1951 Mod cars exposition, part 2.
I realized I haven't finished showing the cars around, so to speak.
Let's go for the ERAs this time.
Those two cars were the B Type R14B and C Type R8C, they were two of our milestones in the modelling department, seriously. That's because those two cars had been modified by 1951, with different bodywork modifications among others, so they look different from how they were in the mid-1930s. But at the same time, they no longer had those modifications, most of them had been discarded when the two cars were restored to their 1930s state of appearance.
So, we can only really rely on the period pictures of the cars to model them. Same goes with their colours, so it's a relief that we somehow managed to nail it right...
One thing's for sure with the ERAs, they have really good brakes. Even the historic racers who race the cars nowadays would say so. In fact, they said that you actually had to be a bit gentle on the brakes in real life, as the self-servo effect of the brakes were strong, especially in the earlier cars like the B Type.
The two ERAs were different, not just on bodywork, but also, with their behaviour, to some extent.
R14B, the B type, is an understeery car, so you had to step on the throttle and kick the tail out to get around. Thankfully, the car, according to the historic racers, were very predictable, according to them, you can get the B Type really sideways, and still be able to catch it.
R8C, the C Type, isn't like that. It sports a new, Porsche-designed torsion bar, twin trailing arm front suspension, similar to what Auto Union used. And while this is done to improve roadholding, it changed the handling characteristics from understeery, to mostly oversteery. And to top it all off, the C Type had a wider turning circle than the B Type, as the new front suspension limited the steering lock. That's because the new trailing arms would start to foul on the brake backplates should they try to increase the steering lock. Hence, one had to be a bit careful trying to get the C Type sideways; it is much easier to provoke it, but you can end up making it go more and more sideways, until you discover that you ran out of steering to recover it...