The Ford C100 is a sports racing car, initially built and run as a Group 6 car, but later as a Group C car. The C100 was built by Ford in 1981, and initially featured a 4-litre Cosworth DFL V8 engine, which was replaced by a 3.3-litre version of the same engine in 1983, after the car had passed to private hands. Five cars are known to have been built. Although the cars were often very quick in qualifying (when they had been fully developed), reliability problems plagued them, and restricted their successes to two Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft victories in 1982, and a single Thundersports victory in 1983. Following the end of Ford's involvement in the C100 project in 1983, Zakspeed modified one of the chassis into the C1/4, which used a 1.8-litre turbocharged in-line 4 from their Group 5 Ford Capri. The C100 was also evolved into the Zakspeed C1/8, which used the 4-litre Cosworth DFL in a C1/4 chassis. The Zakspeed cars would prove to be far more successful than the C100 had ever been, and Klaus Niedzwiedz used a C1/8 to win the Interserie in 1984.

Record was one of several French resin 1/43 kit makers that were prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s. Like many of them, the company has gone, but their kits can still be found. This one was purchased in the 1980s from a hobby shop in El Cajon, Ca where I bought most of my 1/43 kits that are not done by Marsh Models.

The kit is a true multimedia effort with the body, chassis/interior, wing, mirrors and wheel inserts in very nicely cast resin (as long as you don't look on the underside where there are huge air pockets). The very thick photo etch pieces are for the rear wing supports and a thinner photo etch fret includes the wheel detail. Thanks to the p.e. being in the same bag with a lot of other parts, one of the wheel inserts has a chunk missing. Two metal axles are included as is a plastic steering wheel. The tires are rubber and still in good shape while there are four superbly done turned aluminum wheels. A photo etch windo piece is provided as is a piece of thick, clear, plastic, the purpose of which is for headlight coverings.

There are no instructions with the kit, which is not unusual as most models like this from this era were not well supplied with build instructions. The kit includes a very nicely done decal sheet which was unfortunately folded over the years so I'm not sure how viable it might still be. The markings placement guide is a very poorly reproduced photo that is all but useless. Fortunately, the car has been photographed as you can tell from the lead photo.

A rather nice kit of an interesting if somewhat unsuccessful car. Well worth picking up if you can find one and a nice addition to any 1/43 Sports/Racer collection

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_C100

September 2016

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