1:24 Mini Cooper - Erik Høyer DSV

When you want to have Slot Series with models of the Danish GT-cars competing in the 1965-71 period, it's not possible to aviod the Austin Mini Cooper of Danish ace Erik Høyer, who also had some success iwhen competing abroad in his very fast Mini.

I began with Tamiya's nice plastic kit and a nearly vintage Schöler 1/32 chassis - or at least the parts for the chassis :-)

The chassis fits the small car neatly

No Decals are available fr these cars, so I had to drw them myself, using Corel Draw and printing them on decals paper using a Colour Laser Printer. Not able to print white colour, I had to print white letter on coloured background on white decal paper and them cutting them out.

The laser printed decals are very stiff and brittle and the edges are easily damaged when cutting out. I use a waterproof marker pen to repair the edges.

The method works fine on the decals for the Mini. The most difficult part is to hit the same background colours as the cars paint.

Here is the completed car shown with the NSU of Leif Pedersen. The decals on this car was made using the same technique.

Having only one of the Schöler chassis, I decided to save it for my "collection" and made a scratchbuilt chassis in stead, using 1,5mm brass and Schöler Striker and home made parts.

I had to change the Striker front end to get the guide back in the car. Apart from making some parts myself, I had to modify nearly all the other component to get them to fit in this verys small car. 

Not much room for the motor and gears. Everything has to be cut and grinded to fit.

Home made vacuum formed parts for the interior.

Lght weight and lots of details

Erik Høyer used glasses, when driving, so I painted "glasses" on the goggles of the driver figure.

Looks almost like the original :-)

When testing the car was pretty unstable and tilted when driven agressively. I tried harder tyres and more weight which helped a bit, but not enough to make the car as fast as my Porsche 911S. I therefore decided to change the guide. I tried different types and opted for a "reversed" guide to get the guide turning point longer forward in the car.

I used the standard Striker front and with carbon guide holder.

This solution brings the turning point nearly 15mm more forward.

The white plastik part is a guide stop to stof the guide from turning too much.

Next step is to test again :-)