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Children cars
Welcome to our Children cars collection. Some are pedal cars, some electric or fuel powered but they are all great fun. They all have their own history so click on the model of your choice for more details.
Radio Controlled toys
Welcome to our radio controlled collection. Helicopters, jet ski, racing cars and also 1/2 scale children cars !
No toys collection without radio control.
More coming soon.
Die Cast collection
Welcome to our die cast car collection.
Sorry coming soon.
Here we talk about art & cars.
Some are items we bought but some of them are home made, hand made, made with love and passion.
More coming soon
Emmanuel BEAUFILS
Le Mans, FRANCE
email : lotus.lemans_orange.fr
Caracteristics :
Fiber Glass body. Steel chassis. Front and rear suspension. 4 stroke Honda unleaded petrol engine with gear box and manual clutch (3 pedals and gear stick just like the real thing !) 2 speed forward plus reverse. Steering rack. Leather seats. Carpet. Soft top cover. 6 inches wheels with inflated tire.
General presentation :
This model is a 1/2 scale petrol engine Porsche 911 SC convertible. This big ''toy'' is at 1/2 scale and is about 1m70 long and wait more than 100 kg. It was built in the eighties by a company called JR and distribute through the Porsche network. I knew that the ACO (Automibile Club de l'Ouest) the association which organize the famous 24 hours of Le Mans, had one of them for quite a long time. She was display every year at Le Mans with all the other 1/2 scale models of their collection (mainly Ferrari 330 Mortarini). Their model is a 2 seaters without any rear wing. Our model is the one seater only with rear wing version.
How we found it :
I found this model in York, UK. I've been very lucky as it is a very rare model only made at 300 exemples. Most of the JR models I found on internet were in very poor condition as is the model from the ACO. When I found it, many parts were missing, dashboard was damaged, missing front dampers, missing one headlamp, missing door handle etc etc
Restoration project :
We would like to restore this car to its original shape and even improve it ! It has to be perfect.
We know that not only time and money will be necessary but also plenty of courage !
We will also need the help from other people for the mechanics, leather trimming, fiber glass mould to reproduce some parts, paintshop. What a long process but what a reward at the end as this car is definitively a cool and rare toy !
''The Grasshoper'' as the kit was called is made in MDF (medium fiber wood) and Fiber Glass body. Steel front and rear axle. Fake front suspension. 12v electric motor with electronic speed control including reverse. Leather seats. Carpet. Soft top cover. 8 inches wheels with inflated tire. Aluminium bonnet. Lexan windscreen. Smith gauges ! Leather dashboard.
This model is a 1/2 scale kit car from UK. Originally this car was sold as a kit called ''the grasshoper''. Offered in the 90's, it was possible to buy the complete kit or only the manual. The body is a mixed of MDF wood and fiber glass elements (nose and wings). The bonnet is in aluminium. It is motorized by a 12 volts electric motor which action 1 wheel drive.
I found this model close to London, UK. There are not so rare unfortunately they are rarely well finished. Beeing in wood they are quite fragile too and not design for ''fast use'' but more for young drivers. As usual I didn't expect when I purchased this model that it will take me so long to restore it.
At first, I've been very disappointed by this model. I didn't really like the shape of the nose (the only part not reproduce accurately to my opinion). I wanted to quickly restore it and to sell it fast. However, step after step, I started to restore it and actually I found it nicer and nicer. Now I love it !
This model is still under restoration and the next steps are. The next steps are the installation of a fake exhaust and of course all the electric devices.
1/64th AFX track with 2 lanes. Replica of the Le Mans circuit. size : 3m X 1.5m.
A little boy dream :
When I was 12 years old in 1981, I participate to a contest organize by a local toy store. There were an AFX slot car track installed in the middle of the street. Children were invited to try it. There were an electronic lap recorder and a complete set was offered for the kid who will make the fastest lap. Woaw ! I was fascinated. I tried and made the best time ! It was 14:00 and the contest was closing at 18:00. I waited for 4 hours hoping to be the winner and go back home with the track set. At 17:55 I still had the pole position ! until a small kid arrived. He beat me by 0.1 second :-( one minute before the end...my consolation lot was single car (a bmw M1 that I still have) and a catalog. The virus was in me ! I read this catalog for hours and hours, I got a set for next christmas, bought some extension track, plus some cars (many cars) ! 30 years later I now play with it and my son !
1/64th a very cool scale :
The 1/64th scale is a very very cool scale because it allow you to make huge and realistic track on a small area. Not very popular in France (1/32th is more) but very popular in the US and Japan with some brands like Aurora AFX, Tyco and Tomy. H.O scale cars are a little bit smaller but also can be used on this track. Very popular in German with Faller and Bauer.
My track and cars :
In the year 2000 I decided to make a replica of the famous 24 hours of Le Mans circuit. This is not a true replica (the real track is 13km long which will still make a 200 meters long track sized to 1/64th !) but you can recognize the most important parts as : the pit lane, the dunlop esses, the tertre rouge curve, the famous hunaudière straight, playstation chicane, the mulsanne hill, the mulsanne curve, indianapolis and arnage curves and the ford chicane. There are also a paddock area, tribunes, the dunlop bridge and even the famous Goodyear Blimp ! Of course most of my 150 cars are Le Mans 24 hours cars but I also have some Nascar, F1, touring, Tuning cars. Many of the car bodies have been painted by myself.
1/2 scale Land Rover serie 2a. 1m74 long. Steel chassis. Full aluminium body shaped by hand. 90cc Honda Dax 4 stroke engine. Gear box with automatic clutch. 3 forward speed, 1 reverse. Front and rear suspension. Differential. 8 inches tires. Leather seats.
This model is a 1/2 scale model hand made by Leslie Larimore. Mr Larimore built this model himself from scratch for his grand son in 1989. He built it in his garage in Derby, UK. His grand son was 8 years old when he offered him.
I found this model on ebay.UK on the real Land Rover section ! It was located at Portsmouth. I've been very lucky on this one as it is a unique model. I am still in touch with Mr Larimore son who sold me this model.
This Landy didn't run for many years. It was in perfect condition but the mechanics needed to be completly checked and service. The brake were not operational (stuck piston), the battery was flat and it was hard to start and had a bad idle. As I didn't want to damage this fantastic model, I decided to bring it to Thierry my mechanic friend. He flushed all the oil (gearbox and engine), stripped and set up the carburator, installed a new braking system and it is now ready to go.
Cosmetically it is hard to do better than what Mr Larimore did ! I consider him as an artist. I feel so sorry that I will never had a chance to congratulate him (he did in 2011). So it is a big dilemma : do I have the right to modify this master piece of art ? I don't think so. I then decided to maintain it, to add few details and to make all the make all the electric device efficient (as Mr Larimore would have liked) but I will definitively not modify it too much.
