23 July 2006

William's Strong Contender




Minichamps 1/43 Williams FW11 1986
Nigel Mansell


I wanted to have this car a long time ago. Tamiya, I think made a kit of this car in 1/20 scale. Ever since I saw that, I said to myself, I have to have it.
My first choice was Nelson Piquet's car, so I preordered it from a local hobby store in Greenhills.
The stocks arrived, but with close inspection, the packaging of the FW11 reads Nelson Piquet, but the car was clearly Nigel Mansell's. So its another error from the supplier. Of course, the shop has nothing to do with the error.
The store owner, got all his stocks, and I saw a Nigel Mansell car with the correct packaging inlay.
All in all, the detail is nice. The diecast is really well made. Of course, typical Minichamps attention to detail.
I think the FW11 is also the car that Mansell used during his very close defeat to Ayrton Senna's Lotus 98T at Jerez.




The Williams FW11 was a Formula 1 car designed by Patrick Head and Frank Dernie as a serious challenger to McLaren and their MP4/2 car. The car took over from where the FW10 left off at the end of 1985, when that car won the last 3 races of the season. The FW11's most notable feature was the Honda turbo engine, the most powerful in F1 at the time. Added to the engine's power were the aerodynamics, which were ahead of the MP4/2 and the Lotus 97T. That and it's excellent driving pairing of Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell made it a force to be reckoned with. The car was an instantly recognisable product of the turbo era of F1.

The car won first time out in Brazil with Piquet, before Mansell laid down a title challenge with four wins. Williams were shaken by the near fatal road crash of Frank Williams which demoralised the team, but Head stepped up and managed the team until Williams returned late in the season. This may have caused the in-fighting between the two team mates, and the lost points helped Alain Prost take his second world championship. That and Mansell's spectacular blow out in the final race in Australia (Adelaide) where all he had to was finish third to win the title.

The points built up between Piquet and Mansell were enough for Williams to take the
constructors' championship, however.