ACL-Teilhol Rodeo

First of all, welcome to our newest follower David Sery!

A little history

The success enjoyed by the Méhari soon enticed Citroën’s archrival Renault to produce a competitor to this little off-road vehicle. In fact, Renault already had something in its range that was close enough, the Plein-Air. It had been actually developed by the Sinpar company, but less as a true off-road as the Méhari was than as a fun beach car in the spirit of the Ghia-designed Fiat 600 Jolly.

During the spring of 1970, Renault unveiled the Méhari’s true rival, the Rodeo 4. Once again, this wasn’t a genuine Renault design, its development having been outsourced to a little company from central France, Ateliers de Construction du Livradois or A.C.L. It was originally sold under the ACL name through Renault’s network.

The Rodeo 4 was again based on the Renault 4, more precisely its tougher van version, but received a totally original plastic body. Its engine was the R4’s traditional water-cooled 845cc, 34 hp four. Though more powerful than the Méhari’s, it had to propel a substantially heavier vehicle than its rival did, even if at 640 kilos, it could hardly be called overweighed. In October 1972, a new model was added to the Rodeo 4. Designed with a lucrative army market for a light off-road vehicle in mind, the Rodeo 6 was based on the Renault 6’s chassis and powered by its stronger 1.1-litre engine, and later by the 1.3-litre of the largest R5s.

Despite being a success in its own right, the Rodeo series always suffered from being an imitator of the Méhari, which it was never able to dethrone. Sold from model year 1977 under the Renault logo, the Rodeo was produced two years later by a renamed Teilhol company (from the name of ACL’s director, and though the Teilhol name was unofficially but commonly used from the very beginning of the car).

In September 1981, the Rodeo 4 and 6 were replaced by a single car simply called the Rodeo, even if a Rodeo 5 moniker was sometimes used to avoid any confusion. More compact and fitted with a modern body, the new offer failed to seduce its potential buyers and was withdrawn in May 1986, when it disappeared without any successor.

About the model

Model: ACL Rodeo 4 Coursière
Year: 1971
Maker: Universal Hobbies
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: M6 as no.4 of its Mythique R4 press series
Acquired: brand new, in October 2007, in Souillac, France

The Coursière was one of many models offered by Teilhol in the Rodeo range, and Universal Hobbies has proposed a very accurate and tasteful die-cast of this car. My rating is 15/20.

McLaren M19 - Ford

A little history

Nineteen seventy was a terrible year for McLaren. True, the team renewed its traditional success in the CanAm championship, but not only it ended the F1 season without a single win, which had never happened since the team’s burgeoning, it above all lost its founder Bruce McLaren, killed in a practice crash in June. Thereafter Teddy Mayer led the team, while the faithful Denny Hulme remained as number one driver.

The first task for 1971 was to replace the disappointing M14 by a brand new design. McLaren’s chief designer Gordon Coppuck electing to concentrate on Indycars, the work entirely rested upon his assistant Ralph Bellamy, who produced the M19A, a rather conventional single-seater powered by the ubiquitous Ford-Cosworth V8 engine. Its only original trait resided in its advanced suspension system. Structure was monocoque, built in aluminium, and hidden under a fibreglass body. Fully stressed, the exposed engine was an integral part of this structure.

The 1971 season seemed to start well for the M19A. At Kyalami for the South African opener, the car was indeed fast. With four laps to go, Denny Hulme was ahead of the field – then disaster struck as his exhausted machine refused to do more than coast to the finishing line. Though this could have looked promising, the car had already shown its limits as the behaviour of its “revolutionary” suspension had proved rather unpredictable during the whole event. The entire season would reflect this dual character: the M19A was swift, but fragile. Continuously tuning the suspension or adding a new nose or airbox didn’t help. Much blame was put on the team’s number two driver, Peter Gethin, who got the boot after the German Grand Prix. Two races later, the Brit won an epic Italian Grand Prix at the wheel of a second fiddle, the BRM – the first McLaren was seventh during the very same event, a clear demonstration that, after all, the M19A alone was the cause of McLaren’s misfortunes… Best result of the season finally came from a privately-entered M19A, when Mark Donohue placed third at the Canadian GP with a Roger Penske / Kirk F. White car. No more than ten points were earned during the year, the worst result since the team participated to the full F1 season.

In 1972, the M19A rapidly gave way to the M19C. The troublesome suspension arrangement was a thing of the past, and the car was now conventional all-around, but what had been lost in originality was largely compensated by increased reliability. Gone too were the last remnants of the southern hemisphere origins of the team, as the traditional orange livery and team logo were replaced by the colours of its new sponsor, Yardley. Now seconded by Peter Revson, Denny Hulme took a great start, finishing second in the new Argentinean GP, then taking his revenge in South Africa, the team’s first victory since 1969. This remained a lone success, but McLaren was regularly on the podium that year. Finally, the M19C opened the 1973 season before retiring in favour of the new M23, which was to become one of the most important Formula One cars McLaren ever built. Refitted with a Chevrolet V8, the M19 ended its career as a F5000 racer.

About the model

Model: McLaren M19A - Ford Cosworth
Event: 1971 Canadian Grand Prix, driven by Mark Donohue (finished 3rd overall)
Maker: Minichamps, “McLaren Collection” ref. 48
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Minichamps, limited edition
Acquired: brand new, in May 2006, in Manila, Philippines

A nice Minichamps model. The works cars look nice, but I instead settled for the great Sunoco livery of Donohue’s M19. My rating is 15/20.

Tatra T77

A little history

When I was a child, most would have smiled at the evocation of the Czechoslovakian automobiles. The name that sprung to mind was Škoda, and though this company was probably building some of the finest automobiles beyond the Iron Curtain, they were the butt of many jokes in Occident. Fortunately this has changed since then, and today Škoda’s name honours the long history of its country’s motor industry. Until WW2, it was a very busy one, but none among the Czechoslovakian manufacturers could challenge Tatra’s position at the frontline of technical innovation.

Tatra already had a long history as an automobile manufacturer, having set a foot into motor industry as early as 1897, when it was still called Nesselsdorf and belonged to the Austro-Hungarian empire. The dismantlement of the country, following the end of WW1, also brought a new name, taken from the nearby Tatra mountain range. In 1921, Hans Ledwinka, an engineer with a head full of original ideas, took over the company’s design department, and Tatra set on an innovation spree. Soon, all Tatra models used air-cooled rear engines, which were not a common feature at the time. Perhaps even more striking were the independent suspension on all four wheels, while most other cars still had two rigid axles, mounted on a backbone chassis. Using this common architecture for all of its models, Tatra developed a range extending from popular models to luxury automobiles.

In 1934, Tatra succeeded in outdoing itself with the striking T77, introduced at the Prague motor show in May. Many were still toying with streamlined prototypes, some being produced in tiny series such as the Pierce Silver Arrow, when Tatra proposed the very first production streamlined automobile. And unlike the aforementioned American car, the T77 would have road characteristics and mechanical features to match its arresting appearance.

By then a specialist of rear-engine vehicles, Tatra was well positioned to create an aerodynamic car, as the absence of a transmission tunnel allowed a much lower automobile. As seen from the side, the T77 looked more as an airplane’s wing than any of the box-like cars of the Thirties. The T77’s overall shape was due to famed aerodynamic specialist Paul Jaray, a former Zeppelin engineer, and reached an astonishing coefficient of drag of only 0.212. Hans Ledwinka took care of the mechanical part. Positioned to the extreme rear of the car, the large 3.0-litre V8 avoided creating too much of an unbalance that would have been damageable to the car’s handling by being largely built in light alloy, as was the gearbox. With no more than 60 hp, the T77 could reach a 145 kph top speed, a rare performance back then, in perfect comfort.

The T77 received rave reviews from the press, and enthralled its rich and often famous owners. As early as 1935, the original T77 evolved into the T77A, with an enlarged 3.4-litre engine. With now 75 hp at his or her disposal, a T77 driver could now reach 150 kph. The T77A’s style also evolved, the headlights being repositioned on the front wings in order to increase the impression of extreme width of the car. A third headlight, sometimes steerable in turns, was also added up front.

The Tatra T77 certainly remained one of the most advanced automobiles in the world until 1938, when its production was interrupted and the T87 took its place. This remarkable automobile had inaugurated a line of highly aerodynamic, rear-engine Tatra saloons that would last for four decades.

About the model

Model: Tatra T77
Year: 1934
Maker: Ixo
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Altaya as no.37 of its Voitures Classiques press series
Acquired: brand new, in April 2007, in Souillac, France

Excellent model by Ixo in this noteworthy Altaya series: 14/20. Note the rear fin needed to stabilize the car at high speeds.

Volkswagen Typ 4 (411 and 412)

A little history

After the Typ 3, Volkswagen continued to expand its range upward by offering in 1968 what was then its largest car ever – the Typ 4, known from the public as the 411 model.

Despite its higher ambitions, the 411 remained unmistakably linked to the original Beetle. From the outside, it basically looked as an overgrown Typ 3, retaining the traditional air-cooled, rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive arrangement. Some discrete but significant innovations were introduced though, most notably unibody construction and an efficient suspension through MacPherson struts. More apparent to the public, the 411 would also be Volkswagen’s first four-door vehicle.

The 411 was introduced during the Paris motor show of October 1968. Even though the car was rather elegant with its Pininfarina-inspired body, well equipped for its time and fitted with a brilliant 1.7-litre boxer engine – that would later be installed in the VW-Porsche 914 –, it certainly came too late, with the popularity of rear-engine automobiles rapidly vanishing. Cars, particularly in the 411’s class, now were to be water-cooled, front-engined, and preferably driven through the front wheels – it seemed Volkswagen had it all wrong.

Volkswagen’s reaction was to offer a more conventional alternative to its 411. It appeared in 1970 as the K70, designed by NSU and hastily rebadged after the little company’s takeover. In turn, the K70 itself was a relative failure, and both cars cohabited while Volkswagen’s engineers were working on a common successor. In the meantime, the 411 gave way to a modernized 412, which was tastefully modified by American stylist Brooks Stevens and was introduced for model year 1973. One year later, the engine was enlarged to 1.8 litre, though it lost its Bosch fuel injection system in the process. Simultaneously its replacement saw light: it was the modern Passat. The 412 was removed from the company’s 1975 range, while the K70 followed the same way a few months later.

Despite their dated concept and a disastrous tendency to rust, the 411 / 412s proved to be excellent vehicles, but also marked the end of an era, being the very last cars introduced by Volkswagen that used the traditional Beetle-like arrangement. The Wolfsburg factory saw almost 370,000 of them being built through their short six-year career, many of them exported to the North American market.

About the model

Model: Volkswagen 411 LE Variant
Year: 1969
Maker: Minichamps
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Minichamps
Acquired: brand new, in February 2006, in Manila, Philippines

For the die-cast of a Sixties German car, there is perhaps no better choice than Minichamps. The famed manufacturer offers, among others, this fine reproduction of the two-door estate version of the 411 (there were no four-door estate). My rating is 14/20.