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Post by René on Feb 26, 2019 18:50:56 GMT
I found this little slot car on ebay a few weeks back. I already had a few Chevrons but not a Japanese version like this. I knew nothing about the Grand Champion Series to be honest and never heard of Hiromu Tanaka. Doing some research on the web I found out this was a sportscar championship that ran from 1971 to 1989. There's not a lot to be found on this and not many pictures so that makes it even more interesting!  Wiki: The Fuji Grand Champion Series (富士グランドチャンピオンレース) ran from 1971 to 1989. It was a drivers' championship in Japan and was originally for 2 litre Group B6 cars. The series was started in 1973, and all races were held at the Fuji Speedway circuit. Link: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuji_Grand_Champion_SeriesRacing Sportscars: www.racingsportscars.com/championship/Grand%20Champion%20Series.htmlHere's my little slot car.  Program booklet  And I am quite sure the Chevron can be seen here behind the no.12 car in the middle.  Mikael, do you know anything more about this championship? |
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Post by mikael on Feb 27, 2019 0:49:17 GMT
I found this little slot car on ebay a few weeks back. I already had a few Chevrons but not a Japanese version like this. I knew nothing about the Grand Champion Series to be honest and never heard of Hiromu Tanaka. Doing some research on the web I found out this was a sportscar championship that ran from 1971 to 1989. There's not a lot to be found on this and not many pictures so that makes it even more interesting! Wiki: The Fuji Grand Champion Series (富士グランドチャンピオンレース) ran from 1971 to 1989. It was a drivers' championship in Japan and was originally for 2 litre Group B6 cars. The series was started in 1973, and all races were held at the Fuji Speedway circuit. Mikael, do you know anything more about this championship? René, frankly, I didn't know about this championship either. Much more famous is the "Japan Grand Prix", which was the forerunner of "The Japanese Grand Prix" in its present form (as a round of the Formula One World Chamnpionship). The "Japan Grand Prix" started in 1963, on Suzuka, as a standard car race, but evolved into a prototype car race. In 1964 it was held at Suzuka again but then, it went to Fuji Speedway for the next eight years (according to Wikipedia). I imagine (i.e. it's just my guess) that The Fuji Grand Champion Series was introduced by Fuji Speedway as a means of continuing the Japan Grand Prix in its original form (or close to it) - as a prototype car race - in anticipation of getting Formula One to Japan, and thus in anticipation of turning the Japan Grand Prix into a proper Grand Prix. As is well-known, this happened in 1976. It's a very good-looking slot car. It seems to be a rare model - a real collector's item. I came across some more photos of the car - with and without rear fins (below). Here are some links - with a number of good photos - that describe the 1971 race (in Japanese): motorz.jp/race/25882/web.motormagazine.co.jp/_ct/17078979    |
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Post by mikael on Feb 27, 2019 5:37:13 GMT
René,
the sponsor logo in Japanese letters on the sides of the car (日本トランペット) says "Nihon Trumpet". As the small English above says "Auto parts & PA System" I wondered what company this is - and I could not resist doing a little "research".
It turns out that this is, in fact, the same company as "Uni-Pex", written on the front. Uni-Pex is a speaker-system manufacturing company - so "auto parts" refers apparently to car speaker systems (and PA = Power Amplifier). The company is based in Osaka.
Company website:
It turns out that the driver Hiromu Tanaka is/was the son of the owner of Nihon Trumpet/Uni-Pex. Also, and perhaps more interesting, Hiromu Tanaka was the founder of the racing team "Heros Racing" which competed - briefly - in Formula One, in 1976 and 1977 with Kazuyoshi Hoshino as driver (in 1976 with a Tyrrell, in 1977 with a Kojima).
These info are given on the Japanese Wikipedia page on Heros Racing and not on the English page.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heros_Racing Kazuyoshi Hoshino in the Tyrrell at the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix (Fuji Speedway). [This might have been the first car to run Bridgestone tyres in F1 ...]  ... and in the Kojima at the 1977 Japanese Grand Prix (again at Fuji Speedway). |
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Post by René on Feb 27, 2019 9:46:38 GMT
Great Mikael! I knew you would come up with some interesting stuff, searching from within Japan obviously generated more results in this case. Thanks so much for all the background info. When looking at your second picture (where the Chevron is following the two Porsches) it shows the slot car is quite an accurate rendition of the real car. The small fins on the rear but also all the sponsor stickers are correct. The other photos must be later in 1971 or 1972 as the car looks a little bit different. The fins are gone and the sponsor logos are repositioned a bit. It is a nice little slot car from the Fly Classic range that changed the slot car hobby some 15 to 20 years ago and these cars still look fantastic. Modern slot cars are often even more detailed and accurate but the Fly cars just look ‘right’. It’s a fun car to drive also! And how an oddity find like this can open a small niche door of our hobby is just so cool. Quite a racing enthusiast, Mr. Hiromu Tanaka! |
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Post by mikael on Feb 27, 2019 12:39:11 GMT
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Post by Jamie on Feb 27, 2019 21:38:20 GMT
Fascinating stuff gents, those little Chevrons were real gems weren’t they. I was tempted by the Chevron book at Race Retro over the weekend but it’s still very expensive.
I didn’t know this championship existed but, as with most Japanese racing, I’m sure it was very professionally done. The Japanese Group C prototype championship used to be brilliant and had a few cars unique to the series which illustrates the sort of level it was at. Porsche 962’s did most of the winning though and Nissan were pretty successful as well in the later years.....there’s some great footage of the Nissan V12 3.5 ltr car on YT somewhere.
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Post by René on Mar 1, 2019 16:46:21 GMT
Thanks Mikael! |
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Post by Jamie on Mar 2, 2019 16:47:38 GMT
Here's some footage of the Nissan group C car I mentioned.....its in Japanese so maybe Mikael will understand some of it, but the onboard footage near the end is brilliant, it looks like he's sharing the track with a load of buses.....listen to the engine note though  <img src="//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/bbcode/video-preview.png" video="<iframe width="560" height="315" src=" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>" alt="Video Preview"> |
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Post by Jamie on Mar 2, 2019 16:48:51 GMT
Help Rene, I can't get the video to embed  |
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Post by Carl on Mar 2, 2019 17:26:48 GMT
Help Rene, I can't get the video to embed
Here's one: |
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Post by mikael on Mar 3, 2019 6:50:33 GMT
Thank you Jamie and Carl - a very interesting video.
The driver is Keiichi Tsuchiya, the track is Fuji Speedway. It seems that the video is recorded around year 2000 - maybe in 2001. (It is said that, "you wouldn't think that the (1971) Fairlady is a 30 years old car". )
Tsuchiya's start-comment about the Group C car, the R92 CP, is interesting, "noritai to omowanakatta - abunasou de" = "I was not sure I wished to drive this car - it seems scary!". One thousand HP in race-setup; 1200 HP in quali-setup, says the narrator. So probably quite a bit scary!
The '71 Fairlady Z / C30 Z is a very pretty car. And 300 HP to 1010 kg (3.36 kg per HP -- or 0.30 HP per kg) - it's better than the present standard car (340 HP to 1500 kg = 4.4 kg per HP or 0.23 HP per kg).
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Post by Jamie on Mar 3, 2019 9:16:42 GMT
This is the link for the video of the NP35 Nissan that briefly appeared in the Japanese championship (i couldn't get it to embed so here is the link).
This only appeared briefly before the championship died and is of the 3.5 ltr normally aspirated type in the mould of the XJR14 etc.
Its sounds amazing but didn't win anything......great car though. Totally different from the R92 series of cars which were beauty's, thanks for the vid Carl.
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Post by René on Mar 3, 2019 10:16:44 GMT
This is the link for the video of the NP35 Nissan that briefly appeared in the Japanese championship (i couldn't get it to embed so here is the link). This only appeared briefly before the championship died and is of the 3.5 ltr normally aspirated type in the mould of the XJR14 etc. Its sounds amazing but didn't win anything......great car though. Totally different from the R92 series of cars which were beauty's, thanks for the vid Carl. Fantastic video Jamie! The scream of the engine is amazing, the best. And the school buses are... interesting! To embed a video in your post, simply use the video button in the text editor when you create a new post. Copy the Youtube link like you've done in your last post (so don't copy the embed code, just the direct link) and then click the video button and paste the link. Then click insert video. The actual video will only show when posted so not in preview mode.  To insert a photo from an external website, simply right click (PC) or Control click (Mac) on the image and then select 'copy image location'. On a phone or tablet, place your finger on a photo and hold and then copy the image. Back in your new post, select the image button and paste the link. It's best to remove the http:// wich is already in the field. When you click preview at the bottom of the edit window you should see the photo.  |
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Post by René on Mar 3, 2019 10:34:00 GMT
Here is a 1985 Grand Champion race at Fuji.
And some nice inboard footage of a Chevron B19 at Laguna Seca.
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