forum didn’t like the .stl.

Very nice!  Thanks for making this.

Marty

I’m having a big problem with my Ferrari.  After truing my rear wheels and putting my car on the track to test the wheels just spun and were not making contact with the track.  I then realized what was happening.  A piece of the body was poorly installed and was hitting the track, not allowing the wheels to contract the track.

I am writing this to ask the race director to allow me to sand down the part of the Ferrari body that is making contact with the track.  Here is more information to support my request.

I trued the rear wheels just to make them flat across the surface and not to remove extra material to lower the car.  I removed 0.27mm of material as you can see from the pics.  The top pic shows an untrued tire and the lower one shows my trued tire for comparison.

As you can see there is only .27mm of material removed.

The Ferrari body part that is making contact with the track can be seen in these photos.  You can see how it was installed at an angle where the back piece of the part makes contact with the track.

You can see that the body part was installed at an angle that makes the back of the body part contact the track.

I am hoping to be able to sand this poorly installed piece so my car will actually run as intended.

Don’t remove the spark trail generator.  It will reduce the realism of the car as it accelerates and the rear squats.    (Of course this is not from the official class manager)

Thanks for putting this on the forum for those of us who have not tried to setup our car yet.

Marty,
This had me looking at my Ferrari. The same piece was slightly askew, but not to the degree your is. I was able to push in the part, and seat it properly, but I realize that your situation may be different.

I tried to remove it so I could refit it where it would be more flush with the back of the chassis but no luck.  I eventually ended up sanding it down a little to give me some clearance.  I have repainted the piece so it would not look that much different.

Marty

That sounds good, Marty. The fit and finish of these critters, especially with the fiddly bits on the back, is turning out to be far from consistent. For all – In general, try re-fitting any poorly fitted parts instead of modifying, but barring that, there will be flexibility in policing this. We care a lot about rubber on the road and width but will be reasonable toward modifications to allow the car to run. We won’t be too reasonable with modifications that just make your life easier (like removing the fiddly bits).

Thanks for the additional information.  Looking forward to seeing these cars on the track.

Marty

1) New Policar Vintage F1 cars listed at Pendle:

• Ferrari 126 C2 No.27 Gilles Villeneuve – NOT ELIGIBLE (sorry)
• Lotus 72E No.6 Monza GP 1971 Herbert Muller – ELIGIBLE

2) I have been doing a lot of testing of the Lotus 72E, modified to use the required rear wheels and rear width and find it a wonderful thing to drive. I have already broken-off one of the “brakes” by just fitting the body to the car. Super glue to get it repositioned and some shoe goo after it set was my fix. Just keep gluing them back together, folks. The stock wires broke off at the guide after about 200 laps. But man, it is just very smooth and fun. Can’t wait!

MARC – cool gauge, similar in function to what Alejandro developed for some Revoslot series – keep on Innovating 🙂

Another Livery in from Policar now available, March 701, Spanish GP, Mario Andretti. Considering this one, in Lieu of the Ferrari.

It is traditional in our club to replace push-on plastic wheels and knurled axles with solid axles and aluminum or mag wheels with grub screws.  ARE WE STILL RESTRICTED TO PLASTIC PUSH-ON IN FRONT?

The specs say 3 different Policar or stock rear tires, OR any other tire that meets max width.  What is the pre-race best idea, brand and stock number for non-Policar tires?

I am ordering parts Aug. 27-30th.  I would like to order non-Policar tires now if they are the hot item.

( funny that the YouTube video guy did not true the tires )

Word has cone down from the Home Office that the wheel requirements stated in the Race rules are to stand. The
16×11.7 wheels are still available from Pendle

policar-aluminium-f1-rear-wheels-16×11-7.html

Also at 132 slotcar.us
pw16011724a-aluminum-rear-wheels-2-early-70s-f1-cars

-Marc (Datto)

My white kit 701 is a blast to drive on the track but makes a high pitched whining sound.  As cool as it is to kind of have it sound like an F1 car, I am wondering if there is something that needs to be adjusted with the gear mesh.  I have honestly been hesitant to open the thing back up because of how tricky it is to attach the body to the chassis.  Any tips?

To Randy’s Question.

The rules specify for the front:

• Front wheels must be original that came with the car.
• Front track width must remain standard.
• Front tires must be part PPT1220C1.
• Front tyres may be glued and trued.

I should be back into the mix in a couple more weeks when my company’s busy season takes a nose-dive. I hope to make the first F1 events, but we’ll see what happens since I’m still traveling heavily through the end of the month – that’s why Marc and I are a co-manager of the series. All the testing I had hoped to do has gone completely out the window and the parts I ordered are sitting quietly here on a shelf. Ugh.

I have put off disassembly for full race prep of my Jackie Stewart March due to the excessive heat in the club house.  New aluminum wheels are coming, but I have trued the stock tires on sand paper flat on my run-in block.  The times today on a cleaned yellow lane were consistently 4.8-4.9.  The news paper will be reporting the car is having teething problems the first race.  Not much gear noise and relatively good front tire/axle performance without the grub screws and truing.  A break in the weather before the first race would be appreciated.

Holy cow!  I just opened my Policar F1 Ferrari to work on the gears and here is what I found.

I had no idea the gearing for these cars was so complex.  I hope I get it sorted out by this Saturdays race.

My car with better Policar 22 trued tires, and softer braids is slow enough that it does not deslot.  The front axle/tire grub screws are not completely set, but it is a pain because you have to remove the body to get to the upper grub screw holes.  I have considered the once-upon-a-time “Spider” trick of drilling holes in the body to access the upper grubs.

Been getting some good times.  I guess I can live with the noise, whatever it may be.  Very slight margin of error between cutting deep into the turns with some traction losing  drift and keeping the tires propelling the little thing forward.  It’s a blast!

Update to the rules to be more clear. The guide rule has now been updated to:

• Must be a genuine Policar guide as supplied with the car.

This was to better align the rule to the intentions of the original rule – that the guide must be original but modifications to the guide is allowed.

My front axle spins great without the body.  I think my wires are pushed down by the body, and rubbing on the front axle.  They are pretty bulky wires,  so I wonder, does the gauge of the wires affect the power of the motor.  I have some flexible small gauge wire.

Randy – I would go with NSR motor wire.  It is thin and very flexible.  I have had great luck with it.

Marty