The Tyrrell P34 Six Wheeler bodyshell

It is in perfect condition but the white part of the plastic shows time offenses: it turns into yellow in some places because there is no paint. The stickers are already sticked and to my knowledge, there is no reliable technique to remove them properly in order to re-use them later.

By chance, I could find new stickers, so I could remove those already applied and detach the white part of the bodyshell. I also detached the driver cockpit in order to refresh the paint and change the decoration since I want my Tyrrell P34 driver to be Patrick Depailler.

Painting is very easy since you only need to spray a primer coat before spraying two coats of white. Let paint dry, apply the new stickers and paint the driver.

The original stickers on the blue parts of the bodyshell being already a few decades old, I also replaced them with the new ones.

After the first run test, I noticed the bodyshell had to cope with many strong vibrations mainly due to the aluminum chassis flex and the front bumper being in a cantilevered position. In fact, the problem is the front bumper moving a lot due to chassis natural flex: track defects make the bumper move a lot and hit the bodyshell.

I don't think it is possible to limit the bumper moves since it would require to make the chassis stiffer and this would imply heavy modifications, if they are even possible. The solution is to install a dampening system between the bumper and the bodyshell: this is much easier to make.

The idea is limited to filling the gap between the bumper and the body nose: three foams pieces sticked with double-sided tape will make it. Of course, you'd better limit their thickness in order not to put too much pressure on the front body attachments. Painting the foam parts dark black will make them invisible.

First run with the iconic Tyrrell P34 Six Wheeler

For the first run, I had to use the original wheels since I was still waiting for the required bearing to mount the newer ones. Not being sure 30 year old rubber would resist, I drove carefully.

The very first impression is that this model is pretty fast considering its weight. The steering is very imprecise but all the play between so many links can't make you expect anything different: paradoxically, straight lines are tricky to handle because the steering is much better in corners. I was also expecting this chassis to understeer a lot but it does not: but I should admit I didn't try to test its grip limits.

After the first lap, something else became obvious: suspension exists, the front drivetrain makes it all, but the bodyshell suffers from heavy vibrations. These are so important that it sounds very worrying as soon as speed raises: I have to think about something to better fit the front of the bodyshell since I don't believe it can bear such a bad treatment for long. I think the new front tires will also help since they are much softer than the original ones.

It's not really possible to compare my Tyrrell P34 with my Footwork FA13 even if both are chassis meant to compete in the same category. Driving my Tyrrell P34 is very similar to driving my XR311 and my Porsche 959: a lot of concentration and caution are required and you always fear to make a mistake which would turn into a drama for the model. Despite of this, it is a real excitement to see such an ancient and out of norm model running.

The following pictures were shot the same day, but my friend Teamneogordini's camera suffered a setup problem on the second photo. But the effect and the shot makes it look 70's and I see his photo like a vibrant vintage tribute to my model .

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