Sunday, January 3, 2016

Fiat Mefistofele

Here are some images of Italeri's (Protar molds?) 1/12 scale Fiat Mefistofele.
When researching this model on the ole interweb, I discovered that pretty much anyone who had built this kit always did it in the shiny clean fully restored variation. For me building this kit in the clean restored variety didn't match the character of the car. so I decided to do this kit with a slightly weathered and more used look of which to me is somehow more fitting for this vehicle.

From Wikipedia"

The FIAT Mefistofele (sometimes known simply as Mefistofele) is a one-off racing car created by Sir Ernest A.D. Eldridge by combining a Fiat racing car and aeroplane engine in 1923. The name is from the demon of the same name, and the name refers to the infernal noise emitted from the unmuffled engine, and it was "Baptised" by the Frenchmen.
Eldridge broke the World Land Speed Record on 12 July 1924 with the Mephistopheles, by driving at 234.98 km/h (146.0 mph) in Arpajon, France.
The Mephistopheles was created by combining the chassis of the 1908 Fiat SB4 with a 6-cylinder, 21.7 litre (21706 cc) Fiat A.12 aeroplane engine producing 320 PS (235 kW; 316 bhp).
The engine named Fiat A.12 is a six-cylinder liquid-cooled in-line engine with a bore of 160 mm and a stroke of 180 mm, giving a capacity of 21,7 litre, with variants producing between 245 and 300 horsepower at 1,700 rpm. The A.12 was a rather large aero engine at the time and its dimensions were more typical of a marine engine, but it was efficient and reliable. No doubt Fiat's experience with large racing engines contributed to its success. A total of 13,260 A.12s were produced between 1916 and 1919.

4 comments:

  1. Beautiful build and I agree with how you have done it in a raced/weather finish. Very nice.

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  2. Thanks Shayne! I wish there were more models available like this.

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  3. Inspired build. Love the authentic finish. Fond memories of seeing this Fiat beast run at Goodwood where it threw out oil over the exhaust all the way up the hill.

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  4. Thanks Unknown! Wow ! You got to see that car in person. Very cool.
    I'm fan of Goodwood myself.

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