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02/01/2026 2:49 pm
I just watched a video of the 1976 Tyrrell-Ford P34 starting up and taking off down a driveway and remembered what an astonishing concept this was. It was a helluva investment by Ken Tyrrell and his team to design and build a steerable 4 wheel system on the front just to get a lower silhouette and keeping those small wheels shielded. The prototype was unveiled in 1975 here with Patrick Depailler:
The Exoto model shown here, P34/3, was driven by Jody Scheckter had a first place finish at the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix with Depailler in 2nd place. There were some problems with excessive wear on those custom made Goodyear 10" wheels and tires and various brake problems also precluded any other 1st place finishes. The FIA solved all the P34 problems by banning F1 cars with more than 4 wheels. It's less than a historic successful run in '76 and '77 did not prevent the P34 from being one of the most popular F1 cars ever built.
02/01/2026 3:09 pm
The Tyrrell P34 is my personal all-time favorite F1 car. I've already been fascinated by its audacious design.
I once built and had a 1:12 scale Tamiya plastic model, but it fell victim to a local seismic event in the '80s. I recently acquired an unbuilt Hachette subscription suite in 1:8 scale, but with no space to display it, I sold it on eBay.
This post was modified 4 months ago 2 times by Marty Johnson
02/01/2026 3:32 pm
Terrific posts guys of such a crazy race car!
That Exoto version is, of course, over the top. Gotta love that pit crew (which I have - only in generic white outfits ). I would've love to have heard that conversation between the Tyrrell team and Goodyear.
"You want what size tire?" LoL
OK Marty, I'm confused....if you don't have the 1/18 Exoto, and sold that beautiful unbuilt 1/8 kit, but lost your Tamiya 1/12 version in the 1980's .... then what's this?
02/01/2026 4:52 pm
It's an unliveried version of the P34 by Exoto in 1:18 scale. I bought it from an aftermarket source, but didn't want to spend a bazillion dollars on a liveried version.Terrific posts guys of such a crazy race car!
That Exoto version is, of course, over the top. Gotta love that pit crew (which I have - only in generic white outfits ). I would've love to have heard that conversation between the Tyrrell team and Goodyear.
"You want what size tire?" LoL
OK Marty, I'm confused....if you don't have the 1/18 Exoto, and sold that beautiful unbuilt 1/8 kit, but lost your Tamiya 1/12 version in the 1980's .... then what's this?
03/01/2026 11:13 am
A stand alone design for sure. Thanks Rich, Chris and Marty.
03/01/2026 2:56 pm
I had the Exoto model for a time and let it go. REGRETS! It was a masterpiece.
Christopher Moroni reacted