Abril 6, 2015
R/C Toy Memories - rctoymemories.com
One of the most popular
articles on R/C Toy Memories to date has been “Racing Drivers & R/C Cars“, probably in large part thanks to the images of
Ayrton Senna and his Tamiya Hotshot.
But there’s more where those
came from.
Here are some never-before-published photographs
of Ayrton, enjoying his R/C models way back in 1986.
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Watching the opening race of
the 2015 Formula 1 season in Australia a few weeks ago reminded me once again
just how much has changed in the sport. But since it’s my home grand prix, I
usually feel obligated to tune in.
But boy, what a snooze it was.
So while we’re on the subject
of vintage Senna and vintage F1, I need to have a quick rant about the dire
state of F1 in 2015, before I get to the Ayrton Senna R/C photos…
In 2015, several teams are
struggling to afford to compete in F1. Nothing new there, as there are always
some poorly funded back-marker teams. But at the season opener in Australia,
only 18 cars even attempted to qualify. And of those, just 15 made it to the
actual race – by far the smallest grid in the 30 year history of the Australian
Grand Prix (for contrast – there were 25 cars on the starting grid back in
1985).
Less cars means less action
and, once underway, the top two cars cruised to the 1-2 victory that everyone
had predicted. Back in the pack, there were just 7 on-track overtaking
manoeuvres during theentire afternoon.
Just 15 cars contested the 2015 Australian Formula 1 Grand
Prix
The problems with Formula 1
these days are many and varied, and far too much to cover here. I could rant
about the high
costs, the silly
changes to the point scoring system, and how the continueddropping of many of the
classic and iconic race tracks from the Formula 1 calendar have causedmany
to despair that F1 doesn’t care about it’s own history and tradition,
leading them to look elsewhere for more authentic motorsport (such as the
still-great Le Mans 24 hour race).
But you reap what you sow. The
sport’s management are to blame, and the viewership appears
to be in decline already anyway.
A lot of that decline is
probably because, in 2015, not only does F1 feel more like a race between
artificial rules and software than it does between horsepower, tyre-rubber and
driver skill (to quote former F1 team boss Flavio Briatore, “Drivers who
are doing their accounting in the car rather than being gladiators”), there are
so many other distractions in life and many people are now busy doing other
things. Such as watching Youtube.
And while there are
undoubtedly more people watching funny cat videos right now on Youtube than
there are watching vintage F1 footage, it’s worth considering just how great it
is that we can now access so much historic footage so easily.
Back in the 1980s and 90s,
all we had were TV broadcasts and a few VHS tapes. Today, there are dozens of
old F1 race videos and documentaries free to watch online, whenever you please.
With a Chromecast, they can be playing on your living room TV in a matter of
seconds. Do you remember who won the 1985 European Grand Prix?
If not, you can spend an afternoon pretending it’s 1985, complete with classic
commentary by Murray Walker and James Hunt.
Why sit through another 2
hours of today’s compulsory pit stops, “DRS”, and boring and contrived
racetracks, when you could be enjoying the blown turbos, manual gearshifts and
scenic track venues of the F1 we grew up with. How I still miss the sweeping
hillsides of the original Osterreichring.
25 cars contested the 1985 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix
Likewise, writing this blog
has afforded me the chance to relive (some would say “live in”!) the past, with
each article. And occasionally, my endless drivel even leads to something
useful… such as when former R/C magazine journalist and industry figure Colin
Spinner contacted me a few months ago to begin sharing his
collection of never-before-seen candid photographs of racing drivers from the
1980s.
So put on some classic 1986 F1 footage,
and enjoy these complimentary snapshots of Ayrton Senna messing about with R/C
models from the same year.
A quick note about the title
of this article… Colin says he once used the term “miniature engineering” when
explaining the details of Tamiya R/C models to Ayrton, and this term later
became Ayrton’s preferred way of describing Tamiya R/C cars, so impressed was
he at their construction and level of detail.
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Ayrton at the 1986 British Grand Prix, with a Tamiya Road
These photos were taken at
Brands Hatch – the venue of the 1986 British Grand Prix (and incidentally, the
last F1 race ever held at Brands Hatch). Ayrton qualified third for the race,
but ended up retiring on lap 27 with a gearbox issue. Nevermind though, because
he got to take home a nice Tamiya model for his collection.
Here Ayrton can be seen with
Colin, examining the Tamiya Road Wizard F-1 model which was finished in the
livery of his team that year (Lotus, with their John Player Special black and
gold sponsorship)…
The next two images also
feature Gérard Ducarouge (in sunglasses) – the late designer of cars for Matra,
Ligier, Alfa Romeo, Lotus and Larrousse. Gérard was a designer on several cars
for Lotus, including the Lotus 98T that Ayrton drove in 1986, and which won 2
Grands Prix. Sadly, Gérard actually passed away just a few weeks ago, aged 73.
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Ayrton’s first drive with his
new Tamiya Hotshot, 1986
With the boom in off-road R/C
models in the mid 1980s, Ayrton had to have one as well. These photos show the
Tamiya Hotshot he was given, which again was finished in the JPS Lotus colours
of his real F1 car that year.
I had previously
shared one photo of this car, but this time we can see it in full colour.
Colin always made a
considerable effort to replicate the real colours and logos worn by drivers
when delivering these souvenir cars, and in this case you can see that the
Hotshot driver figure has Ayrton’s racing jumpsuit and helmet.
Firstly, here’s the Hotshot
itself. According to Colin, “some of the decals were hard to achieve”…
And here’s Ayrton running it
for the first time in England, in the car park near the office where Colin
worked at the time…
In the next image, Ayrton was
busy explaining to Colin that it “wasn’t handling right…”
Ayrton later broke the car
and phoned Colin for help in having it repaired.
As Colin recalls:
“Ayrton drove office to my
office on a Tuesday and we took the pics in the staff car park. He then went
back to his house in Egham (living with Mauricio and Stella Gugelmin). He
phoned me on Thursday with the following conversation which I still remember vividly
to this day: “Colin… (long pause)…Don’t want to be a big sh*t but the car is
broken. Can you fix it if I come over as I am flying back home to Brazil
tomorrow?”. Needless to say he jumped in the car, did the journey in around 35
mins (normal humans would have taken an hour), brought it over and I repaired
it. He had broken a rear upright so I made him up a small spares package to
take with the car back to Brazil. Fond memories of a driving error by the great
and late Ayrton.
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Ayrton’s Asahi R/C boat, 1986
Ayrton’s interest in R/C
models was not restricted to cars of course, and many people are aware that he
became an avid flyer after quickly learning how to operate R/C aeroplanes and
helicopters.
But few will be aware that he
was also interested in R/C boats. And after he received his Tamiya Hotshot,
Ayrton asked Colin if he could have a boat as well – in JPS livery of course. The
model Colin chose was one manufactured by Asahi Corporation.
After the earlier meeting
with the Hotshot, Colin replicated the casual clothes that Ayrton actually wore
on their previous meeting in the car park (above), for the boat’s driver figure…
Here’s Ayrton holding his new
acquisition…
After Ayrton received his
Tamiya Hotshot, it also wasn’t long before “Mauricio Gugelmin wanted one
too”.
This next image shows good
friend Gugelmin (then an F3 driver) with Ayrton, as they do a little
late-evening R/C boating…
I’ll be sharing some more
photos of Mauricio Gugelmin next time.
Until then, I hope you’ve
enjoyed seeing these previously unpublished images. And once again a very big
thank you to Colin Spinner for sharing these artifacts from his
personal archives.
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Date: 04/07/2015
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