Mulsanne Express

[Dr. Austin]

I had planned to make a deal at Daytona for one of Nicolas Watts' fine prints "Mulsanne Express." It depicts the torrid duel between the lone surviving Rothmans Porsche against five healthy Silk Cut Jaguars. The Porsche ranks had been decimated early on by sub-standard fuel provided by the orgainizers.

The second Rothmans car was out before an hour was complete. Some cars barely made four or five laps. Any Porsche that survived the first hour did so only by pitting to change the Bosch motronic engine management chip to a more conservitive one.

Against the odds, Porsche's only real chance was to go flat out so that no team tactics would get in the way. No one can block you if you are in front. So Stuck, Bell and Holbert went flat out until all the Jaguars were run into the ground. It was a stunning victory, made even sweeter because the previous year's triumph was dulled by Jo Gartner's sad demise.

At Daytona, I was unable to swing the deal for the print. I did get a close view of it, though, and I wanted to cry everytime I looked at it. It is absolutely the most stunning and beautiful piece of art I have ever seen. The lighting, the speed, the mood were all perfectly captured by Watts. Because of the way the light and treelines were painted, coupled with the position of the sun, the cars appear to have been shot out of the sunset. It is truely a magnificent piece. I was so devasted that I was unable to acquire it that I immeadiately began work on two 1/43 Rothmans 962's, the 86 and 87 LeMans winners.

These have been difficult pieces for me in the past. I will post pictures of the construction process with comments on how the work is going. In the meantime, the rest of you could please leave your impressions and rememberances of the mighty Rothmans 956/62 cars.