Porsche 959 Paris-Dakar Rally Winner

This is a model I bought from a member on forum Vintage-RC. This model was built from new spare parts: it is in perfect shape and was never run since it is not fully built. I had been interested in this model for several months already, but studying it for the Tamiya off-road vehicle strategy article made me litterally fall in love.

I consider this model as a true RC jewel in general, and one on Tamiya most emblematic model they ever produced. Indeed, it concentrates all their know-how at the time it was released back in 1986 and today, it still remains an exceptionnal model.

The Porsche 959 family

Only two models use this plateform, both are very specific models in Tamiya range of products, and both are very much looked after by collectors.

58059 - Porsche 959 Paris-Dakar Rally Winner (1986)	Le boxart
58064 - Toyota Celica Gr.B Rally Special (1987)	Le boxart

The Porsche 959 promotional video (© Tamiya)

The Celica Gr.B promotional video (© Tamiya)

These two models share the same chassis except some enhancements on the Celica:
 a front stabilizer bar
 a center ball differential
 a stronger propeller shaft
 an improved front suspension
 the relocation of the mechanical speed controller resistor

But the history of the Porsche 959 RC version was not that quiet due to the relations between their respective manufacturers. It seems that Porsche revised the reproduction rights and that Tamiya did not accept to pay more. Furthermore, several countries voted laws against cigarettes ads at the time, so there are two different versions of this model showing these issues:
 the first with the Porsche badge on the box and the "Rothmans" stickers livery
 the second one without the Porsche badges and the "Racing" stickers livery

Of course, the first variant is the most looked after by collectors since it is an unvoluntary limited edition. Anyway, there are some whispers around internet saying that Tamiya would have destroyed the body moulds so no re-release would ever happen. What is true is that the blow molded technics used for the so thin and detailed bodies was limited to these two models and then abandoned.

When it arrived

The model was built from new parts either coming from the Porsche 959 or the Toyota Celica. But the build is not finished and the bodyshell needs painting and decoration.

The auction was very clear and detailled so I had no bad surprise: the seller I was lucky to meet is honnest, and this becomes rare. The inventory of missing parts is short but I will need to dig my spare parts stock to complete the model:
 servo links
 LED mounts
 miscellaneous screws and nuts

Last, at least one screw thread is damaged on the front left arm where the damper needs to be fitted.

Main parts

"Racing stickers and original manual

The body placed onto the chassis

Concerning the bodyshell, it is a repro: the lexan is way too thick to be original, some details are not as sharply moulded as they should and the front and rear lower ends do not come back underneath the chassis. Nevertheless, the overall quality is good enough for me. But this always needs to be checked before buying, and for this too, I must thank the seller for being very honnest. Note that this bodyshell repro can be found on ebay for about 35$.

I will not modify this model since there is not much to do and because I want to keep it as stock as possible: this model is complex enough not to add more complication. But I will think about fitting an electronic speed controller to replace the mechanical one due to the 540VZ Technigold motor: it will be more progressive and will transfer less brutal constraints to the chassis and the pinions.

The chassis

As I said before, it was built from new parts by a person who sold it. Then I did buy it to a Vintage-RC forum member who didn't change anything to it. Visually, the chassis looked perfectly built, except the big problem at the front left lower arm and missing parts like the antenna post and the servo link. But the chassis soon revealed some bad suprises after a closer look.

Plastics are so fragile on this chassis that you'd better pre-drill holes before screwing, especially on the front and rear arms. But, pre-drilling a 3mm hole to screw a 3mm screw is obviously stupid: but this is the problem I found on the front left lower arm to screw the damper ball connector. So I tried to remedy this built mistake: good news, I found a working solution that may interest owners of this chassis because this problem seems quite common.

The idea is this:
 refill the hole
 pre-drill with a 2.5mm drill
 use a reinforcement system
 screw the ball connector

For the first step, I used a product from Pattex called "Ni clou ni vis" ("No nail no screw": sorry, can't find what's this product name abroad): it is a very resistant glue being specifically hard once dry and that doesn't alter plastics or make them fragile (the opposite of cyano glue for example). So first, fill the hole with it, completly stuff it with the paste. Don't worry if if you spread glue around the hole: once dry, you can easily sand it or even paint it. It is said to be dry within 48h but I noticed the paste gets totally hard after 96h.

Second step: drill a 2.5mm hole in the cement. Nothing difficult here, you just need to care about drilling straight and not to deep. Make a mark on the drill with the corresponding ball connector screw length.

The third step is mandatory, otherwise you'll crack the plastic. Indeed, the cement hole is 2.5mm diameter but the ball connector screw thread is 3mm diameter. This means there is too much material inside the hole: under the ball connector pressure, the cement will force on the fragile plastic and crack it.
Reinforcing means to apply an outside constraint force in order to avoid the plastic to crack. For this, I used a U-shape sping mount that you find in many kits. This U-shape part will enclose the ball connector screw thread.

The U-shape dimensions are not perfect for this, but this is the best candidate I found in my spare part stock. You need to fully insert it on the arm and then foil the sides.

Last step is screwing the ball connector: because of the plastic being so fragile, I recommend you firmly maintain the U-shape part with pliers while you screw the ball connector. Be sure to screw progressively in order to recreate the thread into the cement. The final result is solid and somewhat discreet even if it is not beautiful: once the arm back onto the chassis, everything seems fine but I can't guarantee that it wil be able to bear strong constraints. Note that this repair may not suit the Toyota Celica Gr.B because of the sway bar stay.

When you miss necessary parts to finish a chassis, there are just two solutions: either you already have them or buy them, or you use other parts that will do the same. Parts for this chassis being so rare and expensive, I chose the second option.

Steering servo mount

Battery door

Inner bumper stay

The steering servo needs a specific part to be mounted and I couldn't find anything close to it in my spare part stock. I just used a servo horn fixed onto the chassis using a longer screw.
The battery door part is the one I found on the chassis when I got it: the problem is that it doesn't belong to this chassis and it is too high to leave room for the steering link. So I just savagely butchered it to keep using it but making it much lower so the steering link has enough clearance.
The inner bumper stays are the two vertical aluminum parts: they come from the mounting set of TG-10 urethane bumper I had left from my Ford Focus WRC 2001. The Rilsan collars you can see at the top are there for something completly different we'll see later on.

For all my models, I just hate doing it: first because this is not the most interesting part when building a model, but most of all, this step comes when you know that everything works on your chassis and you just want to go test drive it.
On this model, arranging cables is very difficult to do both because there is not much room for that and because the chassis layout doesn't help to separate radio cables from power cables.

In concrete here's the chassis layout:

From the top of the photo, the empty space on the right is meant for placing the mechanical speed controller servo (that goes in front of the servo, right in the top center of the photo). The mechanical speed controller is replaced by a TEU-302BK, thus the empty space. The central drive shaft (always diffcult to deal with if you don't want cables to get into it) make a separation line with the main electronics plateform and the 540VZ Technigold motor. The steering servo and its link make another separation line on the lower part of the photo, keeping the battery plug wires apart from the rest of the chassis. Last detail: the antenna post is located on the right side, above the motor head (not shown on the photo).

To make it clear, the electronic components (speed controller and receiver) and all the cables have to fit onto the central plateform that is big enough to place everything. In straight words, you can't arrange cables properly this way, especially because you must keep things low to allow enough clearance for the pilots cockpit set.

I tortured my mind, tried and tested different approaches and found no correct result: either the electronic components go onto the plateform and you pile up the wire like spaghetti on top, or cables need to get over the central driveshaft and the steering link and you to pray wires don't touch them.

Finally, I decided to get back to the original basics: the receiver goes on the central plateform. The speed controller is originally mounted in front of its servo... and its resistor goes onto the front bumper. This is that last mounting step that gave me an idea.

New speed controller location

Cable arrangement

The Rilsan collars seen on the inner bumper stays are those used to fix the electronic speed controller. As said before, this place is originally meant for the mechanical speed controller resistor: this is where I got the idea. To some extend, this is a kind of wink to the original setup .
The TEU-302BK speed controller is fixed using Rilsan collars on the ceramic resistor plate. There are two main interests in placing it at the chassis front:
 you can benefit from the cable length without having to wind them
 you reach the motor wire and the battery plug avoiding the two moving axles (central driveshaft and steering link)

To keep cables apart from the central driveshaft, I chose to mount the mechanical speed controller where it was originally meant to go. Of course, I deactivated it and it provides anchor for the cables and gives a Vintage touch to the châssis. This frees all the room on the central plateform for the receiver and to cable tie the antenna and steering servo wires extra length. The antenna wire just goes to the front of the sterring servo and then on the chassis side to the antenna post at the rear. I used small portions of antenna tube to drive the wire where I wanted.

After hours spent thinking about how to arrange cables on this chassis, the solution was to keep humble and not to try to enhance what Tamiya already designed.

Chassis overview

Chassis profil

The chassis is now complete and fully operational: it still needs to be covered by its beautiful bodyset before I can go to the track and make it run.

The bodyshell

I am aware of my limits at painting and this is the reason why I chose to entrust the whole painting and decoration to my friend Teamneogordini. Even the bodyshell being a repro, I want it boxart and as close to perfection as possible: this is the challenge he accepted.

A little note about this bodyshell repro quality: teambluegroove uses thicker lexan than Tamiya's original which makes the body less fragile. The counterpart is that details are less sharply moulded, but this is hard to detect. However, the repro dimensions are not exactly the same as the original's as you can notice when applying original stickers. The repro is shorter by a few milimeters and you have to slightly recut some decoration elements.

Teamneogordini chose to start with the cockpit set:

Before to shoot these photos, there are hours spent painting and an obvious talent. The level of details is tremendous: this is both far beyond anything I could have done and far beyond my expectations.

The cockpit set was just the starter: it is very important for a realistic model, but know it's time to start with the body itself. Now you saw the very high detail standard Teamneogordini can perform, let's see what he did with the body.

First mask for motor grille and windows

Additional elements are painted and first stickers applied

Masking is very important, tricky and painful to perform on this bodyshell: you need several hours only to get what is shown on the first photo. And this is only to paint the rear wing in silver, mask it and paint the motor grille, rear windows and front windows outlines in black. The second photo shows the end of this first painting operation and the two sticker lines that will guide you for separating the two next colors.

As I previously mentionned it, the repro bodyshell from teambluegroove is not precisely respectful of the original's dimensions: on the above photo, the red and gold stripes needed to be cut to fit. This was another challenge Teamneogordini had to face, and this won't be the last.

Applying stickers is very tricky due to the bodyshell curves: using a hair-dryer is required in order for the stickers to perfectly adjust. Despite of this technique, you can notice folds that will pregressively show up a few hours later: this is a flaw you can find on every photo you can find on internet.

Masking before spraying the blue color

Inside view

Close-up on masking: seen from the inside

Such a shapely butt

Just for pleasure, the other side

Here is the result after intensive masking and painting sessions: the bodyshell is now almsot finished, at least for the main painting operations. Despite of all the provided care, there are a few paint overrides (like the blinker on the first photo): everything will be corrected later on by painting from the outside.

This is not finished... and again, the repro doesn't respect the original body measures. This is pretty obvious when considering the rear wing that doesn't adjust precisely with the bodyshell:

After softening the adjustement default	Overview

Several months of work later, here's the bodyshell when leaving my friend Teamneogordini's magical workshop:

Totally painted and decorated	Front view
A Porsche butt, that's awsome!	See the level of details?

I must confess I had never expected this bodyshell to be so difficult to make: yet, I had read a lot about it, but I thought I could deal with it. Hopefully, I want such a perfect result that I chose to trust Teamneogordini's talent: I think it's the best decision I made, even if he really hated me for that . In fact, the truth is I could never have achieved such a masterpiece. This is because of Teamneogordini, his talent and friendship that I now have the chance to own such a beautiful model: a warm thank you and congratulations my friend.

The beauty of this boddyshell pairs with its extreme fragility: even if Teambluegroove repro lexan is thicker that the original, it is still very fragile and this undoubtely explains why Tamiya original bodyshell is so rare.

Nevertheless, this pure beauty deserves better than being exposed on a shelf: it is on its way to meet its chassis which is another piece of art, and this model will run.

First run

This model was a dilemna for me since I always consider that an RC model should run since it was designed for that. If it's meant to stay on a shelf, static models are better candidates since they provide even more scale details. Moreover, when a model was designed to run off-road, it's a pain to drive it on asphalt: so at the beginning, I planned to drive my Porsche 959 on gravel and sand since it is the replica of the 1986 Paris-Dakar winner.

On the other hand, this model is very special: the chassis is extremely fragile as well as the bodyshell. Last, despite of my friend Teamneogordini's talent, some stickers foil: dust will undoutely get in and damage the fragile stickers. This is the reason why I decided to run this model only on asphalt in order to preserve it. Tamiya even thought about this when they released the slick tire set option for this model and I'm the lucky owner of one full set. The bad news is that the slick tires outer diameter is smaller that the off-road set as you can see on the following photos:

With the rally set
With the optional slick set	With the 1/10th unknown wheel set

This is the reason why I chose to run it with another set of slick wheels that come from an unknown 1/10th model. Those wheels are not specifically nice looking and they are far from the original design, but their outer diameter is the same than the original rally set.

About driving this model, I drove very carefully to take no risks: the general sensation is that the RX-540VZ Technigold motor is powerful and the chassis is quick and precise. But the model gives the bad sensation that it can easily flip since the chassis is pretty narrow (165mm) compared to its height (140mm): of course, I didn't try to check of this model is really affected by this problem.

Driving such a model is a mix between pleasure and worry: to preserve it, you need to concentrate and always keep in mind that the slightest mistake could be lethal for it. This is also the feeling shared by my friend Teamneogordini when he drove it: after a few track laps, the concentration effort gets superior to the pleasure of driving the model and it's time to stop. Driving a Porsche 959 preserving both the mechanics and the bodyshell remains a true moment of pleasure and a chance: but drivers have their limits and it's better to have breaks than to drain the full pack at once.

More photos on the gallery.

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First publication: june 07, 2010 Last modified: june 07, 2010

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