1/18 1982 Daytona 24 Hours Mazda RX7 GTU Class Winner

[oldtimer]

Other thread on a Mazda RX7 convinced me to share this here, as well.

Not sure where to start the story, however I determined years ago that I wanted to make a custom model of this car.

Here's a couple of pictures from the Racing Sports Cars website of the car at the 1982 Daytona 24.





Biante produced several versions of this era RX7, including several racing liveries, and a couple of plain non-liveried versions.

As I did my research, I was excited to find that Biante had done half the work for me, and that there was a red plain version!



Alas, however, it was on a right-hand drive chassis, and the Kent Racing version raced in IMSA was left-hand drive.

I had a choice; I could create a properly decaled, but wrong chassis version, or create a hybrid by swapping the red plain body onto a left-hand drive Biante chassis (they made the model in both versions).

So, I acquired another Biante racing Mazda RX7, this one being an Alan Moffat version raced in Australia.







Here's a picture of the converted version (which I ultimately sold on eBay with full disclosure of the chassis swap).



Unfortunately, while I thought I had done it, I could not find any pictures of the swapping process.

The only compromise I had to make is in the windows and outside rear-view mirror.

Here are some pictures of the final (decals are from Patto).







Link to the Flickr album here: flic.kr/s/aHBqjzZks9

Link to the converted Moffat model album here: flic.kr/s/aHBqjzZk6n

Couple of websites with more information on the real racer:

www.racingsportscars.com/chassis/photo/RX7-Bergstrom%23.html

jimchungblog.com/2021/02/03/a-tale-of-a-race-winning-rx7-chassis/

[Jcon]

Cool little racer for sure!!!

[mopar]

Thanks for sharing oldtimer. My 83 was a cool looking and fun car to drive.

[tubbs]

great job. pain in the ass having to buy 2 cars. at least you recouped some money on ebay.