Coca Cola IMSA Porsche 962

Photo by Mike Klessig



This project was initiated when I received a Fred Cady Design decal sheet (number 81) from my e-mail pal and fellow sports car lover Jim McCall. Thanks again for tracking down that sheet, Jim! Of all IMSA Porsche 962's, I always liked the bright red and white Coca Cola sponsored car best. The red painted headlight covers accentuate the nice lines of the car. The decal sheet also allows one to build the Porsche 935 K3 raced by Bob Akin; I've collected some pictures of Bob Akin's Porsche 935's too. Over time this web page grew so large that I decided to divide it in three parts.

This second page shows all kits and aftermarket parts that are possibly of use to build an IMSA Porsche 962.

Page 1 - the 1:1 car     Page 2 - models and accessories     Page 3 - the conversion




2010: finally a model of the early IMSA Porsche 962

The web page below discusses the (many) options of how to build a Porsche 962 with the original boxy IMSA longtail. Most of it became instantly superfluous when M & S Hobbies issued its transkit for the 1984/85 longtail IMSA Porsche 962 in February 2010. I haven't seen it yet, and until that moment the page below will remain as it was.

According to the M & S Hobbies website, the transkit includes body, tires, wheels, vacuform windows, radiators, fuel fillers, headlight lenses, headlight covers, taillights, rear diffuser, exhaust pipe, rear wing and rear wing uprights. The transkit is designed to be combined with the Tamiya 962 kit.

Unfortunately, M&S Hobbies closed in 2021.




The models

Until 2010, there was no model of a Porsche 962 in early IMSA trim. You had to make a choice between:

For an early IMSA 962 model, it's a difficult choice between the Tamiya and Hasegawa kits:

I compared the three bodies too see which one is best suited for a 1984/1985 IMSA 962.

Body heights (in millimeters) Tamiya 956 Tamiya 962C Hasegawa 962C
   bottom to top front fender  25.5 25 26 - 26.5
bottom to top center body 24 25 24
bottom to top rear fender 26.5 - 27 29 31
height of rear wheel opening   23 (flattened)     25 (circular)     27.5 (circular)  

Main conclusions are:

Conclusion: the whole rear side of the 956 is much more accurate for an IMSA 962 than the two 962C models. But the nose has to come from a 962, and then the Tamiya model is most likely to fit best. A kit-bashing of the two kits appears to be the best solution, although not simple. It has the advantage that it is possible to build a fully detailed engine bay. The completely air cooled, two-valve engine IMSA engine could become available again through PPRR, and adding that *huge* single exhaust pipe is very tempting!




Aftermarket items


Bodies

Interest in 956s and 962s remains high, and in 2003 two new resin bodies came out, followed by more.




Body parts

Several 962 body parts are currently available. Basically about every body style can be built with them, except the early 1984-1985 IMSA 962 with the 'boxy' tail.




Chassis

Although it is for the Porsche 956 and not the 962, the Scale Motorsports 956 superkit has to be mentioned. It contains four large photo-etch sheets that allow one the build a complete chassis, plus dozens of detailing parts.




Wheels

In the 1984 IMSA season the same wheel sizes were used as in Group-C: 16 inch diameter, 13 inch wide at the front, 15 inch wide at the rear. Dunlop Denlocs were used in Group-C (280/600 front, 350/650 rear), but these were replaced by Goodyears in IMSA. I do not know their sizes, but they look very similarly sized to me. This means that all tires and the front wheels of the Tamiya 956 can be used (the raised Dunlop and Denloc markings have to be sanded off though). The rear wheels are a bit of a problem: the Tamiya 956 has 6 spoke Speedlines, but we need BBS multi-spoke wheels. The listing below includes all aftermarket 956/962 wheels, including 17, 18 and 19" BBS wheels that are not applicable to a 1984 IMSA model. Some comments on 962 wheel sizes can be found on pages 124-125, 133, 139-140 and 144 of the John Allen book. An important note when you measure kit (and real) wheels: the tire retaining lip adds 1.6 inches to the wheel diameter, and you need to deduct that from your measurement to find the true wheel size (which is based on the inner diameter of the tire). One last remark: the Tamiya 956 wheels appear to be slightly to small: they should be 16" as reported above, but measure 15.4". That's an 0.6 mm difference which is not really important, but it did cause much confusion on my part when comparing them to other wheels.




Turbo bumps / intercooler scoops

Another IMSA specific detail is the 'turbo bump' or the 'intercooler scoop' on the engine cover. First a explanation of the difference. Early IMSA 962s had the turbo located above the gearbox, and intercoolers behind the door inlets, like the 956 and 962C. This configuration required a 'turbo bump' on the engine cover, which existed in 3 variations. Later 962s had a single large intercooler above the engine. This required a large air inlet, and this is referred too as the 'intercooler scoop'. The scoop existed in 4 variations.

All bumps and scoops shown below seem to have a common origin. I think they started life under the 'Images Vacform' flag, then went to UMi Modellwerke. UMI Modellwerke issued a set of four vacform scoops and three resin bumps as set 'UMi 406'

The set was sold in 1996 to Penguin Productions Race Replicas, but PPRR never issued the resin bumps, one of the reasons being that the bump ended in a half-tube running to the trailing edge of the rear deck, for clearance of the exhaust. This appeared to be impossible to include in the casting. In January 2003, the masters went to Perry's Resin Replicas in Canada, who issued them in three styles:

In 2001 Speedline came out with a series of 962 aftermarket details, including decals, turbo bumps and wheels. They issued the same three turbo bumps, apparently stemming from the same masters as those of Perry's Resin. The bumps are too high however, and must be cut down to fit properly on the engine cover. (Photos were kindly supplied by Tom Hiett).

Plastik Hut also offers resins IMSA turbo bumps, that look quite similar. A photo can be found on the Automobilminiaturen site.

The Images Vacform / UMi Modellwerke vacform intercooler scoops went to Penguin Productions Race Replicas in 1996, who modified the masters, since they originally were 1/4 inch too wide. They now fit correctly on the Tamiya 962, and keep the rear brake scoops exposed. All come with instructions and templates for cutting the rear deck of the 962 model, plus templates for trimming the scoop to fit. Also, information is included regarding who used each scoop when, in a race by race break-down. However, in January of 2002 Penguin stopped producing. PPRR produced the following as vacform items, available through T'n'T and Sport Craft models:

In January 2003 the masters went to Perry's Resin Replicas in Canada, who use the following coding:




Engine

In case you want to add an accurate IMSA spec engine, there are several options again:




Photo-etch details

A few photo-etch detail sets have been issued over the last years. Some may be useful for an IMSA 962, but since I don't have any of them, I can't really tell.




Decals

The following decals for Akin's 962 are available:

There are quite a lot of other IMSA 962 decals on the market, but I don't have a complete list yet. It is reported that the Studio 27 decals for various 962s are tailored for the Tamiya 962, and may need small modifications if used on a Hasegawa 962.




Porsche 956/962 references

A Porsche 956 and 962 book listing:




Porsche 956/962 modeling links

Porsche 956 and 962 build reports that I found so far:




Go to page 3 - the conversion





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