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The version of the M23 shown here was raced during the 1976 season in which James Hunt won his one and only championship. The 1976 season has been called Formula One's greatest year because of the year long dual between Ferrari's Niki Lauda and McLarens James Hunt. There was controversy during the Spanish Grad Prix when the McLaren was deemed to be 1.8cm too wide at its' rear after James had won the race.
After a multiple pile up at the first corner of the race at Brands Hatch, England, the mechanics re-built James's McLaren and wheeled it to the start line ready for the restart. This seemed to contravene a rule that stated that no driver might restart a race unless his car had completed the red flag lap. The stewards decreed that the local hero would not be allowed to restart the race. Fearing a riot from the crowd, the authorities allowed Hunt to restart the race and he went on to catch and pass Lauder to win. This win was later taken away from Hunt who was told he had been ineligible to run. Lauda was declared the victor.
On August 1st during the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, Niki Lauda suffered terrible injuries from burns after his car crashed and his helmet was completely knocked off. Hunt took two brilliant victories at the Canadian and American races even though, unbelievably, Lauda returned to racing by the 10th October at the American Grand Prix.
Hunt went into the Japanese race with 65 points to Lauda'a 68. The race went ahead even though the rain was torrential. Lauda pulled out of the race after one lap, refusing to race in such terrible conditions. Hunt led for 61 of the 73 lap race then decided to play it safe and dropped behind Andretti and Depallier in third position. He then developed a puncture and had to pit for a change of tyres. To his dismay the jack malfunctioned delaying his pit stop still further.
Once Hunt left the pits the red mist of anger descended, he cursed the tyres and he cursed his luck, in a mounting fury he slammed round the closing laps throwing caution to the wind, it was the final lunge of the whole season which carried Hunt to the championship title after passing Regazzoni's Ferrari and Jones's Surtees to claim third place again.
Photo Gallery of the McLaren M23 on display during the 2002 Goodwood Festival of Speed
I was lucky enough to find this kit in an American auction and had to pay more than three times the price of a new Tamiya kit. So far this is the only model in the 1/20th Formula One car series which has not been re-released. Because the model is probably about 20 years old I bought a set of conversion decals from F1 Specialities (see links page). These decals give the modeller the choice of three drivers to choose from and include a gurney strip for the rear wing. It's a pity they didn't include the helmet decals which the original sheet provided for James Hunt and Jochen Mass.
I found the most difficult area to apply the decals, was the area on the bodywork just in front of the engine. The large orange decal has curved around the sharp bends in the plastic instead of conforming exactly. Maybe an alternative decal solution would have helped here, I used Humbrol decal cote 1 and 2. The decals from F1 Specialities are very thin and at least two of them split when being soaked in water, they slid together OK and hopefully only I will be able to spot the slight imperfections.
I used the following magazines for guidance as the M23 had a long and illustrious career and many modifications along the way.
Motorsport - Formula Ones Greatest Year - February 2001
F1 Racing - January 2001
And for the the version of the car I have chosen to model,
Motorsport - Hunts' McLaren - August 2002
More Photo’s
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