43rd and More - Kit reviews by Wayne Moyer Archive Edition

Showcase Review:
Provence Moulage - Panoz 1999 LMP-1
by Wayne E. Moyer

Rules for the Le Mans Prototype (LMP) class were changed slightly to permit narrower single-seat roll bars for open cars. Although this doesn't sound like much, the change in frontal area (i.e., high-speed drag) would be significant on a course like Le Mans. BMW, Nissan, and Panoz all abandoned their coupes and built new open cars for the 1999 Le Mans-- and, just as Don Panoz had hoped, for the new American Le Mans Series (ALMS) races. As it turned out, BMW did a slightly better job with the new car, winning both Sebring and Le Mans, but Panoz won three of the eight hotly contested ALMS races and the series championship. Had the new Panoz LMP-1 been ready for Sebring (the team used last year's GTR-1 Coupes) things might have been even better for the American team.

While the 1999 Le Mans race will forever be remembered for the aerobatic acts by Mercedes, BMW's win was no gift. Toyota coupes occupied the front row of the grid, to no one's surprise, while BMW's shared the second row with a Mercedes and the third row with the fastest Panoz; the new open cars held three of the top six qualifying positions. The Panoz was fast enough, but once again durability proved to be their downfall as the highest-placed Panoz had to have its gearbox replaced twice en route to its seventh place finish. Both cars finished, though, with the second team car claiming the 11th position.

With the length of ALMS races tailored for television and running on shorter tracks, the Panoz LMP roadsters gave nothing to anyone, beating the BMW V-12s, Riley & Scott Fords, Ferrari 333SPs, Lola B98 Fords, and Porsche GT1s on the way to collecting their second American Championship. Strangely enough, Panoz still couldn't collect a driver's championship; while the Panoz and BMW teams split their wins among two cars, elder statesman Elliot Forbes-Robinson never finished worse than sixth in his R&S Ford to take the driver's crown.

I thought that I'd loved the 1998 "batmobile" Panoz GTR coupe-- until I saw the first photos of the '99 LMP-1 "Froadster" ("funky roadster"). Actually, the car reminded me of a 1960's Gold Cup hydroplane more than anything else; rounded upper hull with the driver seated well aft and a rudimentary wing hung above the stern. All it needed was a 50-foot roostertail! With the Panoz team committed to Le Mans, I knew that a 1/43 scale kit would soon be available, as Provence Moulage now models the entire Le Mans grid each year while several other manufacturers also make kits of the more successful cars. Sure enough, Provence Moulage had a resin kit of the Panoz LMP available by late fall and Renaissance has just released a much more detailed multi-media kit. Having already built the P.M. version of the '98 car, I elected to add their kit (K1460) of the Froadster to my collection.

The resin body casting was excellent; the surfaces were smooth and very well detailed. There were only a couple of tiny mold lines on the lower edges of the body and some thin flash in the cockpit opening and wheel arches; not a single "pinhole" in my kit, nor were there any other blemishes that needed to be filled. A few minutes with sandpaper had the body ready for primer. The seat, electronics boxes and their wiring harnesses, and even the tiny gearshift lever are cast integrally with the baseplate.

Photo-etched pieces include the rear wing, aft bulkhead and screen, the strakes for the aero tunnels, small detail parts, and the wheel spiders. The wheel rims are machined, and once again my kit had treaded rear tires and smooth front ones, but at least the width of the front tires was more reasonable. P.M.'s instructions are color-copied sheets of photos of completed models with hand-written notes, so it took a little time to figure out where the tiny dashboard was supposed to fit. The six-page feature on the Panoz LMP-1 in the September 1999 issue of "Racer" is a big help-- once you realize that the car photographed is from the ALMS and has some minor detail differences (particularly the shape of the rear wing struts) from the Le Mans cars.

I glued the tunnel strakes to the rear of the baseplate and built up the wing assembly before priming the model. My kit had no blemishes of any kind visible after the first primer coat, so I sprayed the inside of the body and both sides of the baseplate semi-gloss black. Disregard the "flat black" note on the instructions; everything is carbon fiber and has a distinct sheen. After masking the inside, I applied several coats of gloss black lacquer to the body, painting interior details and applying some carbon fiber decals to the side panels and console between coats of black lacquer.

Once the body shell was dry I began applying the decals; everything that's not gloss black on this model is a decal. Actually, the jeweled headlights and their clear plastic cover should be added to the body before decal application; I found that out too late. I had more problems with these decals than I usually have with P.M. kits! The sliver panels needed lots of splitting and repeat applications of Solva-Set to make them wrap around the front fenders and headlights; even then I had some wrinkles and overlaps that I could not eliminate. The red (we're not supposed to use the trademark Da*-Gl**) word for the color stripes were even worse, as they turned out to be very brittle. I suppose that's a function of the "neon" ink as it didn't occur with other parts of the decal sheet. Fortunately I had some NASCAR paint (also trademarked, but for a car with a two-digit number starting with "4") that let me touch up the worst spots. Look at the small instruction photos very carefully, or better yet the Le Mans issue of "Auto Modelisme" as there are some differences in the smaller sponsor decals between the two team cars. P.M. gives you all the decals you need, you just don't use all of them for either car.

I had no problems at all during "final assembly"-- there's just not that much to this model. The sleek, swoopy lines, the graphics, and all the details match photos perfectly-- photos from Le Mans, that is. Length, track, width, and height all check out right on 1/43 scale, but the wheelbase is about 0.1 inch (4 scale inches) short. After spending time studying the model and photos, I think the rear wheels are that much too far forward. Given the tightly radiused rear fenders, there's nothing you can do about this, so forget it. You've really got to study photos closely to see it anyway.

Because of the problems with the decals my model will never be a contest winner, but it looks great in my collection of Can-Am and USRRC cars and I'm quite happy with it. Its unusual lines and bright color scheme really make it an eye-catcher. Sure would like to be able to build one next year for my collection of Le Mans winners, too.

Contact Wayne at mailto:wmoyer@infinet.com

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