The X-Clinic: Porsche 911 GT1 Strassenversion conversion - FINISHED

6971 Views 45 Replies 16 Participants Last post by joel.martinez427, Jan 26, 2019

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Discussion Starter · Oct 3, 2018 (Edited by Moderator)

I've always loved the GT1 racing cars from late 1990s, they had that mixed feeling of road car taken to the extreme for racing purposes which I like. But more than that, I love that they had to build road-legal versions in order to homologate the car. Therefore, having the CLK GTR and the F1 LM, I've always loved how the 1998 911 GT1 looked like it was starting to melt while speeding at 200 mph. Unfortunately, no miniature manufacturer made the 911 GT1'98 Strassenversion but luckily Maisto had a superb representation of the cart that won the 24h of Le Mans in 1998 and it would become a perfect base for my recreation:

The engine would be the trickier part because there were more than a few differences between the racing and the road car engines:

My "to do list" was:

- Remove all logos from the bodywork;
- Paint the rear spoiler white;
- Paint the wheels silver;
- Sand the tire thread for greater realism;
- Disguise the additional headlights that the competition car has;
- Remove all white tampos from the front splitter, door trims, doorsills and tires;
- Swap the racing seat for a pair of road sports seats;
- Change the dashboard for road configuration;
- Swap the original (nasty) gearbox lever for a resin unit from Légènde Miniatures (meant for the F430 GT2);
- Replace pedals with PE (Tremonia);
- Modify the engine for the road configuration (including catalysts and mufflers);
- Replace the original brake discs with perforated discs;
- Detail the headlights;
- Add registration plates;
- Place a mesh grille on the radiator inlet;
- Add mesh grilles at the back;
- Paint all the interior of the passenger compartment, engine compartment and engine cover matte black;
- Disguise the fixation points of the antenas;
- Modify the rear extractor and rear spoiler fixations;
- Add Porsche logos to the wheel centre locking nuts;
- Add brake lines and all other pipings on th eengine bay.

Stripping the car apart:

The engine out the engine bay:

The seats (from Légende Miniatures) would have to be reshaped so they could fit the passenger compartment:

Wheels and tyres striped and ready to be "treated"::

The discs to be replaced:

With a bit of alcohol the Michelin Pilot SX letterings of the Le Mans winning tyres is gone. Interesting though is to notice that on th inner side wall I found the lettering "Bridgestone" on relief. It's not entirely true to the original but I think it lends a bit of extra detail:

A few hours, some ketone, cotton swabs and some very black fingers later, the bodywork is stripped from its deco:

While the body is in the painting shop drying (sprayed the inner surface of the panels matt black), I'll get to some other stuff. First of all, theseats have to fit in the cramped carbon tub, especially height-wise. The driver's is IMO ground down enough to fit but I still have to do the same to the paassenger seat. Just look how much I had to cut:

The back of the original seats is flat so I have to sand down these "ribs" the Légènde seats have:

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Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 3, 2018

Here are the wheels resprayed:

And the sanded tyre surface. It's quite a difference:

On the original car, the headlights had the lens tinted orange where the side indicators were (latelly it's been seen with totally clear lenses) and I like them better this way. The inside also took 2 layers of Tamiya Smoke because the original are tinted and not chrome:

On the edge of the rear diffuser, the competition model had 2 horizontal profiles (in order to provide extra downforce) which aren't present on the road car. Grind away:

The original disc brakes were too small and incorrectly grooved. Therefore, I replaced them by a set of larger cross-drilled discs from a Bburago. In order for them to fit, it was necessary to cut out the centre plate and grind them a bit so that they fit the large wheel hubs:

After adding the set of metalic callipers I sourced from Légende Miniatures, this should be the look of the finished set:

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Discussion Starter · #6 · Oct 3, 2018 (Edited by Moderator)

ibj40 said:
This is going to be quite fun

How did you remove the decals but not damage the paint? I am very tempted at doing that for one 1:24 Bugatti Atlantic I have

The thing is, they're not decals, their tampo's, a bit like a "stamping". If it were decals, submerging it in hot water would suffice but these will only get removed wit han organic solvent. Sometimes, ethylic alcohol is enough to remove them but in this case ketone works fine and doesn't attack the car's paintjob EXCEPT on the rearview mirrors, which apparently have been painted on a different paint than the metal parts. That paint WILL come off so you should prepare yourself for the need of respraying them after removing the deco.

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Discussion Starter · #9 · Oct 4, 2018 (Edited by Moderator)

Here the inside of the engine cover and all the inside of the chassis and body are painted matte black:

... chassis...

... and passenger compartment:

In the meanwhile, I placed the thermal shielding on the inside of the diffuser where the mufflers will be placed (which are provided by a Maisto Aston Martin DB7 Vantage):

The airbox is off and I adapted the intercooler from a Bburago Ferrari 348 tb radiator:

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Discussion Starter · #15 · Oct 9, 2018

looney said:
Great build so far. I like the all white body. Nice

Haha, thanks. Just like it was supposed to be!

Well some more progress. The headlights are pretty much finished and in place:

Also added the front licence plate (as on the original):

I added some aluminium tape on the front bonnet latches, I think it adds a bit more or detail:

The doors (had to respray it all cause the tampos on the inside of the doors wouldn't come off):

The new seats are adjusted to fit and painted flat black in order to mimick the leather trimming:

The dashboard had to be rectified too. First had to cut-off half its "height" and delete some switches and buttons. Then, the top lining was sanded to remove the carbon pattern and resemble the leather trim of the road car. The steering wheel was also rectified in order to delete the central screen:

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Discussion Starter · #23 · Oct 11, 2018 (Edited by Moderator)

ibj40 said:
Was looking all your detail, and how extensive it has been, and you are to be commended on it. Was looking at the video provided above of the walk-around of the real car, and noticed the small dive planes molded into the nose at each corner.

Yeah, I know what you mean. But if you take a closer look at the photos on the internet, those dive planes were introduced on the Strassenversion after the rear spoiler was stripped from its white paint. Early photos show it lacks those elements (and this is the look I'm going for):

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Discussion Starter · #25 · Oct 11, 2018

I removed a few more buttons off the dash and coloured those remaining. I also took the indicators and wiper stacks from a Bburago F40 and, after a few tweaks and painting them matt black, the dash now looks more... "civilian":

The seats are in place and the fabric seat belts added with their respective buckles. I eventually resprayed the whole tub cause I couldn't remove the Mobil 1 tampos:

Tremonia photoetched pedals:

I took the base of a 1:43 Altaya model and cut off the corners in order to build the brake calliper fixations:

Here with the discs and wheels assembled:

I think they look ok:

Now the engine: first I painted the coil springs gloss black and disguised the screws that tighten the puch-rods and painted them blue like the originals:

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Discussion Starter · #27 · Oct 16, 2018

Here's a few more progresses: I foun a gloss white that looks similar to the one the 911 GT1 is painted with. Depending on the light you can notice a very slightly different hue but I can live with that. The rearview mirrors, rear spoiler and additional headlights were the parts painted:

Brake cooling ducts, painted in order to mimick the composite:

On the rear spoiler, I added the wing adjustment screws:

At the rear, I built the licence plate fixation bracket from a smooth piece of plastic:

And added the lights to iluminate the plate:

As I've mentioned before, it's time to install the mufflers, in this case donated by a Maisto Aston Martin DB7 Vantage). I had to cut off a part of the moulding of the rear diffuser where the heat exchange grilles were mounted and therefore allow me to install the mufflers a bit moore rearward. Afterwards, I'll have to cut the hole to insert the metalic exhaust tips that I got from Légende Miniatures:

Starting with the engine, these are qhe intake manifolds I will use (adapted from those of an Anson 911 Speedster:

Should look something like this:

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Discussion Starter · #31 · Oct 23, 2018

The engine is pretty much finished, it just lacks a cable or two and the exhaust tips:

At the front end I added a mesh grille:

Almost there...

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Discussion Starter · #32 · Oct 30, 2018 (Edited by Moderator)

Added some elements like the bodywork fixation points and the side indicators (from Légende):

The original gearshitf lever was a horrid lump of chromed plastic so I swapped it by a resin lever meant for a F430 GT which also came from Légende.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

And it is finished!!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Hope you liked it just a bit as much as I do!

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Discussion Starter · #41 · Nov 20, 2018

Yeah, it's getting increasingly hard to find really cheap discontinued Maistos, which is insane! For instance, I've been looking for a blue Dauer EB110 for quite a while and they don't even show up at all, let alone cheap ones...

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Discussion Starter · #44 · Dec 6, 2018

No, the problem is just that the seats from Tremonia were way too wide and this was the only way I had to fit them inside the cockpit... It's not ideal but it's what's possible.

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Discussion Starter · #45 · Dec 18, 2018

You can find the photos of the finished model in my 1:18 topic: https://www.diecastxchange.com/forum1/topic/223130-x-garage-18-mercedes-benz-540k-autobahnkurier/page__st__25#entry4139530

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