I wasn’t going to build any cars this year but reading about the death of Misao Hiro, the founder of Model Factory Hiro, made me pull out one of his kits to have a look and of course I started tinkering. He released a lot of Ferraris but there probably aren’t too many more beautiful 2 door spiders than the Ferrari 335S.
In 1957 Enzo Ferrari was determined to remain atop of the sports car world. His cars, the 315S and 335S duly delivered. With bodies designed by Scaglietti, they were only differentiated by their V12 engine size, 3.8L for the 315S and 4L for the 335S. Ferrari entered the Mille Miglia and did achieve victory but also bought the famous race to end. Running 1-2-3 the, third place car crashed killing 10 spectators and the driver and co-driver. The Mille Miglia was cancelled thereafter. The car in the lead broke down handing the win to the sole 315S. A 335S sold at auction in 2016 for Eur32m to make it the most expensive car ever at the time.
The build is of the 335S that lead the race before braking down which was driven by Englishman Peter Collins and co-piloted by the English photographer Louis Klemantaski who took several famous photos of his driver during the race. Both men had interesting lives, with Collins driving for Ferrari in many races, both in Formula 1 and sportscars, and unfortunately losing his life in one in 1958. Collins famously gave up his car to allow Fangio to win his fourth F1 title in 1956 when he could have possibly won himself without his generosity. Asked why, he said he still has time to win a championship whereas the older Fangio was heading towards the end of his career. Klemantaski was credited with creating the art of motorsport photography and was a veteran co-pilot of endurance racing the 1957 Mille Miglia being his fifth. He took many great photos over the years especially of Aston Martins and Ferraris.
This kit is one of the earlier MFH kits so the metal work is not as crisp as sat the Williams I built last year as we shall see.
The body is primarily resin with the doors, hood/bonnet and trunk/boot in white metal. Surprising the doors fit, however the front was flat and I have sort of got it into shape and with a bit more fettling it will be fine. The rear is much worse with a shallow concave portion that needs a modelers equivalent of an English wheel.
All that will be in the future. I have built and painted the basic chassis. One the beauties of 1950’s cars was the there quite straightforward design - light body and big engine.
Well I’ll be watching this one for certain Michael.
Glad to see you back at it .
Sad to hear of Mr. Hiro’s passing .
I hope his legacy keeps on - he certainly gave modelers something to be glad about .
It will be interesting to see what subjects are now chosen for future releases as it was pretty apparent that he called the shots as to what would be kitted.
I for one would love to see more 1930’s subjects -
Aston Martin Ulster or Lagonda LG .
Time will tell.
Cheers - Richard
Thanks Richard - there haven’t been many pre-war cars released so it could be wishful thinking though those Astons would be lovely. I am sure given the time from conception to delivery they probably have their release scheduled planned for at least the next year. I would like to see some some more bikes especially the postwar years - Norton, Honda, MV Agusta as well as some CanAm cars (McLarens especially - no bias there )
cheers
Michael
Michael,
I’ve been away for a while due to family and my own medical issues, and just very little bench time, but I’m now back at the bench hopefully for a while.
Looking forward to your MFH Ferrari 335S build. Excellent start on the chassis. I’m confident that you’ll get the body panels in proper shape.
Richard, I’m sure that you’ve seen the new MFH 1/12 scale Cobra Coupe. sold out on pre order I heard. So MFH is still coming up with cars in big demand.
joel
Beautiful Michael - keep it up and I just might get inspired to dig out the Barchetta.
How is the fit of body parts and the condition of the white metal parts?
Thanks Richard. Actually pretty good considering this is one of their earlier kits with the only exception being the “trunk” which is a real mess, it has sunk in the middle see early photos, and has a rough finish. The doors and hood fit well to the body shell but not yet been in a position to check the body to the chassis - which in all my previous builds has been a point of contention.
Michael,
Totally lost track of your 335S build, so I re-read and carefully scrutinized every picture. Just simply outstanding skill set to assemble that 4L V12 engine. Really has the look and feel the real one for sure. Love those exposed Valve rockers. And looking at the rear transverse leaf spring setup, I just have to wonder how it actually kept the rear in line with the front end.
I had to smile when you mentioned you’d love to see MFH produce some vintage Mclaren Can Am cars. For me I’d love to see a M8B and a M8D.
This one got under my radar until just now – wow, sublime powertrain work Michael, fantastic! Please, please tell me the body will be detachable and/or hatches openable…
Thanks Joel. The transverse leaf spring is interesting but I note it was used also by Shelby both front and rear for the Cobra Coupes. I am not all mechanical so I don’t know how the rear aligned with the front in the Ferrari in terms of handling but it seemed to work given the races it won that year. As for the McLaren M8 - I can only hope.
Cheers Tim! Love the “hatches” comment - you need to spend more in the automotive world - boot and bonnet to the likes of us, or trunk and hood for our American friends. Hopefully they will work but I haven’t always had success with hinges!
Michael,
Good points about the transverse leaf springs. I totally forgot about their use in the Cobras as we’re talking mid 1960’s at best, and my memory isn’t what it use to be (even then it wasn’t that great).
My 67 MGB which I also used for time trials with much work done on her had dampers (not shocks as we know them) and coil springs separately at the front, and at the rear leaf springs running longitudinally and those nasty dampers. Not much you could do about tuning the rear except modify the leaf springs as I’ve already modified all four dampers by replacing the oil and making sure that I got all the trapped air out of them.
Now my brother’s TR 250 had coil over shock all around and full independent rear suspension which my B didn’t have.
joel
Michael,
What great progress, and every bit iif it looks fantastic. I just couldn’t stop myself from staring at that front suspension. Just amazing detail, and your expertise in assembling it so that it does indeed look that way.
Thanks Joel, the detail of this kits never ceases to amaze me.
Here is some more to peruse - the firewall - still needs to connect at the back but the cabin side is complete
The photo shows me a gap by the transmission tunnel that I hadn’t noticed in assembley. that’s not an easy fix.
The electrics board was a fiddly job but it turned out well
)
awww and I thought it sounded so much more sophisticated than…lids.
