How Likely Is A Porsche 959 Re-release?

[studioRS 213]

 

5 hours ago, Mokei Kagaku said:

An 1/12 og 1/10 961 would indeed be very nice! And just like the aftermarket decal manufacturer Museum Collection makes 1987 Le Mans Rothmans livery decals for the Tamiya 1/24 961 kit (see below), MCI could make similar stickers for a 1/12 or 1/10 RC 961.

Correct, I'm on it. The 1986 Porsche 961 decal / sticker set is already designed for 1/12 or 1/10 scale (sans belts). I've sent this to MCI, should be up soon (I have an extra spare TB G 959 body and thought it would look the part with a 1986 961 livery on it).

I do concur with using the MF-01X as a proper chassis working well for the 959 body, without the complexity and fragile parts of the original. Although, the original complexity, speed makes it very special. I have my build MF-01X / 959 project pushing along, still collecting parts, should be soon.

Digging into my archives, here is a photo below of my Gunze Sangyo 1/24 Porsche 959 rallye weathered on top of an old Porsche Christophorus magazine with the review of the real 959. The poor kit tires I have to say haven't weathered well, all cracked to bits. The Porsche keys are the real deal — go to our old 1976 Porsche Carrera 3.o targa #202.

The 1997 Le Mans was a bit of disappointment, too bad for Kees Nierop with the spin into the armco and huge conflagration all caught on TV! Thank goodness he was able to get out. I remember watching this live and taped the whole thing on VHS. This would be a fantastic livery to make new, it could be a one-two marketing punch for Tamiya to use the same body with the earlier 1986 Le Mans 961 AND launch the 1987 Le Mans 959.

[Wandy 1527]

It'd probably fair to say now that they will never re-release the 959 as a kit. The best that we can hope for is for them to re-release the 58064 Celica and then offer the 959 bodyset - minus decals - as a hop-up part.

[moffman 5752]

1 hour ago, Wandy said:

It'd probably fair to say now that they will never re-release the 959 as a kit. The best that we can hope for is for them to re-release the 58064 Celica and then offer the 959 bodyset - minus decals - as a hop-up part.

I've always said and I will still maintain the Celica will make an appearance before the 959! Back in the day the first one was the 959 followed by the Celica which was a better car because it had all the hop-ups as standard I say bring them both out at the same time a full re-release not just the bodies on some random modern chassis I know people have been saying the bodies will fit on this chassis or that chassis etc etc No we need a full proper re-release

[qatmix 794]

Unless it’s going on the shelf it’s not worth getting one. They were terrible back in the day. The most delicate Tamiya kit ever produced. It was quick in a straight line thanks to the technigold, it would roll over as soon as you took a corner at anything other than a snails pace if it was a grippy surface. I doubtTamiya would release it as it’s embarrassing.

Releasing the body on the mf01x would be good as that chassis is leagues ahead of the original. 

[studioRS 213]

I had an additional set of original rims and Tamiya slicks, that changed the traction rolling issues right off. It was amazing, should have come with the slicks, especially when it was even slightly dusty.

[Losi XXT-CR 147]

1 hour ago, qatmix said:

Unless it’s going on the shelf it’s not worth getting one. They were terrible back in the day. The most delicate Tamiya kit ever produced. It was quick in a straight line thanks to the technigold, it would roll over as soon as you took a corner at anything other than a snails pace if it was a grippy surface. I doubtTamiya would release it as it’s embarrassing.

Releasing the body on the mf01x would be good as that chassis is leagues ahead of the original. 

By a similar measure isn’t the same thing true for most of the Re-re’s. 

Ie newer models out perform older ones. As such why buy a Sand Scorcher when a bug body on a TT-02 would perform better. Or maybe that’s just missing the entire point...

[Mokei Kagaku 2706]

5 hours ago, Losi XXT-CR said:

By a similar measure isn’t the same thing true for most of the Re-re’s. 

Ie newer models out perform older ones. As such why buy a Sand Scorcher when a bug body on a TT-02 would perform better. Or maybe that’s just missing the entire point...

I think qatmix has an especially valid point with the 959-chassis vs. the Mf-01X. Except for esthetics and a certain pleasing weirdness and complexity, there is hardly anything about the 959 (959 meaning chassis) that is better than the MF-01X, and even that is to a certain degree a matter of taste. The 959 was a poor chassis even for its time, both in terms of durability, reliability and handling, especially early production ones. Later in production, it got some of the improvements of the Celica Gr.B, which made it quite a bit better, but it was still poor.

Contrary to the re-re buggies, where the overall look is part of the charm, with the body on, hardly anything of the chassis is visible on a Porsche 959 model, and even the MF-01X's rear motor is more appropriate for a 959 model.

Also, I don't think the comparison of 959 vs. MF-01X and SRB/Sand Scorcher vs. TT-02 is quite fair. An MF-01X with a Porsche 959 body would in all respects perform better and most likely also look better while doing so than the original 959 model, whereas the SRB-chassis still performs remarkably well in its "natural habitat" (sand/beach) and the SRB-chassis is also fairly authentic for a VW Bug and an old school single seater racing buggy. Furthermore, both the Sand Scorcher and Rough Rider/Buggy Champ body simply look "right" on the SRB-chassis, whereas they mostly look more or less odd on most other chassises.

What I mean to say is that i think the Mf-01X chassis (with 959 and Celica body) would be an entirely adequate substitute for the 959-chassis in absolutely all respects (except of course "nostalgic factor"), whereas there still doesn't exists any chassis that could work as complete substitute for the SRB, although the Scorpion chassis admittedly comes pretty close! ;-)  In my humble opinion, the same goes for most (or all) re.re buggies vs. re-re 1/10 touring/rally cars. Nothing can really replace a Hotshot, Grasshopper  or a Frog, whereas the T16 and T18 Celica bodies (or MB 190E, BMW E30 or whatever) look and perform as good on a modern touring chassis as they do on the TA01/TA02.

That said, being able to build a 959 chassis  from a NIB kit again without feeling guilty, would be great, warts and all. :-)

 

[Mokei Kagaku 2706]

7 hours ago, studioRS said:

I had an additional set of original rims and Tamiya slicks, that changed the traction rolling issues right off. It was amazing, should have come with the slicks, especially when it was even slightly dusty.

Back in the day, I built a 959 chassis for our club's 1/12 tarmac track by removing all parts not needed (skidplates. MSC, bumper(s) etc.), lowered the suspension about 7mm, fitted the slicks and topped it with a Schkee pan car body (with holes for the front damper tops!) . It came out almost 400g lighter than the original model and looked pretty cool. For a 1/12 tarmac racer, the handling was still poor though and I converted it back to original (with the Volvo 343 Rallycross body from Swedish company Minicars) and sold it. The Celica Gr.B and the centre diff and front stabilizer hadn't yet been released at that time, and I kind of wish I had kept the modified model long enough to test it with the centre diff and front stabilizer.

[NWarty 1325]

On 2/8/2018 at 10:32 PM, Mokei Kagaku said:

and topped it with a Schkee pan car body (with holes for the front damper tops!) . 

A man after my own heart 

I raced Bolink Eliminator 10's with a Schkee body back in the late 80's. Good luck finding one nowadays. 

[Mokei Kagaku 2706]

On 3/23/2018 at 7:00 PM, NWarty said:

A man after my own heart 

I raced Bolink Eliminator 10's with a Schkee body back in the late 80's. Good luck finding one nowadays. 

 Regarding finding one, I reckon you mean the 1/10 body? Because the 1/12 is easy enough to source from Sabutech (Bolink mold) and Deltaplastik (SG repro). Also, Parma made a batch exclusively for Stormer Hobbies a few years ago. Finding one in 1/10 is very difficult though. I've had a global auto-search for one on eBay for many years and the few hits have been for used bodies.

The Schkee is by far my alltime favourite pan car body and it even looked great on the 959-chassis. Inspired by the Cox Shrike, I painted it lime green with clear blue windows and with black "anti-glare" in front of the windscreen. My "signature" paintscheme for racing models for quite some years.

[NWarty 1325]

Yup Moke, it was the 1/10 version. I've only seen one or two pop up over the last decade. We ran three Schkee's, two in 1/10 and one in 1/12. Two in Metallic Blue and the other bright red.

[trexfan 56]

On 11/26/2010 at 2:54 AM, Wez-li said:

Unlikely due to issues around the Porsche body shell rights, but I might be wrong...

they probably wouldnt have a problem with re releasing it just wouldnt be with the rothmans stickers

[Biz73 603]

Body shell rights didn't stop the Blackfoot re-re. At this point, I would guess the original 959 didn't pull a profit so they don't want to risk it. If Tamiya thinks it will make money, they will bring it back out.

[trexfan 56]

On 11/26/2010 at 4:10 AM, Gruntfuggly said:

You were probably thinking of the original issue with the 'Rothmans' decals, but I assume a re-re would just have the 'Racing' decals...

i wouldnt get it without the rothmans thats what makes it !!😉

[Baddon 860]

1 hour ago, trexfan said:

i wouldnt get it without the rothmans thats what makes it !!😉

Bet MCI have them though? I just got a set of MCI for my re-re BigWig so its got all the original decals rather then the re re ones. I used the Tamiya ones where they have not changed and the MCI for the ones that have changed.

Just checked and they do

https://mciracing.ca/products/1-slash-12th-tam-58059-porsche-959-number-187-decals

They even offer it with different car numbers and all the usual choices to change up the colours.

[Superluminal 3750]

Maybe because I wasnt really aware of it the first time around so have no strong sense of nostalgia for this particular model but I cant see where the love for the 959 comes from. I agree the body of it looks stunning and is very nicely detailed but that can be said of a lot of the tamtech models too as they are like drivable scale model kits. The 959 / celica chassis looks like a complete dogs dinner.

Does it offer a very rewarding build experience that out weighs its driving perfomance?

[WillyChang 1814]

3 hours ago, Superluminal said:

Maybe because I wasnt really aware of it the first time around so have no strong sense of nostalgia for this particular model but I cant see where the love for the 959 comes from. I agree the body of it looks stunning and is very nicely detailed but that can be said of a lot of the tamtech models too as they are like drivable scale model kits. The 959 / celica chassis looks like a complete dogs dinner.

Does it offer a very rewarding build experience that out weighs its driving perfomance?

Nope. Fussy fiddly bits and a zillion different screw sizes.  

Design philosophy given the era probably takes off from Thundershot concepts with some AVante cues mixed in. It's a marvel of packaging in that they had to lump all that 4WD drivetrain & MSC with 2nd servo into a tiny monocoque platform with the motor dead centre. That they succeeded.

But short suspension arms, iffy dampers and high CoG + short wheelbase won't disobey physics to handle a silver can, let alone the decent VZ power it had.